Artika R. TynerRecensioni

A brief look at the history of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a rear echelon U.S. Army unit composed of Black American women that -- despite constant racism and sexism -- served with distinction overseas during World War II under the leadership of Major Charity Adams.

It's always good to come across a piece of necessary history of which I was previously, woefully ignorant.

FOR REFERENCE:

Table of Contents: The Hope of the American Dream -- Black Women Join the Army -- "No Mail, Low Morale" -- Fighting Other Wars -- Some Wars Continue -- Hope for the Future -- Glossary -- Read More -- Internet Sites -- About the Author -- About the Illustrator

Very informative. Easy to read with additional historical context and photos.

I learned so much from this short book. It's easy to read and incredibly informative. Definitely a top read. Filled with pictures and historical information but done in a way that is engaging and not at all disinteresting or dry.

This book was informative and inspiring! I had never heard of this unit and I hope that a good movie will be made about them that tells their story with honor and dignity and doesn't worry about ruffling the feelings of a certain group of people.

Almost everyone has heard of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery, Alabama Civil Rights activist who in 1955 refused to vacate a bus seat for a white man, but few know there were younger women who demonstrated similar defiance before Parks. One was 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, whom I’d heard of; the other, Sarah Keys Evans, a 23-year-old soldier, whom I hadn’t. Evans was the first of the three to insist she had the right to sit where she chose. This informative and nicely organized little nonfiction book, roughly geared towards kids aged 9-12, claims to tell Evans’s story, and it does . . . well, sort of.

Readers are informed that Evans grew up a quiet, shy girl in North Carolina. Her parents placed high value on hard work and determination. She attended a segregated Catholic high school and then went north to New Jersey, where she attended nursing school. At some point, she joined the Women’s Army Corps, as it offered educational, career, and travel opportunities.

The critical detail about Evans is that in 1952, while on leave, she boarded a bus in New Jersey to travel home to see her folks in North Carolina. When the bus stopped in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina to allow a new driver to take over, that driver noticed Evans sitting near the middle of the bus. She refused to surrender her seat to a white US Marine. In fact, she was unwilling to move at all. The other passengers were ordered off the bus, and two white police officers arrived, charging Evans with disorderly conduct. She spent the night in a jail cell and was fined. Later, at the urging of her father, a former Navy man, she brought a lawsuit against the private bus company that was segregating passengers according to race. She was supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which linked her up with attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree. (Roundtree herself had endured a similar incident as a WAC member.) It took three years for the case to be resolved in favour of Evans.

The author focuses on key details about the lawsuit, including information about an earlier ruling by the US Supreme Court, which decreed that states could not make laws that caused interstate travel to be difficult. Unfortunately, there was a loophole: Discriminatory state laws were illegal but not the discriminatory practices of private companies, such as the Carolina Coach Company, which operated the bus Evans was on.

I learned a lot about transportation segregation from this little book, which also mentions the famous Freedom Riders, teams of young black and white activists who, in 1961, rode south from Washington DC to New Orleans to test the ruling against segregation of interstate travel. Some riders made it to their destination without incident, but others met with violence. One bus was bombed.

However, as informative and attractive as the book is (it’s colourful and a lot of photos are included), I didn’t feel I was given Sarah Keys Evans’s story as promised. The social, historical, and legal contexts are accessibly related, but the author doesn’t tell enough about Sarah herself to allow young readers to know her and care for her—which is a shame. For this reason, I can’t give The Untold Story of Sarah Keys Evans full marks.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with a free digital copy for review purposes.

Rating: 3.5 rounded down½