We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963 by Shelia P. Moses

Abstract

Reviewed by: We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963 by Shelia P. Moses Kara Forde Moses, Shelia P. We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963. Paulsen/Penguin, 2022 [176p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780593407486 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593407493 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-7 In 1963, Rufus, his mama, and his little sister Georgia live in a rundown housing development of Black residents, until the wealthy widow of the mill owner offers his mother a job as her personal seamstress in exchange for reduced rent in the home next to hers in the white neighborhood of Ivy Town. Rufus knows his city has been called the most segregated city in the country by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, but he is nonetheless horrified to wake up two nights after their move to a cross burning in their yard, a clear sign of intimidation and hate toward the family. Rufus’ evocative first-person narration builds a backdrop of the weeks leading up to the 1963 Children’s Crusade, in which thousands of mostly Black students marched in protest from the Baptist Church toward city hall, where they were met by the city’s racist police force, who resorted to brutal tactics to stop them. Moses packs a lot of details into a trim page count, creating a fully realized family of characters while depicting historical events and the horrific consequences of systems of white supremacy. An author’s note elucidates Moses’ rationale for ending the story on a particular date in 1963 and chronicles the triumphs and horrors of the historical events that happened in the aftermath of this story, preceding the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois