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Summary
Summary
Demonstrating the power of protest and standing up for a just cause, here is an exciting tribute to the educators who participated in the 1965 Selma Teachers' March.
Reverend F.D. Reese was a leader of the Voting Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama. As a teacher and principal, he recognized that his colleagues were viewed with great respect in the city. Could he convince them to risk their jobs--and perhaps their lives--by organizing a teachers-only march to the county courthouse to demand their right to vote? On January 22, 1965, the Black teachers left their classrooms and did just that, with Reverend Reese leading the way. Noted nonfiction authors Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace conducted the last interviews with Reverend Reese before his death in 2018 and interviewed several teachers and their family members in order to tell this story, which is especially important today.
Author Notes
Rich Wallace was born on January 29, 1957 in Hackensack, New Jersey. He began writing as a first grader but academics were not his strong suit and he did not read much beyond what was required for his classes. As a teen-ager he was mostly interested on sports, especially track and cross country. In high school He started writing often and working on his school newspaper. He continued his writing as he attended Montclair State College. He took creative writing classes, including one that required him to write a novel, one chapter a week. He also interned at the Passaic Herald-News where he was later offered a paid reporting job. After graduating Montclair State in 1980 with a bachelor of arts degree, Rich Wallace went to work for several N.J. newspapers as a sports reporter and news editor and continually reworking that first novel he started in creative writing class. In 1988 he started working for Highlights for Children as a copy editor. He has since become senior editor at the magazine and publishing well written stories has become his passion. Then in 1996 after several rewrites his first novel Wrestling Sturbridge was published. He continued writing with novels such as Shots on Goal, Riding Time and Playing Without the Ball - all with sports related themes. He also penned a series called Winning Season with titles such as The Roar of the Crowd, Technical Foul, Fast Company and Double Fake. Wallace has said he has one goal for his writing - to offer an honest representation of how adolescent boys struggle to find their identity.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Donating a portion of their proceeds to institutions in Selma, Ala., the married coauthors present a vivid nonfiction narrative that illuminates the January 1965 Teachers' March to Selma's Dallas County Courthouse. By highlighting and interweaving the journeys of a few specific people--Rev. F.D. Reese, who led marchers to register to vote; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who visited Selma to speak on voting rights; and Too Sweet, a teacher and single mother who joined the march--the Wallaces eloquently portray the vitality of the group effort as well as the high risk involved in participating in the initial and subsequent Selma marches. Abstract, multilayered acrylic paintings by Palmer ground readers in the action, such as a moving scene in which lines of teachers march. This well-researched picture book proves riveting in its telling of how everyday heroes led a fight that resulted in the Voting Rights Act. Back matter includes creators' notes, a timeline, a selected bibliography, and further resources. Ages 7--10. (Sept.)
Horn Book Review
The 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery is well known, especially with the death in 2020 of leader John Lewis, which brought renewed attention to the historic event. Less known is the teachers' march, which happened six weeks before as part of the larger voting rights struggle in Selma. This book dramatizes how the teachers planned their protest, risking imprisonment and violence, leaving the classroom and taking to the streets, holding "their toothbrushes in the air, ready to go to jail for freedom." The lively text incorporates lots of dialogue (sources indicated in the back matter), making for dramatic reading, and in particular weaving in the narrative of fifteen-year-old Joyce Parrish and her mother. But the illustrations are the star here, with Palmer's beautifully lit acrylic-on-board paintings that are at times impressionistic or, as he writes in the illustrator's note, "abstract and primal." He effectively plays with perspective -- an upward view of Brown Chapel, following the spires to the sky, and a double-page spread showing legs and feet with polished shoes marching down the street. The selected bibliography mainly includes adult books, but many excellent books for young people are available, including Partridge's Marching for Freedom (rev. 11/09), Lewis's March: Book Three (rev. 9/16), and Freedman's Because They Marched (rev. 9/14). A strong addition to the literature on a pivotal event in civil rights history. Dean Schneider March/April 2021 p.127(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In 1965, a group of 104 teachers led by the Rev. F.D. Reese peacefully marched to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama, demanding Black citizens' right to register to vote. Reese, a science teacher at R.B. Hudson High School as well as pastor at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, got the idea of a teachers march while walking the halls of his school. After a recent march at which he and several other participants were beaten and turned away from the county courthouse, he decided that the way to make people take notice was to have teachers, the "somebody somebodies of the community," stand up and fight for their rights. After seeing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on television, Reese wrote a letter to Dr. King asking him to come to Selma to speak, and he did. After Dr. King's address before 700 people at Brown Chapel, the teachers took to the streets protesting for their right to vote. This little-known march during the civil rights era is considered the catalyst for the other marches that shortly followed. This book does a masterful job of detailing the impetus for the teachers march. It is clearly communicated that the march was not spontaneous but carefully thought out--down to the teachers' packing food and toothbrushes in case they were arrested. Palmer's brushy paintings are full of color, detail, and emotion. The narrative is well paced and will work brilliantly as a read-aloud for patient, older preschoolers and early elementary--age children, and it should spark many a conversation about race and protest. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.) An alarmingly relevant book that mirrors current events. (author's note, illustrator's note, timeline, bibliography, sites to visit) (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This stunningly powerful book by a team of award-winning creators should be part of every classroom library and teacher-preparation program. It's the true story of the Reverend F. D. Reese, who taught high school science--as well as freedom and equality. He led by example, organizing marches in Selma to push for voting rights for African Americans. Seeking a more powerful angle, he decided that if the schoolteachers of Selma marched together, they could make a noticeable statement. The narrative provides an unvarnished view of the deep levels of racism and violence that permeated society and aimed to thwart civil rights activism in the 1960s. The Wallaces pack their account with well-researched details so that readers get to know Reverend Reese and others as people as well as activists, and Palmer's vibrant acrylic paintings intensify the urgency of the moment. A particularly striking spread depicts the crowd of teachers brandishing their toothbrushes, symbolizing their readiness to go to jail for freedom if need be. The marching teachers inspired other groups--beauticians, barbers, undertakers--to organize, but most significantly, they inspired students to participate. A timely testament to the power of collectivism and the continued need for widespread civic engagement.