Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is only one of Mildred Taylor’s novels about the Logan family. All of these books about the Logans use the character of Cassie as the narrator. This novel takes place in western Mississippi, near Vicksburg, in 1933. It is basically a story of how Cassie learns about the inherent prejudice of whites against blacks in the South during the difficult times of the Depression.

Cassie Logan is a nine-year girl who lives with her mother, a seventh grade teacher, and her father, who must work on the railroad to supplement the family’s farming income. Also in the house are Cassie’s paternal grandmother, and three brothers—Stacey, 12, Christopher-John, 7, and Little Man, 6. The Logans own 400 acres, and are one of the few black landowning families in the community of sharecroppers. While Cassie is secure in the love of her close-knit family, she describes a year of perplexing and hurtful insults, some serious and some small.

Most serious is the rising tide of racial unrest brought on by the hard times of the Great Depression. “Night Men” burn the men of the Berry family, killing one and badly disfiguring another. Papa returns with the gigantic, but kind and wise, Mr. Morrison to watch the family while he is away. The Wallaces, who are implicated in, but not prosecuted for the burnings, own a store where they encourage the black children to drink and gamble. With the help of Mr. Jamison, a white lawyer, Mama organizes a boycott of the Wallace’s store. This costs Mama her teaching position.

“Night Men” attack Papa while he, Stacey, and Mr. Morrison are returning from Vicksburg with supplies. Papa suffers a broken leg which keeps him from returning to the railroad. The situation becomes worse when Harlan Granger, a white plantation owner who wants the Lagan land, persuades the bank to call in their mortgage. Uncle Hammer, who works in Chicago, must sell his silver Packard to pay off the debt. The novel ends with the near-lynching of T.J. Avery, a neighbor just a year older than Stacey, who is framed by some white youths. Papa sets fire to his field of cotton which adjoins the Granger plantation. This diverts the mob and the entire community works together to save the crops.

Cassie, a resourceful child, must deal with all the events and attempt to sort out her place in this world. The novel concludes with Cassie still searching, but with the help of her strong and caring family, it seems as though she will rise above the indignities of the segregated society.

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