Download or read book Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County written by Kristen Green and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The provocative true story of one Virginia school system’s refusal to integrate after the US Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional. A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year In the wake of the Supreme Court’s unanimous Brown v. Board of Education decision, Virginia’s Prince Edward County refused to obey the law. Rather than desegregate, the county closed its public schools, locking and chaining the doors. The community’s white leaders quickly established a private academy, commandeering supplies from the shuttered public schools to use in their all-white classrooms. Meanwhile, black parents had few options: keep their kids at home, move across county lines, or send them to live with relatives in other states. For five years, the schools remained closed. Kristen Green, a longtime newspaper reporter, grew up in Farmville and attended Prince Edward Academy, which did not admit black students until 1986. In her journey to uncover what happened in her hometown before she was born, Green tells the stories of families divided by the school closures and of 1,700 black children denied an education. As she peels back the layers of this haunting period in our nation’s past, her own family’s role—no less complex and painful—comes to light. Praise for Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County “[Green’s] thoughtful book is a gift to a new generation of readers who need to know this story.” —Washington Post “A gripping narrative. . . . [Green’s] writing is powerful and persuasive.” —New York Times Book Review “Intimate and candid.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch “Not easily forgotten.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

Download or read book Brown s Battleground written by Jill Ogline Titus and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2011-12-05 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Prince Edward County, Virginia, home to one of the five cases combined by the Court under Brown, abolished its public school system rather than integrate. Jill Titus situates the crisis in Prince Edward County within the seismic changes brought by Brown and Virginia's decision to resist desegregation. While school districts across the South temporarily closed a building here or there to block a specific desegregation order, only in Prince Edward did local authorities abandon public education entirely--and with every intention of permanence. When the public schools finally reopened after five years of struggle--under direct order of the Supreme Court--county authorities employed every weapon in their arsenal to ensure that the newly reopened system remained segregated, impoverished, and academically substandard. Intertwining educational and children's history with the history of the black freedom struggle, Titus draws on little-known archival sources and new interviews to reveal the ways that ordinary people, black and white, battled, and continue to battle, over the role of public education in the United States.

Download or read book The Devil s Half Acre written by Kristen Green and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring true story of an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation’s first HBCUs In The Devil’s Half Acre, New York Times bestselling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre.” When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre,” a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams. It still exists today as Virginia Union University, one of America’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A sweeping narrative of a life in the margins of the American slave trade, The Devil’s Half Acre brings Mary Lumpkin into the light. This is the story of the resilience of a woman on the path to freedom, her historic contributions, and her enduring legacy.

Download or read book A Taste of Prince Edward County written by Chris Johns and published by Appetite by Random House. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore Prince Edward County, its rich local history, gorgeous scenery, and delicious food and drink, in this new guide to the "gastronomic capital of Ontario" (The Globe and Mail). Prince Edward County's reputation as a picturesque region of award-winning wineries, quaint and eclectic hotels, rustic restaurants and fine dining establishments makes it the perfect getaway destination. Within driving distance of Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, the county is an ideal place both for city slickers to escape and unwind, and for locals to relish and preserve the region's history and farmlands. This comprehensive, elegant guide covers hotels, restaurants, wineries, local attractions, and much more, along with itinerary suggestions showcasing the best of what Prince Edward County has to offer. With profiles of key people behind some of the county's most beloved establishments, this book goes beyond typical guidebook territory. A Taste of Prince Edward County also includes a selection of recipes and wine pairings from chefs and restaurateurs based in the area, all inspired by the culinary bounty PEC has to offer. And with his signature warmth and humour, food and travel writer Chris Johns teams up with local county photographer Johnny C. Y. Lam to provide readers with a stunningly beautiful insider's look into one of the top travel destinations in Canada.

