Reading

Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry
Reading The Giver
Reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Reading Johnny Tremain
Reading The Diary of Anne Frank
Reading Sounder
Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
 Reading
Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry

Stacy Tibbetts
CHELSEA HOUSE PUBLISHERS
VP, NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Sally Cheney
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION Kim Shinners
CREATIVE MANAGER Takeshi Takahashi
MANUFACTURING MANAGER Diann Grasse

Staff for READING ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY

EDITOR Matt Uhler
PHOTO EDITOR Sarah Bloom
PRODUCTION EDITOR Bonnie Cohen
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Sarah Sharpless
SERIES DESIGNER Takeshi Takahashi
COVER DESIGNER Takeshi Takahashi
LAYOUT EJB Publishing Services

©2006 by Chelsea House Publishers,

a subsidiary of Haights Cross Communications.
All rights reserved. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

www.chelseahouse.com

First Printing

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tibbetts, Stacy Glen, 1967-
Reading Roll of thunder, hear my cry / Stacy Glen Tibbetts.
p. cm. — (The engaged reader)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7910-8832-4
1. Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of thunder, hear my cry—Juvenile literature. 2.
African American families in literature—Juvenile literature. 3. Mississippi—
In literature—Juvenile literature. 4. Racism in literature—Juvenile literature.
I. Title. II. Series.
PS3570.A9463R638 2005
813’.54—dc22
2005009525

All links and web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publica-
tion. Because of the dynamic nature of the web, some addresses and links may have
changed since publication and may no longer be valid.
 Table of Contents

1 Contexts 1

2 Narrative Technique 11

3 Plot Summary 21

4 Characters and Characterization 31

5 The Function of Setting 43

6 Understanding Themes and Symbols 48

7 Afterword: Expectations
and Controversies 54
Works by Mildred Taylor 63
Notes 64
Bibliography 65
Further Reading 66
Index 67
 1

Contexts

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD the saying, “Never judge a book by

its cover.” This is sound advice—it means that you shouldn’t go
by first appearances when deciding if you like someone or
something. But when it comes to actual books, you can learn a
lot by looking at the material that surrounds the actual story,
such as the front and back covers, the introduction or preface,
and other notes.
You won’t be able to decide if you like the book from this
material, but you can form some ideas about what lies ahead
when you start to read. This “pre-reading” is very important,

1
2 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

because it will help you understand the story. It should also

give you some questions about the book, which you can try
to answer as you read.
It’s likely that the first thing you learned about Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor was the title.
In fact, you probably heard or read this before you even
saw the book—perhaps from your teacher. At first, the title
may sound like a challenge—“Hear my cry!”—or maybe
it’s a cry for help; we don’t know yet. We do know that a
“roll of thunder” is a sound, but why would thunder listen
to a cry? And who is crying, anyway—to whom does the
title word my refer? As you read the book, try to answer
these questions.
The cover of the book can tell you a lot about what the
story is about. Most of the paperback editions of Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry have a picture of three children on
the cover. An older girl, maybe ten years old, stands look-
ing over her shoulder at a raging fire. She looks scared, and
two younger boys hang on to her as she tries to shield them
from the blaze. All three of the children are African-Amer-
ican, and they are standing on the porch of a house. They
are barefoot, and they wear either overalls or denim jeans.
This illustration raises several questions. First, what is
burning? Why is it burning, and what does it have to do with
the children? Are the children related to each other? They
appear to be very close. From their bare feet and plain dress,
you might conclude that they do not have much money.
Because the children are African-American, you might also
suspect that the fire has something to do with racism and
that the children are being threatened by someone.
The cover also bears the author’s name, Mildred D.
Taylor, and a “gold medal” imprint, which is the seal of
the John Newbery Medal, an award given “for the most
 Contexts 3

distinguished contribution to American literature for chil-

dren.” From this, we know that Roll of Thunder, Hear My
Cry is considered to be one of the best children’s books
ever written.
The back cover also holds many clues to what the book
is about, and it explains something about the cover illustra-
tion. The description on the back reads:
With the land to hold them together, nothing can tear the
Logans apart. Why is the land so important to Cassie’s fam-
ily? It takes the events of one turbulent year—the year of the
night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates
Cassie in public simply because she is black—to show Cassie
that having a place of their own is the Logan family’s
lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and
pride, for no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans
possess something no one can take away.

From this, we can confirm a couple of the things that we

guessed at from the front cover. First, we now know that the
fire does have something to do with racism. Second, we can
now be pretty sure that the girl pictured on the cover is
Cassie Logan and that she is one of the main characters in
the book. Also, we learn that the themes, or main ideas, of
the book will include courage and pride in the face of
racism and the importance of land.

HISTORY OF THE SOUTH

From the phrase “the year of the night riders and the burn-
ings,” we know that the book is probably set in the Ameri-
can South, some time during the years after the end of the
Civil War in 1865 and before the Civil Rights Movement in
the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout this time, African Amer-
icans were harassed and killed by white supremacists,
4 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

people who believed that white people were superior to

African Americans. These people often traveled during the
night, wearing white hoods to conceal their identities, and
they sometimes burned crosses on the yards of black fami-
lies.
This time period is a particularly shameful part of Amer-
ican history. It arose from the time of slavery, which was an
important part of the South’s economy during the 1700s
and early 1800s. Many people in the northern states, how-
ever, believed that slavery was immoral and unjust. The
conflict over slavery came to a head during the Civil War,
which was fought between the North and the South from
1861 to 1865. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln
officially freed the Southern slaves by issuing the Emanci-
pation Proclamation in 1863 and by supporting the passage
of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in
1865.
But in the process of winning the Civil War, the North
destroyed much of the South’s economy, farms, and busi-
nesses. After the war ended, a period known as Recon-
struction began, in which the North tried to rebuild the
South and change the social life there so that African Amer-
icans would have chances for a better education. They
would also be able to own land and earn money for their
labor. Military troops were placed in charge of entire
regions of the South, but they were withdrawn around
1877. After the troops left, whites in the South fought back
and re-introduced state laws that took away African-Amer-
ican rights, including the right to vote.
By the end of Reconstruction, around 1877, African
Americans had gained access to education, although it was
rarely equal to what white students had. (This fact is made
very clear in the opening chapters of Roll of Thunder, Hear
 Contexts 5

My Cry.) Many Southerners who didn’t own land (includ-

ing most African Americans) were trapped in a cycle of
poverty, because they had to work on other people’s land,
often in exchange for a share of the crop that they grew but
no real money. Some of the characters in Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry are so-called “sharecroppers.” Also, violently
racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan persecuted and
killed blacks throughout the first half of the 1900s. This is
the social situation into which the main characters of Roll
of Thunder, Hear My Cry are placed.

THE REPUTATION OF ROLL OF THUNDER,

HEAR MY CRY
The back cover of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry features a
quote from a review published in The New York Times Book
Review: “Taylor ... writes not with rancor or bitterness of
indignities, but with pride, strength, and respect for human-
ity.” The word rancor means anger, and we might expect
that a book about racism in the South would be filled with
anger. But if it were an angry book, we might not want to
read it. Instead, we learn from this quote that Mildred Tay-
lor was not writing out of anger, but rather to show the
humanity, or compassion, and pride of the families who
faced racism.
The back cover also lists the awards that the book, pub-
lished in 1976, has won, including the Newbery Medal in
1977, a nomination for the National Book Award, and
inclusion in The New York Times Book Review Best of Chil-
dren’s Books 1970–1980.
Like the quotes on the back cover, the book review quo-
tations on the first page tell us that the book is very well
respected. We also learn that the story is set “during the
Depression,” the most severe economic downturn in Amer-
6 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

ican history, which lasted from 1930 to the beginning of

America’s involvement in World War Two in 1941.
During this time, American farmers especially strug-
gled. During World War One they had been able to sell
export crops to Europe and they made good money and
many went into debt to buy farm machinery and land. But
by the late 1920s, Europe’s farmers had recovered, causing
the prices paid for American crops to fall. American farm-
ers often could not make enough to pay their debts. Then,
in 1929, investors lost confidence in the stock market and
began to sell their stocks. The market “crashed,” or lost its
value suddenly, causing many people, businesses, and
banks to lose all of their money. Businesses started to close
and, from 1929 to 1932, unemployment in America went
from less than 4 percent to around 25 percent. This is the
situation in which the characters in Roll of Thunder, Hear
My Cry find themselves.
Another book review quote tells us that the “events and
setting ... are presented with such verisimilitude and the
characters are so carefully drawn that one might assume the
book to be autobiographical ...”1 Verisimilitude means
“realness” or “closeness to reality” and autobiographical
means “about the author’s own life.” This quote tells us that
the book is so realistic that you might think it was true. It is
not, however, a true story; it is a work of fiction.

NOTES ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The dedication was written by Taylor, the book’s author:
“To the memory of my beloved father who lived many
adventures of the boy Stacey and who was in essence the
man David.” This tells us the names of two of the book’s
characters. We also learn that the character of David was
modeled after the author’s father.
 Contexts 7

In the author’s note, we also learn more about Taylor.

Her father was a “master storyteller” who could make her
laugh or shiver with his words. Taylor was born in the
South but lived in the North, and she learned the history of
her family from stories that were passed down from gener-
ation to generation by word-of-mouth. These stories were
about “slavery and the days following slavery; of those who
lived still not free, yet who would not let their spirits be
enslaved.” This description matches what we know about
the history of African Americans in the South, who were
“officially” freed from slavery during the Civil War, but
who were harassed and repressed throughout the following
decades.
In an interview, Taylor said this about her father’s stories
and how they affected her:
... I was fascinated by the stories, not only because of what
they said or because they were about my family, but because
of the manner in which my father told them.2

Taylor began to imagine herself as a storyteller too. She

wanted to be able to tell stories that would make people
laugh or feel a sense of pride. But as a child Taylor was
quiet and shy, and so she decided to focus on creating
stories for herself instead of entertaining an audience.
Taylor began creating elaborate daydreams in her mind,
and eventually began to write them down. By the time she
was in high school, Taylor knew she would be a writer.
She also said this about why she wrote Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry:
In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I included the teachings
of my own childhood, the values and principles by which I
and so many other Black children were reared, for I wanted to
8 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

show a different kind of Black world from the one so often

seen.3

With Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Taylor wanted to

depict a family that was united in love and had a strong
sense of self-respect. She wanted to portray strong and sen-
sitive parents who were able to guide their children through
life despite living in a discriminatory society. She also
wanted to portray black people as heroic figures that her
readers could look up to and be proud of—heroic figures
who were missing from the books Taylor read as a child.
So, we can expect that the main characters in the novel
will be a very close and strong family, and that they will act
like heroes—people who have strong values and take posi-
tive action based on what they believe, even if danger is
involved.
Inside the back cover is a page about the life of
the author. We learn that Taylor was born in Jackson,
Mississippi, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #1

Mildred Taylor wrote Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

because she was inspired by stories that her father told
her about their family while she was growing up. She
dedicated this book to her father. Think about a story
you were told when you were growing up—it might have
been about something that happened to one of your
relatives. If you were to write a book or story about the
experience, what title would you give to the book? To
whom would you dedicate it? Write the title and a brief
dedication, and describe what the book or story would
be about.
 Contexts 9

from college, served in the Peace Corps, and went to jour-

nalism school in Colorado, where she helped to found a
Black Studies program. She also wrote one earlier book
about the Logan family, Song of the Trees. Like Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry, this book was also well received,
and was named a New York Times Outstanding Book of the
Year in 1975. Taylor went on to write several other novels,
some of them about the Logan family.

