An account of the civil rights crusade in Mississippi 50 years ago that brought on shocking violence and the beginning of a new political order.

"In the summer of 1965, Sophie's family becomes the first African Americans to move into their upper middle-class neighborhood in Los Angeles. When riots erupt in nearby Watts, she learns that life and her own place in it are a lot more complicated than they had seemed"--

With love and determination befitting the "world's greatest family," twelve-year-old Deza Malone, her older brother Jimmie, and their parents endure tough times in Gary, Indiana, and later Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression.

Savannah Riddle feels suffocated by her life as the daughter of an upper class African American family in Washington, D.C., until she meets a working-class girl named Nella who introduces her to the suffragette and socialist movements and to her politically active cousin Lloyd.

"In January of 1963, Sharon Robinson turned thirteen the night before George Wallace declared on national television 'segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever' in his inauguration for governor of Alabama. That was the start of a year that would become one of the most pivotal years in the history of America. As the daughter of Jackie Robinson, Sharon had incredible access to some of the most important events of the era, including...

Introduces Rosa Parks, who made history by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person in 1950s Montgomery, Alabama.

Gabriel, twelve, gains new perspective when he becomes friends with Meriwether, a Black World War II hero who has recently returned to the unwelcoming Jim Crow South.

Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

The Gaither sisters return to Brooklyn, where they adapt to new feelings of independence while managing changes large and small, from Pa's new girlfriend to a very different Uncle Darnell's return from Vietnam.