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A single sentence tips off readers to a powerful story: “Three little girls in ankle socks and Sunday shoes made history just by going to school.”
Writer and librarian Vaunda Micheaux Nelson has made something of a specialty of bringing hitherto under-recognized African American heroes into prominence. In Small Shoes, Great Strides: How Three Brave Girls Opened Doors to School Equality, Nelson and illustrator Alex Bostic celebrate three very young heroes — first graders — in the fight to desegregate a New Orleans public school in 1960.
Amplifying Atlanta
In 1956, a federal judge ordered the town of Clinton, Tennessee to desegregate its high school. The unrest that followed tore the town apart.