PRE-READING SUMMARY
If we carefully read and look at the information surround-
ing the actual book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, we will
learn a lot about what we’re going to read. We know the
names of some of the main characters, including Cassie,
Stacey, and David Logan; the themes of dignity, pride, and
the importance of land; and the setting in the South during
the 1930s.
If we understand the historical context of the story—the
events that happened in the South during the time in
which this story is set—we will probably anticipate an
eventful tale about a time filled with danger and racial
conflict and tension. Also, by reading about Taylor, what

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #2

Notice that Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry does not have

chapter titles. Instead, each chapter is numbered. Some
books have chapter titles to help you understand what
will happen in each chapter before you read, or to make
you curious about what is to come. After you read each
chapter of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, brainstorm
some interesting titles for it.
10 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

she believes, how and where she grew up, and why she
wrote the book, we can better understand the characters
and their actions.
 2
Narrative
Technique

IN ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY, one of the first

things we notice is that the story is being told by someone.
This person is called the narrator, and we say that the story
is told in the first person, or by someone who calls himself
or herself “I.” Who is this narrator? We remember from the
introduction that our characters include Cassie, Stacey, and
David Logan. Consider then the first two sentences of the
book:

11
12 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

“Little Man, would you come on? You keep it up and

you’re gonna make us late.”
My youngest brother paid no attention to me.4

We now know that our narrator has at least two brothers,

and that one of them is called “Little Man.” In the first full
paragraph, we learn that the other brothers are named
Stacey and Christopher-John. Next, we see the narrator
“pulling with exasperation at the high collar of the Sunday
dress Mama had made”—which tells us that she is a girl
and that her mother insists that they dress up for the first
day of school. At this point, we might guess that our narra-
tor is Cassie Logan; and when Stacey says, “Ah, Cassie,
leave him be,” we are proven correct.
Now we know that the story is going to be told by Cassie
Logan. But what is Cassie like? What do we know about
her? Why should we listen to her story? Notice that very
early on, the author lets us know that Cassie is responsible
and intelligent. In this first scene, she is urging her brothers
to hurry to school, and she describes her brother Christo-
pher-John in this way:
A short, round boy of seven, he took little interest in trou-
blesome things, preferring to remain on good terms with
everyone. Yet he was always sensitive to others ...5

Since Cassie notices this fact about her brother, we can

guess that she is also very “sensitive to others” and will be
able to tell us what other characters are like very clearly.
We need to trust Cassie’s descriptions of people if we are
going to understand what happens in the story.
Another clue about Cassie’s character is revealed when
she reacts to her clothing. She tugs at the collar of her dress
and drags her feet in the dust. We learn that she hates the
 Narrative Technique 13

dress and the shoes, which imprison her “freedom-loving

feet accustomed to the feel of the warm earth.”6 Although
she may seem mature and intelligent, Cassie is clearly still
a girl at heart. We also learn that her mother is the
schoolteacher.
As the story continues to unfold, we find out more
about Cassie, our narrator. The story she tells is not about
her alone, it’s about what happens to her family over the
course of a year—Cassie learns a great deal about life
during that year. For example, Cassie’s father now has to
go to work on the railroad to pay the taxes and mortgage
on their property, and Cassie wonders why he has to go
away. He explains to her that “You ain’t never had to live
on nobody’s place but your own and long as I live and the
family survives, you’ll never have to. That’s important.”7

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #3

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is written in the first

person, or from the point of view of a narrator (Cassie)
who is one of the characters in the story, and who
refers to herself as “I.” Cassie knows only her own
thoughts; she doesn’t know what other characters are
thinking—like her mother, for instance—unless her
mother speaks to her.
A story that is told by a narrator who knows all of
the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters is said
to be written in the third person. Imagine if Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry had been written in the third per-
son. How would it be different? Which characters’
thoughts and feelings would you most like to know as
the story unfolds? Which ones would spoil the story if
you knew them?
14 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Although her Papa tells her that she will understand “one
day,” she doesn’t really understand yet why this is so
important. This tells us that she is still somewhat immature
at the beginning of the story.
As we read, we may notice many critical moments when
Cassie starts to grow up, when she learns something new
about her place in the world, about her family’s situation,
and about the dark secrets of racism in the American South
during the 1930s. Finally, Cassie is directly affected when
this injustice touches her family, her friends, and herself.
By sharing Cassie’s experiences, we also learn what it
meant to be a member of an African-American family dur-
ing this difficult time. Because the story is told from her
point of view, as Cassie grows up and learns during the
book, so do we, becoming wiser and more aware of the his-
tory of racial conflict in America. Some of the critical
moments in which Cassie’s understanding of life deepens
include the following:
• In Chapter 1, when the students in her class receive
old, dirty schoolbooks
• In Chapter 2, when she learns about the burning of
the Berry family and is forbidden from going to the
Wallace’s store
• At the end of Chapter 3, when Cassie learns about
the “night riders” (a lynch mob) and actually sees
them approach her house one evening, then leave
• At the end of Chapter 4, when her mother takes
Cassie and her brothers to see the Berry family and
explains that the Wallace family burned them
• In Chapter 5, when she faces direct discrimination
 Narrative Technique 15

for the first time at Mr. Barnett’s store in Strawberry

and then is forced to apologize to Lillian Jean Simms
• In Chapter 6, when her mother explains racism and
the history of slavery to her
• In Chapter 7, when Mr. Morrison tells the story of
how his parents were killed by Confederate soldiers
(those who fought for the South in the Civil War)
• In Chapter 8, when Cassie is warned by her father
not to let the conflict with Lillian Jean involve her
father, Charlie Simms; Cassie takes a stand against
racism for the first time and strikes out at Lillian
Jean anyway
• In Chapter 9, when her father and Mr. Morrison are
attacked on the trip to Vicksburg
• In Chapter 10, when Cassie sees Mr. Morrison
threatened by Kaleb Wallace; she also learns why
her family cannot complain about being attacked
• In Chapter 11, when she witnesses the lynch mob
that arrives to take T.J. Avery
• Finally, in Chapter 12, when Cassie learns that her
father has burned their land to prevent the lynching;
and that despite this, T.J. has been successfully and
unjustly framed by the Simms family and will either
be executed or put on a chain gang
In a sense, this book traces, chapter by chapter, Cassie’s
movement into a full understanding of injustice, as one of
her childhood friends finally becomes the victim of racism
and hatred. In doing so, the book teaches us an important
lesson also.
16 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

If we look closely at some of the places where Cassie

starts to understand the world, we can get a sense of how
she changes throughout the book. First, after she sees the
night riders pull into her driveway and then leave, Cassie
has this reaction:
Feeling sick, I crawled onto the porch and crept trembling
toward the door.
Once inside the house, I leaned against the latch while
waves of sick terror swept over me. I lay very still for a while,
not allowing myself to think. But soon, against my will, the
vision of ghostly headlights soaked into my mind and an
uncontrollable trembling racked my body. And it remained
until the dawn, when I fell into a restless sleep.8

Cassie thinks that she is responsible for the night riders’

arrival, because she helped to upset the white students’
school bus. And for the next week, her mother notices that
she is moping around the house, worried about some-
thing.
Cassie’s wisdom deepens even further after her experi-
ences in the town of Strawberry, where her grandmother,
Big Ma, takes her for the first time. Mr. Barnett, a local
grocer, ignores her in his store, overlooking her in favor of
a white customer. Cassie insists that he has no right to do
so. Mr. Barnett calls her a “little nigger,” and he eventually
tells Stacey, “Then you get her out of here ... and make
sure she don’t come back till yo’ mammy teach her what
she is.”9
Outside the store, in her anger, Cassie bumps into Lillian
Jean Simms, who insists that Cassie get down off of the
sidewalk and walk in the ditch. When Cassie refuses, she is
forced off of the sidewalk by Lillian Jean’s father. A crowd
gathers, and Big Ma insists that Cassie apologize, out of
 Narrative Technique 17

fear for what might happen. Cassie then tells us that “no
day in all my life had ever been as cruel as this one.”10
Afterward, she asks her mother,
“But Mama, that Lillian Jean ain’t got the brains of a flea!
How come I gotta go ’round calling her ‘Miz’ like she grown
or something?”
Mama’s voice grew hard. “Because that’s the way of
things, Cassie.”
“The way of what things?” I asked warily.
“Baby, you had to grow up a little today. I wish ... well, no
matter what I wish. It happened and you have to accept the
fact that in the world outside this house, things are not always
as we would have them to be.”11

Mama goes on to explain the history of slavery and

racism in the South, and Cassie has this reaction:
There was a sinking feeling in my stomach and I felt as
if the world had turned itself upside down with me in it.
Then I thought of Lillian Jean and a surging anger gurgled
upward ...12

When Cassie tells her father about the events in Straw-

berry, he warns her:
There’ll be a whole lot of things you ain’t gonna wanna do
but you’ll have to do in this life just so you can survive. Now
I don’t like the idea of what Charlie Simms did to you ... but
I had to weigh the hurt of what happened to you to what
could’ve happened if I went after him ... so I let it be. I don’t
like letting it be, but I can live with that decision.
But there are other things, Cassie, that if I’d let be, they’d
eat away at me and destroy me in the end. And it’s the same
with you, baby. There are things you can’t back down on,
18 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

things you gotta take a stand on. But it’s up to you to decide
what them things are. You have to demand respect in this
world, ain’t nobody just gonna hand it to you....
... I want you to think real hard on whether or not Lillian
Jean’s worth taking a stand about, but keep in mind that Lil-
lian Jean probably won’t be the last white person to treat you
this way.... This here’s an important decision, Cassie, very
important ... but I think you can handle it.13

Cassie eventually promises her father that no matter

what she does, Charlie Simms won’t get involved in the
matter.
Cassie then makes a decision to take a stand. She decides
to get revenge on Lillian Jean by pretending to become her
friend. She learns about Lillian Jean’s boyfriends and pri-
vate thoughts, then lures her into the woods and fights with
her. Cassie pins Lillian Jean to the ground and makes her
apologize for everything she has done. Finally, Cassie
threatens to tell everyone about Lillian Jean’s secrets if she
tells her father what happened. At this point in the story, we
know that not only has Cassie become directly aware of
racism, but also that she is able to fight back against it.
Still, it isn’t until the very end of the book, when two
events happen that help Cassie fully accept the injustice
she has to live with. First, her father and Mr. Morrison

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #4

The scenes in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in which

Cassie befriends Lillian Jean Simms and then fights her
are important in defining Cassie’s character. Are these
events believable? Why or why not? Do Cassie’s actions
make you like her more or less? Why?
 Narrative Technique 19

are attacked on their trip to Vicksburg to buy supplies.