Download or read book Prince Edward written by Dennis McFarland and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVDIVThe profound coming-of-age story of a young boy growing up in rural Virginia, and the historic summer that would change his life forever/divDIV During the summer of 1959, Virginia’s Prince Edward County is entirely consumed by passionate resistance against, and in other corners, support for, the desegregation of schools as mandated by Brown v. Board of Education. Benjamin Rome, the ten-year-old son of a chicken farmer in one of the county’s small townships, struggles to comprehend the furor that surrounds him, even as he understands the immorality of racial prejudice. Within his own family, opinions are sharply divided, and it is against this charged backdrop that Ben spends the summer working with his friend Burghardt, a black farmhand, under the predatory gaze of Ben’s grandfather./divDIV While the elders of Prince Edward focus on closing the schools, life ambles on, and Ben grows closer to his pregnant sister, Lainie, and his troubled older brother, Al, while also coming to recognize the painful and inherent limitations of his friendship with Burghardt./divDIV Evocative and written with lush historical detail, Prince Edward is a refreshing bildungsroman by bestselling author Dennis McFarland, and a striking portrait of the social upheaval in the American South on the eve of the civil rights movement./divDIV/div/div

Download or read book Resisting Brown written by Candace Epps-Robertson and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2018-10-31 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many localities in America resisted integration in the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education rulings (1954, 1955). Virginia’s Prince Edward County stands as perhaps the most extreme. Rather than fund integrated schools, the county’s board of supervisors closed public schools from 1959 until 1964. The only formal education available for those locked out of school came in 1963 when the combined efforts of Prince Edward’s African American community and aides from President John F. Kennedy’s administration established the Prince Edward County Free School Association (Free School). This temporary school system would serve just over 1,500 students, both black and white, aged 6 through 23. Drawing upon extensive archival research, Resisting Brown presents the Free School as a site in which important rhetorical work took place. Candace Epps-Robertson analyzes public discourse that supported the school closures as an effort and manifestation of citizenship and demonstrates how the establishment of the Free School can be seen as a rhetorical response to white supremacist ideologies. The school’s mission statements, philosophies, and commitment to literacy served as arguments against racialized constructions of citizenship. Prince Edward County stands as a microcosm of America’s struggle with race, literacy, and citizenship.

Download or read book Southern Stalemate written by Christopher Bonastia and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-01-11 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1959, Virginia’s Prince Edward County closed its public schools rather than obey a court order to desegregate. For five years, black children were left to fend for themselves while the courts decided if the county could continue to deny its citizens public education. Investigating this remarkable and nearly forgotten story of local, state, and federal political confrontation, Christopher Bonastia recounts the test of wills that pitted resolute African Americans against equally steadfast white segregationists in a battle over the future of public education in America. Beginning in 1951 when black high school students protested unequal facilities and continuing through the return of whites to public schools in the 1970s and 1980s, Bonastia describes the struggle over education during the civil rights era and the human suffering that came with it, as well as the inspiring determination of black residents to see justice served. Artfully exploring the lessons of the Prince Edward saga, Southern Stalemate unearths new insights about the evolution of modern conservatism and the politics of race in America.

Download or read book Israel on the Appomattox written by Melvin Patrick Ely and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZEA New York Times Book Review and Atlantic Monthly Editors' ChoiceThomas Jefferson denied that whites and freed blacks could live together in harmony. His cousin, Richard Randolph, not only disagreed, but made it possible for ninety African Americans to prove Jefferson wrong. Israel on the Appomattox tells the story of these liberated blacks and the community they formed, called Israel Hill, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. There, ex-slaves established farms, navigated the Appomattox River, and became entrepreneurs. Free blacks and whites did business with one another, sued each other, worked side by side for equal wages, joined forces to found a Baptist congregation, moved west together, and occasionally settled down as man and wife. Slavery cast its grim shadow, even over the lives of the free, yet on Israel Hill we discover a moving story of hardship and hope that defies our expectations of the Old South.

Download or read book Lies We Tell Ourselves written by Robin Talley and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes questions for discussions and an excerpt from another novel.

Download or read book Lake on the Mountain a Dan Sharp Mystery written by Jeffrey Round and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dan Sharp, a gay missing persons investigator, accepts an invitation to a wedding on a yacht in Ontario's Prince Edward County. But the event doesn't go as planned. A member of the wedding party is swept overboard and Dan finds himself deep in troubled waters as he searches for possible killers not only in the present but also 20 years earlier.

