Mississippi Bridge

Mildred D. Taylor's "Mississippi Bridge" is a well written, thought provoking book about racial injustice. written from a white boy's point of view, it makes us think about some things we all too often ignore . This is a very important book that teaches students about when blacks did not have free rights. I would defiantly recomend everyone to read this book because learning about the depresstion in the south is very important. ( )

RGG: Short story narrated by Jeremy Simms (using heavy vernacular). Interactions at the Wallace's store show the evilness of the racism of the Jim Crow South. The violent ending when the Whites' mistreatment of Blacks results in the fateful deaths of White people may be difficult for some students.

RGG: Short story narrated by Jeremy Simms (using heavy vernacular). Interactions at the Wallace's store show the evilness of the racism of the Jim Crow South. The violent ending when the Whites' mistreatment of Blacks results in the fateful deaths of White people may be difficult for some students.

Mildred Taylor wanted to show people the injustice that African Americans faced during the days of the Great Depression. The story is told from the eyes of Jeremy, a young white boy, whose father runs the local store. Jeremy sees how his father mistreats these people when they are in his store and doesn't understand his negative attitude towards them. He wants to be friends with them, and wants them to be treated like the white people. But he doesn't only get to see his father's negative attitude, he sees how the black community deals with this as well. While some just go on about their business ans accept it, others fight and are angry about it. The story ends with one of the most mistreated black men in the story performing a very heroic act for the white people.
I thought this book was difficult to read. The dialect that was used made it hard to speed read through it. When it came to the end, I felt it summed it up too quickly and then the story just stopped. I know you can make your own assumptions, but it still didn't have the flow it needed to lead you to an ending. I would not recommend this book to be read again.
If I had to use this book in my room, I would use it when discussing Civil Rights and the injustice that was experienced by so many people. You can also use it to show children not to group people together based solely on their race. Just because the members of a race feel a certain way does not mean they all do. ( )

Taylor states she got the idea for this short story from a story her father told of an event from his own childhood. 1930s-segregated south at the Mississippi River. Casual small town racism as seen through the eyes of a 10 year old white boy--a child afraid of and bullied by his own father--Taylor tells the facts mostly, without editorializing. She does not say how the young black girl felt being told she could not try on a hat in the store or why the black townsfolk spoke easily to each other but clammed up when the little white boy started hanging around. She leaves it to us to decide what to think. A well written and powerful short story. ( )