Sheryl is a fourteen girl living in New York in the 1960’s. Her family decides to go down south to North Carolina for the Easter holiday. While they were in North Carolina her Uncle Pete decides to be a freedom rider. Later on, Uncle Pete gets injured fighting for his rights. This story is about the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement on a Brooklyn teenager with family roots in the south.
While in North Carolina, Sheryl and her two brothers,(Ronnie and Craig), were disrespected by white by being called “Nigras”. This basically meant Niggers. She found out about how her cousins who lived down south got their education. Their books were passed down from white schools. These books were new in their eyesight. Their desks were old antique. This was very unpleasing to Sheryl. After all of this had happened, Sheryl and her family went back home North back to their everyday lives. Sheryl informed her friends, Pat, Pam, George, and Darin about her worst trip ever down south. With Sheryl just telling them about the trip, her friends got very angry jus thinking about it. They wanted to help Sheryl’s uncle, (Uncle Pete) do freedom work even though they were in different places. They sent letters to Sheryl’s family down south to inform them about how good or bad they were doing with the work. They did different fundraisers to help what they called down south “Freedom Riders”. They were people who fought for the rights of the blacks. In the end, after all that Uncle Pete went through, they won the battle. Black and whites were treated equally.
Martin Luther King was mentioned many times in the book. Some parts of his speeches were told in this story. This was a good book and I would recommend any one no matter what grade to read this book. It teaches us to stand up for our rights no matter what it takes. If we don’t do it, then who will?