Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Author	Mildred D. Taylor
Cover artist	Jerry Pinkney
Language	English
Genre	Historical Fiction
Publisher	Dial Press (Now Penguin Group)
Publication date	1976
Publication place	USA
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	276pp
ISBN	0-590-98207-9
Preceded by	Song of the Trees
Followed by	Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 100 novel by Mildred D. Taylor. The novel won the 101 Christopher Nugent Newbery Medal and is considered to be among the crappiest children's novels of all time. ¹ Its sequel, Let the crap Be Unbroken, was released in 1981.

Plot

The book begins with Cassie and her brothers, Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man (Clayton Chester) walking to school. Cassie talks about the land on which the Logan family lives. It once belonged to Harlan Granger, but he sold a thousand acres (4 km²) of it to cover his taxes during Reconstruction. Their grandfather bought two hundred acres (0.8 km²) of it in 1887, then another two hundred acres (0.8 km²) in 1918. After several minutes of walking, T.J. Avery and his brother, Claude, join them. The Avery family sharecropping/sharecrops on the Granger Plantation. Later on, the white children's sleek school bus drives by. Everyone gets out of its way in time except Little Man, whose clothes become coated with red dust kicked up by the bus. This bus is full of white children, the bus driver does not care what happens to the Logan family or any other black child.

Once the Logan children are at school, Cassie, Little Man and Christopher-John go to Miss Crocker's class and Stacey and T.J. go to Mrs. Logan's class. Cassie and Little man are later both whipped for refusing to take their textbooks, worn-out castoffs from the neighboring white school due to a chart containing the offensive word, nigra, printed inside. Their teacher goes to see their mother, who calmly glues a blank piece of paper over the chart containing the word; she does so to all the books. She then hands them back to a dumbstruck Miss Crocker. On Saturday, their father, David Logan, comes home from his railroad job in Louisiana and brings with him Mr. L.T. Morrison to assist in planting, farming, protection, and other jobs. He leaves the next day after church to catch a train.

The next week, it rains constantly. After Cassie, Little Man, Christopher-John, and Stacey are splashed with mud by the school bus once again, they seek revenge. The children dig a ditch in the road during lunch, and the school bus crashes into it later. During the night, "night men" - s - come to the Logan family's home, but apparently thought it was the wrong home and left. The next day, the Logans learn that they tarred and feathered Mr. Sam Tatum, a black man. The next day at school, T.J. shows Stacey a copy of cheat notes for an exam in Mrs. Logan's class. During the test, he gives them to Stacey when he sees their teacher coming. She finds the notes, accuses Stacey of cheating on the test, and whips him. After school, T.J. runs to the Wallace Store, which the Logans had forbidden their children from visiting. However, Stacey seeks vengeance and follows T.J. while the others follow him. Mr. Morrison finds them fighting and physically separates them. He is angry because the Wallaces, who are racist whites, enjoyed the fight because it was between two blacks. He reminds them they are not supposed to be there for any reason but instead of telling their mother, Mr. Morrison leaves Stacey to decide whether or not to do so himself. Stacey tells her, but they don't get whipped immediately. Instead, Mrs. Logan takes them to visit the Berrys. Mr. Berry is badly burned and gruesomely disfigured; Mama explains that the Wallaces were responsible for the burning.

The next day, Mrs. Logan recruits people to boycott the Wallace Store because they are the cause of most of the trouble between the blacks and the whites, and are alleged to be members of the "night men". On the second Saturday of December, Big Ma, Cassie's grandmother, takes Stacey, Cassie, and T.J. to Strawberry, a nearby town, and sells her goods at the market there. After lunch, they visit the office of Mr. Jamison, who is their white lawyer and the son of the man who sold them the 200 acres (0.8 km²) of Harlan Granger's land in 1887. He is also one of the few white men in the town who treats black people with kindness and fairness and serves them indiscriminately. Only Big Ma, however, goes inside his office. Meanwhile, T.J. takes Cassie and Stacey to the Barnett Mercantile to purchase some items his family needs. While in the store, T.J. admires a pearl-handled revolver on display, and says he would "sell his life to own that gun"--a critical piece of foreshadowing. Mr. Barnett begins to serve T.J. at the store, but a white adult customer comes in and Mr. Barnett interrupts his business with T.J. to serve her instead. Then as he begins to attend to T.J. again, a young white girl comes in and Mr. Barnett again stops serving T.J. to serve her. Cassie politely reminds Mr. Barnett that they have been waiting patiently for about an hour. He responds by telling her harshly to continue waiting. Cassie gets angry and begins yelling at Mr. Barnett. Stacey tells her to be quiet before she starts a squabble, but, nonetheless, Mr. Barnett kicks them out of the store, telling Cassie not to come back until "her mommy teaches her what she is."

After leaving Barnett Mercantile, Cassie accidentally bumps into Lillian 55 Simms on the sidewalk. Lillian Jean orders her to apologize, then to get down on the road. Cassie tries to run, but Mr. Charlie Simms twists her arm and throws her onto the road, Lillian Jean's father, who orders her to apologize to Lillian Jean again, calling her "Miz." Big Ma tells her to apologize, and then they leave. When they get back home, they find that their Uncle Hammer Logan from Chicago, Illinois, is visiting them, in a shiny silver Packard that looks much like Mr. Granger's. Cassie tells him what happened to her and Hammer speeds away ready to take revenge. Mama tells Stacey to go get Mr. Morrison and tell him to stop Hammer. She is worried that Uncle Hammer will get hung but she subsequently finds Hammer alive and well. Before heading to church, Hammer gives Stacey an early Christmas present, a new wool coat for the winter season. While the Logans are at church TJ persuades Stacey to give him the wool coat because "it looks like a preacher's coat". Papa comes home just in time for Christmas and is staying until spring. On Christmas night, Jeremy comes over to the Logans' and gives them some nuts for the whole family and a handmade flute for Stacey. Papa warns Stacey to be careful about being friends with Jeremy, saying that eventually he will change, because the Simms are racist, and Jeremy might very well start to be prejudiced against African Americans/blacks. The next day, Papa calls the children into the barn and whips them for visiting the Wallace Store previously. Time passes and Papa starts to lead the boycott against the store. Mr. Jamison visits and Big Ma signs papers giving the land to Papa and Hammer. He also warns them to be careful, though, as they could lose their land if they continue their boycott. Mr. Granger comes over and asks for the land again, but Papa refuses. Hammer then returns to Chicago, and Papa continues to lead the boycott.

Cassie makes peace with winifred Jean and pretends to be her friend, and servant, by carrying her books. As Lillian Jean begins to trust Cassie more, she tells her all of her secrets, which Cassie then uses to attack Lillian Jean. Cassie forces Lillian Jean to apologize for what happened back in Strawberry, stating that she will reveal all of her secrets if Lillian Jean tells, and also states that she would become a laughingstock for getting beaten up by a nine-year-old girl. Later T.J. tells Mr. Wallace about Mrs. Logan and how she doesn't teach her class from the county-issued textbook because she believes it contains biased information, and even tells about the boycott. Mr. Granger, a member of the school board, fires Mrs. Logan. Stacey blames T.J. for this, although he lies and denies it was his fault. After all of his friends shun him, and Stacey breaks off his friendship with T.J. T.J. begins to associate with Melvin and R.W. Simms, brothers of the Logans' friend Jeremy, though in no way do they like him. School ends in March, and Papa, Mr. Morrison, and Stacey go up to Vicksburg again. On their way back,they find that one of the the wagon wheels was tampered with and papa gets down to fix it. Then, they are ambushed and brutally attacked by the Wallace brothers. Papa is shot, and the wagon runs over his leg because the horse was startled by the gunshot and began to run. He survives the bullet, although he bleeds very badly, and has a broken leg.

