A Thousand Never Evers
Page 23
For their specific advice on this book and for the heroic work they do every day, many thanks to: Jan Darsa at Facing History and Ourselves; Clarence Hunter at the Tougaloo Civil Rights Collection; Minnie White Watson at the Medgar Evers House & Museum; and Penny Weaver at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Also to Fred Belinsky of the Village Hat Shop in San Diego, who informed me that despite the controversy, it was okay to wear a hat to tea in 1963; Sister Cat, who taught me how to cast a spell; Karen Dufresne of the Lone Star Dutch Oven Society, who told me I’d never eaten a biscuit till I’d eaten one cooked in a Dutch oven; and Laila Haidarali, who wrote a fascinating paper on the history of African American modeling called “Polishing Brown Diamonds.”
I started writing this book when I was a sixth-grade teacher in Brookline, Massachusetts. Many thanks to my students who taught me a barrel and a heap about writing for young readers and critiqued the earliest drafts: Alison Aird, Ivy Anderson, Dante Castro, Sakeenah Chapman, Genevieve Chow, Shana Crandell, Celine Della Ventura, Aaron Fienberg, Sophie Kaner, Caroline Lew, Gregory Lew, Adrianna Reca, Samantha Schwartz, Rita Surkis, Anna Swartz, and Phuong Tran. And to the Brookline Education Foundation, which gave me a grant when I was teaching so I could write through the summer.
A huge thank-you to all the writers, teachers, librarians, friends, and family members who nurtured this story in one way or another, including: Stephen Altier, Jeff Amshalem, Geri Belle, Jamie Berg, David Burg, Sylvia Burg, Amy Cohn, Aaron Darsa, Melody Dawson, Mark Dubnoff, Norman Finkelstein, Louise Hawes, Phyllis Karas, Daniele Levine, Mary Beth Lundgren, Carolyn Miller, Joanie Nusbaum, Rebecca Resheff, Rich Rosenthal, Yonina Rosenthal, Lynn Sygiel, David Tal, Gabriella Tal, and Sandra Wright. And to all the skilled reference librarians who staff the Ask a Librarian desk at the Austin Public Library.
Of course, there were many books that provided critical information. Dog my cats if I didn’t carry around these two gems for years: Whistlin’ Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions, by Robert Hendrickson, and Month-by-Month Gardening in Mississippi, by Bob Polomski. Also Coming of Age in Mississippi, an autobiography by Anne Moody; A Dream of Freedom, by Diane McWhorter; and Remembering Jim Crow, a collection of oral histories edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad.
With great love and appreciation for my mom, Sondra Burg, whose endless encouragement and advice made this project possible. My sister, Rachel Belin, who read the manuscript with a history teacher’s eye. My beloved Gramcracker for telling me to call Addie Ann’s hometown something interesting “like Kuckachoo.” My childhood cat, Sunshine. My son, Rafi, who brings so much joy. And most of all to my husband, Oren, for his sweet love and great ideas about life in Thunder Creek County.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shana Burg’s debut novel, A Thousand Never Evers, was inspired by her father’s role as a lawyer in the civil rights movement. Shana grew up hearing her parents recount riveting tales of the grassroots struggle to end racial discrimination.
From training in public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, to her work with a Mississippi community nutrition project, to her job teaching sixth grade in a racially diverse public school, to her volunteer assignments in Africa and Central America, Shana has continued to explore the modern legacy of the civil rights movement.
To write A Thousand Never Evers, she conducted scores of interviews, read old newspapers and magazines, listened to oral histories and the blues, memorized endless gardening facts, hired her former middle school students to edit her manuscript, and baked butter bean cookies.
Shana lives with her family in Austin, Texas.
Published by Delacorte Press
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2008 by Shana Burg
Frontis photograph copyright © Lance Nelson/Corbis
All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burg, Shana.
A thousand never evers / Shana Burg.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: As the civil rights movement in the South gains momentum in 1963—and violence against African Americans intensifies—the black residents, including seventh-grader Addie Ann Pickett, in the small town of Kuckachoo, Mississippi, begin their own courageous struggle for racial justice.
1. Civil rights movements—Southern States—History—20th century—Juvenile fiction. [1. Civil rights movements—Fiction. 2. Race relations—Fiction. 3. African Americans—Fiction. 4. Mississippi—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B916259Th 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2007028226
eISBN: 978-0-375-84893-3
v3.0