Monday is 50th anniversary of Greensboro sit-in

AUTHOR APPEARANCES

- 7 p.m. Tuesday

Quail Ridge Books, 3522 Wade Ave., Raleigh

- 5 p.m. Wednesday

Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Ave., Greensboro

"SIT-IN: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down"

by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

Ages 6 and up

($16.99, Little, Brown and Company)

BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563

How do you explain the Greensboro sit-in and the civil rights movement to a child? With illustrations. And a straightforward story focusing on uplifting results. That's what Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney have done with "SIT-IN: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down."

Monday is the 50th anniversary of the sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro that launched a wave of sit-ins across the country and took the civil rights movement in a new direction.

People in Durham know there was a sit-in here, at Royal Ice Cream, years prior, but Greensboro is the one with part of its lunch counter in the Smithsonian because it was the one that got the attention of the country and fostered national change.

Monday is also the publication date of "SIT-IN" by the wife and husband author and illustrator team. Brian Pinkney was part of the North Carolina Literary Festival this past September at UNC. The Pinkneys live in Brooklyn but will be down South this week for readings in Raleigh and Greensboro.

The book for ages 6 and up isn't the first time the Pinkneys have collaborated.

Andrea Davis Pinkney has written several biographies of blacks for young readers, including "Alvin Ailey," about the dancer and choreographer; "Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra," winner of Caldecott and Coretta Scott King awards; and "Dear Benjamin Banneker," about the scientist and mathematician. Brian Pinkney illustrated all three books and others. In 2008, the couple released another book about the civil rights movement, "Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation."

"SIT-IN" starts with Martin Luther King Jr.'s words -- "We must ... meet hate with love." Davis Pinkney describes that day using the first names -- David, Joseph, Franklin and Ezell -- of the four young men she calls kids. Her short sentences write as recipe -- "segregation was a bitter mix" and the kids' "new brew called integration. It was just as simple: Combine black with white to make sweet justice."

The prose repeats as the next day's sit-in repeats, with orders of "a doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side."

The books tells readers that those who were at subsequent sit-ins were yelled at and had food thrown on them, but the harsher reality of white violence is subdued. Still, readers will know that, as the story points out: "Sitting still was so hard. Practicing peace while others showed hatred was tougher than any school test."

Pinkney's sweeping illustrations, using a method called scratchboard, are created by starting with a white board covered in black ink, then scraping away ink to expose the white board below. Then he tints with dye and uses acrylic paint over that. He is the illustrator of several of his own picture books, plus illustrator for books by authors including Robert D. San Souci, Kim L. Siegelson, Maxine Rose Schur and Ysaye Barnwell.

In "SIT-IN," Pinkney's illustrations bring home a broad story with strokes that show how one small lunch counter extended so far into society.

Davis Pinkney keeps the recipe theme throughout the book, ending with the 10 steps of the students' recipe for integration. It is followed by a civil rights timeline and a bit more detailed essay about the Greensboro Four.

"SIT-IN" is a good introduction to the expansive, informative and creative work of the Pinkneys. It is also a way to talk to your children about something so integral to our nation's history. Though half a century ago, many people alive today remember it well, and this book is a way to start asking questions.