Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Book Review #2

   This book is very interesting. Sisters in the Struggle 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”. 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 character to write about.

1 comment:

  1. This post demonstrates how to use CDs and CMs properly. The CDs are relevant and the CMs don't just explain what the quote means. Instead, you responded to the quotes. You may want to distinguish the themes of segregation against Africans and sexism.

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