Product Description

Cassie Logan, a young black woman in 1940s Mississippi, becomes caught up in a tense confrontation between blacks and whites--three days of turmoil and unrest that will change her life forever. Reprint. Coretta Scott King Award. C. H. SLJ. AB. K.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229700 in Books
• Published on: 1992-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780140360776
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Amazon.com Review
The third novel in a series which started with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Road to Memphis catches up with the Logan family in 1941. Cassie is entering her last year of high school in Jackson, Mississippi and her older brother Stacey is driving his first car. After a family trip to Memphis, a sequence of events, including pregnancy, death and the intrusions of Pearl Harbor and World War II wreaks havoc on the family, threatening to separate them from each other, perhaps forever. Drawing upon their strength as a family and the support of their community, the Logans fight for survival, particularly Cassie, who dreams of becoming a lawyer. The Road to Memphis won the 1991 Coretta Scott King Award.

From Publishers Weekly
The Newbery Medalist's third powerful entry in the Logan family saga concerns 17-year-old Cassie's involvement in civil rights. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-- Taylor continues the saga of the Logan family ( Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Dial, 1976). The setting is Mississippi in 1941, and although the impending war has created some new job opportunities for blacks, discrimination and blatant racism still abound. The focus is on Cassie, now 17, her brother Stacey, and their friends, who are confronted and often humiliated by the white people they encounter. In one pivotal scene, a young man who defends himself after merciless taunting realizes he must leave Mississippi rather than face an unfair "justice" system. During that escape to Memphis, the friends face even more racist situations. Indeed, instances of white oppression and prejudice permeate the book, making it more stark than the earlier titles that emphasized family strength and unity in addition to exposing racism. Side plots involving the pregnancy of one friend, as well as the illness and death of another, add another element to the story but do not flow smoothly into the narrative. Taylor conveys the harsh realities of the time, as well as strong-willed Cassie's realization that as an adult she will have to make her own decisions and fight her own battles. Cassie's dream of becoming a lawyer and the looming war raise related questions regarding the white-controlled legal system and the injustice of fighting a war that sustains the status-quo, questions that have no easy answers. This is a dramatic, painful book, but it's more of a string of events than a narrative with strong characterizations. --Susan Schuller, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The Road to Memphis
I am in eighth grade at San Francisco Day School. I read both The Road to Memphis by Mildred Taylor and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee for my English class. I found the two books closely related. They are both about a community in a racist time period and how it survives, or attempts to survive the hardships it suffers in a short period. The Road to Memphis is about a black community in the 1940's. The main character, Cassie, is a young black lady whose core group of family and friends is torn apart by several incidents over a three day period. Cassie's dream was to go to law school and become a lawyer. She thought that the court was a fair place where everyone, including blacks, were treated equally. This is the same belief Atticus and his family had in To Kill a Mockingbird before the Tom Robinson trial, when they lost faith in the whole judicial system. Unfortunately, a "fair" court does not make up for the unfair community and population running the court. Cassie's community was split up by racial slurs, death, and the start of World War Two. I thought that The Road to Memphis did a superb job of illustrating what life was like for a black lady in a time when neither ladies nor blacks were highly respected. The novel also showed how much your life can change in a very short time period. In the three days of turmoil Cassie found out how harsh this world was. She was harassed by several white men and lost four of her closest companions to death, or to the misuse of the power of the white community. It was disturbing how in three tragedy filled days, a young lady's life can be ruined, and the cards containing the future of a community can be shuffled so thoroughly. To Kill a Mockingbird also did an outstanding job of portraying the harshness of being black at that time. Although the spotlight was on a white family, Harper Lee was using that position to go inside a white community and write about their feelings toward blacks. The Tom Robinson trial was a good example of how a black person's life can be ruined by the corrupt, white dominated court.

A Long Trip
The book The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor, is about a girl named Cassie Logan. Cassie Logan is black. She embarks on a journy with boys. When her best friend Moe, gets into trouble, her and her brother have to find a way to get him out of trouble. Jeremy Simms,a white boy who is nice to black people, lets Moe hide in the back of his truck. Then the journey begins.

I really liked this book. I didn't think that it was the best of the Cassie Logan series. but it was good. Some other books by Mildred D. Taylor are as follows: The Well, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, and The Freindship.

The Road to Memphis
The setting has a very big impact on the story because it was during the time when African-Americans were mistreated because of their skin color, and they were in the south where it was easier to get away with because the North had been against slavery. Out of all of them, if I had to choose one that was more important then all, it would have to be Strawberry. Strawberry is an average town, no big landmarks or things to make it stand out on the map. On the story map it plays a major roll because it is where part of the climax takes place. (The rest is all on the way to Memphis, hence the title.) Stacey stops to make the final payment on his car. Clawrence goes into the store to get something for his headache. The rest of them (Little, Willie Moe, and Cassie) go to the mechanic to fix the flat. There 3 white men are teasing Moe. He lashes out by hitting them with the crow bar he was using to take the tire off. The rest of the settings include Great Faith and Jackson.