The theme of the story is to never give up even though everyone around you is telling you to.

Turning 15 on the road to freedom by Lynda Blackmon Lowery 

Lynda’s grandmother took her to her first Martin Luther King Jr hearing at 13 years old. The way he spoke,confidently, made people want to do what he was saying, Just like Lynda. He talked about the rights to vote as an African American. He was very strong about nonviolence and loving confrontation. “Steady, Loving confrontation” were words that Lynda would never forgot. She didn’t realize it but at that time she was already in the civil rights movement.Everyone's goal was to have the right to vote. 700 people showed up to march for their rights, The KKK was riding around them trying to scare them because they didn’t like African Americans. Dr. King walked in and told them to prepare that they might go to jail. “Our cry… is a simple one. Give us the Ballot” he said before they marched. Black people would try to vote and they would get fired from their jobs anyway they would want to fire them. Lynda was confused why smart people could not vote like her teachers. They were proud of her for marching and let them skip school.After a week or so police started to arrest people. The theme for my chapter is,”Don't let other people make you forget about what you believe in” text evidence that makes me think of this theme is, “Before we left, the adults would tell us, your going to jail Do not fight back.”

By: Countee Cullen

Some are teethed on a silver spoon,

With the stars strung for a rattle;

I cut my teeth as the black racoon—

For implements of battle.

Some are swaddled in silk and down,

And heralded by a star;

They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown

On a night that was black as tar.

For some, godfather and goddame

The opulent fairies be;

Dame Poverty gave me my name,

And Pain godfathered me.

For I was born on Saturday—

"Bad time for planting a seed,"

Was all my father had to say,

And, "One mouth more to feed."

Death cut the strings that gave me life,

And handed me to Sorrow,

The only kind of middle wife

My folks could beg or borrow.

I believe that this poem has a theme of comparing children born into poverty versus children who were born into wealthy families. All of these stanzas relate to each other as shown that segregation and racial equality were and are huge factors in how all races of children grow up. In this poem it talked about how a boy born in poverty, on a Saturday, has always felt less fortunate than some of the other kids. The text states, “Some are swaddled in silk and down, And heralded by a star; They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown On a night that was black as tar”(Cullen). This shows the comparison of how a wealthier baby would be wrapper versus how he was wrapped, and that the night on which he was born was pitch black. The text also states, “For I was born on Saturday—’Bad time for planting a seed,’ Was all my father had to say, And, "One mouth more to feed.’”(Cullen). This piece of text shows that even his father was resentful of him just as a baby because they had to constantly worry about money and food. He feels as if he was never wanted because he was another burden to his family and to poverty. 

Our national pastime by the name

Of baseball was once mired in shame.

A prejudice-sized fear

Whitewashed the truth when history wrote

An unforgivable footnote-

The asterisk career.

Tape-measuring his home-run success,

800 of em more or less.

Won't get you very far, 

Josh gibson always knew the score…

Only to die three months before

The black man broke the bar. 

He hit a milde the Jim Crow snub-

“No coloreds in a white man's club.”

All anyone could do 

Was name him in the hall of fame,

A tower in the tarnished game

That Gibson never knew. 

This poem is about black civil rights and how they don’t have many rights, so that when a black man that played baseball broke the bar all they could do was put his name in the hall of fame. The theme of this poem is everyone should have equal rights no matter what color of skin people have. 

            By Eloise Greenfield 

Inside the school,                           Second Stanza: People are staring at the new colored 

there are eyes that are distant.      People in the school but they try not to make it obviou

We hold our heads up,                   Fourth Stanza: they are trying to be brave and 

hold our tears in.                            positive even though they are all going through a lot

can save the country now.

I think the theme of this poem is that things are so difficult right now and people are treating black people differently but only the kids and the younger generations can save the world now.