Customer Reviews

A Dream of Freedom : The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968

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In A Dream Of Freedom, Diane McWhorter gives the 9-12 year old reader a concise history of the American civil rights movement between the years 1954-1968. McWhorter covered some of this material in her earlier civil rights chronicle, Carry Me Home which won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. A Dream of Freedom opens with a rousing foreward by the legendary Rev Fred Shuttlesworth who is one of the central figures in the story that follows. The book focuses on the turbulent period between 1954-1968 when the growing civil rights movement battled institutional segregation, violence and bloodshed. McWhorter's account is both disturbing and inspirational. She is an excellent storyteller with a straightforward and unflinching delivery. She closes with a poignant epilogue and bibliography that encourages further research. This book is well organized and illustrated with over 120 photographs and collages. A Dream of Freedom should be in every school and public library.

Snap shots of the Civil Rights movement. Each year's events explained in narrative detail, with great pictures. A personal touch of Diane Mcworter, a white child growing up right next door to all these events and oblivious to what was happening. It has taken her years of research to see the truth that was swept under the rug of the white community.

We were the first to check this book out at our library, the day after Rosa Parks died. What a lucky find! We homeschool, and this has been the PERFECT book to fully educate our 8 and 11 year old daughters about the Civil Rights Movement. The chapters are short enough for a kid to digest, and yet manage to completely cover the subject at hand, and the language keeps them interested. You won't find a better book on this subject material for juveniles.