My Mind Looks Back and Wonders...

This story is a historical fiction picture book about the experiences of black children growing up in the pre-civil rights era of the Jim Crow South. It is based on my own memories of childhood, as an African American child, during this period of history. As a veteran teacher of thirty years, I have often been amazed at the interest my second grade students have shown in stories about my childhood growing up in the South during the days of Jim Crow. My students listen with wide eyed wonder about a world where laws prohibited a race of people from taking part in the privileges of society because of the color of their skin. Ramona Rorie Griffin is the 1999-2000 Indianapolis Public Schools Teacher of the Year and presently the Reading First Coach at Thomas D. Gregg Elementary School in Indianapolis, Indiana. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education, A Master's Degree in School Counseling and is a Licensed School Administrator. Ramona is also a National Board Certified and Licensed Clinical Counselor. She has been married to her husband Byron for twenty eight years and they have three children, Brenton, Lauren and Charlisa. Her family is multiracial due tothe adoption of her youngest daughter, who is white. This is a fact that she realizes would never have been possible in the days of Jim Crow. Ramona believes that there is a need for more books and articles that describe this part of American history from a child's perspective. She believes that it will help children and adults to see that the effects of segregation extended to even the smallest members of society. The book is a tribute to the resilency of childhood.