When Papa returns home with a bullet wound and a bro-
ken leg, Cassie and the other children are afraid that he
might die:
All the questions had been answered, yet we feared, and we
sat silently listening to the rain, soft now upon the roof, and
watching the door behind which Papa lay, and wished for
morning.14

Second, after T.J. is framed by the Simms family for

murdering Mr. Barnett during the robbery of his store,
Cassie and her brothers learn that T.J. will either end up on
the chain gang or possibly on death row for a crime that he
didn’t commit. Papa tells them the truth about this, but he
says, “All I can say, Cassie girl ... is that it shouldn’t be.”
When she is left alone to think about the fate of her
friend, Cassie finally cries, realizing that:
In the afternoon when I awakened, or tomorrow or the next
day, the boys and I would still be free to run the red road, to
wander through the old forest and sprawl lazily on the banks
of the pond. Come October, we would trudge to school as
always, barefooted and grumbling, fighting the dust and the
mud and the Jefferson Davis school bus. But T.J. never would
again.15

Although Cassie admits that she had “never liked T.J.,”

she had thought that he would always be part of her life.
Since we have become used to seeing the world from
Cassie’s point of view in this novel, we feel what Cassie
feels as the book ends—the loss of innocence and sadness
for the injustice that has changed her forever. Taylor wants
us to feel this, and her narrative technique of slowly chang-
ing Cassie’s perspective and reactions throughout the book
20 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

has made it happen. We care about Cassie, because we

share her point of view. This is part of what makes Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry such a powerful story.
 3

Plot Summary

NOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND a little bit about Cassie, the

narrator of the story, let’s dig deeper into what actually happens
in the book. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the story of
Cassie’s family, the Logans, African-American farmers who
own their own land. They live in rural Mississippi in the 1930s,
during the Great Depression.
When the story opens, the Logan children—Cassie, Stacey,
Christopher-John, and Little Man—are on their way to school,
walking on a dirt road. They have to walk to school each day
because their school can’t afford a bus. Although their family

21
22 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

does not have a lot of money, their mother, Mary, a

schoolteacher, insists that they dress nicely for the first day
of school.
They attend a different school from the white students,
and a bus from the white school often drives by them on the
muddy roads, intentionally splashing them and forcing
them into the ditch. The Logans have one white friend, a
boy named Jeremy Simms, who likes them and keeps meet-
ing with them, even though his family sometimes whips
him for doing so.
At school, they are given badly worn books to read, ones
that have been handed down through many white students
before being given to the black school. Their mother qui-
etly pastes paper into the books over the long list of previ-
ous owners, much to the chagrin of another schoolteacher,
who fears that trouble will result with the white school
board if the books are altered.
The Logan children’s father, David, is away working on
the railroad to pay for the mortgage and taxes on the fam-
ily’s land. This land is very important to the family, as it is
unusual for an African-American family to own property.
On the way to school, the Logan family’s friend T.J. Avery
tells them about a rumor he heard that three members of the
African-American Berry family were attacked and burned
by some white men the night before.
In Chapter 2, Papa (David) brings a man named Mr. L.T.
Morrison to stay with the Logan family. He is a giant, and
we learn that he got into trouble for fighting with some
white men on the railroad. We also learn that the Berry fam-
ily was attacked and badly burned—one died—by members
of a white family who own a local store, the Wallaces.
In Chapter 3, Cassie and her brothers dig a muddy ditch
to trap the school bus that splashes them. They succeed in
 Plot Summary 23

stopping the bus and nobody is hurt, but the children are
afraid that this incident has caused “night riders” to come
by their house one evening, looking for revenge. The night
riders pass by their house, but Mr. Morrison has been hid-
ing with a shotgun in case of trouble. Cassie sees the night
riders and is frightened.
One week later, T.J. tells Cassie and her brothers that the
night riders had not known about the bus at all, but instead
had “tarred and feathered” a black man in their community
because he had gotten into a dispute with Jim Lee Barnett,
a white store owner in the nearby town of Strawberry.
T.J., who is not well liked by the Logan children, cheats
on a test at school and blames Stacey. Stacey has been for-
bidden to go to the Wallace family store, but he follows T.J.
there to fight him. Mr. Morrison picks Stacey up, lectures
him, and brings him home.
Mr. Granger, the white landowner who lives next to the
Logans, visits their house. He wants to buy their land from
them, and this visit prompts Cassie’s grandmother, Big Ma,
to tell Cassie the history of the Logan land. It had been pur-
chased by Yankees (northerners) from the Granger family
after the Civil War left the family in poverty. The land had
then been parceled off, with some of it having been sold to
Big Ma’s husband (Cassie’s grandfather), Paul Edward.
Other parcels went to a friendly white man named Jamison,
who eventually sold some of his land to the Logans and
became a lawyer in Vicksburg.
Cassie’s mother takes the children to visit the badly
burned Mr. Berry and his wife. She also begins to get back
at the Wallace family by organizing a boycott of their store,
planning to buy supplies for the town from Vicksburg.
Chapter 5 begins one week later. Big Ma takes the chil-
dren with her to Strawberry, to a farmer’s market. Their
24 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

wagon does not have a good location at the market—these

go to white farmers—but they have loyal customers. T.J.
persuades Cassie and Stacey to disobey Big Ma and ven-
ture on their own into Mr. Barnett’s store, where T.J. shows
Cassie and Stacey a gun on display that he would like to
own.
They try to place Big Ma’s order at the store, but they are
forced to wait while Mr. Barnett attends to his white cus-
tomers. This outrages Cassie, and she yells at Mr. Barnett.
He calls her a “nigger” and throws the children out. Out-
side, Cassie accidentally bumps into Lillian Jean Simms—
their friend Jeremy’s older sister—who insults Cassie. Mr.
Simms, her father, pushes Cassie off the sidewalk and into
the street, and insists that Cassie apologize to Lillian Jean.
Big Ma arrives just as a crowd begins to gather, and fearing
for the family’s safety, forces Cassie to apologize. She does
so reluctantly.

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #5

The story of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is told in

chronological order, which means that the story starts
with the earliest events (the children walking to school,
the school bus) and moves straight through time to the
last event that occurs (the fire in the cotton crop).
It is also possible to tell a story through flashbacks,
or through the memories of a character who is looking
back at the past after an important event occurs. Imag-
ine if Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry had started with the
lynch mob and the fire in the cotton crop, and then had
“flashed back” to the beginning. Would it be more
effective? Less effective? Why? In what other order or
sequence could the events in this story have been told?
 Plot Summary 25

Next, Cassie’s Uncle Hammer arrives from Chicago. He is

driving a new Packard automobile, which closely resembles
the one that Mr. Granger owns. He reacts strongly to what
happened to Cassie, but Papa talks him out of seeking
revenge, citing the family’s safety. Uncle Hammer gives
Stacey a new coat as an early Christmas gift, and the Logans
go to church in Uncle Hammer’s fancy car. On the way home
from church, they speed across a bridge in front of the Wal-
lace family, who mistakenly thinks they are the Grangers.
When Stacey reveals that he has given his new coat to
T.J., who smooth-talked him out of it, Uncle Hammer
teaches Stacey a lesson about this but does not insist that he
try to get the coat back. Soon, it’s Christmas, and the
Logans celebrate Christmas Eve with a feast. After dinner,
Papa and Uncle Hammer tell stories about escapades from
their past. Mr. Morrison explains about how his parents had
been killed by racist “night riders,” possibly white Confed-
erate soldiers.
Early the next morning, Cassie hears her parents, grand-
mother, and Uncle Hammer discussing their land, and the
possibility that they might have to use it to get credit in
Vicksburg for the poor black families whom they are trying
to convince to shop there. They would risk losing the land
if they did so. But worries are set aside for a Christmas gift
exchange, and Uncle Hammer has brought precious books
for the children. Later, the family celebrates with another
feast, to which the Avery family is invited.
Jeremy Simms stops by with a gift that he has made for
Stacey, a homemade wooden flute. Stacey accepts it awk-
wardly, given the tension that recently occurred between
Cassie and Lillian Jean Simms. After Jeremy leaves, Papa
warns Stacey that their friendship could lead to trouble for
the family. Stacey stashes the flute away in a box.
26 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

On the day after Christmas, Mr. Jamison, the white

lawyer from Vicksburg, arrives to help the Logans transfer
ownership of their land from Big Ma to Papa and Uncle
Hammer. While he is there, he offers to provide financial
backing for the credit that the black families need to shop
in Vicksburg. He also warns the Logans about the conse-
quences of this: Harlan Granger owns the land that the Wal-
lace’s store is on and gets money from it, so he will
certainly not like the boycott and will try to make trouble.
A few days later, Papa, Uncle Hammer, and Mr. Morrison
make the first shopping trip to Vicksburg, bringing back a
wagon load of store-bought supplies for the African-Amer-
ican families in the area. Harlan Granger soon visits them
and threatens to charge more rent (a higher percentage of
the crop price) to the black families who sharecrop on his
land. He also threatens to make the bank “call in the mort-
gage” on some of the Logan family’s land. This means that
they would have to pay for it immediately, without a loan.
As Chapter 8 begins, Cassie starts to pretend to be
friends with Lillian Jean Simms. Her brothers can’t under-
stand why she’s doing this, and her Papa warns her not to
get Mr. Simms involved in the situation. Eventually, Lillian
Jean starts to trust Cassie with secrets about her crushes
and friends. Shortly thereafter, Cassie lures Lillian Jean
into the woods, shoves her to the ground, and pins her, forc-
ing Lillian Jean to apologize for her racist attitude and for
her family. Cassie blackmails Lillian Jean into silence
about the incident, threatening to tell everyone in the
school about Lillian Jean’s secret crushes.
T.J. Avery is caught cheating on an exam by Mrs. Logan.
He is upset, and runs to the Wallace’s store. Soon, members
of the local school board, including Kaleb Wallace and
Harlan Granger, come to the classroom and fire her. At
 Plot Summary 27

