This critical civil rights book for middle-graders examines the little-known Tennessee's Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote. Powerfully conveyed through interconnected stories and told through the eyes of a child, this book combines poetry, prose, and stunning illustrations to shine light on this forgotten history. - (Baker & Taylor)

Combining poetry, prose and stunning illustrations to shine light on a forgotten slice of history, this civil rights book examines the little-known Tennessee’s Fayette County Tent City Movement of the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)

Shortlist, Goddard Riverside/CBC Young People's Book Prize for Social Justice 

This critical civil rights book for middle-graders examines the little-known Tennessee's Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote. Powerfully conveyed through interconnected stories and told through the eyes of a child, this book combines poetry, prose, and stunning illustrations to shine light on this forgotten history.

The late 1950s was a turbulent time in Fayette County, Tennessee. Black and White children went to different schools. Jim Crow signs hung high. And while Black hands in Fayette were free to work in the nearby fields as sharecroppers, the same Black hands were barred from casting ballots in public elections.
 
If they dared to vote, they faced threats of violence by the local Ku Klux Klan or White citizens. It wasn't until Black landowners organized registration drives to help Black citizens vote did change begin--but not without White farmers' attempts to prevent it. They violently evicted Black sharecroppers off their land, leaving families stranded and forced to live in tents. White shopkeepers blacklisted these families, refusing to sell them groceries, clothes, and other necessities.
 
But the voiceless did finally speak, culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which legally ended voter discrimination. 
 
Perfect for young readers, teachers/librarians, and parents interested in books for kids with themes of:

Alice Faye Duncan is the author of multiple children's books, including Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop, which received a 2019 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor and Honey Baby Sugar Child, which received an NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Literary Work for Children.Visit alicefayeduncan.com. 

Charly Palmer is a graphic designer and illustrator and has run a successful design studio with a Fortune 500 clientele. Charly is the illustrator of The Teachers March!, which received four starred reviews, and Mama Africa--a children's book chronicling the life of Miriam Makeba--for which he received the 2018 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award. Visit charlypalmer.com. - (Random House, Inc.)

Booklist Reviews

Through meticulously researched historical fiction comprised of lyrical prose and free verse, Duncan documents the Tent City movement of Fayette County, Tennessee, in the early 1960s. Focusing on key individuals, she recounts how John McFerren encouraged Black residents to register to vote, resulting in many being fired from their sharecropping jobs, denied medical care and access to local goods and services, and evicted from their homes. Black landowner Shepard Towles purchased large tents and offered his land rent-free to homeless tenants in late 1960, and during the next five years national attention focused on the struggle, culminating in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Palmer's vibrantly hued acrylic paintings make effective use of patterns and textures. They feature tent city details, protest scenes, individual close-ups, and muted backgrounds that enable the text to be easily read. Some of the illustrations are based on photos by Ernest Withers, and a few of his prints are interspersed. Appended with an epilogue (noting the 2013 weakening of the Voting Rights Act), time line, resources, and bibliography, this is an important contribution to civil rights collections. Grades 2-5. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.