THE STORY OF SOJOURNER TRUTH

An account of the life and achievements of a woman born into slavery who, guided by her faith, became a renowned crusader for human rights.

Clark opens by characterizing her subject as an evangelist. In tracing her long career, the author prominently folds mentions of Truth’s preaching and religious visions into the tally of her accomplishments—including the successful lawsuit she brought against a white slaveholder to reclaim her son, the ringing “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech she delivered to the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, and her integration of Washington, D.C.’s, trolley system after the Civil War, prefiguring Rosa Parks’ later efforts. The biographical material, particularly in earlier chapters, might be too detailed for younger audiences to follow easily, but sidebars that invite readers to respond personally to significant incidents or character traits will help hold readers’ interest when the flurries of names and places become bewildering; to spark further engagement, a quiz and a set of discussion questions follow the pithy closing analysis of Sojourner’s legacy. If she doesn’t look quite as indomitable in the illustrations as she does in contemporary photographs, her bespectacled figure still stands properly tall and straight, whether speaking to courts and crowds or face to face with presidents (she met three).

Clear and systematic, though the narrative flows more easily in later chapters.