Streetcar to Justice: How Elizabeth Jennings Won the Right to Ride in New York by Amy Hill Hearth
Published by Greenwillow Books on January 2nd 2018
ISBN: 0062673602
Pages: 160
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Hearth tells the story of Elizabeth Jenkins, an African-American woman who refused to give up her (streetcar) seat 100 years before Rosa Parks famously launched the Montgomery bus boycott by refusing to give up her (bus) seat. This book is more than the story of Jenkins, it is the history of New York City and the history of slavery and its aftermath in this country. After Jenkins, a middle-class woman on her way to church, was physically ejected from a New York City streetcar, she and her lawyer (future US President Chester A. Arthur) sued the railroad company in civil court and won. Jenkins, a teacher by trade, went on to found the first free kindergarten for African-American children in New York City. Hopefully this important work will mean more people will learn about the remarkable (and ordinary) life of Elizabeth Jenkins.

This book was meticulously researched and includes reproductions of primary source materials, an annotated bibliography, detailed endnotes, suggested readings, and an index. This book is well-written and accessible to middle school readers. Simply put: a tour de force.

Recommended for Cream of the Crop

Reviewed by Karen Sandlin Silverman, Mt. Ararat Middle School, Topsham