School Desegregation in Children’s Literature

by The Bookologist

In this mon­th’s “From the Edi­tor,” Mar­sha Qua­ley share’s schol­ar Rudine Sims Bish­op’s obser­va­tion that while there are many non­fic­tion books for chil­dren and YAs about the civ­il rights events of the 1950s, not too many authors have tack­led the top­ics in fic­tion. One excep­tion might be school desegregation/integration,which is the focus of this mon­th’s time­line. We’ve includ­ed one of the first books to deal with deseg­re­ga­tion after Brown vs. The Board of Edu­ca­tion (1954), a few from the bound­ary-push­ing era of “prob­lem nov­els,” and some recent titles, which are of course also prob­lem nov­els (what nov­el isn’t!) but with flashier covers. 

Oh – and one pic­ture book. Enjoy.