Because They Marched

Starred review from August 18, 2014
Commemorating the upcoming 50th anniversary of the 1965 march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Freedman (The Boston Tea Party) delivers a thorough account of the context and events leading up to and through this momentous protest. The book’s eight chapters pull readers into the decades-long struggle via clear, concise storytelling and myriad quotes from participants, many of them young at the time. “Algebra gave way to activism,” writes Freedman. “This explosion of teenage activism alarmed some parents and took the white authorities by surprise.” The momentum-building narrative and often-graphic b&w photos captivate as they recount demonstrations big and small: from sit-ins and “wade-ins” (for desegregated beaches) to the well-known Selma schoolteachers’ march and “Bloody Sunday” at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Freedman details day-by-day the culminating several-thousand-strong march to Montgomery, which spurred the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Current threats to the act are described in an epilogue. A timeline, select bibliography, source notes, and index round out this well-researched story that honors the many who stood up and fought against inequities at the ballot box. Ages 10–up.