first, Cassie thinks that this has to do with the altered

schoolbooks, but soon the children learn that T.J. has told
the schoolboard (including the Wallaces) about the Logans’
plan to help people shop in Vicksburg. The children dis-
tance themselves from T.J., who has started to hang around
with R.W. and Melvin Simms, Jeremy Simms’s white older
brothers.
At the beginning of Chapter 9, it is early springtime, and
the African-American school is about to end so the children
can help with the crop growing season. Jeremy Simms tells
the Logan children that his brothers are just pretending to
be T.J.’s friends and that they really don’t like him. Around
this time, Mr. Jamison visits the Logans and warns them
that the Wallaces are planning to stop them from shopping
in Vicksburg.
Shortly after school lets out, the Logans are planning
another buying trip to Vicksburg. Before they go, however,
their friends Mr. Avery and Mr. Lanier stop by to tell the
Logans that they have to drop out of the buying program,
because they’ve been threatened by the Wallaces, who own
the land on which they work.
Despite this, Mr. Morrison, Papa, and Stacey make a trip
to Vicksburg. When they eventually return, late on a stormy
night, Papa has suffered a broken leg and a slight gunshot
wound. Stacey tells the family that their wagon had been
sabotaged while they were in Vicksburg, and that the
wheels had fallen off on the way home. When they had
stopped to fix the wagon, they had been attacked by some
men who had followed them in a truck. One of the men
shot at Papa, and the shot had spooked their horse, making
the wagon roll backwards over Papa’s leg. The men had
come after the Logans, but Mr. Morrison fought them off.
While Papa is recovering, he is unable to go to work on the
28 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

railroad because of his injury. Money is tight for the Logan

family, as Mama no longer has an income from teaching
school. The family plans to sell farm animals to raise their
mortgage money for the summer. Mama explains to Cassie
why the family cannot report the attack to the authorities.
Soon, Mr. Morrison and the children make a trip to a
neighboring farm to loan the family a piece of equipment.
On the way home, their wagon is blocked by a truck, and
they are threatened by Kaleb Wallace, the driver. Mr. Mor-
rison physically picks up his truck and moves it out of their
way.
In August, Mr. Morrison goes to Strawberry to make a
mortgage payment and discovers that the bank has “called
up the note,” forcing them to pay off their mortgage loan in
full or lose their land. Later that month, the Logans go to a
church revival meeting. While they are there, Uncle Ham-
mer arrives from the north. He has sold his car to help them
pay off their mortgage. T.J. Avery arrives at the revival,
dressed in fancy clothes and bragging about his friendship
with R.W. and Melvin Simms. They have been stealing
from people and are heading for Strawberry that evening.

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #6

The story focuses on the events in one year in the life of

the Logan family, starting with the first day of school in
the fall and ending the following August. But the book
also gives information about certain events that hap-
pened before that year, as well as some predictions
about what will happen after that year. List some of the
events that you know have taken place before and that
might take place after the actual events in the book.
 Plot Summary 29

Late on that same hot, threatening August night, Cassie

is in bed, but she hears a sound outside—it is T.J., who is
injured. He explains that he broke into Mr. Barnett’s store
in Strawberry with the Simms brothers. The brothers badly
beat up the store owners and T.J., who ran from them. The
Logan children take T.J. to his home.
As the children are about to leave the Avery house, the
“night riders,” including R.W. and Melvin Simms and the
Wallaces, arrive there. The Logan children hide in the
woods and watch as the Simms and Wallaces loudly blame
T.J. for attacking the Barnetts. They drag the Avery family
out of their house and assault them, and they threaten to
hang T.J. Soon, the sheriff and Mr. Jamison arrive and
futilely try to stop the lynching. Mr. Granger, who lives
nearby, refuses to help. Stacey sends Cassie home to get
their father and Mr. Morrison.
After Cassie tells her parents what is happening, Papa
and Mr. Morrison head to the scene. Soon, Mama and the
children smell smoke, and they realize that their cotton is
on fire. Mama and Big Ma head out to help fight the blaze.
In the hours before dawn, Jeremy Simms arrives at the
Logans to tell the children that everyone in town has been
fighting the fire, which they think was started by lightning.
Rain begins and helps to put out the fire.
In the morning, Cassie goes to look at the destruction.
Black and white families are working side by side,
exhausted, to put out the remaining small fires. T.J. has
avoided a lynching, but he has been arrested and taken into
Strawberry by the sheriff and Mr. Jamison. Stacey tells
Cassie that Mr. Jamison had tried to block the lynch mob
with his car and had succeeded in stalling them until every-
one noticed the fire and went to fight it.
Later that day, Mr. Jamison arrives to tell the Logan
30 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

family that Jim Lee Barnett died from the attack in the
store. Mr. Jamison is going to take the Avery family into
town to see T.J., who will recover from his injuries but who
has now been framed for murder. Papa wants to go with
him, but Mr. Jamison advises him to stay home, to “avoid
suspicion” about the fire. Cassie realizes that her father
started the fire on his own land to divert the lynch mob.
Finally, the children learn that T.J. may end up working
on a chain gang or possibly on death row and that no one
will be able to do anything about it. At the end of the book,
Cassie cries for the injustice, and for their burned land.
32 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

villains, deeply troubled racist people, thieves, and even

murderers.
We know some of these characters very well: Taylor
gives us a lot of information about Cassie and her brothers,
their family, and their family’s history, for instance. For
others, like R.W. and Melvin Simms, we have only brief
glimpses of and can only guess at why they are the way
they are.
More interestingly, Taylor allows certain characters to
change and grow throughout the book. We’ve already
looked closely at the self-confident, intelligent Cassie, and
how she develops a sadness and wisdom throughout the
book, as she, her family, and her friends are affected by
racism and discrimination. In this chapter, we’ll take a
closer look at some of the other important characters and
notice how they change.
Here’s a list of the characters in the book, with short
descriptions of who they are and what they do in the story:

THE LOGAN FAMILY (MAIN CHARACTERS,

AFRICAN-AMERICAN FARMERS
WHO OWN LAND)
Cassie Logan: 9 years old, the narrator
Stacey Logan: Cassie’s older brother

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #7

Mildred Taylor provides a lot of detail about certain

main characters, but also creates believable minor
characters as well, such as Little Man, who is always
very neat. Which character in the book do you most
identify with? Why?
 Characters and Characterization 33

Christopher-John Logan: Cassie’s younger brother

Little Man (Clayton Chester Logan): Cassie’s youngest
brother, 6 years old
David Logan (Papa): Cassie’s father, who works on the
railroad
Mary Logan (Mama): Cassie’s mother, a schoolteacher
Uncle Hammer: Papa’s brother, who lives in Chicago
Caroline Logan (Big Ma): Cassie’s 60-year-old grand-
mother
Mr. L.T. Morrison: a giant man whom Papa brings to live
with the Logans, although he is not a blood relative of
theirs

THE AVERYS (AFRICAN-AMERICAN FARMERS

WHO SHARECROP ON HARLAN
GRANGER’S LAND)
T.J. Avery: Stacey’s 13-year-old friend
Claude Avery: T.J.’s younger brother
Mr. and Mrs. Avery: T.J. and Claude’s father and mother

THE SIMMS (WHITE NEIGHBORS

OF THE LOGANS)
Jeremy Simms: 11 years old, he tries to befriend the
Logans
Lillian Jean Simms: Jeremy’s older sister
R.W. and Melvin Simms: Jeremy’s older brothers
Charlie Simms: father of the Simms children

THE WALLACES (WHITE OWNERS

OF A GENERAL STORE)
Kaleb: store owner
Thurston and Dewberry: Kaleb’s sons
34 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

THE BERRYS (AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILY)

Samuel Berry: a sharecropper badly burned by the Wal-
lace family
John Henry Berry: Samuel’s nephew, burned to death by
the Wallaces
Beacon Berry: Samuel’s nephew, also badly burned by the
Wallaces

OTHER CHARACTERS
Mr. Jamison: a white lawyer who lives in Vicksburg; his
family sold land to the Logans
Harlan Granger: a plantation owner whose family used to
own the Logans’ land and who would like to have it back
Jim Lee Barnett: the mercantile store owner in Strawberry
Mrs. Barnett: Jim Lee’s wife
Miss Daisy Crocker: a fellow schoolteacher with Mary
Logan
Silas Lanier: a sharecropper on Harlan Granger’s land

MAMA (MARY LOGAN)

Cassie’s mother, Mary, is a schoolteacher and she is a very
good one. She is aware of the racism that surrounds her,
and she repeatedly acts to give her family and other mem-
bers of the African-American community a sense of pride
and identity. For example, early in the book, the poor,
African-American school where she teaches receives a
stack of worn, soiled books. A page at the front of each
book shows that white students used the books until they
became so dilapidated that they were sent to the “nigra”
students. Her students are upset at this, but Mary quietly
pastes paper over those pages to help the students’ self-
esteem. Mary is warned by another teacher that the school
board might be upset at this, but she takes the risk.
 Characters and Characterization 35

She takes an even bigger risk later in the story when the
white school board members come into her classroom to
observe her teaching. This exchange provides one of the
plainest explanations of the racial conflict in the commu-
nity, and although Mary loses her job because of it, it gives
us a clear picture of her bravery and integrity:
Mama was in the middle of history, and I knew that was
bad. I could tell Stacey knew it too; he sat tense near the back
of the room, his lips very tight, his eyes on the men. But
Mama did not flinch; she always started her history class the
first thing in the morning when the students were most alert,
and I knew that the hour was not yet up. To make matters
worse, her lesson for the day was slavery. She spoke on the
cruelty of it; of the rich economic cycle it generated as slaves
produced the raw products for the factories of the North and
Europe; how the country profited and grew from the free labor
of a people still not free.
Before she had finished, Mr. Granger picked up a student’s
book, flipped it open to the pasted-over front cover, and
pursed his lips. “Thought these books belonged to the
county,” he said, interrupting her. Mama glanced over at him,
but did not reply. Mr. Granger turned the pages, stopped, and
read something. “I don’t see all them things you’re teaching
in here.”
“That’s because they’re not in there,” Mama said.
“Well, if it ain’t in here, then you got no right teaching it.
This book’s approved by the Board of Education and you’re
expected to teach what’s in it.”
“I can’t do that.”
“And why not?”
Mama, her back straight and her eyes fixed on the men,
answered, “Because all that’s in that book isn’t true.”16
36 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Mama also demonstrates her courage after visiting the

badly burned Samuel Berry. She works to mobilize the
African-American community to boycott the Wallace fam-
ily’s store. We see that she is respected in the community
and loved by her family.
She also tries to explain difficult situations to her chil-
dren and develop self-esteem in them. One example of this
occurs soon after Cassie faces discrimination from Lillian
Jean Simms and her father in Strawberry. Mama explains
the history of slavery to Cassie and why it has made white
people lack respect for African Americans. She ends by
telling Cassie, “Baby, we have no choice of what color
we’re born or who our 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.... And I pray to God you’ll
make the best of yours.”17

PAPA (DAVID LOGAN)

David Logan (Papa) is hardworking and very protective of
his family and their land. One of the earliest things we learn
about him is that he has to leave the family for part of every
year to work on the railroad. This provides enough money
to pay the taxes and the mortgage on the family land.
When he learns that the Berry family has been burned,
Papa brings Mr. Morrison home to stay with his family
when he can’t be there. This demonstrates both his wisdom
and his desire to protect his family. He also clearly tells his
children to stay away from the Wallace’s store, and when
he learns that they have disobeyed them, he punishes them
so they know that he is serious. This shows that he wants to
protect his children from danger and that he cares deeply
about them.
David is cautious about his family’s relationships with
 Characters and Characterization 37

white families, and he advises his children to act in a way

that he thinks will protect the family in the long term. As a
result, he cautions Cassie not to let her temper get the bet-
ter of her with Lillian Jean, so that her father will not get
involved. He also warns Stacey not to become too close to
Jeremy Simms, despite the fact that Jeremy has just
brought Stacey a homemade present.
As the story continues, David’s courage and determina-
tion to “do the right thing” in difficult circumstances
increase. He risks his own life by shopping for the commu-
nity in Vicksburg, even though he gets attacked and injured
by the Wallaces for doing so. Finally, at the end of the
book, he heads out into the night to try to stop the whites
from lynching T.J. Although a lesser man might have used
his shotgun (which he takes with him) to “get back” at the
Wallaces, instead David tries a risky diversionary tactic—
he sets fire to his own field to distract the angry mob. This
works, and it shows David’s resourcefulness and willing-
ness to sacrifice even his most valued possession—his
land—for the safety of the community.

