Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred Taylor
 Cassie and her brothers, Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man (Clayton Chester), walk to school. Once there, Cassie and Little Man go to their classroom where Cassie's teacher, Miss Crocker, gives them their textbooks: worn-out castoffs from the white school with a chart ranging from "Race of Student - White, Condition of Book - new" to "race of student - Nigra, condition of book - very poor". Little Man refuses to take the dirty book with the insulting page, and Cassie speaks up for him. Miss Crocker whips them and meets with their mother. Mrs. Logan "agrees" with her as she is also a teacher, but covers up the insulting pages in her kids' books. One day, T.J. cheats on a history test, but gives Stacey the sheets when Mrs. Logan comes along. Stacey gets in trouble, but doesn't rat T.J. out, yet chases him to beat him up for it - all the way to the Wallace Store, where Mr. Morrison finds them, and then talks to Stacey, who tells his mother that he disobeyed her (she had forbidden the children to go there, because the Wallaces were the ones who burned the Berrys and cause much of the trouble for the black community). Instead of punishing them, Mrs. Logan takes the children to see Mr. Berry, who is disfigured. The next day, Mrs. Logan recruits people to boycott the Wallace Store because they are the cause of most of the trouble between the blacks and the whites. Big Ma, Cassie's grandmother, takes Stacey, Cassie and T.J. to Strawberry, a nearby town, and sells her goods at the market there. After lunch, Big Ma visits the office of Mr. Jamison, their white lawyer and the son of the man who sold them Harlan Granger's land. T.J. takes Cassie and Stacey to the Barnett Mercantile, despite Big Ma telling them to wait. Mr. Barnett begins serving T.J., but he stops every time a white customer comes in. When Cassie complains, Stacey takes her outside the store, where Cassie bumps into a white girl, Lillian Jean. In the ensuing incident, Cassie is forced to apologize. When they get home, they find their uncle Hammer Logan is visiting. Hammer gives Stacey a wool coat as an early Christmas present, but T.J. persuades Stacey to give him the coat. Papa comes home for Christmas and is staying until spring. On Christmas night, Jeremy visits the Logans and gives them gifts for Stacey. Papa warns Stacey to be careful about being friends with Jeremy, saying that he will change, because the Simms are racist. The next day, Papa whips the children for visiting the Wallace store. Time passes and Papa leads the boycott against the store. Mr. Jamison visits, and Big Ma signs papers giving the land to Papa and Hammer, requiring both their signatures to sell it. Mr. Granger asks for the land, but Papa refuses. Hammer returns to Chicago, and Papa continues the boycott. Cassie makes peace with Lillian Jean, pretending to be her friend. Lillian Jean brags to her friends about Cassie carrying her books for her and calling her "Miss" Lillian Jean. As Lillian Jean begins trusting Cassie more, Cassie leads Lillian Jean into the woods and beats her up. T.J., angry about being caught cheating and failing in school, tells Mr. John Wallace (father of Dewberry, Thurston, and Kaleb Wallace) about Mrs. Logan and how she does not teach from the county-issued textbooks because she believes they contain falsehoods, and even tells about the boycott. Mr. Granger, a member of the school board, fires Mrs. Logan, and Stacey blames T.J. Papa, Mr. Morrison and Stacey go to Vicksburg, and on their way back, the Wallace brothers ambush them. Papa is shot, and Mr. Morrison hurts Kaleb Wallace. Papa survives with a badly broken leg. Soon, Granger forces the Logans to pay up early on a bank loan. Meanwhile, T. J. has become a rogue, and he hangs out with two trouble-making white teenagers, Melvin and R. W. Simms. One night, they bring him on a murderous robbery and frame him. Papa goes to stop the lynching that follows. Almost as soon as they leave, the cotton field catches on fire. The lynch mob and the black farmers band together to stop the fire, which Papa started in order to stop the lynching. T.J. is taken into town by the sheriff and could die for Jim Lee Barnett's murder in the store robbery, even though Melvin or R.W. Simms was the assailant. Papa says he wishes he could start lying about this now and says it should never be like this.