How John Lewis Got His Library Card -
and Helped Change History
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Viking Books for Young Readers
(pub. 1.7.2025)
32 pages
Ages 4 -8
Author: Pat Zietlow Miller
Illustrator: Jerry Jordan
Character: John Lewis
Overview:
" All John Lewis wanted was a library card, but in 1956, libraries were only for white people.
That didn't seem fair to John, and so he spent a lifetime advocating for change and fighting against unfair laws until the laws changed. Finally, black people could eat at restaurants, see movies, vote in elections, and even get library cards."
Tantalizing taste:
"Wherever he was, John worked for equal rights. He even wrote about it.
Then John returned to his hometown library. The one that told him "No" when he was sixteen [in 1956].
He gave a speech. Hundreds of people came. When John finished, the librarians gave him a library card. Forty-two years after he'd first asked for one.
And something more: Pat Zietlow Miller shared in the Author's Note: "John was inspired by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom he'd heard speak about nonviolent civil protests. John didn't get his card that day, but his request - and the letter he wrote afterward stating that the library should be for everyone - was his first protest."
Comments