Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison
Like the Caldecott Award books, I also read several Coretta Scott King Award books in this class, some of which I will discuss later in some of my other assignments. However, I really enjoyed reading the 2005 award receipent, Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison. I read this book last week at the ERC on WKU's campus, and I just couldn't put it down. Not only were its words wonderfully written, but also the pictures really spoke to me, especially the images of the faces of the white women who, while dressed very pretty, had such ugly looks of anger and hatred on their faces, glaring and screaming at the little African-American children who just wanted to go to school and have the same opportunities that their children had. My daughter was with me the day I read this, and I kept thinking about how horrible it would have been to have seen my children go through something like that. When it comes to my kids, I'm like a lioness protecting her cubs, but I also try to treat other children like I would want my own children treated--with kindess, fairness, and compassion. Therefore, I just don't understand how these people could have acted like this. But, I guess fear and ignorace can lead to people reacting badly in certain situations.
Also, the image in this book of the segragated water fountains reminded me of my own father and a story he once told me. Being in the military, my father was exposed to many difference races and cultures, so he always taught my sister and me that there were good and bad people of all kinds; we shouldn't judge people by the way they looked. He told us about a time when he and his bunkmates--a man of Mexican descendant and an African-American man--went to a restaurant to eat. When the waitress refused to serve his friend just because he was black, they all got up and left. I was really proud of my father for doing this; I'm sure this wasn't easy for him, but he knew the difference between right and wrong and always taught us children the same way. The images from this book really brought these stories clearly to my mind. Stories are just words, sometimes, but pictures can really bring those words to life.
Finally, the pictures of the four girls to whom this book is dedicated actually made me cry. These girls were just at church when they were killed in a racist bombing. Morrison eloquently reminds readers to remember these young girls, to remember that they were killed before their lives even really began, and, although things are a great deal better now than they were back then as far as race equality is concerned, we should all still never forget the people who sacrificed and took a stand for equality.
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