A Local Event the Rippled Through Black History and Generations

Equal justice for Black Americans is a long tale of two steps forward; one step back.  After a short-lived Reconstruction (1865-1877), white Americans began clawing back rights that Black citizens were entitled to.  One small story began in 1890 New Orleans, Louisiana, when Homer Plessy, a 29-year-old Black family man agreed to challenge the "Separate Car Act," which stated that Blacks had to ride in "separate-but-equal" railroad cars.  His arrest for sitting in the "wrong" car was planned by a committee of Black citizens.  The case was a losing one.  When it was denied by the Supreme Court in 1896, "Plessy v. Ferguson" opened the door for 60+ years of oppressive Jim Crow laws.

iNK author, Amy Nathan, has a knack for finding stories of racial injustice that are local, relatable to kids, and make history come alive for them.  In 1967, Keith Plessy was a fifth grader in New Orleans when the case bearing his surname came up in history class. Maybe he was related to Homer Plessy? "The answer to questions I was trying to get as a kid were not in that history book in school."  All these years later, Amy Nathan has written the book that would have captivated Keith Plessy.  It  not only tells the story of an unjust law but also connects it to a time and place.    It turns out that another child, Phoebe Ferguson, exactly the same age as Keith Plessy was a descendant of the judge who was the white party in  Plessy V. Ferguson.  When they eventually discovered each other together in their forties, they decided to attempt to right the wrongs that stemmed from Plessy v. Ferguson decision.  

Together: An Inspiring Response to the "Separate-But-Equal" Supreme Court Decision that Divided America  is a page-turning, very accessible account of the past and its impact. Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson created a foundation to educate people who visit New Orleans with beautiful, well-written historic markers-- history-on-the-go for residents and tourists.  One of Amy's earlier books, Round and Round Together: Taking a Merry-Go-Round Ride into the Civil Rights Movement, tells a Maryland story of the integration of an amusement park, and is now part of the curriculum of the schools where the event took place.  Together is another book to wake up children in New Orleans and beyond.  

When history is local and impactful, a well-told story like Together opens the portals of history to children who are numbed to its power by the flaccid text-book approach that destroys any spark to learn more.