Take a Seat - Make a Stand by Amy Nathan (2006)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Nathan is an award-winning American writer who majored in history at Harvard.

 

She is the author of several books for young readers, including the following:

 

Count on us:

American Women in the Military

(2004)

 

Yankee Doodle Gals:

Women Pilots of World War II

(2001) (2013)

 

Her book about Sarah Louise Keys Evans and her role in the US civil rights movement was published in 2006.

 

Sarah Louise Keys is an African-American woman, who was born in 1929. The story of her role in the civil rights moment begins in 1952. In that year she was a young woman and a member of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC).

 

Travelling on an interstate bus from her military base to her home in North Carolina, she refused to give up her seat for a white person and move to the back of the bus.

 

In other words: she did what Rosa Parks did in Montgomery, Alabama, but she did it three years before Rosa Parks.

 

Today Rosa Parks is a household name in the history of the US, while Sarah Louise Keys is not a well-known name. Evans is her married name. She added Evans to her name in 1958 when she married George Evans.

 

This book is the story of the role she played in the civil rights movement.

 

In a note at the end of the book, the author explains how she first came across the name Sarah Louise Keys Evans and how the book about her was eventually created:

 

“I first learned of Sarah Keys Evans in 2001 when I was working on my book for young people on the history of women in the military – Count on us – and I was doing research at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.

 

“I noticed a small exhibit that described the role Mrs. Evans played in the Civil Rights Movement. I was surprised that I had never heard of her, even though I had been a history major in college and had read a great deal about the Civil Rights era.”

 

She was determined to find out more. The historian at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation put her in touch with Sarah Louise, who was prepared to meet with her. Amy met Sarah in order to learn about her story. Later, Amy also met with other members of Sarah’s family.

 

She discovered that Sarah’s niece, Krystal Hargrave, had first learned of her Aunt Sarah’s contribution to civil rights history when Krystal had asked her grandmother for suggestions for a school project on heroes, and the grandmother had told her about Aunt Sarah. Amy thought this would be a good way to frame a book for kids on this topic; to tell the story though Krystal’s experience.

 

This book is based on several conversations with Sarah and members of her family plus a selection of books and articles about the civil rights movement in the US.

 

It is an easy read, a quick read, and a good read, because the book is well-written and well-organized.

 

Clearly, the people behind this book paid attention to every aspect of the product; not only the text and the illustrations, but also the layout.

The main text is divided into eight chapters during which we follow Krystal as she learns the story about her aunt and the role she played in the civil rights movement.

 

Step by step, Krystal finds out that she has a hero in her family and that she can use the story of her aunt when she has to do the school project about a hero.

 

Here is the table of contents:

 

# 1. A Hero in the Family

# 2. Growing Up

# 3. Taking a Seat

# 4. Big Trouble

# 5. Making a Stand

# 6. Testifying

# 7. Making a Difference

# 8. “Never Give Up”

 

At the end of the book there is an epilogue with the note from the author and a brief historical overview of the period covered in this account. 

 

There is also a page with references to books, articles and websites with more information about the topic.

 

The book is illustrated by several photos of Sarah and members of her family. All illustrations in the book are in black-and-white, but on the front cover there is a recent colour photo which shows Sarah and Krystal standing together on front of a house.

 

THE CASE OF SARAH LOUISE KEYS

When Sarah refused to give up her seat on the bus in August 1952, the driver made a strange decision: he told everybody else to leave the bus and to get on another bus instead. But Sarah was not allowed on the second bus. 

 

The driver had called the police, and she was arrested by three white police officers who drove her to the police station and put her in jail.

 

The next day she was told to pay a fine of 25 dollars. Back in 1952, this was a lot of money.

 

Fortunately, she had enough to pay the fine and after this they let her go.

 

When she finally reached her home, she told her family what had happened to her. Her father, David A. Keys, Sr., was angry, not with Sarah, but with the driver and the police.

 

He knew his daughter had not done anything wrong. In 1946, the US Supreme Court had ruled that segregation on interstate buses was illegal. He knew about the ruling and he had told Sarah about it before she left home.

 

In 1952, Sarah was a member of the US Army. One brother David Keys, Jr., was in the army. Another brother Jim Keys was in the Air Force. Both brothers were fighting with the international UN force in Korea. Telling Sarah to give up her seat on the bus was an insult to her and her family.

 

Father and daughter went into action. At first, they went back to the small town where it all happened: Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. They wanted the police officers to admit that they had been wrong when they arrested Sarah, but they refused to do this.

 

David and Sarah met with a local lawyer who tried to help them, but he could not get the police officers to change their mind, either.

 

Sarah’s father did not give up. He contacted another lawyer who might know more about how to handle a case like this, a young African-American women named Dovey Roundtree, who had just set up her own law firm with another black lawyer, Julius Robertson.

 

Roundtree and Robertson took Sarah’s case to an institution called the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which was responsible for interstate traffic at that time. The ICC hearing took place in May 1954. They did not have to wait long for a ruling. 

 

The ICC turned her down!

 

She lost!

 

But Dovey Roundtree did not accept defeat. She discovered that there were eleven members of the ICC, but only one of them had made the ruling in Sarah’s case. Clearly, this was not fair. She moved for a full hearing with all eleven members of the commission, and her plea was accepted.

 

On 25 November 1955, the ruling was announced, and this time she won. A majority of the members of the commission agreed that the bus driver had no right to ask Sarah to give up her seat and the police had no right to arrest her for refusing to give up her seat. She had been right all along and they had been wrong.

