BOOK REPORT - INDEPENDENT RESEARCH

BOOK SUMMARIES

I read a couple of books by Christopher Paul Curtis: The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 and Bud, Not Buddy. This research is based on those books. I worked on my internet lookup skills, typing skills, math averaging, historical knowledge, reasoning and drawing conclusions.

In The Watsons Go To Birmingham, the story is told by Kenny, age 10 who lives in Flint MI with his brother Byron, 13 and sister Joetta 6 and his parents. The book is about African American life in Flint in 1963. Byron is starting to be a juvenile delinquent so his parents decide to drive him in the "Brown Bomb" down to his grandmother's in Birmingham where life tougher for African Americans to teach him a lesson.  In the book, we learn about events in Birmingham, AL as the Watsons travel south to visit Mrs. Watsons' mother.

Bud, Not Buddy is about 10 year old Bud, an orphan in the Depression in Flint MI. He goes to live with a foster family and hates it because the foster family is so mean to him so he runs away to look for his father who he never met before. He has adventures and runs into prejudice people along the way looking for thius jazz musician he thinks is his father. Bud's mother turned out to be this jazz musician's daughter. At the end, he lives with his grandfather.

  

TIME COMPARISONS: 1963 and 2010

I did some comparisons online:

 

House Prices:
1963: $12,650
2010: $232,880

 

Bread Price:
1963:  $.22
2010:  $2.49

 

Air Conditioner Price:
1963: $150
2010: $163

 

Car Price:
1963: $3,233
2010:  $23,340

 

Average Annual Income:
1963: $5,807
2010: $55,000

 

Cost of College:
1963: $1,450
2010: $40,514

 

% Blacks Who Graduated College:
1963: 6%
2010: 18%

 

% All People All Races Who Graduated College:
1963: 8%
2010: 28%

 

From this, I see that some things like houses and college and incomes went up a lot over 40 years but other things like air conditioners did not. An air conditioner cost a lot more of your salary in 1963 compared to in 2010. I also learned that there are 3x more educated African Americans now than in 1963, which is good news. And the total population has 3.5x more educated people, also good! It's good that both went up but not good that African Americans did not keep up with the total population's increase.

 

CITY COMPARISONS

 

Info about Flint MI, 2010:

• 53% Black, 41% white, 6% other
• High crime city
• Average income $31,400
• 34 sq. miles, 66 miles northwest of Detroit.
• GM Autos had a plant there.
• Summer avg. 80'
• Winter cold, snowy, teens' with 45" snow/year
• On the Flint River.
• 200,000 people.

 Info about Birmingham AL, 2010:

•  73% Black, 24% White, 4% other
• Also High crime city
• Average Income $31,800
• 152 sq miles.
• Within AL, some of the best schools.
• 25% of the people fall below the poverty line.
• 200,000 people.
• Summer avg low 90s'
• Winter mid 50s'
• Economy around steel, construction and engineering, and 2 soft drink bottlers.
• Even though it's got a lot of poverty, if you try and get a good education, you can get a good job and be prosperous. It's named 1 of the best places to work and earn a living, so that is good hope for the people there.

 

 

HISTORY LESSON

Civil Rights 1963, Birmingham AL
The story Watsons Go To Birmingham takes place in the middle of the civil rights struggle. African Americans were standing up to Jim Crow laws and trying to get equal rights. They would try to sit in restaurants where they were not supposed to, to hold peaceful protest marches, and wanted to go to school together, drink from fountains or ride in the front of the bus when they were told by white leaders not to. Martin Luther King Jr. and other religious leaders encouraged this type of peaceful revolution, which is different than armed revolution like we had for the American Revolution against the British. Even with peaceful protests, some white leaders got angry and felt threatened. One day in 1963, a church was bombed in Birmingham and 4 little black girls died. It was a horrible time.

White police and their dogs try to arrest Black protesters.