UNCLE HAMMER (PAPA’S BROTHER)

Uncle Hammer provides an interesting contrast to Mama
and Papa Logan. He has a sharp temper and refuses to
accept southern racism. In fact, he left the South to live in
Chicago to take advantage of increased opportunities for
African Americans in the North and has become reasonably
wealthy. He is able to buy a nice car there, he dresses well,
and he buys books and other gifts for the Logan children.
He comes to visit the Logans and spend the Christmas
season with them every year. One of the first incidents he
learns about when he arrives is the treatment that Cassie
received at the hands of Jim Lee Barnett and Charlie
38 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Simms in Strawberry. His reaction shows his temper very

clearly:
His dark eyes narrowed to thin, angry slits. He said: “He
knocked you off the sidewalk, Cassie? A grown man knocked
you off the sidewalk?”
... Uncle Hammer released me and sat very still. No one
said a word. Then he stood slowly, his eyes icing into that cold
distant way they could, and he started toward the door.... Big
Ma jumped up from her chair, knocking it over in her haste,
and dashed after him. She grabbed his arm. “Let it be, son!”
she cried. “That child ain’t hurt!”
“Not hurt! You look into her eyes and tell me she ain’t
hurt!”
... Mama’s eyes darted to the shotgun over the bed, and she
edged between it and Uncle Hammer. Uncle Hammer was
watching her and he said quietly, “Don’t worry. I ain’t gotta
use David’s gun.... I got my own.”18

But Uncle Hammer has more character than mere anger.

In fact, although he dashes off into the night to try to get
revenge on Charlie Simms, Mr. Morrison talks him out of
acting rashly, and they return home the next morning.

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #8

Mildred Taylor based some of her other books around

characters in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. For instance,
The Well is about David Logan and Uncle Hammer’s
past. Which character in the book would you most like
to read more about? Whose story do you think would
be interesting to follow further, after the events in Roll
of Thunder have ended?
 Characters and Characterization 39

In addition to giving Stacey a new coat, Uncle Hammer

teaches him a lesson about self-respect, when Stacey loses
the coat to T.J. Uncle Hammer also sells his car to help the
Logans pay off the mortgage on their land, demonstrating
that although he enjoys being financially independent, he
does not value status symbols over the fate of the family.

STACEY LOGAN
Stacey Logan has an interesting role in the story, in that his
growth as a person has many similarities to Cassie’s
growth. He is only a bit older than Cassie, and although
Stacey seems wiser at the beginning of the story than she
does, he makes mistakes and learns from them throughout
the book.
Stacey acts as the leader of the Logan children when they
are together, and they look up to him. He advises them on
how to avoid getting splashed by the white children’s
school bus, and he leads a daring plot to dig a trench in the
muddy road and stop the bus.
Stacey has a unique friendship with T.J. Avery that
teaches him many lessons. T.J. is unreliable and self-cen-
tered from the start, but Stacey usually refuses to go along
with T.J.’s deviousness. For example, Stacey repeatedly
refuses to help T.J. cheat on tests, and only after Stacey is
unfairly blamed for one cheating incident does he “drop to
T.J.’s level,” follow him to the Wallace store, and fight with
him.
Stacey even lets T.J. have his new coat, which he later
admits was a mistake, but he learns his lesson about this.
Soon, the Logan children learn that T.J. has gotten mama
fired, by telling the Wallaces about her plan to boycott their
store. Stacey is angry and confronts T.J. about this, but
instead of beating him up he decides to simply shun him, or
40 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

ignore him. “What he got coming to him is worse than a

beating,” Stacey says.
Stacey’s reactions to two incidents late in the book show
that he is both responsible and caring. First, when Papa is
injured by the wagon, Stacey blames himself for not being
able to hold the horse. We know that he is not to blame—a
gunshot spooked the horse—but Stacey feels responsible
anyway. And when T.J. Avery arrives at the Logan’s house
late one August night, injured and in trouble, Stacey
decides to help him, even after T.J. confesses to having bro-
ken into the Barnett Mercantile store with the Simms broth-
ers. This demonstrates that Stacey has compassion for his
old friend, and a maturity that allows him to rise above the
fights that they have recently had.

T.J. AVERY
Although not a member of the Logan family, T.J. Avery is
one of the more interesting characters in the book. The first
time we meet him, he joins the Logans on their walk to
school. We learn that he had failed Mama’s class the year
before, and he immediately suggests that Stacey might be
able to get answers to tests from his mother. When Stacey
hears this, he “thrusts T.J.’s arm from his shoulders.”
In addition to being a cheat, T.J. also seeks attention for
himself by spreading gossip and promising to tell stories,
such as information about the Berrys’ burning. According
to Cassie, he has a “usual sickening way of nursing a tidbit
of information to death.” Finally, he blames others for his
own mistakes. When he gets in trouble with his mother for
going to the Wallace’s store, he blames his younger brother,
Claude, who lets him get away with it out of fear.
T.J.’s weaknesses continue throughout the story. He is
eventually caught cheating on a test, and we also learn that
 Characters and Characterization 41

he wants to own a gun, believing that it would make him

powerful. His desire to be liked leads him to befriend the
racist Simms brothers, R.W. and Melvin, and soon he loses
his friendship with the Logan family.
The Simms play on his weaknesses to get him to help
with their crimes. Soon, T.J. is dressing up in fancy (and
possibly stolen) clothes, and he is led to rob the Barnett
Mercantile store by the Simms brothers, who play on his
desire to own the handgun displayed there. Finally, T.J. is
totally betrayed by his new “friends,” when they blame him
for the attack on Jim Lee Barnett and come after him in the
night to lynch him.
T.J. seems to have no conscience from the start, but his
misdemeanors go from minor offenses like cheating and
hanging out at the Wallace store to eventual theft and pos-
sible assault. He is used by the white racists, who see that
he is weak and can be manipulated, and he ultimately
“takes the fall” and becomes the victim of their racism. He
causes his family to be attacked, narrowly avoids a lynch-
ing, and will end up either on a chain gang or possibly exe-
cuted for the murder of Jim Lee Barnett, to which he was
only an accomplice.

JEREMY SIMMS
Although only a minor character in the book, Jeremy
Simms is important in that he is a member of a white,
mostly racist family, who takes a stand and befriends the
Logans. Although Stacey is warned not to get too involved
with him, Jeremy sneaks away from his family at Christ-
mas to bring Stacey a handmade flute as a gift. Throughout
the book, he remains a constant source of information for
the Logan children about what’s happening in the commu-
nity, and he risks ridicule from the other children and even
42 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

whippings (“wide red welts on his arms”) to remain friends

with them.

MR. MORRISON
Mr. L.T. Morrison, a giant of a man, physically protects the
Logans from harm several times. We learn that he had lost
his parents in a racially motivated attack when he was still
an infant and that he likes the company of the Logan fam-
ily. Among his heroic acts are defending the Logan house
at night with a shotgun in hand, rescuing Stacey from the
fight at the Wallace store, moving Kaleb Wallace’s pickup
truck out of the way with his bare hands, and defending
Papa when they are attacked by the Wallaces on the way
home from Vicksburg.

MR. JAMISON
One other minor character who deserves special mention is
Mr. Jamison, the white lawyer from Vicksburg. He is from
a southern family that used to own some of the Granger
land, which they sold to the Logans, and he acts as a
defender and supporter of the African-American commu-
nity in several ways.
First, he helps the Logans with the paperwork for trans-
ferring their land from Big Ma to David and Uncle Ham-
mer, in order to avoid having it taken away by a legality. He
also offers to provide financial credit (to “sign for”) the
African-American families who want to shop in Vicksburg.
He warns Papa about the consequences of this action,
explaining some of the legal risks involved. Finally, he
physically tries to stop the lynching of T.J. at the end of the
book, blocking the Simms vehicle with his car to keep them
from taking T.J. away.
 5
The Function
of Setting

NOW LET’S CONSIDER how the story’s setting affects what

happens. The setting is the time period and the location in
which the story takes place. We already know a few things
about the setting: the story takes place in rural Mississippi in
1933–1934, the early years of the Great Depression. But there
are several more specific ways that Mildred Taylor defines the
story’s setting to make her tale come alive.

TIME PERIOD
One way we can tell that the country is in the midst of the Great

43
44 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Depression is that the characters in the book are poor. In the

very first scene, the Logan children are walking to school
on a dusty road, and Cassie tells us that they often “wear
threadbare clothing washed to dishwater color.” Their
school is “a dismal end to an hour’s journey ... [c]onsisting
of four weather-beaten wooden houses on stilts of brick
...”19 Only certain individuals own cars—Packards and
pickup trucks are mentioned in the book—and the Logans
travel by horse and buggy. These details let us know that we
are in a rural setting and that times are tough.
Remember also that the 1930s was a time of deep racial
division in the South. Since the end of the Civil War,
attempts by northerners to create social equality for African
Americans had largely failed. Despite national laws out-
lawing discrimination, southern whites had created state
laws that took away equal rights for African Americans,
including the right to vote. These laws were called “Jim
Crow Laws,” and they made white and black people go to
separate schools, travel in separate train cars, attend sepa-
rate theaters, drink from separate water fountains, and even

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #9

The story takes place in rural Mississippi, outside of

Vicksburg, which is “an overnight drive” away by horse
and carriage. You can locate Vicksburg on any map of
Mississippi, along the Mississippi River on the western
edge of the state.
Using the information in the novel and in Chapter 5
of this book, draw a map of the area in which the story
takes place. Include Vicksburg, Strawberry, the Granger
Land, the Logan Land, the two schools, etc.
 The Function of Setting 45

be buried in separate graveyards. This inequality continued

into the 1950s and 1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement
once again called national attention to the problem and seg-
regation was banned.

