Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
Author	Mildred D. Taylor
Cover artist	Jerry Pinkney
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Historical Fiction
Publisher	Dial Press (Now Penguin Group)
Publication date	1976
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	276pg
ISBN
Preceded by	Song of the Trees
Followed by	Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1976 novel by Mildred D. Taylor, sequel to her 1975 novella Song of the Trees. It is a book about racism in America during the Great Depression. The novel won the 1977 Newbery Medal. It is followed by two more sequels, Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981), The Road to Memphis (1990), and a prequel to the Logan family saga, The Land (2001).

This popular novel explores life in southern Mississippi, when racism was still common in The South and many were persecuted for the color of their skin. The 'Berry Burnings' mentioned in many chapters and Mr. Tatum who was tarred and feathered in the fourth chapter are prime examples of the racism that still existed, with people taking the law into their own hands at the expense of the black population.

Throughout the novel, the reader learns about the importance of land and the effects of racism, at the same time as Cassie Logan (the narrator) learns 'the way things are'. It is key to this story that the narrator is a child as it adds upon what it was like to grow up in "The South", and it also helps the reader to understand the true impact of racism at this time.

Nine-year-old Cassie Logan is walking to school with her siblings Stacey (twelve years old), Christopher-John (seven years old), and Little Man (six years old) in rural Mississippi. Cassie talks about the land on which the Logan family lives. It belonged to Harlan Granger, but he sold 200 acres of it in 1886 to cover his taxes during Reconstruction. Their grandfather bought two hundred acres in 1887, then another two hundred acres in 1918. After several miles of walking, T.J. Avery and his brother appear. The Avery family sharecrop on the Granger plantation. At school, Cassie and Little Man go to their classroom, where Cassie's teacher, Daisy Crocker, gives them their textbooks, worn-out, outdated castoffs from the white school with a chart that says only white kids used these books up until they were in bad condition, indicating their future uses are intended only for black students. Crocker meets with Cassie's mother, Mary, who calmly glues a piece of paper over the chart containing the racist indicator in all the books. She hands them back to a dumbstruck Crocker. That Saturday their father, David Logan, comes home from his railroad job in Louisiana, bringing with him L.T. Morrison to assist in planting, farming, protection and other jobs, as Morrison was fired from the railroad for a fight that was the white men's fault. Papa leaves the next day to catch a train.