Protest! What comes to mind when you hear the word? There have been so many protests throughout history and many in recent times even during the world pandemic. Some protests are peaceful and some are not, but today's book will focus on peaceful ones. The book is Protest! How People Have Come Together to Change the World by Alice and Emily Haworth-Booth. This book is recommended for ages 8 to 12.
From the Publishers:
A timely book on the history of peaceful protest, from the Egyptian pyramid workers’ strike of 1170 BCE all the way up to the present dayProtest has changed our planet—from Roman times to today, ordinary people have stood up for what they believe in and made the world a better place. The global history of protest is brought to life in this engagingly illustrated book, which includes the Boston Tea Party, the Storming of the Bastille, the Abolitionist Movement, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, anti-Vietnam War, the Stonewall riots, the Monday Demonstrations, the Arab Spring, Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, and much more. It looks at creative ways of protesting: student strikes, singing protests, guerrilla gardening, noisy protests, and surreal happenings, and ends with a practical section on how children can organize a protest for themselves.
From Me:
This book has twelve chapters each that have three or four short tellings of different protests and then a double page layout they call "Tactics" which shares a blurb about other protests in that category. They range from Ancient Egyptians who sat down to protest the hard labor of building the pyramids and not enough food to Black Lives Matter and other current day protests. There is a chapter on the Civil Rights Movement and one on Rights for Women. It covers revolutions to gay rights and everything in between. Some I knew about and others are new to me. This is definitely an interesting look at so many protests. Most will leave you wanting to learn more about the protest itself. This is always a sign of a good nonfiction book to me that covers so much. If the reader wants to go research part of it more. I definitely wanted to on several of them including some of the Native American protests. Since it is Native American Heritage Month I thought I would discuss the three that are shared in this book. I am going to do them in backwards order.
The first is called "Zuzeca Sapa, The Black Snake". This is about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Water Protectors. I shared a picture book called The Water Protectors last year about this protest. Native Americans are fighting for their ancient land rights to save the water as the government is putting oil pipelines through their sacred lands. The problem of course is many of these pipelines can spring leaks and ruin the water supplies in the area and many are in remote areas so a leak will go unnoticed and it will be too late.
The second is a blurb in one of the Tactics. It is about the occupation of Alcatraz in 1969 through 1971. The Native Americans were trying to reclaim land that was promised to them under the Treaty of Fort Laramie. They protested by going to island of Alcatraz and living there in the prison and tents for eighteen months.
I found this story so fascinating when I visited Alcatraz sixteen years ago. They had painted their welcome right on the sign or it looks like the Government hung a sign over their welcome sign. They also shared information about the Native American Occupation there.
The final Native American protest I discovered in the book I had heard mentioned previously but knew nothing about it. In fact I didn't know it was a protest. It is the Native American Ghost Dance. It began with a Paiute holy man named Wovoka. He had a vision of a land without settlers and the way of Native life would flourish again. All the Native nations would live in peace. His vision showed him the dance that would bring this to light. He taught it to his group and they saw his vision as well. It became a movement. They set up camps away from the white settlers and danced. They refused to follow the rules of the whites. They didn't dress like them or speak English. The whites saw this as disobedience and some began to get worried. In fact in 1890 the United States Army was sent in and more than 300 Ghost Dancers, men, women, and children, were murdered at Wounded Knee. I have been reading and watching more about this protest and massacre. Here are a few of the things I am using to learn about it: "The Lakota Ghost Dance and the Massacre at Wounded Knee" on PBS and on YouTube "Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee". These are just a few of the additional sources where you can learn more than what Protest! How People Have Come Together to Change the World shares.
The book is full of so many interesting protests all so different from each other. They are from around the world and each is a piece of history. I hope you will check it out!
