Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry - Success and Ethics
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry (1976)
Written by the African American, Mildred D.
Taylor (1943- ), pictured right.
Set in...
Mississippi in 1933 during the Great Depression about the African
American Logan family .
Blacks then suffered racial discrimination and segregation.
Many of them were sharecroppers (poor tenant farmers who gave a share of their
harvest to their landowner). But the Logans own their farm.
Fun facts
The author, Mildred D. Taylor, was actively involved in the
Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, led by Martin Luther
King (pictured right).
Key characters
Cassie Logan, the story’s nine-year-old narrator.
Little Man (Clayton Chester Logan), her 6-year-old brother.
Stacey Logan, her 12-year-old brother.
Christopher-John Logan, her 7-year-old brother.
Papa (David Logan), her father, a farmer.
Mama (Mary Logan), her mother, a teacher.
Uncle Hammer, Papa’s brother who lives in Chicago.
Big Ma (Caroline Logan), Papa’s 60-year-old mother and the Logan farm’s boss.
T.J., Stacey’s friend whose parents, Mr and Mrs Avery, are sharecroppers.
The story
The Logan family work hard to keep the small farm they own in Spokane County,
Mississippi ,run by the Logan children’s:
But they have to endure racist abuse and segregation like other
blacks.
On the first day of the school year, Cassie Logan has to walk to school with her three
brothers
They are taunted by a bus of white children who shower them with red dust (some days later they retaliate by
sabotaging the bus).
Jeremy Simms, a white boy, is often beaten for being their friend.
They go to a black school (where their mother, Mama, is a teacher) and use
books the white school no longer needs.
This infuriates Cassie and Little Man who are both whipped by their teacher, Miss Crocker,
for refusing the books.
It is announced at church that a black man, John Henry Berry, has died from burns after
being attacked by some whites, using the excuse he was “flirting with a white woman”. Berry left a
wife and six children.
As with other such lynchings, the police turn a blind eye and the killers go free.
Mama discovers from the Berry family that the Wallace brothers burned John. So she
organizes a boycott by black people of the Wallaces’ store .
A pro-black white lawyer, Mr. Jamison, financially backs the blacks so that they can
get credit at a store in nearby Vicksburg.
Big Ma takes her grandchildren, Cassie and Stacey ,to the nearby town of Strawberry with Stacey’s black friend,
T.J.
Cassie is humiliated by a storekeeper who ignores her and yells at her for tugging at his sleeve.
She is made to apologize by Big Ma who is fighting off continual attempts to buy her farm from Harlan
Granger, the greedy owner of the land used by many sharecroppers including T.J.’s family.
Granger is also angry about the boycott, because he owns the Wallaces’ store. So he:
- persuades the school to dismiss Mama.
- forces the bank to demand repayment of the Logans’ loan.
The farm is saved when Uncle Hammer, Papa’s brother, sells his car to get
the money.
Granger also forces many of the boycotters (families of his sharecroppers) to shop at the Wallaces' store by
threatening to throw them off their land.
T.J. and Jeremy’s (white) brothers, Melvin and R.W., steal a
gun from a store in Strawberry and injure the owners.
Melvin and R.W. then join a lynch mob who beat up T.J. and his family, saying he is solely responsible for the
robbery.
The mob threatens to go to the Logan farm and hang T.J. along with Papa and his farm labourer, Mr.
Morrison.
Papa starts a fire on his land to stop the lynch mob which then helps to put it
out with the local black farmers.
Lessons for success and ethics
1. Hold your head up
The Logan children have been brought up to have self-respect and
dignity as a human being equal with everyone else, black or white.
Cassie is defiant and furious when Big Ma makes her apologize to the offensive storekeeper in Strawberry.
Whites aren’t all bad -
- the lawyer, Mr. Jamison, helps the blacks.
- Jeremy is a courageous friend of the Logan children.
2. Fight for your rights
Mama organizes the boycott of the Wallaces’ store which mirrors the bus boycott in 1955 in Birmingham,
Alabama, that sparked off the American Civil Rights Movement.
Mr. Morrison, the Logans' farm labourer, says:
“Sometimes a person's gotta fight”.
3. Family and friends are vital
The Logan family support each other with love and trust to:
- keep their farm from Harlan Granger.
Uncle Hammer sells his car to save the farm.
4. Take control of your life
Most of the black farmers don’t own their land, but the Logans do.
They see their land as a symbol of their:
- control over their lives.
So they are determined to keep it from Harlan Granger.
5. Be optimistic
Despite all their problems, the Logans have hope for the future at the end of the book.
They still have their farm, and their family is as united and
strong as ever.
There is also hope from whites and blacks successfully working together to put out the
fire.
6. Never give up
The Logans have lots of problems but are always determined to overcome them
7. Do “what you gotta do”
This is how Papa describes his philosophy of life.
So he starts the fire to stop the lynch mob, and his wife, Mama, sacrifices her job for the boycott.
8. Greed isn’t good
The greedy landowner, Harlan Granger, sacrifices principle for profit.
He helps to dismiss Mama and exploits his farmers.
Key quotes on influencing people
You have to demand respect in this world, ain’t nobody just gonna hand it to you. How you carry yourself, what
you stand for – that’s how you gain respect. But, little one, ain’t nobody’s respect worth more than your own,
Papa (to Cassie)
Key quotes on success
Cassie, there’ll be a whole lot of things you ain’t gonna wanna do – but you’ll have to do in this life so you
can survive, Papa
We have no choice of what colour we’re born or who are parents are or whether we’re rich or poor. What we do
have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we’re here, Mama (to Cassie)
If you want something, and it’s a good thing and you got it in the right way, you better hang on to it,
Uncle Hammer (to Stacey)
Key quote on
assertiveness
Everybody born on this earth is somebody, and nobody, no matter what colour, is better than anybody else,
Mama (to Cassie)
Key quotes on
relationships
Forgiving is not letting something nag at you - rotting you out,
Papa
Friends gotta trust each other, Stacey, 'cause ain't nothin' like a true friend,
T.J.
Two literature websites to
recommend
1. sparknotes.com
2. litcharts.com
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