Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Cassie Logan is nine years old in Mississippi in 1933, and she tells the story of one year in her family's life. The Depression has hit hard, and Jim Crow rules govern nearly everything around her. The Logans are proud to own four hundred acres, land her grandfather bought and her father works to keep.

Cassie lives with her brothers Stacey, Christopher-John and Little Man, along with her parents and grandmother. A white landowner wants the Logans' land back. Neighbours punish any Black family that stands up for itself, so the pressure never lets up.

The children see the unfairness in small daily things. Their school hands them worn-out textbooks that mark them as lesser, and on the road they dodge a bus that sprays them with red dust.

Then night riders begin to terrorise the community, and a friend's trouble draws the family into real danger. Cassie must learn what it costs to keep land, pride and each other.

Told through a child's eyes, this historical novel gives a plain account of segregation and suits readers of about ten and up. It took the 1977 Newbery Medal. It is the Logan family saga's most familiar title, and the author drew on stories told in her own family.