She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

by Loki Mulholland (Author) Charlotta Janssen (Illustrator)

She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland was a white teenager in the South during Segregation who put herself on the front lines of the Civil Rights struggle. This is the first biography about her experiences, published simultaneously in picture book and middle grade editions, detailing the many events she participated in.

She attended demonstrations and sit-ins and was one of the Freedom Riders in 1961 who was arrested and put on death row for months at the notorious Parchman Penitentiary. She was the first white person to join in the 1963 Woolworth's lunch counter sit-ins in Jackson, Mississippi, and that same year participated in the March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King and the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 which contributed to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act that year. Her willingness to stand up for justice has been an inspiration, "Anyone can make a difference. It doesn't matter how old or young you are. Find a problem, get some friends together, and go fix it. Remember, you don't have to change the world . . . just change your world."

The edition for readers ages 8 and older uses collage art and blends photographs from the period with the text, and features sidebar commentary from Joan, reflecting on those years. It also includes riveting primary source documents from Joan's personal archives like the letter sent to Joan's mother during Joan's arrest at Parchman Penitentiary. On official letterhead of the state, the warden exhibits the deep racism of the time by admonishing her mother for permitting a "white minor girl to gang up with a bunch of Negro bucks and white hoodlums." This edition of She Stood for Freedom unforgettably and insightfully conveys the turmoil and tone of the Civil Rights era.

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School Library Journal

Gr 3-5--Focusing on Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, a lesser-known civil rights activist, this title is a brief portrait of her life, her actions, and the civil rights movement. From the time she was a child, Mulholland, a white Southerner, came to understand the injustice of "separate but equal," motivating her to cross the Jim Crow line to stand with African Americans to demand equality. At age 19, she became involved in the Freedom Rides of 1961. She knew the risks and knew she was a marked woman for becoming a "race traitor." She was harassed, imprisoned, and attacked but still persevered in her activities. Further involvement in the civil rights movement included participating in sit-ins, the March on Washington, and the Selma to Montgomery March. Her unwavering belief in equality gave her tremendous inner strength. Quotes from Mulholland portray her as someone who never thought of herself as a hero, only someone who could make a difference. ("Anyone can make a difference. It doesn't matter how old or young you are. Find a problem, get some friends together, and fix it.") Primary source documents and photos and other culturally relevant artifacts accompany the text. Collagelike illustrations that imagine parts of her life (for instance, Mulholland as a child seeing for the first time what a schoolhouse for black children looked like--in contrast to her whites-only school) are peppered throughout, and while eye-catching and mood evoking, they are not as useful as the photographs and other documents. VERDICT Purchase to supplement civil rights and biography materials.--Lisa Crandall, formerly at the Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Janssen's evocative mixed-media collages tap into the turbulence of the events discussed; aqua, rust, and drab greens provide the only color, melding with photographs, drawings, maps, newspaper headlines, diary entries, and official documents. The clear, direct narrative contextualizes Joan's actions within the larger movement while explaining words like segregation for young audiences. A brief civil rights timeline is included, and a middle grade edition of the book (with the same title) is available simultaneously."— "Publishers Weekly"
Loki Mulholland
Loki Mulholland is an award-winning filmmaker. His film, An Ordinary Hero, tells his mother's story and is featured at the National Civil Rights Museum and at www.anordinaryhero.com. He is the Executive Director of the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation.

Charlotta Janssen was born in Maine to German parents. She studied art at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany. Her art has been showcased in more than forty gallery exhibitions worldwide, and she has been featured in American Art Collector magazine, The New Yorker, New York Daily News, The Tennessean, Oprah.com, and HipHopWired.com.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781629721774
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Shadow Mountain
Publication date
August 02, 2016
Series
She Stood For Freedom
BISAC categories
JNF007050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Cultural Heritage
JNF018010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JNF025210 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States/20th Century
JNF007120 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Women
Library of Congress categories
Civil rights workers
United States
Mulholland, Joan Trumpauer

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