Customer Reviews

There Comes a Time: The Struggle for Civil Rights (Landmark Books)

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This book is a great, short history of the battle for civil rights for African Americans. Beginning with the arrival of the first African slaves at Jamestown in 1619, and continuing through to today. The history ends with a chapter spelling out the author's plan for future civil rights action, and then follows a wonderful timeline of important dates and events in the fight for civil rights.

This book is intended for children, but makes a great read for anyone interested in the history of civil rights in the United States. The book is not written with dispassion, there is for example a reference to "Gestapo-like" policemen. But, considering the events that are being recounted, it is hard to imagine how dispassion could possibly be maintained. Overall, this is a very good book, one that I highly recommend.

This book does a wonderful job of presenting facts in a style that is easy for its target audience (middle schoolers) to understand. The length of the book is appropriate for the target audience, and the within its few score pages it is able to give a concise but complete history of the struggle for human rights in America.

In addition to providing adequately to its target audience, however, the book provides a good overview to adults who are looking for the main facts and little more.

Some might be detracted from the book by what they perceive as its political slant. I found the slant (if you could call it that) appropriate, however. The book highlights the fact that the cause for black people in America did not end in the 1960's.

There is still an income disparity, and the statistical probability of a black man being incarcerated for committing a crime is (should be?) shameful for America. The link between poverty and crime is well established, it's about time that the link between skin colour and poverty was acknowledged. This book aims to make children aware of the fact that the battle for black people in America is not over and that complacency is folly.

Have we not indoctrinated the children of America enough on this irrelevent subject? More division is not what our nation needs, yet Meltzer drags out this collection of sorry cliches to keep alive the racial divide that separates our society. If there is racism in America today, it is directed at white Christian males--the only group still permitted to suffer discrimination. This book is representitive of the bilge that wins Newberry Awards--demonstrating that children's book are as brain dead as the "important" tomes reviewed in the New York Times Book Review Magazine.