Overall, this book was very interesting. Sisters in the Struggle by Bettye Collier-Thomas & V.P. Franklin, is a non-fiction novel based on the Civil Rights movement and what black women in particular did to contribute to it. It exposes what many inspirational, black female leaders had to go through in order to overcome segregation against blacks.
Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. The story is about how many doors, or rights, have been shut to blacks and how it is vital that we must open those doors. She also states,
“There are very many doors...shut against the Negro, but all of these are not barred. They may be opened with tact, skill, and persistence(pg.16).”
By this, Ms. Bethune is proposing that we must use nonviolence in order to get our rights. It just takes time and effort. I believe that because of this, she should be recognized in history just as much as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks. Ms. Bethune made a lot of sacrifices and began the present-day Bethune-Cookman College as an elementary school for blacks.
Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. But as this novel continues, the eleventh chapter focuses on Ruby Doris Smith Robinson in depth.
At first, Smith seems like a strict, fair, bold, encouraging leader from Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960s. But as the chapter continues, the point of view on her changes when she becomes administrator of the SNCC(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). According to her colleagues she was sexist.
“...admittedly the structure, the administrative structure on paper was men.”
I do not think Ms. Smith was sexist, the women probably did not step to take leadership roles in the group.
Back in the South in the 1960s, Ms. Smith being the administrator of the SNCC would be considered unusual because she’s a woman. But because this is the civil rights period, many of the members of this group were raised with powerful women in their families.
‘...Michael Simmons grew up with this reality, he was convinced that Ruby’s administrative position was actually a traditionally female job. Curtis Hayes agrees and insists that “she[Ruby] was a normal figure for me.”
This is surprising to me. I did not know that there were men back then who were used to having women in charge. That is a reason I like this book. It reveals many things about that period of time that many of us never knew about because they leave things like that out ion textbooks.
In conclusion, Ruby Smith was a very strong black woman who was not sexist and did not let anyone push her around. And that’s why I chose her as my second character to write about.
This author of this novel gives us a pretty clear purpose, to inform on what important black women did to contribute to the Civil Rights Movement and what they went through. But I believe the purpose is also to expose us to what really isn’t explained thoroughly in our text books. This novel really goes into depth and gives us personal experiences from the people who lived through this horrible period of time and I this is the strength of the book.
This book does have some weaknesses too. Mainly because this is a college-level book, it has lots of notes at the end of the chapters which I believes clutters the book. There are many challenging phrases and vocabulary that makes it hard for me to follow along with the book. Something else that adds to the book’s clutter is all of the statistics. In chapter two alone, there are countless amounts of concrete details and statistics. I believe this book is a little complicated for my reading level, but this will only make me stronger as a reader.
Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. The story is about how many doors, or rights, have been shut to blacks and how it is vital that we must open those doors. She also states,
“There are very many doors...shut against the Negro, but all of these are not barred. They may be opened with tact, skill, and persistence(pg.16).”
By this, Ms. Bethune is proposing that we must use nonviolence in order to get our rights. It just takes time and effort. I believe that because of this, she should be recognized in history just as much as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks. Ms. Bethune made a lot of sacrifices and began the present-day Bethune-Cookman College as an elementary school for blacks.
Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. But as this novel continues, the eleventh chapter focuses on Ruby Doris Smith Robinson in depth.
At first, Smith seems like a strict, fair, bold, encouraging leader from Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960s. But as the chapter continues, the point of view on her changes when she becomes administrator of the SNCC(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). According to her colleagues she was sexist.
“...admittedly the structure, the administrative structure on paper was men.”
I do not think Ms. Smith was sexist, the women probably did not step to take leadership roles in the group.
Back in the South in the 1960s, Ms. Smith being the administrator of the SNCC would be considered unusual because she’s a woman. But because this is the civil rights period, many of the members of this group were raised with powerful women in their families.
‘...Michael Simmons grew up with this reality, he was convinced that Ruby’s administrative position was actually a traditionally female job. Curtis Hayes agrees and insists that “she[Ruby] was a normal figure for me.”
This is surprising to me. I did not know that there were men back then who were used to having women in charge. That is a reason I like this book. It reveals many things about that period of time that many of us never knew about because they leave things like that out ion textbooks.
In conclusion, Ruby Smith was a very strong black woman who was not sexist and did not let anyone push her around. And that’s why I chose her as my second character to write about.
This author of this novel gives us a pretty clear purpose, to inform on what important black women did to contribute to the Civil Rights Movement and what they went through. But I believe the purpose is also to expose us to what really isn’t explained thoroughly in our text books. This novel really goes into depth and gives us personal experiences from the people who lived through this horrible period of time and I this is the strength of the book.
This book does have some weaknesses too. Mainly because this is a college-level book, it has lots of notes at the end of the chapters which I believes clutters the book. There are many challenging phrases and vocabulary that makes it hard for me to follow along with the book. Something else that adds to the book’s clutter is all of the statistics. In chapter two alone, there are countless amounts of concrete details and statistics. I believe this book is a little complicated for my reading level, but this will only make me stronger as a reader.