LAND AND LANDSCAPE

The Mississippi land is very important to this story. In fact,
a lot of what happens occurs because the Logans own land,
which makes their southern white neighbors angry. Early in
the book, Cassie remembers her father telling her, “Look
out there, Cassie girl. All that belongs to you. You ain’t
never had to live on nobody’s place but your own and long
as I live and the family survives, you’ll never have to.
That’s important.”20
Also, the fact that the characters “live off the land” as
farmers dictates many of the basic patterns of life in the
story. For instance, because the African-American children
work in the fields during the growing season, their schools
let out earlier in the spring than the white schools do. The
families often travel to towns to sell farm goods and buy
supplies.
Mildred Taylor sometimes uses sensory details—sights,
sounds, feelings, smells—to describe the landscape in rural
Mississippi. For example, Cassie says at one point that in
the spring, she is “... eager to be in the fields again, to feel
the furrowed rows of damp, soft earth beneath my feet;
eager to walk barefooted through the cool forest, hug the
trees, and sit under their protective shadow.”21
There also are unpleasant aspects to the Mississippi
countryside: “At the end of October the rain had come,
falling heavily upon the six-inch layer of dust which had
had its own way for more than two months.” The dust
becomes “a fine red clay that oozed between our toes and
46 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

slopped against our ankles as we marched miserably to and

from school.”22 (Note that this rain becomes important to
the story, since it softens the earth, allowing the children to
dig a trench to stop the school bus.)

DIALECT
Another way that Taylor makes the setting of the book seem
realistic is to have her characters speak with a southern
dialect. Dialect is the way people speak in a certain area or
region of the country. They sometimes pronounce or spell
words differently. For example, in the first scene, Little Man
tells Cassie, “Y’all go ahead and get dirty if y’all wanna.”
The word y’all is an abbreviation of “you all,” which is a
southern expression for “you.” The characters also use the
word ain’t for “is not.” Another colorful expression that the
children use is the phrase wear you out, which means “hit
you” or “yell at you”—as in “Your mama’s gonna wear you
out if she finds out about your cheating.”

SPECIFIC PLACES
In addition to the general location of the story in Missis-
sippi, Taylor creates specific locations around where the

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #10

Consider how the story would have been different if it

had taken place in a different state. Would this have
been possible? Based on your knowledge of history,
which states could the story have happened in? Why? If
the story had taken place in a different state, how
might it have changed, in terms of the events that hap-
pen throughout the year?
 The Function of Setting 47

Logans live, to make their world seem real. She often lets
us imagine the specific details of these locations, although
some are described in detail. For instance, when Mr. Mor-
rison first arrives at the Logan’s, he notices the long slop-
ing lawn, the porch, and the wood walls and furniture in
their living room.
As we have already noted, in the first scene, the children
are walking along a dusty country road on their way to
school. We learn that the Berry family, who were burned by
the Wallaces, live “way over on the other side of Smellings
Creek.” We also first hear about the Wallace’s store from T.J.
Soon, the children walk by a crossroads, where a road
leads to the Jefferson Davis County School, the school for
the white children. This school, quite different from their
own school, is described as:
... a long white wooden building looming in the distance.
Behind the building was a wide sports field around which
were scattered rows of tiered gray-looking benches. In front
of it were two yellow buses, our own tormentor and one that
brought students from the other direction.... In the very center
of the expansive front lawn, waving red, white, and blue with
the emblem of the Confederacy emblazoned in its upper left-
hand corner, was the Mississippi flag. Directly below it was
the American flag.23

When the children arrive at their own school, the Great

Faith Elementary and Secondary School, we learn that it is
also the location of the church to which they belong. Other
important locations where events in the book take place
include the Logans’ farmhouse and barn, the Wallace Store,
the farmer’s market and Barnett Mercantile in Strawberry,
and the Avery residence.
 6
Understanding
Themes and Symbols

SO FAR, WE’VE TALKED about all of the facts that make up the
book—the narrator, the plot or events, the characters, and the
setting—but what about the ideas behind the story? In addition
to being entertained, we usually want to learn something when
we read. What makes this story interesting and worth reading?
The main ideas of a story, or the important points that the author
stresses throughout, are called the book’s themes.
We also know that in stories, just as in real life, certain
objects can hold deeper meanings beyond what they actually
are. For example, a flag usually represents something else—a

48
 Understanding Themes and Symbols 49

country, for instance, or patriotic feelings for that country.

Items in a story that have characteristics which make us
think of something else, an idea or a concept, are called
symbols.

THEMES
One of the most important themes of Roll of Thunder, Hear
My Cry is the importance of land and land ownership.
Owning their own land enables the Logan family to be
financially independent, since they don’t have to use
income from their crops to pay to rent land. As a result,
they are able to keep more of their own money.
The family takes precautions and repeatedly sacrifices so
they won’t lose their land. Big Ma transfers the ownership
of the land to her sons when she gets older. Papa goes away
to work on the railroad to make money for their mortgage
and taxes, and they plan to sell farm animals after Mama
loses her job. Uncle Hammer sells his car to help them pay
off their mortgage.
Unlike Harlan Granger, who sees his land as a way to
make money and to control people, the Logans see land as
a way to keep their family together. This brings up a second
crucial theme: the importance of family and community.
The Logans constantly look out for each other, and they
work to help the African-American community as well.
Mama organizes a boycott of the Wallace store after the
Berry family is attacked. Papa sets his cotton fields on fire
in order to save T.J. Avery, which demonstrates that people
and community are more important than land in the Logan
family’s value system.
Another important theme is self-respect and respect for
others. Papa and Mama teach their children to have self-
respect and dignity, even when they are the victims of
50 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

racism. After Cassie is forced to apologize to Lillian Jean

Simms in Strawberry, she receives this advice from her
mother:
... White is something just like black is something. Every-
body born on this earth is something and nobody, no matter
what color, is better than anybody else.... [W]e have no choice
of what color we’re born or who our 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. And I pray to God
you’ll make the best of yours.24

Her father, recognizing her anger and desire to get

revenge on Lillian Jean, tells her this:
There are things you can’t back down on, things you gotta
take a stand on. But it’s up to you to decide what them things
are. You have to demand respect in this world, ain’t nobody
just gonna hand it to you.25

Cassie does take revenge, although she does it in a way

that she hopes will teach Lillian Jean a lesson and make her
respect Cassie more.

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #11

Consider the three themes of the book that are men-

tioned here—the importance of land, the importance of
family and community, and self-respect and respect for
others. How do these themes relate to your own life
and experiences? Which of them are important in your
community and school? Give an example of how they
are important.
 Understanding Themes and Symbols 51

SYMBOLS
Flags are one of the most common symbols in our lives,
and they are also used as symbols in Roll of Thunder, Hear
My Cry. The Jefferson Davis County School (the school for
white students) displays these flags:
... In the very center of the expansive front lawn, waving
red, white, and blue with the emblem of the Confederacy
emblazoned in its upper left-hand corner, was the Mississippi
flag. Directly below it was the American flag.26

Taylor calls these flags “transposed,” which means that

their order is reversed—the American flag should be above
the Mississippi flag. The Mississippi flag has the symbol of
the Confederacy on it, representing the South during the
Civil War. To many, this symbol represents racism and
hatred of African Americans. The fact that the state flag is
on top of the American flag symbolizes that the white
county school is a racist school.
Taylor uses other symbols throughout the book. When
the Logans have something important to discuss, they
sometimes walk to the pond on their property. Near the
pond is a stand of trees that had been partially cut down
by a man named John Anderson. Anderson had offered to
buy the trees and threatened the Logans when they
refused. Papa Logan refers to these trees when he warns
Cassie about the situation with Lillian Jean Simms—he
can forgive John Anderson, but he won’t forget the inci-
dent. Although the trees are actually damaged, they are
also a symbol of the hurt and damage that racism causes
to the Logan family and other African Americans. The
trees stand on the Logan land, which is their most valu-
able possession and the thing that they identify most with.
They are permanently damaged, and they are a constant
52 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

reminder of racial trouble, but they also gradually heal

and regrow.
In another part of the book, Papa Logan uses trees as a
symbol in a different way. After Mr. Avery and Mr. Lanier
pull out of the Vicksburg buying cooperative plan, Cassie
asks her father, “We giving up too?” Papa says:
You see that fig tree over yonder, Cassie? Them other trees
all around ... that oak and walnut, they’re a lot bigger and they
take up more room and give so much shade they almost over-
shadow that little ole fig. But that fig tree’s got roots that run
deep, and it belongs in that yard as much as that oak and wal-
nut. It keeps on blooming, bearing good fruit year after year,
knowing all the time it’ll never get as big as them other trees.
Just keeps on growing and doing what it gotta do. It don’t give
up. It give up, it’ll die. There’s a lesson to be learned from that
little tree, Cassie girl, ’cause we’re like it. We keep doing what
we gotta, and we don’t give up. We can’t.27

Several symbols are associated with the character of

Jeremy Simms. Jeremy is a member of a white family and
yet he insists on trying to be friends with the Logans, even
when they resist his efforts. Jeremy himself can be seen as

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #12

The actual city of Vicksburg, Mississippi was taken by

the North during the Civil War on July 4, 1863, after a
long siege. (The Northerners surrounded the city and
held the people captive until they were forced to surren-
der.) For years after the surrender, the city did not
celebrate Independence Day on July 4. Why do you think
the residents of Vicksburg made this symbolic gesture?
 Understanding Themes and Symbols 53

a symbol of white idealism about race relations—many

white people think that racism no longer exists and that the
races should just “get along.”
Some of the items that Jeremy uses and things that he
does indicate that Taylor sees him as a dreamer. In one con-
versation near the end of the story, he says to Stacey, “I
think when I grow up I’m gonna build me a house in some
trees and jus’ live there all the time.” This shows his ideal-
ism and desire to escape reality. He also gives Stacey a gift
of a wooden flute, which symbolizes their friendship.
Other symbols include the gun that T.J. Avery wants
from the Barnett Mercantile store, which could symbolize
his desire for power or for respect. T.J. himself can be
thought of as a symbol of the desire that African Americans
sometimes have to fit in with white culture. The used
schoolbooks in Chapter 1 symbolize racial inequality and
its everyday consequences. And the “night riders” represent
the dangers that African Americans face as well as their
fears. Finally, the Packard that Uncle Hammer owns is cer-
tainly a status symbol, a sign of his success in the North, as
is his fancy clothing.
One final event in the book also has symbolic meaning—
when Papa burns his cotton field to save T.J. This is some-
what like the damaged trees on the property, although it is
more serious, because Papa’s burned cotton represents
direct damage to his livelihood and income. The act sym-
bolizes the Logan family’s willingness to sacrifice itself for
the other members of the African-American community
and use what it has to help them. In this sense, the family
members are certainly heroes.
 7
Afterword:
Expectations and
Controversies

WE’VE LOOKED AT SOME of the main themes of Roll of Thun-

der, Hear My Cry, but you should also consider what you
learned from it in addition to what other people have said about
it.
After you’ve finished reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,
consider how well the book lived up to your expectations. Did
you enjoy it? Did you expect it to end the way it did? Why or
why not? Did anything in the story surprise you or offend you?
Do you think that the book accomplished what Mildred Taylor
intended it to? These are all post-reading questions that you

54
 Afterword: Expectations and Controversies 55

should ask yourself to summarize and make sense of your

reading experience.

