I just finished reading my friend Larry Dane Brimner’s latest book BLACK & WHITE, THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN REVEREND FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH AND EUGENE “BULL” CONNOR. This book fits in with two of Larry’s previous works; WE ARE ONE and BIRMINGHAM SUNDAY. The trio takes us through the pivotal events of the Civil Rights Movement and it’s epicenter, Birmingham Alabama. These books are written for kids who are researching and writing papers about the Civil Rights Movement and it’s key players, but I challenge anyone-adults I’m pointing at you-to pick these books up and then put them back down again without reading every page. Without examining every photo. Without reading each sidebar and image caption. Yes, it’s history and you’ve already heard all about the civil rights fights of the ‘50s/’60s, but you haven’t really seen anything until you look through the lens of Larry’s eyes at the subject.
In WE ARE ONE, we meet Bayard Rustin-advisor to the now legendary Dr. Martin Luther King. Bayard instructed Dr. King in the peaceful resistance techniques that his grandmother taught him. It was Rustin’s beliefs that guided Dr. King in the attitude that would part the sea of hatred. Like the greatest of heroes, Bayard faded into the background when it looked as though he might be used to overshadow Dr. King and the issue of Civil Rights. You see, Bayard was also homosexual which was possibly the only worse thing to be than being black back at that time. But I believe that Bayard’s work has now carried forward in spirit to help in today’s fight for gay civil rights.
Larry’s next book BIRMINGHAM SUNDAY takes us to the church in Birmingham on that horrible day a bomb went off killing four little girls, and in the aftermath-two young boys. Larry introduces us to each child and makes it clear that these were everyone’s children. We get to know these six children so that we can feel the pain and the senselessness of the loss of their precious lives. Those were our daughters and sons taken in the hot destructive path of hate that blindly cut through the church in Birmingham. The beautiful writing and the tender care that Larry lends to the narrative will touch all readers and change them for the better.
Reading BLACK & WHITE, Larry introduces us to Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth first and then to his nemesis Eugene “Bull” Connor. The third part of the book is the confrontation between these two powerful human