Stepping over the line of segregation – the visual argument of picturebook narratives from the sit-in movement

Abstract

Six decades after the historic sit-in movement, the city of Greensboro, North Carolina, once an epicentre of the Civil Rights Movement, still exhibits de facto segregation along racial divides. The division within the city of Greensboro poses a question that many places in the U.S. struggle to answer: how to address a painful history while promoting optimism for the future. This paper advocates for the use of storytelling in children’s picturebooks which have been cited as one of the most effective tools for encouraging social action and promoting positive societal values. The article discusses two picturebooks, Sit-in Movement: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (2010) and Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins (2007). The analysis of the picturebooks draws on the working strategies of O’Rourke and Pace (2020), including the visual rhetoric of the illustrations, somatic rhetoric, elements of performative studies, and the legacies of the sit-ins.