 

Only a few days later, on 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a local bus in Birmingham, Alabama. This episode was the spark which ignited the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 381 days, from 5 December 1955 to 20 December 1956.

 

Rosa Parks played an important role in the civil rights movement, but she was not the first African-American who refused to give up her seat for a white person. 

 

There had been others before her, but their names are not so well-known. One of them is Sarah, whose case is covered in this book. 

 

Another is Irene Morgan who refused to give up her seat in 1944. Two years later the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of her.

 

A third is Homer A. Plessy who refused to leave an all-white carriage on a Louisiana train in 1892. Four years later (1896) the US Supreme Court ruled against him. 

 

The court said it was OK to have “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites.

 

The cases of Irene Morgan and Homer Plessy are mentioned by Nathan on page 73.

 

Here are a few more cases of this type (which are not mentioned by Nathan):

 

** Ida B. Wells refused to give up her seat in 1884

** Bayard Rustin refused to give up his seat in 1942

** Jo Ann Robinson refused to give up her seat in 1949

** Claudette Calvin refused to give up her seat in March 1955 (this was almost nine months before Rosa Parks did the same thing)

 

SHORT AND TO THE POINT

Some books are very long. This one is not. I am amazed to see how much relevant information and how many important details the author is able to present in just 80 pages. This is a fine accomplishment indeed.

 

This book was written for young readers, but you should not let this fact scare you away. It is also suited for adults.

 

W. H. McDonald, Jr., has posted a positive review of the book on the website of American Author’s Association. 

 

McDonald says:

 

“I had never heard this women’s story before…, but this book opened that as new history to me. I think this book will educate many people about who some of our unsung heroes of the civil rights battles were. I am sure that there must be many more whom history has no long-term memory of. If this book inspires young people to go and look for more ‘heroes’ that would be a most wonderful gift indeed.”

 

He ends his review with the following message:

 

“This book is highly recommended for children from age of 10 and up including adults like myself who enjoyed reading it.”

 

TWO MINOR FLAWS

Amy Nathan is an experienced author. As far as I can see, she is very careful when it comes to the details. But I have to mention two minor flaws. There are two cases where something is not quite right:

 

# 1. The first instance concerns a passage in chapter 8. On page 64, Krystal’s family talks about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Krystal’s father is quoted as saying: 

 

“After those protests down in Alabama, the US Supreme Court said bus companies couldn’t make blacks sit in the back of the bus on local trips either.”

 

The Montgomery Bus Boycott is also mentioned in the epilogue (on page 74) when the author says: 

 

“The US Supreme Court soon ruled in their favour.”

 

The US Supreme Court issued a ruling on local buses in 1956, but the ruling was not connected with Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was about another case.

 

In June 1956, the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ruled in a case known as Browder v. Gayle, which was brought by five African-Americans against the city of Montgomery (Gayle was the mayor of Montgomery at the time).

 

One of the five plaintiffs withdrew before the case reached the court because of intimidation from the white community. When the case reached the court, there were only four plaintiffs left. 

 

One of them was Claudette Colvin, who had refused to give up her seat on 2 March 1955, almost nine months before Rosa Parks did the same thing.

 

In June 1956, the US District court ruled that racial segregation on buses was against the constitution.

 

In November 1956, this ruling was confirmed by the US Supreme Court.

 

The case of Browder v. Gayle is not mentioned in Amy Nathan’s book.

 

# 2. The second instance concerns a passage in the epilogue on page 73 where Nathan says:

 

“A big step forward came in 1946 when a women named Irene Morgan protested all the way to the US Supreme Court about her arrest in Virginia for not sitting in the back of an interstate (state-to-state) bus.”

 

As mentioned earlier, Irene Morgan refused to give up her seat in 1944. Her case went all the way to the US Supreme Court which ruled in her favour in 1946.

 

But when we read the text, we get the impression that the whole case (the protest as well as the court ruling) took place in 1946. This is not correct. As Nathan says elsewhere, court cases often take a long time.

 

CONCLUSION

I like this book. As stated above, it is a good read. I mention the minor flaws, because they deserve to be mentioned, for the record, but they will not affect my overall rating of the product.

 

This book is highly recommended. For young readers as well as adults who still feel young. If you are interested in the history of the modern world - in particular the question of human rights - this book is definitely something for you.

 

REFERENCES

 

# 1. Books

 

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks 

by Jeanne Theoharis 

(2013) (2014)

 

Claudette Colvin: 

Twice Toward Justice 

by Phillip Hoose 

(2009) (2011)

 

The Montgomery Bus Boycott and 

the Women who started it

edited by David Garrow 

(1987)

 

Justice Older than the Law: 

The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree 

by Katie McCabe 

(2009) (2011)

 

Mighty Justice: 

My Life in Civil Rights 

by Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe 

(2019)

 

The Untold Story of Sarah Keys Evans: 

Civil Rights Soldier 

by Artika R. Tyner 

(2023) 

(this slim volume is written for young readers)

 

# 2. Videos

 

If you go to YouTube and enter the name Sarah Louise Keys Evans, you will find several short videos.

 

*****

 

Take a Seat -

Make a Stand:

A Hero in the Family

By Amy Nathan

(2006)

 

*****

 

Sarah Louise Keys Evans

(Born 1929)

 

***** 

In August 2020, a historical monument was

unveiled in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina

The purpose of this historical monument is 

to remember the case of

Sarah Louise Keys Evans

 

*****

Historical Marker

Closing the Circle

The story of

Sarah Louis Keys Evans

 

*****