The Promise of Change, One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality

The Promise of Change, One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality

Co-authored by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy

This book, The Promise of Change, is the most powerful book about the experience of school integration that I have ever read. The Promise of Change is a nonfiction historical account told by the author, Jo Ann Allen, about her experience when she was a fourteen year old high school freshman and was one of eleven other African American students who walked into an all-white Clinton High School.  The year was 1956.  This high school was one of the first schools in the southern states to comply with the decision of the US Supreme Court that “separate was not equal” and thus no school could remain segregated.

Jo Allen did not set out to be a hero.  She wanted to do what was right.  She wanted a high school education.  And she wanted what high school students all want – friends, a chance to be part of a sports team, or part of choir, maybe try out to in the school play. But none of those “wants” were possible for any of these twelve black students.  As a reader we walk with Jo Ann Allen as she walks “down the hill” from her home to school – sometimes with the protection of the National Guard, sometimes with the combined courage of a white reverend who was beaten almost to death for his “crossing the line.”  As a reader we also walk with Jo Ann Allen as she sits alone every lunch hour, sits alone at the back of the classroom, walks the halls between classes hoping no one will spit at her, call her an ugly name, shove her against a locker, or worse. 

Ask for this book at your library.  Walk with Jo Ann Allen.  See through her eyes, feel the fear, courage, and empathy in her heart.  Listen as she tells her story.