This one fascinated me. Rosa Parks is a familiar figure, but Lizzie Jennings fought a similar fight and is not a household name. I appreciated this account of the battle to desegregate streetcars in the free northern states.

Note: I received an F&G at an ALA conference. ( )

Well told, and excellent information about the real events at the back of the book. ( )

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Jennings was born free in New York City in March 1827. Lizzie’s father was the first African American to be awarded a patent, for his method to clean clothes. Lizzie’s mother was active in a society founded by New York's elite black women to promote self-improvement through community activities, reading, and discussion. In 1837 she wrote a speech entitled "On the Improvement of the Mind," which she had ten-year-old Lizzie deliver to a society meeting. The speech discussed how the neglect of cultivating the mind would help keep blacks inferior to whites, both in perception and in fact.

Thus Lizzie grew up in an atmosphere that stressed equality and activism. In adulthood, Lizzy became a schoolteacher at New York’s African Free School, as well as the organist for her church.

The story by Anderson begins when Lizzie was 24, and late for church. She and her friend tried to board a streetcar that was for whites only. Anderson writes:

“She eyed empty seats. Despite being born a ‘free black’ in a ‘free state,’ she’d never been treated as equal. She’d been rejected, restricted, and refused by schools, restaurants, and theaters. Suddenly, late-for-church wasn’t as important as late-for-equality. Lizzie stood firm.”

The driver assisted by two other men grabbed Lizzie and threw her out into the street:

“But before the driver could snap the horses into action, Lizzie picked herself up and climbed back on the streetcar.”

Five blocks later, the driver hailed a police officer, who forced Lizzie off the car.

Word of Lizzie’s treatment spread throughout her neighborhood, and a meeting was held at her church. The attendees decided to form a committee and hire a lawyer. Her case was taken on by 24-year-old Chester A. Arthur, son of an abolitionist preacher and the future twenty-first president.

Seven months later, the case, Elizabeth Jennings v. The Third Avenue Railroad Company, was heard in court. Lizzie won her case, and the next day, the “Colored People Allowed in This Car” signs on the Third Avenue streetcars came down. Lizzie was awarded $225 in damages (comparable to over $6,500 today), and $22.50 in costs. The next day, the Third Avenue Railroad Company ordered its cars desegregated. New York's public transit was fully desegregated by 1861. Furthermore, the New York State Supreme Court, Brooklyn Circuit ruled that African Americans could not be excluded from transit provided they were “sober, well behaved, and free from disease.” The precedent was set. The author recounts:

“A few days after Lizzie’s victory, a woman fought for a seat on an Eighth Avenue streetcar. Then it happened again. And again. City after city. Decade after decade. For a century. Fighting for the right to ride. Men and women, young and old, stepped into streetcars, trains, and buses. Inspired by the strength of those who came before them.”

Elizabeth Jennings devoted her life to educating black children, opening the first kindergarten for them in 1895, which she operated until her death in 1901.

Back matter includes an Author’s Note with more background about Elizabeth Jennings, an extensive bibliography, and suggestions for further reading.

In the Afterword the author tells us that Elizabeth Jennings v. The Third Avenue Railroad Company was the first recorded case won in the fight for equal rights on public transportation. In the South, it took much longer for the rules to change. As many people know, it was 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and Martin Luther King, Jr. took up her cause.

In 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife Chirlane Irene McCray announced that New York City would build a statue near Grand Central Terminal honoring Lizzie.

Award-winning illustration E.B. Lewis employs powerful dappled watercolors in his signature style that blurs details in the background to make the important elements of the pictures more prominent.

An Educator Guide for this book directed to grades 2-5 can be found online here.

Evaluation: This woman’s bravery ought to inspire the intended audience (variously given as 5-8 or 7-10). It will be instructive for children to understand the many ways in which racism has always hurt black people in this country, whether during slavery or after it ended. The story will resonate even more now with the turmoil in the country. Children can benefit from contemplating the words of Michelle Obama, following the murder of George Floyd:

"Race and racism is a reality that so many of us grow up learning to just deal with. But if we ever hope to move past it, it can’t just be on people of color to deal with it. It’s up to all of us — Black, white, everyone — no matter how well-meaning we think we might be, to do the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it out. It starts with self-examination and listening to those whose lives are different from our own. It ends with justice, compassion, and empathy that manifests in our lives and on our streets. I pray we all have the strength for that journey, just as I pray for the souls and the families of those who were taken from us."

More explicitly, YIVO, the Institute for Jewish Research, issued this statement (in part):

". . . there are no bystanders in history. History does not just happen to the 'other.' Those who chose, in the bleakest moments of World War II, to simply watch as others were rounded up and murdered, as innocent people were humiliated and dehumanized, did not just watch. They enabled.

We must not become enablers. We stand together with every organization fighting for an anti-racist future." ( )