Download or read book The Man in the Monster written by Martha Elliott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-08-02 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An astonishing portrait of a murderer and his complex relationship with a crusading journalist Michael Ross was a serial killer who raped and murdered eight young women between 1981 and 1984. In 2005, the state of Connecticut put him to death by lethal injection. His crimes were horrific, and he paid the ultimate price for them. When journalist Martha Elliott first heard of Ross, she learned what the world knew of him—that he had been a master at hiding in plain sight. Elliott, a staunch critic of the death penalty, was drawn to the case when the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned Ross’s six death sentences. Rather than fight for his life, Ross requested that he be executed because he didn’t want the families of his victims to suffer through a new trial. Elliott was intrigued and sought an interview. The two began a weekly conversation—and developed an odd form of friendship—that lasted over a decade, until Ross’s last moments of life. Over the course of his twenty years in prison, Ross had come to embrace faith for the first time in his life. He had also undergone extensive medical treatment. The Michael Ross whom Elliott knew seemed to be a different man from the monster who was capable of such heinous crimes. This Michael Ross made it his mission to share his story with Elliott in the hopes that it would save lives. He was her partner in unlocking the mystery of his own evil. In The Man in the Monster, Martha Elliott gives us a groundbreaking look into the life and motivation of a serial killer. Drawing on a decade of conversations and letters between Ross and the author, readers are given an in-depth view of a killer’s innermost thoughts and secrets, revealing the human face of a monster—without ignoring the horrors of his crimes. Elliott takes us deep into a world of court hearings, tomblike prisons, lawyers hell-bent to kill or to save—and families ravaged by love and hate. This is the personal story of a journalist who came to know herself in ways she could never have imagined when she opened the notebook for that first interview. Praise for The Man in the Monster: “Sturdily written and well researched . . . The book will appeal to those curious about why killers kill, and those who can stomach what they learn.” —The Boston Globe “A fascinating, in-depth analysis for true-crime buffs, sociologists, and others grappling with nearly impossible-to-comprehend actions and their consequences.” —Booklist

Download or read book We Are Your Children Too written by P. O’Connell Pearson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-01-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 1954, after the passing of Brown v Board, one county in southern Virginia chose to close its public schools rather than integrate. Those public schools stayed closed for five years. This was the reality of the people of Prince Edward County. When the affluent white population of Prince Edward County built a private school-for white children only-they left Black children and their families with very few options. Some Black children were home schooled by unemployed Black teachers. Some traveled thousands of miles to live with relatives, friends, or even strangers. Some didn't go to school at all. But many stood up and became young activists, fighting for one of the rights America claims belongs to all: the right to learn. Revelatory and timely, noted nonfiction author and former educator P. O'Connell Pearson shines a light on this disturbing and important chapter of America's history, with ripple effects that still impact the country to this day"--

Download or read book What Doesn t Kill You Makes You Blacker written by Damon Young and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A blazing memoir in essays” (Entertainment Weekly) that explores the ever-shifting definitions of what it means to be black (and a man) in America. An NPR Best Book of the Year A Washington Independent Review of Books Favorite of the Year A Finalist for the NAACP Image Award A Finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Nonfiction A Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay For Damon Young, existing while black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America is enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst, where questions such as “How should I react here, as a Professional Black Person?” and “Will this white person’s potato salad kill me?” are forever relevant. Both a celebration of the idiosyncrasies and distinctions of blackness and a critique of white supremacy and how we define masculinity, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker is a hilarious and honest debut that chronicles Young’s efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him. “Young delivers a passionate, wryly bittersweet tribute to Black life in majority-white Pittsburgh . . . A must read.” —Booklist (starred review) “Young’s charm and wit make these essays a pleasure to read; his candid approach makes them memorable.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Download or read book Jersey Justice written by Cathy D. Knepper and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The case of the Trenton Six attracted international attention in its time (1948–1952) and was once known as the “northern Scottsboro Boys case.” Yet, there is no memory of it. The shame of racism evident in the case has been nearly erased from the public record. Now, historian Cathy D. Knepper takes us back to the courtroom to make us aware of this shocking chapter in American history. Jersey Justice: The Story of the Trenton Six begins in 1948 when William Horner, an elderly junk dealer, was murdered in his downtown Trenton shop. Over a two-week period, six local African American men were arrested and charged with collectively killing Horner. Violating every rule in the book, the Trenton police held the six men in incommunicado detention, without warrants, and threatened them until they confessed. At the end of the trial the all-white jury sentenced the six men to die in the electric chair. That might have been the end of the story were it not for the tireless efforts of Bessie Mitchell, the sister of one of the accused men. Undaunted by the refusal of the NAACP and the ACLU to help appeal the conviction of the Trenton Six, Mitchell enlisted the aid of the Civil Rights Congress, ultimately taking the case as far as the New Jersey Supreme Court. Along the way, the Trenton Six garnered the attention and involvement of many prominent activists, politicians, and artists, including Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Pete Seeger, Arthur Miller, and Albert Einstein. Jersey Justice brings to light a shameful moment in our nation’s history, but it also tells the story of a personal battle for social justice that changed America.

