The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial

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The First Step Book Cover

The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial written by Susan E. Goodman published in 2016 and illustrated by E.B. Lewis is a children's book story. This book won Literary AwardsJane Addams Children's Book Award for Younger Children Honor (2017) and NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book (2017). [1]

Plot

In 1847, four-year-old Sarah Roberts started going to her local school, the Otis School, “one of Boston’s best.” Her parents’ peaceful disobedience of the laws that kept black and white children apart was soon noticed and Sarah was escorted home by a policeman. Recalling his own childhood journey across town to the Smith School for African American children, “a school that only owned one book,” Sarah’s father, Benjamin Roberts engaged the second African American lawyer in the United States, Robert Morris, to take the battle to the courtroom. Morris was joined by anti-slavery advocate Charles Sumner in a packed courtroom to plead Sarah’s case and, by extension, for the rights of “every other African American child in Boston.” The case was lost, but, together, Sarah, her family, this African American and white lawyer team, and the community of Boston had taken “the first step” toward change. [2]

Pros

This book is telling the history of the first lawsuit in America to request integration--well before the American Civil Rights movement, even before the Civil War. It begins where Sarah's parents did not give up to give their kids the best school, they believed that Sarah deserves an equal education, and the Roberts family fought for the changes. They create a history of Roberts v. City of Boston as the first case challenging America's legal system to outlaw segregated schools. This case was the first time where an African American lawyer presented in a supreme court.[3] It was also the first time an African-American lawyer and a white lawyer collaborated to fight for justice. Despite the fact that her legal dispute was not successful, Sarah's initial steps paved the way for the changes that ultimately led to triumph in Little Rock, Arkansas in the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case over a century later. [4]

Controversy

This book shares the historical background of school segregation, a young African American girl couldn't go to a decent school just since she is black and the school is only for white people. Also, eventually, Roberts v. City of Boston was not successful on the grounds that The Massachusetts Supreme Court, at last, decided that nearby chosen authorities had the power to control neighborhood schools and that different schools didn't disregard black students' rights. [5]

References

  1. The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial. Goodreads. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  2. Dawes, Erika Thulin. The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial. The Classroom Bookshelf. 29 February 2016. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  3. The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial. Bloomsbury. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  4. The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial. Google Books. Retrieved January 29 2021.
  5. In Pursuit of Equality. Smithsonian National Museum of American History Behring Center. Retrieved January 29 2021.