Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

It is often claimed that ‘fiction is larger than life’. Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry written by Mildred D. Taylor challenges this idea because although it is fiction, we are given an accurate report of the living conditions for African Americans in Mississippi in the 1930’s. Roll of thunder hear my cry represents a south in which racist sentiments had tangible effects in the form of segregation, lynching, The Great Depression and sharecropping. It therefore proves that the novel is based on fact and therefore is not larger than life. This novel is about an African family, the Logan’s who fight for their lives in a series of different situations namely racism, segregation, slavery and discrimination.   It is the land that gives the Logan’s their courage and pride, for no matter how others may degrade them, the Logan’s possess something no one can ever take away.
Segregation began in the 1890’s and continued through to the 1960’s, during which time the novel takes place. Segregation is the separation of people based on race, religion, ethnic groups or social class. For more than 200 years before the start of the civil war, slavery existed in the U.S. After the civil war, however, things again became worse for the blacks. Southern legislatures and former confederates passed laws known as the black codes which severely limited the rights of blacks and as a result segregated them from the whites. Blacks were separated in schools, theatres, taverns and other public places. To take away the power which the blacks had gained, the Democratic Party stopped the blacks from voting by poll taxing and charging fees at voting booths which was expensive for most blacks. Throughout the book, the Logan children are faced with problems of segregation. The Logan children are made to attend a separate school to the whites, ‘The Great Faith Elementary and Secondary school, one of the largest black schools in the county’ (pg15). Most of the students are from families who are...