We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide
by Carol Anderson and Tonya K. Bolden
Review:
Carol Anderson and Tonya K. Bolden’s novel, “We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide”, is a historically rich, nonfiction young adult novel that explores contemporary issues surrounding race relations in the United States. Both authors have spent their careers advancing the black narrative by challenging the canon of history that is generally accepted. Anderson challenges this by bringing attention to things like voter suppression and Bolden accomplishes this by focusing on the black experience in her work with children’s novels. The novel is centered around the black experience through key historical events that challenge the traditional textbook narrative. This novel is specifically framed around race relations throughout history and is highly relevant as young adults are forced to learn to live through it. Anderson and Bolden focus in on five main events through American history that highlight the racist backlash that inevitably follows black involvement in democracy and progress. The impact of these events is intrinsically woven into our perceptions and understandings of history and present-day society. This book will be beneficial to the young adult reader as well as fulfilling common core standards by overlapping subjects to better understand these events and their impact on culture and society today. By examining different points in history and discussing the surrounding racial tension and backlash, Anderson and Bolden provide context to the young adult reader in a way that allows for them to better understand the events from all sides and not just the predominantly white narrative that academic institutions have often followed.The five main historical events that the novel discusses surround: the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction which led to Jim Crow laws, the novel moves on to discuss the Great Migration North and how many black people were stopped from moving away, the novel then discusses the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the resulting shut down of schools in the South, following this the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 “led to laws that disenfranchised millions of African American voters and a War on Drugs that disproportionally targeted blacks” (Bolden), and finishes by discussing the presidency of Barack Obama in relation to the violence that occurred against Michael Brown and then a discussion of the presidency of Donald Trump. This novel is a history of suppression and racist backlash against progress and democracy. The historical research and evidence included in this novel are incredibly well applied and tailored to the audience of a teen reader. There are hard things to conceptualize and discuss that the novel brings up, things that cause discomfort and anger, but these things are discussed in a way that allows room for conversation and understanding. Being written with the teen reader in mind, the events are contextualized in a way that is easy to approach. While these are difficult things to talk about, the novel presents the information in such a way that the young adult reader can approach it, learn from it, and grow from it.
Biographies:
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| Picture was taken from: professorcarolanderson.org |
Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler professor of African American Studies at Emory University. She is an American academic and has published on the subject of “white rage” in relation to current events that have implications on history (such as the election of Donald Trump to the presidency). Anderson is on the board of directors for the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative (NESRI). Her work is focused around human rights, voting suppression, and other issues with politics and history surrounding race and race relations. She uses milestones of progress for partial and full black equality to highlight the struggle that African Americans face in their efforts to obtain an equal stance in society.
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| Picture was taken from Tonya Bolden's Facebook page |
Tonya K. Bolden has contributed to over 40 books, whether having written them or editing them. She
If students have more questions about important events surrounding the black experience through history, directing them towards this website may be helpful. Black History Month is meant to bring people's attention to the importance of historical events, and many of the events of this book are covered by it.
Brown V Board Video
This video was specifically made to help students better understand the circumstances surrounding the Brown V Board of Education ruling in 1954. The novel discusses the backlash in greater detail, but this video discusses more of the legal case itself in a way that is tailored more towards a student's understanding.
-Do you think we all have the same opportunities in today’s society?
is an American author that is best known for her work in children’s literature. The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. awarded Bolden with their Nonfiction Award to recognize the entire body of work that she has contributed towards children’s literature. Her work centers around themes of identity and the black experience throughout history. According to her interview with The Brown Bookshelf by Kelly Lyons, Bolden accredits her exceptional writing skills to her love of reading as a child. It is this love of literature that drove her to write specifically for young adults while discussing important societal issues in a way that they can understand.
Instructional Resources:
Timeline Activity
You can have your students create a timeline of the major events that take place in the novel to better contextualize the time in which they are occurring and how they affect other historical events.
Blog Post Activity
This lesson plan is centered around the theme of “courage” but can easily be changed to another keyword or theme that you or your class are more focused on when reading this novel. Perhaps diving the class into different groups to create blog posts about a singular event, or even taking a more contemporary event and trying to apply the lessons from the novel to analyze it.
Public Service Announcement Activity
This would be an interesting tool to utilize as students are forming their own understanding of historical events. They can create a public service announcement discussing the way that the black experience is suppressed in traditional textbook narratives and create a call to action for history to be more representative of all experiences and not just following the “standard” white narrative.
