Into White

 Pink, Randi. Into White. 2016. 288p. ISBN 9781250070210.

LaToya is not comfortable in her skin. Instead of being Black, she wishes she were White. The people in Birmingham, Alabama, are so much nicer, and life is so much easier if you are White. One night, she makes the wish to be White, and when she wakes up the next morning her wish has been granted. Her family doesn't notice a difference, but everyone else sees her as White.

As White, LaToya suddenly finds herself propulsed up the social hierarchy at her mostly White high school. She ranked so low as a Black girl that even other Black people disrespected her. But now that she is White, she gets more attention and more respect. However, LaToya suddenly realizes that not everything is as rosy as she thought it were. She's still at risk from sexual predators. Her rapid climb up the social ladder is more driven by her newness (she claims to be a transfer student) than the fact that she is White. And the people who loved LaToya are really missing her. In the end, LaToya must decide whether to be true to herself, or become something new and different from everything she has known before.

Dealing with the hard topic of race relations with humor and mirth, Into White explores several sensitive issues and provides one answer to "what if" questions. Readers interested in discovering more about how such changes would affect them will enjoy LaToya's struggles.

Powell v. Alabama: The Scottsboro Boys and American Justice

 Horne, Gerald. Powell v. Alabama: The Scottsboro Boys and American Justice. 1997. 128p. ISBN 978-0-531-11314-0. Available at 345.73 HOR on the library shelves.

In 1931, nine African American youths were removed from a train in Alabama and accused of raping two white women. They were promptly arraigned, tried, and sentenced to death in the face of a hostile crowd and jury of all white men. In the rush to achieve what they saw as justice, however, a racist society's representatives committed several errors of law, which were twice appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, creating landmark rulings that still affect us today.

In Powell v. Alabama, the author reviews the trial cases that led to the condemnation of the boys. Their arrest, the trial, and the various appeals are described extensively. Prior to the Supreme Court decision in Powell v. Alabama, the right to a fair trial and independent and competent counsel varied widely from State to State and even from person to person. A White person brought up on capital punishment charges stood a better chance in a court of law than a Black person. They likely had better representation and did not have to fight organized and systemic racism.

Powell v. Alabama resulted in a decision that all criminal suspects had the right to counsel under the 6th Amendment. Horne describes how this was not a foregone conclusion, as this right did not exist in England before the American Revolution. Supreme Court justices, however, recognized the necessity for a fair and impartial justice system to provide the foundation of a democratic society. 

The second case that made it to the Supreme Court out of the Scottsboro Boys trial was Norris v. Alabama, which recognized that juries needed to include African Americans and other people to better represent society.

For more specific information about the Scottsboro Boys, read Accused! The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys: Lies, Prejudice, and the Fourteenth Amendment. Accused! The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys: Lies, Prejudice, and the Fourteenth Amendment.

Accused! The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys: Lies, Prejudice, and the Fourteenth Amendment.

 Brimner, Larry Dane. Accused! The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys: Lies, Prejudice, and the Fourteenth Amendment. 2019. 189p. ISBN 978-1-62979-775-5. Available at 345.761 BRI on the library shelves.

The Great Depression that started in 1929 affected everyone in the United States and most around the world. For years afterwards, the economic conditions remained dire for many. People known as hobos traveled from place to place, looking for work anywhere they could find it. At the same time, race relations in the South were tense, following decades of Jim Crow oppression. African Americans in the South thus had an even harder time to survive.

In 1931, nine male African American teenagers boarded a train. Finding one of the wagons filled with White hobos. Outnumbering the hobos already there, they forced the White hobos to jump out of the train as it was traveling at a relatively low speed. But as the train's speed increased, three White hobos were not able to jump.

Some of the youths who were forced off complained to the local police. Sheriff units were deployed further down the track near Scottsboro, and when the train arrived the twelve passengers were arrested. Two of the White folks turned out to be women, and soon they alleged that the nine African American teens had raped them during the trip. These accusations stirred the anger of White Alabamians, who demanded swift justice for their womenfolk and as a message to their African American neighbors to stay in their assigned stations and not create social unrest.

Over the course of the following eight years, those who became known as the Scottsboro Boys went to court several times. Unable to get fair and impartial trials, they were condemned to death, only to have these condemnations reversed on appeal. The cases went all the way to the Supreme Court, with Patterson v. Alabama, Norris v. Alabama and Powell v. Alabama all created case law with consitutional questions such as equal protection, participation of African Americans on juries, impartial judging. 

During those years, the teens grew up and endured oppressive and inhuman prison conditions. They were beaten and threatened with death several times by being found guilty by a very racist justice system. Accuses presents the case that the 9 boys were set up by a racist judge and prosecutor who wished to send a strong signal to the African Americans to stay in their place. For eight years the boys kept hope, however, and eventually all of them were released, most without charges or compensation. Fans of social justice will appreciate this violent history but will note that there is still much work left to be done to achieve racial harmony in the United States.

Wonderland

O’Connor, Barbara. Wonderland. 2018. 282p. ISBN 978-0-374-31060-8. Available at FIC OCO on the library shelves.

Mavis would love to have one best friend. She and her mother has been moving from place to place so often that they don’t even bother to unpack. Her mother is always looking for the next opportunity, and usually it never works out. When they move to Landry, Alabama, so that her mother can become a housekeeper to the Tullys and live in an apartment above their garage, Mavis is once again expecting another move in short order.

Rose Tully is the complete opposite of Mavis. Where Mavis is bold and decisive, Rose flies below the radar and avoids confrontations. She’s never had a best friend either, and she is keenly aware that the other girls in the neighborhood either ignore her or are downright mean. Her only real friend is Mr. Duffy, who mans the checkpoint to their gated community. But Mr. Duffy hasn’t been the same since his dog died, and even Rose can tell that he’s lost the will to live.

Henry is a race dog whose better days are behind him. Not wanting to be confined, Henry escapes from the race track and lives in the woods behind Rose and Mavis’ neighborhood. He’s attracted to kids, but he is worried they mean him harm.

Thrown together, Mavis and Rose suddenly discover that it is possible to become best friends with someone, especially when they share the mission to help Mr. Duffy regain a taste for life by finding him another dog. Challenges and misunderstandings abound, but friendship is stronger and can overcome loneliness.