Dear America

Has anyone ever read the book: Dear America Color Me Dark?

I have a book report due tomorrow and I know nothing about it!!!! Can anyone tell me a hole bunch of important facts about it please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I just read that book like a few months ago cause I was bored and my niece had it.

Okay the book is about Nellie Lee, who lives in Tennessee, with her sister, mother and father. Her grandparents stay near by with an uncle. One day her uncle Pace comes home and they are all anxious to see him but he never shows. Later that night, he is found beaten nearly to death on the railroad tracks. As her father goes in search of the town doctor, the uncle dies. Before he died he whispered something to Emma Jean (Nellie’s sister), what ever it was Emma Jean goes mute. She stops talking. Soon after, they talk to the sheriff and try to tell the sheriff that Uncle Pace was murdered but the sheriff was not trying to hear that.

After Uncle Pace was murdered the sheriff started telling the black folks they could not have copies of the NAACP newspaper anymore. So they started sneaking to buy and read it. Then things in town became more racially charged. The black people couldnt even shop at the general store anymore. Mr. Love (the dad) decides to take Emma Jean to Chicago to see doctors because she still is not speaking. In Chicago Nellie Lee has another uncle who owns a nightclub. After staying there for awhile, Nellie Lee and the Mama move to Chicago.

Throughout the whole book, Nellie Lee is writing in her diary. I can’t specifically recall anything. Sorry. Hope your teacher does not ask that question.

But even in Chicago the family was not safe from segregation. The dad wanted to open a funeral parlor but found out he had to bribe someone to get a license and at first he did not want to do that. The family went out to the lake one afternoon and that turned into disaster. A black man drowns, white people throw rocks at the black people trying to save him and the police do nothing. That is what sparked the Chicago riot. Nellie and her family stay safely in the house.

Ummm, the Color Me Dark phrase came from her grandmother also. I tried to find the book to scan through it and give you some info but my niece has it with her.

Hope that helps.

David Mitchell Writes – Dear America…