Just Like Martin by Ossie Davis
New York: Puffin Books, 1992"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" - Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream" delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963
In the spring of 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King authorized one of the most controversial protest marches of the entire civil rights movement. Though he knew the risks were high, he approved the participation of children in a march in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King had just been released from a Birmingham jail where he penned the now famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." In the letter, King took issue with the Birmingham's white clergymen who urged patience and who criticized King's activities as being "unwise and untimely." King had been jailed defying a court injunction and leading marches in protest of the segregation practiced by many of the local businesses.
Following his release, King was dismayed that the demonstrations had ground to a virtual stop. He needed to reenergize the movement, and decided to respond favorably to hundreds of high school students who had been attending SCLC workshops and wanted to march.
Just Like Martin is clearly based on that march, though the central character, Isaac Stone, and his friends are fictional. Isaac is deeply disappointed that his father Ike forbade him to participate in the March on Washington during which Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Ike is an embittered Korean War veteran and widower who disagrees with King's anti-violence approach. He carries a pistol, and promises to use it to defend his rights and/or to protect his son.
Comment
The book symbolizes the very real struggle that took place in the 1960s between civil rights activists who supported Dr. King and his belief in nonviolence and civil disobedience and those who believed those tactics were cowardly and/or ineffective. It includes a chapter on the church bombing in which several black children are murdered as well as a section that discusses the response to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Just Like Martin is Ossie Davis's first novel. He is much better known as an actor having appeared in numerous theatre, movie, television roles. He was quite active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and eulogized both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. His affiliation with both civil rights leaders makes one wonder if the novel's theme of violent vs. nonviolent resistance symbolized his own mixed emotions.
It is unfortunate that the novel contains neither author or source notes. While the story includes many real characters and events, Davis frequently substitutes fictional places (e.g. the fictional Holy Oak Baptist for the real Sixteenth Street Baptist in Birmingham that served as the command post for the very real Children's March in 1963). The "I Have a Dream" speech, the church bombing in which black children were murdered, and the children's march are out of sequence chronologically. However, while the book fails to provide this information, it may serve as starting point for students to learn more about what really happened during the very real events that inspired this young adult, historical novel.Reading Level: 5.2
Interest Level: 5 - 9
215 pagesSupports the Following Instructional Objectives:
Trace the Struggle for the Extension of Civil Rights to African Americans and other Minority Groups
Compare Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Leaders of the Black Panthers
Explore the Impact of Political Assassinations on the Political and Social Culture of the 1960's
Excerpt
"Revenge on the white man. That's all you can think about?"
"Buford Leggitt, and all his gang, brave upholders of the law, with their dogs and their water hoses and their night sticks - just for whipping heads. But so what, it's only niggers . . . . And whoever it was planted those bombs and killed Carole and Mollie Mae, and shot Medgar Evers in the back - don't worry, white folks, we love you. All we're going to do is hold hands, march, and sing 'We Shall Overcome.' Right? Well, not me, not Isaac Stone. Isaac Stone is a man."
"Yes, but just one man, Ike, with everything they got lined up against you. No matter how may Buford Leggitts you put away, they got the numbers, they got the hardware, and in the end you'll come out dead!"
"That may be true, but at least I'll die like a man! Give me my pistol." (pages 169-70)Historical Fiction and Idaho U.S. History Curriculum
U.S. History I U.S. History II Books by Author Author Links Idaho Connections
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E-mail Blaine Davies at blainedavies@cableone.net