Why Read White Socks Only by: Evelyn Coleman

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Fats here.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope… and crossing each other from a one thousand thousand different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep downward the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. — Robert F. Kennedy

I discovered Evelyn Coleman'due south White Socks Only while browsing through this website that features a list of film books past and virtually African Americans. Luckily, it was available in our local library, and information technology is my pleasure to write a brusk feature about it as part of our Black History Calendar month special.

A Tale Within a Tale . White Socks Only begins with a grandmother and her grandchild talking on the porch 1 hot summer's day in Mississippi. The little daughter asked if she can walk into town by herself. Her grandmother turned and spit in her can, rocked two times, closed her eyes, and so looked at the little girl. The question seemed to have been asked a million times, since this whole affair betwixt grandma and grandchild appeared ritualistic. In Myra's review of David Almond's Slog's Dad, she mentioned the power of vernacular language. The grandmother's response to the little girl too has the same powerful effect:

"You know you ain't big enough to walk into no town lone, girl. I sho' don't know why you asking me that. You lot ain't big enough 'til yous gon' do some good there."

I tin clearly hear the Southern accent from those lines. I liked the way the words went "a-rollin" down my tongue. The manner the grandmother spoke to the fiddling ane was neither demeaning nor cavalier. The niggling girl was treated like an adult, spoken to like an adult fifty-fifty though "she own't big enough to walk into boondocks."

Some other affair worth mentioning is how artist Tyrone Geter portrayed the grandmother. She was clothed in a brightly-colored blue dress that reminded me of traditional African clothing. Information technology was paired with a bright orangish bandanna that complemented the colorful pattern on her dress also as her jewelry. Certainly not your typical grandmother.

And So Grandmother's Tale Begins . The power of colloquial linguistic communication continues as the grandmother spoke of a time when she was a fiddling girl similar her grandchild and decided to walk into boondocks by herself, and not planning to do some good.

I sneaked on up that road a'singin, "Jump back Sally, Sally, Sally. Walking up the alley, alley, alley" to nobody but myself. And child, was it hot! On that kind of a day a firecracker might light up by itself.

Little Emerge was a curious and playful fiddling daughter indeed. She went to town on a sizzling hot day to see if she could fry an egg on the sidewalk, as she had heard the folks say.

I watched that egg like the old men lookout the checkers before making a move. For a infinitesimal I thought information technology wasn't gon' do cipher. So… I saw information technology. I little bit was turning white. Next the white creeped wider and the yellow began to bubble… I jumped upwardly and started dancing and prancing.

The Age of Innocence During a Time of Segregation. Mission accomplished, little Emerge left the town. Because it was a mighty hot day, she found herself mighty thirsty. On her fashion, she spotted a drinking fountain. The sign on the fountain said, "Whites Only."

Well, I knew what that meant. And so I sat down in the grass and took off my shiny black patent-leather shoes. Now I only had on my clean white socks. I stepped up on that stool with those white socks hugging my feet.

For an emotional junkie such as myself, that scene was deeply moving. Little Sally was the epitome of innocence. Although she "wasn't planning on doing no good," she was a good kid. The scene that followed was a test of her goodness.

The Big White Man and the Chicken Human . Little Sally'due south activeness stirred a mayhem in town. Shortly after drinking from the fountain, she found herself on the ground. A big white human being was standing in front of her. Accusing her of not being able to read, the white man began tugging at his chugalug, planning to " whup you 'til you tin't sit down ."

Lilliputian Sally'southward bravery led other black folks to drinkable from the fountain. Even during this scene, one can clearly encounter little Sally's innocence.

They had on clean-looking dark-green socks and xanthous socks and red socks and blue socks. Of course, the big human with the bandanna kept right on yelling. His confront got ruddy as fire. He was snorting through his nose like a balderdash does when information technology's gon' charge.

The big white human being started hitting little Sally and everybody else at close range. Simply poor picayune Sally only wanted a beverage from a fountain! When everything seemed hopeless, a human being known in town as the Chicken Man walked through. Without maxim anything, he pointed a finger at the white human being. It was the last time they had seen of him. From the on, the "Whites Merely" sign was removed from that water fountain forever.

An Afterthought . White Socks Simply is my first Evelyn Coleman volume. She certainly has a way with words and her powerful storytelling is chock with magic and charm. It is worth noting that this book was inspired by her memories of places she could not go to and things she could non do because of her skin colour.

This 32-page pictre volume is a keeper. Evelyn Coleman's magical words are complemented past Tyrone Geter'due south cute painting. White Socks Only exposes children to socio-political issues apropos segregation, and teaches them  that one should not be judged just by skin colour. Franklin Thomas could not accept said it any meliorate:

1 24-hour interval our descendants volition call up it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the corporeality of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of united states as complex human beings.

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Source: https://gatheringbooks.org/2011/02/25/a-tale-within-a-tale-white-socks-only-by-evelyn-coleman/

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