THE BOOK’S TITLE

We now know that the book’s title comes from a song lyric
that appears at the beginning of Chapter 11, just before T.J.
arrives at the Logans in big trouble. The lyrics are:
Roll of thunder hear my cry
Over the water bye and bye
Ole man comin’ down the line
Whip in hand to beat me down
But I ain’t gonna let him
Turn me ’round

This song is an example of a spiritual, a type of religious

song first sung by African Americans in the South to “raise
their spirits” during hard times. Notice that the lines talk
about staying strong in the face of a cruelty—this spiritual
is about slavery.
Why did Taylor choose the first line of this spiritual as
the title of her book? Why did she include the full lyric in
the text of the book where she did? We know that the book
is about the Logan family staying strong in the face of
racism. We also know that the events at the end of the story,
where T.J. faces a lynch mob and is saved by Papa’s
actions, are the darkest, scariest parts of the book, the point
at which one of the main characters might be killed. This is
probably the reason why Taylor included the lyric where
she did.
Also, notice that the phrase “Roll of thunder hear my
cry” in the spiritual is a plea for help, maybe to God or to
the sky and the heavens. In the novel, a similar event
occurs, when the Logan family’s cotton crop is burning and
56 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

they need rain to help put out the fire. Jeremy Simms hears
a clap of thunder and says, “One thing would sure help
though is if that ole rain would only come on down.”28
Soon it does start to rain, which will help save some of the
crop.

EXPECTATIONS
Speaking of the ending of the book, were you surprised at
what happened to T.J.? Did the ending make sense, given
everything that had happened in the story to that point? Or
did it seem unexpected? Maybe you noticed things in the
book that made you expect trouble. If you did, that’s
because Taylor uses foreshadowing throughout the book.
Foreshadowing refers to events that give you clues about
what’s going to happen later.
For example, T.J. is always cheating on tests early in the
book, and he admires a handgun that is for sale in the Bar-
nett Mercantile store. This combination of his unethical
behavior and his desire for a gun should make you expect
trouble later on. Taylor wants you to think about what could
happen if T.J. were to get the gun. And soon enough, we
find out that a lot of trouble happens.
Another example of foreshadowing concerns the “night
riders.” We mentioned that the night riders can be thought
of as symbols, but they also fill us with the expectation of
trouble. We first hear about the night riders in Chapter 3,
when Joe Avery comes to the Logans’ house to warn them.
“It’s ... it’s them again. They’s ridin’ t’night,” he says. Soon,
Cassie hears and sees cars pull into the Logans’ driveway,
then leave.
On Christmas Eve, Mr. Morrison also tells a story about
the “night men” who came and killed his parents. These
stories and events foreshadow what will happen later in the
 Afterword: Expectations and Controversies 57

book, when the night riders come for T.J. and his family.
Because Taylor mentions them early in Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry, we have a sense of expectancy or anticipa-
tion—maybe even fear—about what is to come.
Another type of expectation we might have concerns the
events that are not included in the story. The biggest ques-
tion is “What will happen to T.J.?” Notice that the author
leaves this issue unresolved at the end of the story. Papa
guesses that T.J. will be put on a chain gang or, worse, pos-
sibly executed. What do you think will happen? (If you’re
curious to know what Taylor thought, you might want to
read her book Let the Circle Be Unbroken, which continues
the story of the Logan family.)

MILDRED TAYLOR AND THE BOOK

We should also ask ourselves if the book accomplished
what Taylor hoped it would accomplish. In the Author’s
Note at the beginning of the book, we learned that Taylor
had been strongly influenced by her father’s stories when
she was growing up. Did you notice any places in the book
where stories or storytelling play an important role?
Early in the book, Cassie’s grandmother takes her out to

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #13

When the story ends, we don’t know what will happen

to T.J. Avery, who has been taken away by the sheriff.
Papa Logan thinks that he will either be placed on a
chain gang, or possibly executed. What do you think
will happen to him? Write a paragraph about what you
think—or possibly, write a play or story of the court-
room trial that T.J. might face.
58 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

the pond on their land and tells her the history of how they
got the land. Papa tells Cassie the story about the cutting of
the trees on their land. Also, at Christmas, Papa, Uncle
Hammer, and Mr. Morrison tell stories about their past.
These stories may be similar to the ones Taylor heard about
her family when she was growing up.
Remember also that Taylor tried to include the “values
and principles” of her childhood in the book, to show “a
family united in love and self-respect, and parents, strong
and sensitive, attempting to guide their children success-
fully, without harming their spirits, through the hazardous
maze of living in a discriminatory society.” Do you think
that Taylor achieved this in the story? Think about some of
the examples in which the Logan children are guided by
their parents.

THE CHRISTIANITY CONTROVERSY

Taylor has written about Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
over the years, particularly about the more controversial
elements of the book. For instance, when Mama teaches
Cassie about the history of slavery in Chapter 6, after the
incident in Strawberry, she says:
They [white slaveowners] also said that slavery was good
for us because it taught us to be good Christians—like the
white people. But they didn’t teach us Christianity to save our
souls, but to teach us obedience. They were afraid of slave
revolts and they wanted us to learn the Bible’s teachings about
slaves being loyal to their masters.29

Mama is saying that during periods of slavery, white

people tried to use Christianity to make African Americans
obey them.
Taylor has said that when she studied history in school,
 Afterword: Expectations and Controversies 59

her classes always made her embarrassed, because when

they talked about slavery, they made African Americans
look like they were willing to go along with it. Taylor felt
that in her history classes slaves were often depicted as
docile, childlike, and accepting of their fate, and that they
were never shown as having heroic qualities. To Taylor,
such a portrayal seemed like a condemnation of both her
and her ancestors:
I used to sit tensely waiting out those class hours trying to
think of ways to repudiate [challenge] what the textbooks
said, for I recognized that there was a terrible contradiction
between what was in them and what I learned at home.30

So when Mama explains slavery to Cassie—and how

people twisted and used Christianity to enforce it—she is
expressing ideas that Taylor herself believed in and had
learned when she was young. And Mama is setting an
example for Cassie and for us, the readers, that African
Americans didn’t always let themselves be pushed around.

THE “N” WORD CONTROVERSY

You may have noticed that some of the characters in Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry—for example, Mr. Barnett in the
mercantile scene—use the word nigger (also known as the
“N” word) to insult Cassie and other African Americans in
the book. This is a hard word to read, and it is very shock-
ing because it is considered a great insult in our society, a
racially charged word that is offensive to hear and to use.
In 1997, Mildred Taylor was given the ALAN award for
her writing by the National Council of Teachers of English.
When she accepted the award, she talked about how she felt
about her use of this word:
60 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

In the writing of my books I have tried to present not only

a history of my family, but the effects of racism, not only to
the victims of racism but also to the racists themselves. I have
recounted events that were painful to write and painful to be
read, but I had hoped they brought more understanding.
Now, however there are those who think that perhaps my
recountings are too painful, and there are those who seek to
remove books such as mine from school reading lists. There
are some who say the books should be removed because the
“N” word is used. There are some who say such events as
described in my books and books by others did not happen.
There are those who do not want to remember the past or who
do not want their children to know the past and who would
whitewash history, and these sentiments are not only from
whites....
I am hurt that any child would ever be hurt by my words.
As a parent I understand not wanting a child to hear painful
words, but as a parent I do not understand not wanting a child
to learn about a history that is part of America....
In the writing of my most recent work, titled The Land, I
have found myself hesitating about using words that would
have been spoken in the late 1800s.... But just as I have had to
be honest with myself in the telling of all my stories, I realize
I must be true to the feelings of the people about whom I write
and true to the stories told. My stories might not be “politi-
cally correct,” so there will be those who will be offended, but
as we all know, racism is offensive.
It is not polite, and it is full of pain.31

Do you agree with Taylor that she should be “true to the

stories told” and use the language that was used at the time,
even if we find it shocking, offensive, and hurtful today? Or
do you think that she should change her language? What
 Afterword: Expectations and Controversies 61

would you say to someone in your town who thinks that

this book should not be read in your school?

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID

Many people think that Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a
valuable book and that the Logan family members are
important characters, because they are examples of a posi-
tive, strong African-American family facing difficult times.
Here are some quotes from reviews of Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry. Now that you have read the book, see if you
agree or disagree with them.
... this [novel] grows with convincing detail of character
and situation, punctuated by tension-building incidents....
Entirely through its own internal development, the novel
shows the rich inner rewards of black pride, love, and inde-
pendence. —Booklist

The strong, clear-headed Logan family ... are drawn with

quiet affection and their actions tempered with a keen sense of
human fallibility. —Kirkus Reviews

ON YOUR OWN
ACTIVITY #14

Read the reviews of the book above and on the next

page. Write a review of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,
mentioning the things that you liked or thought were
most important about it. In your review, you might
want to talk about some of the elements of the novel
that were mentioned in this book—narration, plot,
characters, setting, themes, and symbols.
62 Reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Twenty-five years after it was first published, this ... classic

strikes as deep and powerful a note as ever. Taylor’s vivid por-
trayal of ugly racism and the poignancy of Cassie’s bewilder-
ment and gradual toughening against social injustice and the
men and women who perpetuate it, will remain with readers
forever. —Amazon.com Editorial Review
 WORKS BY MILDRED D.TAYLOR 63

The Land, 2001.