Download or read book The Stone Carvers written by Jane Urquhart and published by Emblem Editions. This book was released on 2010-10-29 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in the first half of the twentieth century, but reaching back to Bavaria in the late nineteenth century, The Stone Carvers weaves together the story of ordinary lives marked by obsession and transformed by art. At the centre of a large cast of characters is Klara Becker, the granddaughter of a master carver, a seamstress haunted by a love affair cut short by the First World War, and by the frequent disappearances of her brother Tilman, afflicted since childhood with wanderlust. From Ontario, they are swept into a colossal venture in Europe years later, as Toronto sculptor Walter Allward’s ambitious plans begin to take shape for a war memorial at Vimy, France. Spanning three decades, and moving from a German-settled village in Ontario to Europe after the Great War, The Stone Carvers follows the paths of immigrants, labourers, and dreamers. Vivid, dark, redemptive, this is novel of great beauty and power.

Download or read book The Girl from the Tar Paper School written by Teri Kanefield and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before the Little Rock Nine, before Rosa Parks, before Martin Luther King Jr. and his March on Washington, there was Barbara Rose Johns, a teenager who used nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to her cause. In 1951, witnessing the unfair conditions in her racially segregated high school, Barbara Johns led a walkout—the first public protest of its kind demanding racial equality in the U.S.—jumpstarting the American civil rights movement. Ridiculed by the white superintendent and school board, local newspapers, and others, and even after a cross was burned on the school grounds, Barbara and her classmates held firm and did not give up. Her school’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court and helped end segregation as part of Brown v. Board of Education. Barbara Johns grew up to become a librarian in the Philadelphia school system. The Girl from the Tar Paper School mixes biography with social history and is illustrated with family photos, images of the school and town, and archival documents from classmates and local and national news media. The book includes a civil rights timeline, bibliography, and index.

Download or read book No School written by Rita Odom Moseley and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Atir is a petite 12 year old girl whose world is abruptly turned-upside-down when she accidentally bumps into, and knocks over, the school bully's lunch tray. "It was an accident!" Atir cries in a panicky voice. From that day on her torment begins and drives her to hate school. As a result, she finds herself wishing that there was No School. Suddenly, she is thrown back in time to a place where there really is NO SCHOOL. Enter a world touched by magic as you experience the story of mass resistance through the eyes of an innocent youth who is confronted with bullying. A place with No School is an inspirational story that takes readers on a wonderful adventure while using problem solving and historical context to tackle bullying. Rita Odom Moseley is an African American woman, the older of two children, was raised in the town of Farmville, Virginia, Prince Edward County, where she still resides. She was directly affected as a little girl, with more than 2,300 African American schoolmates and at least 350 whites students by the five-year closing of the public schools in her home town. Her story, and the experience of her schoolmates, is the basis for the book "No School." She was attending Prince Edward County public school system in 1959 when local leaders forced the closure of the schools for five years (1959-1964) rather than desegregating. She was without an opportunity to go to school and get an education for two years. During the third year, she went to Blacksburg Virginia, to attend what would now be considered a middle school, graduating as salutatorian. The next year she attended school at Christiansburg Industrial Institute (CII.)