Fight On!: Mary Church Terrell's Battle for Integration (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Dennis Brindell Fradin (Author) "One day in January of 1950, eighty-six-year-old Mary Church Terrell phoned three friends to ask them to join her for lunch in Washington, D.C..." (more)
Key Phrases: restaurant campaign, lost laws, restaurant case, Mary Church Terrell, Robert Church, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-In this carefully researched, fascinating biography, the life of the feisty, courageous, and determined woman who spent nearly 60 years fighting for racial equality vividly unfolds. "Mollie," as Terrell was called, was born to former slaves in 1863, and went on to attend Oberlin College and become the first black woman appointed to the Washington, DC, Board of Education. She was a cofounder of the NAACP, fought against lynching, worked with Susan B. Anthony to win the vote for women, and began the struggle to end segregation in the District's restaurants and theaters that resulted in a Supreme Court case ending this segregation when she was 90 years old. This title, which incorporates documented primary-source material and archival photographs and reproductions, gives a clear and compelling look at the social history of the time, placing Terrell's achievements and life in a rich historical context. Both Patricia and Fredrick McKissack's Mary Church Terrell (Enslow, 2002) and Gwenyth Swain's Civil Rights Pioneer (Carolrhoda, 1999) are for younger audiences. The Fradins' biography belongs in most collections not only for its assignment value, but also because it is an inspiring picture of a woman who fought for the rights awarded every American: equality and justice.
Jennifer Ralston, Harford County Public Library, Belcamp, MD
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-9. As the Fradins point out in this well-researched biography, "A handful of people have received the bulk of the credit for the civil rights movement in the United States." Though most young people have never heard of Mary Church Terrell, her story is worth knowing. The book opens in 1950 with 86-year-old Terrell arranging to meet three friends at Thompson's Cafeteria in Washington, D.C. They knew that they would not be served, because three of them were black. But by documenting the restaurant's refusal, they laid the groundwork for a lawsuit that made its way to the Supreme Court and ended racial discrimination in the city's restaurants. The book's large format allows for plenty of illustrations, mainly period photographs that help readers visualize black neighborhoods in Memphis (where Terrell grew up) and Washington, D.C., as well as segregated venues like theaters and waiting rooms. Appendixes include source notes for the many quotations, a bibliography, and photo credits. Very readable and handsomely designed, this biography presents the life of an educated, energetic, and determined African American woman within the context of her times, which began in Lincoln's administration and ended in Eisenhower's. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (April 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618133496
• ISBN-13: 978-0618133499
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,391,180 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: FIGHT ON, November 5, 2003

By	Richie Partington "http://richiespicks.com" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Marbles was a popular children's game in the 1940s. The nation's capital held two marbles tournaments--one for the city's white youngsters and the other for its colored children. But Washington could send only one champion to the national marbles tournament. Instead of holding a playoff between the two winners, the city automatically selected the white champion to represent Washington in the national tournament. The colored champion was automatically named runner-up for the city. This was done to keep black and white children from playing marbles together--and to prevent the possibility of a black child winning the city and national titles.

"Washington, D.C., had a dog cemetery. But in the 1940s only animals belonging to white people could be buried there. Dogs whose owners were black were excluded. When asked about it, the owner of the pet cemetery joked that although the dogs wouldn't care, be believed the white customers would.

" 'Washington--Disgrace to the Nation,' an article by Howard Whitman in the February 1950 Woman's Home Companion, described black people being turned away from downtown restaurants and theaters. In one case, a group of black people, including some soldiers, tried to see a film called Home of the Brave DANGER DRAWS NO COLOR LINE! proclaimed posters outside the theater. But the theater manager phoned the police, who made sure that no black people got into the movie. Home of the Brave is a classic movie about a black soldier suffering from discrimination."

Most people perceive the modern Civil Rights Movement as having arisen in the mid-1950s. The Supreme Court's landmark decision on segregated schools--Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks being arrested after refusing to move to the back of the bus, and the horrific photos of Emmitt Till's mutilated corpse being published in Jet were unquestionably pivotal historic events that awakened the empathy and/or righteous anger in millions of Americans of good conscience.

But for half a century prior to those key events, Mary Church Terrell--a woman of color whose birth to slave parents took place while the ink on the Emancipation Proclamation was still drying--was walking into white establishments where she was not wanted, was cajoling Presidents to do the right thing, was involved in the founding of early Black Rights organizations, and was inspiring those future leaders of the Civil Rights Movement who are so well known to those of us who grew up in the 1960s.

I am embarrassed to admit that I knew nothing of Mary Church Terrell before reading this book. But this well-written and well illustrated biography has brought me up to speed.

" He yanked her roughly out of her seat and asked a man sitting nearby, 'Whose little ... is this?' "

After growing up with an unusually rich education, including a college degree from Oberlin, Mary Church Terrell spent decades working for equality alongside such major historic figures as Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams, Fredrick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B. Du Bois. She was a cofounder of the NAACP. But the work she did in her mid-80s was arguably the most important of all. After organizing campaigns in which she and other people of color attempted to eat in segregated D.C. establishments, she became part of a legal proceeding to compel the enforcement of D.C.'s long-ignored anti-discrimination laws. That fight eventually reached the Supreme Court.

"On June 8, 1953, William O. Douglas rose and presented the high court's ruling. 'The failure to enforce a law does not result in its repeal,' he said, expressing the Supreme Court's opinion."

What was the reaction of the ninety year old self-proclaimed meddler? She returned to the public cafeteria that had refused her business and had the bowl of soup she'd been waiting three years to enjoy. Then she gathered up some African American friends and headed to a segregated movie theater. Having been born at the end of slave days, prior to the enactment of the Jim Crow laws, Mary lived just long enough to savor the Brown v. Board of Ed. decision.

FIGHT ON: MARY CHURCH TERRELL'S BATTLE FOR INTEGRATION provides a great introduction to the foundations of the Civil Rights Movement. It is also bound to provide inspiration to many readers about trailblazing their own movements.