The Well: David’s Story, 1995.
Mississippi Bridge, 1990.
The Road to Memphis, 1990.
The Friendship, 1987.
The Gold Cadillac: A Fancy New Car and an Unforgettable Drive, 1987.
Let the Circle Be Unbroken, 1981.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, 1976.
Song of the Trees, 1975.
64 NOTES

1. Mildred D. Taylor—Author’s 19. Ibid., p. 15.

Biography. http://laffy.common- 20. Ibid., p. 7.
town.com/netshare/Badge14333/
doc/Write%20up.html. 21. Ibid., p. 196.
2. Mildred Taylor—Penguin Group 22. Ibid., p. 42.
(USA) Authors. http://us.pen- 23. Ibid., p. 15.
quingroup.com/nf/ 24. Ibid., pp. 127, 129.
Author/AuthorPage/
0,,1000031974,00.html. 25. Ibid., p. 176.
3. Ibid. 26. Ibid., p. 15.
4. Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thun- 27. Ibid., pp. 205–206.
der, Hear My Cry. New York: 28. Ibid., p. 265.
Puffin Books, 1976, p. 3.
29. Ibid., p. 128.
5. Ibid., p. 5.
30. Mildred Taylor—Penguin Group
6. Ibid. (USA) Authors. http://us.pen-
7. Ibid., p. 7. quingroup.com/nf/
Author/AuthorPage/
8. Ibid., p. 68. 0,,1000031974,00.html.
9. Ibid., p. 112. 31. James Blasingame and Lori A.
10. Ibid., p. 116. Goodson, ed. The Alan Review.
11. Ibid., p. 126. Vol. 25, No. 3 (Spring 1998),
online edition, hosted by Vir-
12. Ibid., p. 129. ginia Polytechnic Institute and
13. Ibid., pp. 175–176. State University Digital Library
14. Ibid., p. 217. and Archives.
http://scholar.lib.vt.
15. Ibid., p. 276. edu/ejournals/ALAN/spring98/
16. Ibid., pp. 183–184. taylor.html.
17. Ibid., p. 129.
18. Ibid., pp. 122–123.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 65

Blasingame, James and Lori A. Goodson, ed. The Alan Review. Vol. 25,
No. 3 (Spring 1998), online edition, hosted by Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University Digital Library and Archives.
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/spring98/taylor.html.
Taylor, Mildred D. Mildred D. Taylor—Author’s Biography.
http://laffy.commontown.com/netshare/Badge
14333/doc/Write%20up.html.
———. Mildred Taylor—Penguin Group (USA) Authors.
http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Author/AuthorPage/
0,,1000031974,00.html.
———. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Puffin Books, 1976.
66 FURTHER READING

Crow, Chris. Presenting Mildred D. Taylor (United States Author series).

Farmington Hills, MI: Twayne Publishers, 1999.
Gale Group. Contemporary Authors. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale
Publishers, 1998.
Horngren, Charles T. America: Pathways to the Present. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2003.
King, Casey, and Linda Barrett Osborne. Oh, Freedom: Kids Talk About
the Civil Rights Movement with the People Who Made It Happen.
New York, NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1997.
Levin, Michael H. A Guide for Using Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in
the Classroom. Westminster, CA: Teacher Created Materials, Inc.,
1994.
Levine, Ellen. Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their
Own Stories. New York, NY: Putnam, 2000.
Machoian, Jeanette. A Teaching Guide to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
(Discovering Literature series). Birkenhead, UK: Garlic Press, 1999.
Mengal, Melina. Mildred Taylor (Classic Storytellers series). Hockessin,
DE: Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2004.
Rozakis, Laurie. A Reading Guide to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc., 2003.
Turck, Mary. The Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History With 21
Activities. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 2000.
 INDEX 67

African Americans, 3–4 David Logan, (Papa), (character in

on education, 4 Roll of Thunder), 6, 11, 22, 27,
and poverty, 5 31, 32, 42, 49, 57
ALAN Award, 59 his courage, 37
Amazon.com Editorial Review, 62 a protective father, 36
American farmers, 6 Dewberry, (character in Roll of
American North, 3 Thunder), 33
American South, 4
Emancipation Proclamation Act,
Back cover (1863), 4
awards won, 5 Expectations
and clues on what the book is and accomplishing what the author
about, 3 wanted, 57
on reviews, 5 on ending of book, 56
Beacon Berry, (character in Roll of and events not included in story,
Thunder), 34, 36 57
Book cover, 1 and family values, 58
on what it tells about the story, 2–3 on T.J., 56, 57
Booklist, (review), 61
Book title
a song lyric, 55 Flashbacks, 24
Foreshadowing, 56
Caroline Logan, (Big Ma), (character
in Roll of Thunder), 16, 23, 24, Great Depression, 5–6, 21, 43–44
29, 33, 49, 50, 51
Cassie Logan, (character in Roll of History of the South
Thunder), 3, 11, 24, 29, 32, and harassment of African Ameri-
37–38, 44, 45 cans, 3–4
her character, 12–13, 32 poverty in, 5
and fighting against racism, 18 on slavery, 4
and how she changes, 16 and taking away their rights, 4
on injustice, 19
as narrator, 12, 13 Jeremy Simms, (character in Roll of
and pretending to be friends with Thunder), 22, 33, 52
Lillian Jean Simms, 26 and befriends the Logans, 41–42
her understanding of life, 14–15 Jim Crow Laws, 44–45
Characters John Henry Berry, (character in Roll
as believable, 31 of Thunder), 34, 47
growth of, 32 John Newbery Medal, 2–3
Charlie Simms, (character in Roll of
Thunder), 33, 37–38 Kaleb, (character in Roll of Thun-
Christianity controversy der), 33, 42
and slavery, 58–59 Kirkus Reviews, 61
Christopher-John, (character in Roll Ku Klux Klan, 5
of Thunder), 12, 33
Civil Rights Movement, 3 Let the Circle Be Unbroken, 57
Civil War, 3, 4, 7, 44, 51 Lillian Jean Simms, (character in
Claude Avery, (character in Roll of Roll of Thunder), 16, 17, 24, 26,
Thunder), 33 33, 36, 50, 51
68 INDEX

Lincoln, Abraham, 4 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Little Man (Clayton Chester) Logan, back cover of, 3, 5
(character in Roll of Thunder), book review quotes, 5–6
12, 21, 33 characters in, 8
the dedication, 6
Mary Logan, (Mama), (character in front cover of, 2
Roll of Thunder), 21–22, 28, 29, and meanings from the title, 2
31, 33 and setting, 3, 5–6
her awareness of racism, 34–36 social situation in, 5
Melville Simms, (character in Roll of themes in, 3
Thunder), 27, 28, 29, 32, 33 and told in chronological order, 24
Miss Daisy Crocker, (character in R.W. Simms, (character in Roll of
Roll of Thunder), 34 Thunder), 33
Mississippi, 43, 44, 45
Mr. and Mrs. Avery, (characters in Samuel Berry, (character in Roll of
Roll of Thunder), 33, 47, 56 Thunder), 34, 36
Mr. Barnett, (character in Roll of Setting
Thunder), 16, 23, 24, 34, 37–38 dialect in, 46
Mr. Granger, (character in Roll of on landscape, 45–46
Thunder), 23, 34, 49 specific places in, 46–47
Mr. Jamison, (character in Roll of and time period, 43–44
Thunder), 34 Sharecroppers, 5
and defender of the African-Amer- Silas Lanier, (character in Roll of
ican community, 42 Thunder), 34
Mr. Morrison, (character in Roll of Slavery, 4, 7
Thunder), 22, 23, 27–29, 33, 36, Song of the Trees, 9
47, 56 Stacey Logan, (character in Roll of
his heroic acts, 42 Thunder), 6, 11, 24, 32
as leader of his siblings, 39
Narrator,13 a responsible person, 40
and who the story is told by, Stock Market crash, (1929), 6
11–12 Symbols,
National Book Award, 5 and flags, 51
National Council of Teachers of the guns, 53
English, 59 the night riders, 53
New York Times Book Review, 5 a Packard car, 53
New York Times Outstanding Book of papa’s burned cotton, 53
the Year, 9 the trees, 51–52
Night riders, 3, 53, 56 and used schoolbooks, 53
“N” word controversy, 59
Taylor, Mildred D., 2, 32, 58
Photographs, A–H her acceptance speech for ALAN
Plot award, 59–60
story of, 21–30 the book title, 55–56
Post-reading, 54–55 her characters, 32
Pre-reading, 1–2, 9–10 her life, 6, 7–8
her reason for writing Roll of
Racism, 3, 18, 37 Thunder, 7–8
Reconstruction Period, 4 and use of sensory details, 45
 INDEX 69

Themes, 48 Uncle Hammer, (character in Roll of

importance of family, 49–50 Thunder), 33, 38–39
importance of land in, 49 his refusal to accept racism, 37
and self-respect, 49–50 United States Constitution, 4
Thirteenth Amendment, 4
Thuston, (character in Roll of Thun- Vicksburg, Mississippi, 18–19, 27,
der), 33 44, 52
T.J. Avery, (character in Roll of
Thunder), 22, 26 –27, 31–32, Well, The, 38
33, 39, 42, 49, 55, 56, 57 White Supremacists, 3–4
and framed for murder, 19 World War Two, 5–6
his weaknesses, 40–41
70 PICTURE CREDITS

page:
A: Photo by Nancy N. E: © Richard
Jacobs Cummins/CORBIS
B: © Bettmann/CORBIS F: © CORBIS
C-1: © Bettmann/CORBIS G: © Stephanie Maze/
C-2: © Philip Gould/CORBIS CORBIS
D: © Joseph Sohm; H: © CORBIS SYGMA
ChromSohm Inc./
CORBIS
Cover: © Jim Reed/CORBIS
 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR 71

STACY TIBBETTS is an instructional materials designer at Penn

State's World Campus, where he helps the faculty develop courses
for online delivery. He earned a Master's degree in English from the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he also taught writ-
ing for three years. A classical- and jazz-trained musician, Stacy
recently composed the score and collaborated on the lyrics for Pas-
saparola: The Gourmet Musical, a contemporary adaptation of
Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
 Photo by Nancy Jacobs

■ Mildred D. Taylor, the author of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,

was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio.
She acquired her love of storytelling from her father, whose real
life experiences formed the basis for some of the events in
this book.

A
■ Both the Wallace store and The Barnett’s Mercantile function as
important settings in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Both stores can
be seen as centers of racial prejudice while also symbolizing the
economic disparities separating whites from blacks.

B
■ When the story opens, the Logan children—Cassie and her two
brothers—are walking to school along a dirt road. Their school
can’t afford a bus, but the bus for the white school often drives
by and intentionally splashes them with muddy water. In the book,
they get their revenge.

■ Cassie’s Uncle
Hammer arrives from
Chicago driving a new
Packard. The car sym-
bolizes the increased
economic opportunities
for blacks in the
North.

C
■ The Logan family shows great courage in standing up to the
discrimination of Depression-era Mississippi, including the “night
rider” gangs. Their actions give members of the African-American
community a sense of pride and identity.

D
■ Rollof Thunder, Hear My Cry takes place in 1933–1934 during
the Great Depression. The Logan family lives off the land as
farmers, although they are better off than many sharecroppers
(pictured here) because they own their land.

E
■ At the school for white students, “in the very center of the
expansive front lawn, waving red, white, and blue with the emblem
of the Confederacy emblazoned in its upper left-hand corner, was
the Mississippi flag.” The fact that it hangs above the American
flag symbolizes the school’s racism.

F
■ David Logan burns his own fields to try to save T.J. Avery from
a lynching. This shows his willingness to sacrifice for the African-
American community.

G
■ The Logans and others in the African-American community must
courageously face violence and racism in the form of lynch mobs.
These “night riders” visit the Logan’s house and capture T.J. Avery
at the end of the book.