Chapter Book 10

Author	Diane McWhorter
Title	A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968
Illustrator	NA
Readability Score	GLE 10.5 Lexile Measure: 1220 DRA:  70 Guided Reading:  Z
Genre	Nonfiction
Subgenre	Expository
Theme	NA
Primary and Secondary Characters	NA
Award(s) date of publication	2004
Publishing Company	Scholastic
ISBN Number	0-439-57678-4
Brief Summary	A Dream of Freedom describes several influential events that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement as African Americans journeyed toward obtaining equal rights.  Author Diane McWhorter details the struggles of many African American during this time period. McWhorter describes the beginning of segregation, lynchings, the origins of Jim Crow Laws, Brown Vs. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Little Rock Nine desegregation of Central High School, Sit-Ins at lunch counters by local college students, the Freedom Rides, the Sixteenth Street Church Bombing, and the formation of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.  McWhorter also explains President John F. Kennedy’s impact on the Movement by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 before his assassination.  Chock full of photographs from the era, McWhorter sheds a bright spotlight on a dark period in our nation’s history.
Picture of book cover
Description of how you would use book with students	I would use this book with upper middle school students to encourage further research of specific events that occurred throughout the Civil Rights Movement.  Students would select one event that most interests them and complete I Search papers after completing further research based on questions generated about the events.