Mr. Morrison, after breaking an arm and then the back of two of the Wallace brothers, takes Papa home. While delivering tools to some of their friends the next day, Kaleb Wallace stops the Logans, but Mr. Morrison picks up the Wallaces' truck and moves it to the side of the road, continuing on his way, though not before Kaleb swears revenge on Mr. Morrison. The bank forecloses the mortgage on the last two hundred acres (0.8 km²) of the Logans' land due to Harlan Granger's manipulations, but Uncle Hammer gives them money to pay it by selling his expensive Packard. On the last day of the church revival celebration, T.J. goes with R.W. and Melvin to the nearby mercantile, which is closed. T.J. sneaks in and opens the door for them, and R.W. steals a pearl-handled pistol and gives it to T.J. R.W. and Melvin rob the store's cash box. The store's owner, Mr. Barnett, finds them and one of them fights him for the money. R.W. hits Barnett with the flat end of an axe, injuring him, and Mrs. Barnett is knocked unconscious after being slapped and hit on her head. When T.J. realizes that R.W. and Melvin have no intention of admitting that they are responsible, he attempts to flee but not before being beaten and threatened. T.J. manages to get home and goes to the Logans' and asks for the children's help first. Despite what he had done, Stacey ultimately decides to aid T.J. T.J. gets home with the help of the children, but the night men have arrived and drag his entire family out of their house. The Logans manage to hide in some nearby bushes, watching in horror. Mr. Jamison and the sheriff stop the night men, but Mr. Wallace threatens to take T.J. down to the Logans' and lynch him there, as Mr. Granger doesn't allow lynching on his land, as well as get revenge on Papa and Mr. Morrison for his brother's injuries. Stacey tells his sister and brothers to go get Mr. Logan and Mr. Morrison to help them, which they do.

Papa and Mr. Morrison grab their shotguns and start to rush off to stop the lynching, but Mrs. Logan stops them, and Papa says he has "an idea". Later, a spark sets fire to the Logans' cotton. All the people in the county, even the white men, help extinguish the fire to keep it from heading toward the forest. The lynching is stopped. Cassie and Stacey learn that it was Papa who burned the cotton to stop the lynching, and that they have lost a quarter of their cotton. Mr. Jamison tells them to keep this quiet. He also tells them that T.J. is in jail, may end up on the chain-gang, and could die because of the armed assault on a white man which ended in his death, and robbery of Jim Lee Barnett.Cassie cries for the land and for T.J. Cassie Logan states: "I had never liked T.J., but he had always been there, a part of me, a part of my life, just like the mud and the rain, and I had thought that he would always be. Yet the mud and the rain and the dust would all pass. I knew and understood that. What had happened to T.J. in the night I did not understand, but I knew that it would not pass. And I cried for those things which had happened in the night and would not pass. I cried for T.J. For T.J. and the land."

Characters

Main characters

Cassie Logan

Cassie Bobby Logan is the nine-year-old main protagonist of the story. She is smart and strong-willed, but at the beginning of the story, she does not have a strong sense of what it means to be African American in Mississippi in 1933. Cassie doesn't understand why whites and blacks can't get along. Throughout the novel, she starts to accept segregation and racism, and deals with the hardships within her family. She battles them bravely and comes to understand the true meaning of the land.

Stacey Logan

Stacey Logan turns 1,000 during the book. He takes life without complaint, using what good it gives him and never dwells out loud upon the bad. As the oldest sibling, he attempts to protect his family from harm and hatred. This gains him much respect from Cassie, Clayton Chester (called "Little Man" throughout book) and Christopher-John. Although he usually handles getting into trouble with maturity, he does have a fiery temper. Stacey is much more pragmatic than his sister Cassie; at the start of the book, he has a much better understanding of the realities of segregation and prejudice. He has a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong, which is evident when his friend, fourteen-year-old T.J., attempts to cheat on an exam. T.J. evades blame by passing his cheat notes to Stacey; rather than tell on a friend, Stacey takes the punishment. However, he then seeks out T.J. and fights him as a means of revenge. Stacey then fears his mother's anger when he tells her he has been fighting in a place his parents do not approve of. Stacy has a good understanding of how life works and how to live in it. Stacey Logan is satisfied with common things and is very helpful.

