Larry Dane Brimmer - Black & White

The author of more than 150 books, Larry Dane Brimmer is a legend in our business. I was delighted to find his new work, Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor, in my mailbox from his publishers to review. I thought I had heard all the stories about the Civil Rights movement, but I had never heard this one, and Larry tells it masterfully. It is a gorgeously designed book that complements a powerful, can't-put-it-down true story.  I asked Larry to answer a few questions about the experience of writing this story.

Black & White is the true story of two men on different sides of the segregation issue during the Civil Rights movement. What inspired you to write it?

The simple answer is that the Civil Rights era fascinates me. I was a kid at the time and only vaguely recall news reports of the racial violence and tension in the South. I was busy being a kid. Researching Black & White was a way for me to inform myself about events that had sailed right by me in my youth.  More specifically, Black & White grew out of a previous book I did for Calkins Creek, Birmingham Sunday.

That book was about the Ku Klux Klan bombing of a black congregation in Birmingham one Sunday morning that resulted in the deaths of four children. Two other children—young boys—were also killed that day in the violence that erupted after the morning blast—one of those a death at the hands of KKK youth who were fired up after a Klan rally and the other the result of a police shooting. I realized that one man, Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, stood out as the leader of Birmingham’s black community. His nemesis, Eugene “Bull” Connor, was the well reported commissioner of Public Safety who controlled the police and fire departments, and who vowed to keep blacks in their place. It truly was a case of David versus Goliath, good versus evil—the Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth versus Eugene “Bull” Connor. Nothing had been written about these two men for young readers, and the more I researched and came to understand the dynamic of their relationship, the more I felt a need to tell their story. Shuttlesworth, whom I met in 2010, goaded Connor, a staunch segregationist, into reacting by making demands for black representation on the police force, desegregated seating on the city’s buses, and a voice at the voting booth. While Connor used Shuttlesworth’s attempts to erase segregation to get elected to office time and again, Shuttlesworth used Connor’s violent reactions to his demands to coalesce Birmingham’s black community behind him. Shuttlesworth had a sense that eventually Connor would do something to turn the tide of public opinion, which, of course, he did when he called out the police dogs and turned fire hoses on young demonstrators. Shuttlesworth was the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham and had he not laid the groundwork, Martin Luther King, Jr., would never have come to that city in 1963. King received the Nobel Peace Prize largely for the work he and Shuttlesworth did in that city, but Shuttlesworth actually did the lion’s share of the work. I felt it was important for young people to know about this courageous, but little known, crusader for social justice and his impact on the Civil Rights movement. As I began writing, I realized I couldn’t tell Shuttlesworth’s story without delving into Connor’s motivations. The result is Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connor.

Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth risked his life to desegregate the south.  What lessons do you think students today can learn from his actions?

The lesson I hope young readers will take away from this book is that a single individual can, and did, make a difference for change. I hope they will also understand that this was a truly dark and violent time in American history. As a writer who visits schools all across the United States, I’ve been a bit dismayed at how often I hear teachers gloss over the Civil Rights movement as if to say that we arrived at this place where we are today after Martin Luther King, Jr., called together a few friends to march and sing hymns in the streets. They might also incorrectly mention that Rosa Parks brought about an end to segregated bus seating following the Montgomery bus boycott. (The Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregated bus seating came about as a result of the decision in Browder v. Gayle. Mrs. Parks’s conviction remained on the books until 2006.) The Civil Rights movement was so much more than King or Parks; it was hundreds, if not thousands, of workaday people standing up for what they believed and demanding change.

Many of these events happened over fifty years ago and we now have an African American president.  Do you feel we are still fighting discrimination in this country?

We’ve made progress since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but there is still much work to be done. On the surface, we appear to be a harmonious society where the races get along, but there is underlying tension. We are simply more subtle about how it gets expressed. We pass laws to secure our borders, but the only border lawmakers are thinking about is the southern one. Yet, the northern border is the only one through which a terrorist has passed. We pass laws requiring the police to verify citizenship, but I dare say my blond Canadian neighbor would never be asked to prove her citizenship. I read that following President Obama’s election, the KKK experienced a spike in membership. I have never documented whether that is true or not, but I suspect it might be. Personally, I sense that much of the hostility directed at the president has nothing to do with his policies or the economy he inherited. If this were not true, people would not STILL be bringing up the legitimacy of his U.S. citizenship. As for Birmingham, it is a more segregated city today than it was in 1963 because of white flight to the suburbs. As a people, we largely remain fearful and ignorant of anyone who is different from the person staring back at us in the mirror. The only way to overcome this, I believe, is for people to get to know people of other races and ethnicities and—yes—sexual orientations. It’s difficult to remain fearful and disrespectful of others when you realize all that we have in common.

I noticed that you dedicated this book to Newbery honor winner, Susan Campbell Bartoletti.  How did she inspire you to write this story?

My friendship with Sue pre-dates her Newbery honor win. Her books have taught me not to be afraid to tackle difficult subjects. They have taught me that if a writer approaches a topic with honesty and integrity, something Sue does without fail, a book will find its readers and it will resonate with them. Mostly, I dedicated Black & White to her because she has always been there to answer my questions.

Bio: Larry Dane Brimner is the author of 157 books, both fiction and non-fiction. Among his popular titles are Country Bear’s Good Neighbor, The Littlest Wolf, Max and Felix, We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin, Birmingham Sunday, and Black & White. His books have won numerous awards and honors, including the Jane Addams Book Award, the Norman A. Sugarman Biography Award, The Eureka! Gold Award (California Reading Association), and the Orbis Pictus Honor Book Award. Additionally, Larry’s books have been featured on many notable and best books lists.