When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1977 Newbery Medal[1][2] awarded novel by Mildred D. Taylor. It is a part of her Logan family series, a sequel to her 1975 novella Song of the Trees.
In the book, Taylor explores the struggles of African Americans in 1930s Mississippi through the perspective of nine-year-old Cassie Logan. The novel contains several themes, including Jim Crow segregation, Black landownership, sharecropping, the Great Depression, and lynching.
Plot
In 1933, 9-year-old Cassie Logan lives in rural Mississippi with her three brothers, Stacey (12 years old), Christopher-John (7 years old), and Clayton Chester, nicknamed \"Little Man\" (6 years old). Unlike most black families who sharecropped during this time, the Logan family owns the land on which they reside. It originally belonged to a white plantation owner, Harlan Granger, who sold it to cover his taxes during Reconstruction.
Rather than a single, overarching storyline, the bulk of the novel consists of several intertwining plots, each involving one or more members of the Logan family and illustrating various aspects of black/white interactions during the nadir of American race relations. Several episodes feature black characters being humiliated by powerful white citizens and being forced to weigh the potential cost of standing up for themselves.
At school, Cassie and Little Man notice that the books they use were originally distributed to the white children, and given to the black students once they wore out. Cassie\'s father David visits the family from his job on the railroad during the holidays.
After Cassie is humiliated by Lillian Jean Simms, a white girl, she pretends to forgive Lillian Jean and becomes friends with her long enough to learn sensitive information about the Simms family. Cassie assaults Lillian Jean and forces her to apologize for all the humiliation she inflicted on her, then threatens to reveal all of Lillian Jean\'s secrets if she tells anyone what happened.
When Cassie\'s mother Mary, a teacher at her children\'s school, catches Stacey\'s friend T.J. Avery cheating on an important history midterm, T.J. gets her fired from her job, with help from the racist Wallace family.
Mary organizes a boycott of the Wallaces\' store because they are the cause of most of the trouble between the blacks and the whites, as well as possibly being members of the Ku Klux Klan. Later, David and his hired hand Mr. Morrison are attacked on the road, with David being shot, but surviving. Mr. Morrison brutally trashes the attackers, who turn out to be the Wallaces. As a result, the white community forces the bank to call the Logans\' mortgage. David\'s brother Hammer sells his new silver Packard to pay it off and avoid losing the family land.
T.J. ends his friendship with Stacey and befriends Lillian Jean\'s two racist older brothers, R.W. and Melvin. The Simms boys convince T.J. to help them rob Barnett\'s Mercantile, during which Jim Lee, the owner, is killed by R.W. Both he and Melvin set T.J. up to take the blame and beat him severely when he threatens to expose their crime.
The book ends with T.J. about to be lynched for the death of Barnett, when the cotton fields catch fire. The community bands together to stop the fire from spreading. Cassie realizes that her father set the fire to save T.J. Stacey asks what T.J.\'s fate will be. David tells the children T.J. will likely be convicted of Barnett\'s murder and may be executed. Cassie, overwhelmed by the news, silently goes to bed. Although Cassie never liked T.J., she cries for him and the land.
