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Belle, The Last Mule At Gee's Bend: A Civil Rights Story (2011)

by Calvin Alexander Ramsey(Favorite Author)

4.11 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0763640581 (ISBN13: 9780763640583)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Candlewick Press

review 1: While young Alex sat on a bench outside waiting for his mother, he passed the time observing an old mule chomping away on collard greens in someone's garden. Turns out that garden belonged to Miz Pettway, a senior citizen as full of stories as she was enamored with that mule.It did not take long before Alex learned that this mule, Belle, had played an important role in the Civil Rights movement. Not only did Belle help to pull wagonloads of African Americans around the river to vote in Camden after the white folks there shut down the ferry, Belle was also one of two mules that pulled the coffin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Atlanta after his assassination.John Holyfield's striking acrylic paintings add an even deeper layer of meaning to this simple s... moretory about how an impoverished town in Alabama became engaged in the Civil Rights movement with a famous quilting group and a less famous but equally important mule named Belle. The book makes a valuable resource for introducing concepts such as discrimination, jobs, and social justice to young readers who are beginning to learn about the history of U.S. race relations.
review 2: While young Alex is waiting outside a general store for his mother in Gee's Band, Alabama he has a conversation with a lady that lived there. She tells him about a mule that is munching away on greens in a field that is nearby. This was a very special mule because it was one of the mules that helped carry Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s casket down the city streets. I liked this book because Alex was learning history without even realizing it. This book also touches on the Civil Rights Movements. I think this would be a good book to share with students when introducing the Civil Rights Movements, because the students would be learning a little bit of history without even realizing it. less

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