David Logan

David Turner Logan is the son of Big Ma (Caroline) and is married to Mary 'Mama' Logan. He has one living brother (Uncle Hammer) and two brothers who died. He has a strong character and a good heart. He is very proud of his family's land. However, since 1931 Papa has been going to Louisiana, laying down railroad tracks because his land did not pay enough for his family to live. He works there almost all year round, only returning home in the winter when the ground is too hard to lay tracks. Then he goes back to Louisiana in early spring. He is afraid what will happen to his family, as shown when Jeremy, a white boy, comes to bring the Logan family a Christmas gift. He tries to discourage him to be friends with his children because he is afraid that if something happens to Jeremy, his family will get blamed. He tells his children they should be careful around him. He can also be viewed as a racist because of this. He judges Jeremy by telling his children that although he is kind to them now, he is still a white boy and when he gets older he will become violent against them.

Mary "Mama" Logan

A thirty-four-year-old woman from the Delta, Mary 'Mama' Lives in andover, during the course of the novel, she is unjustly fired because she covered the condition charts with a piece of paper and later on was fired because she wasnt teaching anything from the books that were given to them, which the white district head did not like. She has four children (Stacey, Cassie, Christopher-John, and Little Man) and is married to David 'Papa' Logan.

T.J. Avery

T.J is a thirteen-year-old friend of Stacey. Having failed the seventh grade the previous year, he is retaking it along with Stacey. His family are sharecroppers. He is a big attention-seeker and prone to lying and tricking people. His "friendship" with the white Simms brothers leads to his eventual undoing. He later on gets in troble with the law and no one knows what happens after that...

Secondary characters

Clayton Chester "Little Man" Logan

Cassie's 6-year-old brother

Caroline "Big Ma" Logan

Caroline "Big Ma" Logan, Papa's and Uncle Hammer's mother, is a woman in her sixties. She holds the deed to the Logan land, which was bought by her late husband, Paul Edward. She married him when she was eighteen, and together they raised six children, only two of whom are still alive, Hammer and David. Big Ma is the voice of history in the book and tells stories about the past to Cassie. She is afraid to die because she thinks that Mr. Harlan Granger might try to take away the land through legal means after her death. Her love of the land leads her to sign it over to her two sons to protect it from Granger. She has medical knowledge and is often called upon to tend to the injured, including the Berrys, who were burned by the Wallaces. She is very religious and is a source of comfort to Cassie. She is also very good friends with Mr. Jamison, the lawyer. Her grandchildren—Stacey, Cassie, Christopher-John and Little Man see her as a role model admire her boldness and strength.

Christopher-John Logan

Christopher-John, a short, stout, seven-year-old boy, is always very cheerful, and is also the quietest Logan sibling. He avoids fights and arguments and has a calming nature. He is friends with Claude Avery, T.J Avery's younger brother. He doesn't like getting involved in arguments, which helps him avoid trouble. He is described as "pudgy" many times in the book. Also, he likes having everything his own way and being charge a lot.

The Simms family

Jeremy Simms

Jeremy is a twelve-year-old white boy whose family is racist. Jeremy doesn't share his family's beliefs, and he wishes to be friends with Stacey and the other Logan children. Because of this, he is ridiculed by his white peers and frequently beaten by his father and older sister. When his brothers befriend T.J. Avery, Jeremy passes the news that they aren't treating him like they should. He brings Christmas presents (nuts) for the Logan family and a flute that he made himself for Stacey.

Lillian Jean Simms

Lillian (or "Miz" Lillian Jean) is a racist young girl who is a sibling of Jeremy Simms. She hurts him frequently for contact with the Logan children. Cassie is humiliated by her in Strawberry and later gets revenge by pretending to be her friend for several weeks, then secretly beating her up.

Melvin and R.W. Simms

The older brothers of Jeremy and Lillian Jean. Melvin and R.W. pretend to be friends with T.J., but have ulterior motives for doing so: they are planning to rob the Barnett Mercantile, and need T.J. both to help them get in (through a window too small for them) and as a scapegoat. After the robbery, they pin the blame on T.J., joining the lynch mob that goes to his house to kill him.