Jim Crow Laws Video
This video is a good tool to explain what Jim Crow Laws were. The fact that the video is a cartoon helps a younger audience to better conceptualize it.
Great Migration Video
This video is another useful source to navigate what the Great Migration was when the migration occurred and to provide visuals for students to absorb as they're learning about the historical event.
Black History Month
You can have your students create a timeline of the major events that take place in the novel to better contextualize the time in which they are occurring and how they affect other historical events.
Blog Post Activity
This lesson plan is centered around the theme of “courage” but can easily be changed to another keyword or theme that you or your class are more focused on when reading this novel. Perhaps diving the class into different groups to create blog posts about a singular event, or even taking a more contemporary event and trying to apply the lessons from the novel to analyze it.
Public Service Announcement Activity
This would be an interesting tool to utilize as students are forming their own understanding of historical events. They can create a public service announcement discussing the way that the black experience is suppressed in traditional textbook narratives and create a call to action for history to be more representative of all experiences and not just following the “standard” white narrative.
Jim Crow Laws Video
This video is a good tool to explain what Jim Crow Laws were. The fact that the video is a cartoon helps a younger audience to better conceptualize it.
Great Migration Video
This video is another useful source to navigate what the Great Migration was when the migration occurred and to provide visuals for students to absorb as they're learning about the historical event.
Black History Month
If students have more questions about important events surrounding the black experience through history, directing them towards this website may be helpful. Black History Month is meant to bring people's attention to the importance of historical events, and many of the events of this book are covered by it.
Brown V Board Video
This video was specifically made to help students better understand the circumstances surrounding the Brown V Board of Education ruling in 1954. The novel discusses the backlash in greater detail, but this video discusses more of the legal case itself in a way that is tailored more towards a student's understanding.
Instructional Activity:
1. Entry-Level Activity: Quickwrite & Timeline
-Why or why not?
-Make a timeline of what you think happened historically, explain why you think so.
2. Formative Activity: Blog post
-Make a blog post about a current event that inhibits the progress of society’s inequality, use the book to analyze how this can be implemented in today’s society.
-Reflect on this.
3. Summative Activity: Public Service Announcement
-Get into groups of 3 or 4 and create a public service announcement which discusses how black experience is suppressed in traditional textbook narratives and create a call to action.
Lesson Plan Narrative:
Before reading this book, the students should be asked to answer an open-ended question in relation to the theme of the novel, We Are Not Yet Equal. This Quickwrite will introduce a discussion topic on an introductory level of the novel’s surrounding conflict. The timeline piece serves as a graphic organizer section of the lesson plan which will provide students with an opportunity to piece together the existing knowledge that they have surrounding the events in the book. This will work as a base from which they can reference as they learn more about the events. While the book is discussed while reading the novel, the students will be working on a blogpost project. Since We are Not Yet Equal, looks through the lens of the African American perspective, this blogpost will surround current events and students will be asked to analyze the information surrounding these events through this same lens. Students will reflect on this event and determine what narrative to use through the information they gather throughout the reading. Once the book is finished, students will be divided into groups of 3 or 4 and work together to create a public service announcement that follows the theme of the black experience in relation to textbook historical narratives to create their "call to action."
Before reading this book, the students should be asked to answer an open-ended question in relation to the theme of the novel, We Are Not Yet Equal. This Quickwrite will introduce a discussion topic on an introductory level of the novel’s surrounding conflict. The timeline piece serves as a graphic organizer section of the lesson plan which will provide students with an opportunity to piece together the existing knowledge that they have surrounding the events in the book. This will work as a base from which they can reference as they learn more about the events. While the book is discussed while reading the novel, the students will be working on a blogpost project. Since We are Not Yet Equal, looks through the lens of the African American perspective, this blogpost will surround current events and students will be asked to analyze the information surrounding these events through this same lens. Students will reflect on this event and determine what narrative to use through the information they gather throughout the reading. Once the book is finished, students will be divided into groups of 3 or 4 and work together to create a public service announcement that follows the theme of the black experience in relation to textbook historical narratives to create their "call to action."
California Common Core Standards:
11.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the author’s claims, reasoning, and evidence.
11.8 Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.
11.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or or events that interact and develop over the course of the text.
11.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or or events that interact and develop over the course of the text.
Bibliography:
“Carol Anderson.” Carol Anderson, www.professorcarolanderson.org.
"Preparing America's Students for Success." Common Core State Standards Initiative,
“Tonya Bolden.” Tonya Bolden Books, www.tonyaboldenbooks.com.
