Description
Denise’s memoir: A true, eye-witness and personal account of what it was like as a child growing up during both segregation and integration in the South during the Civil Rights Movement. Denise Cherry and her two brothers, moved from Washington, DC in 1960 to live in a very segregated section of the United States. On the first day of school integration in Greene County, North Carolina, Denise, a 6th grader, noticed a pick-up truck behind the school bus. She would be the first Black student to ever step foot on that bus. The pick-up truck was full of members of the Klu Klux Klan sitting in the back holding their rifles. She walked faster to the awaiting bus, only to find white kids her own age, fearfully clinging to one another, trembling and terrified of the unknown. Whites did not want to integrate their schools, and the federal government was forcing them to integrate. Fears grew. How would they all get along? Denise learned that some amazing heroes could be found in challenging places. This memoir was written to help provide children with a better understanding of how things are different now.
