Delivering Justice: W. W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Delivering Justice: W. W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights Deborah Stevenson Haskins, Jim Delivering Justice: W. W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights; illus. by Benny Andrews. Candlewick, 2005 [32p] ISBN 0-7636-2592-2$16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 2-4 While picture-book biographies of Rosa Parks abound (see Giovanni's Rosa, BCCB 11/05), there were plenty of other people fighting for civil rights, and veteran author [End Page 183] Haskins here chronicles the life of Georgian activist Westley Wallace Law. Backed by a loving family, including a grandmother who at his birth "prayed that you would grow up to be a leader of our people," Law early observed and resented the unfairness of segregation. His commitment to the cause started with the NAACP Youth Council, and he subsequently became a local leader, spearheading Savannah's lunch-counter sit-in and subsequent boycott of segregated downtown businesses. The picture of Law is tightly and effectively focused, with his civil rights work the main point of the book as it was his life (though he wanted to be a teacher, his NAACP activities meant no one would hire him, so he spent his life as a letter carrier). Haskins makes clear that Law combined a firm belief in nonviolence with a tactical wisdom that made him a particularly effective leader, respected by the white community as well as the black. The language is simple and accessible, with each spread's compact text titled as if it were a chapter, a format that will reassure novice readers. Andrews' oil paintings have a rich solidity, and the layering of cutout figures against the background brings the human drama into, literally, sharp relief; the elongated figures are quietly statuesque, making the people as appropriately monumental as the events. Effective as a readaloud or a readalone, this is a subtle reminder that it wasn't just a few famous individuals that performed the civil rights movement's hard and heroic work. Copyright © 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois