A review by crystal_reading
The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton

5.0

Barton and Tate manage to provide a realistic look at slavery for young readers. It moves quickly from slavery though to Reconstruction after the Civil War. Many people don't realize that there were African American people in positions of power soon after the civil war. John Roy Lynch was one of those people who held public office about ten years after he became free. There was reactionary activity though and things got worse. The end notes especially spell this out. Many young people have no concept of the time that passed between slavery being abolished and the civil rights movement. Often they somehow see that time collapsed and think MLK Jr. was speaking of freedom from slavery. Many don't realize that almost 100 years had passed, but the progress that had been made had been taken away.