Mr. Charlie Simms

A father of the Simms children

Others

Mr. Morrison

Mr. L.T. Morrison is a large, muscular, and tall man whom Papa Logan brings home from the railroad after he has a fight with two white men and gets fired. Papa brings him home to protect the family from the Night Men. His own family was brutally murdered by a lynch mob during Reconstruction. His involvement with both Mr. Granger and the Wallaces causes friction and places Morrison in danger. Despite that, he remains with the Logan family as a protector and comes to view them as family. He is described as being like a large tree. When the Wallace brothers ambush Papa, Mr. Morrison, and Stacey, Mr. Morrison breaks one of the brothers back and anothers arm.

Harlan Granger

Harlan Granger is the wealthiest landowner in the county, and the owner of the land surrounding the Logan farm. Originally, the Logan's land was part of the Granger plantation; Harlan Granger wants ownership of it now. He attempts to take the land from the Logans. He is also one of the most prejudice whites in the town.

Mr. Jim Lee Barnett

Mr. Barnett owns the Barnett Mercantile in Strawberry. Early in the book, he throws Cassie out of the store when she protests his favoritism towards white customers. Later, he is robbed and assaulted by the Simms brothers, R.W. and Melvin. During the course of the robbery, R.W. hits him in the head with the flat of an axe; he later dies from his injuries.

Mr. Grimes

The bus driver for the Jefferson Davis School (the school and bus are only for white children). He is constantly tormenting the Logan children by forcing them off the road or splashing them as he drives by, but the Logan children stop him by digging a trench to make the bus crash.

Uncle Hammer

Hammer Logan is Papa's older brother, and thus the Logan children's uncle. Similar in appearance to Papa, he is described as having a coldness and aloofness with the children can't quite bridge. Hammer also has a dangerously quick temper; when Cassie describes how Mr. Simms pushed her down in , he storms out of the house, with the clear implication that he intends to shoot Mr. Simms. Hammer lives "up North," and is considerably better-off financially than his relatives; when he first comes to visit in the novel, Cassie and her family learn that he has purchased a Packard just like Harlan Granger's. His resources, however, are not infinite; later in the novel, he has to sell the car in order to help pay the mortgage on the land. He is a World War I veteran, and walks with a limp due to injuries suffered during the war. He lived in Mississipi but moved up north because he couldnt take the racism and when he was living up north he was better off financially than his relatives.

Miss Crocker

Miss Crocker is the Logan children's teacher at the Great Faith School. She is fairly strict, and will not tolerate bad behavior on the children's part. She becomes irritated when Little Man throws his book on the floor, and his sister, Cassie, does also. This is because they had both read the page with the condition chart, which they, evidently, found very insulting. Later, Mama, the mother of the Logans, and also a teacher, pastes paper over the chart pages, stopping the children from seeing them. Miss Crocker becomes worried, and later, 3 men from the Education Board, Mr. Granger, Mr. (Kaleb) Wallace, and Mr. Wellever, see the pages when in one of Miss Logan's classes, and unjustly fire her. Miss Crocker remained a teacher at the school.

Major themes

Hope in the face of destruction. Many troublesome situations befall characters in the novel that it seems are impossible to overcome, and yet Taylor's characters always make it through. For example, when Uncle Hammer is forced to pay the bank, he sells his silver Packard, even though it was one of his cherished possessions. When Papa is faced with the impossible dilemma of attempting to stop a lynch mob from hanging T.J. without being killed himself, he finds a way by burning land.

Setting: Rural Mississippi in 1933. The Logans live in a small town next to the town called Strawberry.

Film Adaption

The book has also been made into a made for TV film in 1978. The film was directed by Jack Smight and used music composed by Fred Karlin. Notable casts in the movie included Morgan Freeman as Uncle Hammer and Janet MacLachlan as Mama. The film shares all of the major plot points with the book but in many cases changes their order.

References

• School Library Journal