Community Connection
by Karen Pavlicin-Fragnito
Fifty-four years after they went to jail for sitting at a whites-only lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina, the eight surviving members of the Friendship Nine are returning to court to have their convictions vacated. Their new day in court came in no small measure from a children’s book, No Fear For Freedom: The Story of the Friendship 9, and the efforts of its author, Kimberly Johnson. “These men were treated as criminals, but they’re not,” she says. “What they did is really powerful and right.” […]
Community Connection
by Naomi Krueger
Books open doors to new cultures, time periods, and ecosystems. They also open doors to higher test scores and academic interests that could turn into careers. With the growing achievement gaps in US schools, educators and nonprofit organizations are working to put more books in the hands of early elementary children. Books On Wings donates books from teachers’ curriculum supplement wish lists, one for each student in the grade, to help at-risk students find a love of reading and learning. […]
Community Connection
by Terri Barnes
The modest bungalow looks like any other home on the tree-lined street, but the rooms inside hold an estimated 100,000 cards, letters, and emails written by American service men and women and their families, during every American conflict from the Revolutionary War to Iraq and Afghanistan. This unique collection of personal letters of war is the vision of dedicated author and historian Andrew Carroll, in partnership with Chapman University. The Center for American War Letters opens November 5, 2014. […]
