Yoruba Girl Dancing (pgs 132-185 End Of Book)

Summary:  Remi as she meets her mother again after so many years, feels as if she doesn't know her mother anymore.  She blames her mother for not caring about her all those years as she was apart from them in England.  Aunty Madge tells her that her mother couldn't do anything and that all those years she felt as if a part of her was missing.  Soon Remi starts to remember her mother and they hug.  Her father later decides to change her to a new school which he feels is better.  Remi's siblings also go to England and they all attend Dove House School.  They go on holiday break.  Now they have a new family to stay with, the Braithwaite's.  They go to church and have a great time.  They soo go back to school.  Remi has a best friend there, Phoebe.  Remi then gets invited to go to Germany with some friends.  Herr Schofbeck is her host there in Germany.  She delt with many cultural problems there and she also began to think more about boys-if they liked her or not.  The boys would mostly fall for her friends.  The ones that did fall for her were creepy and old.  She gets back from Germany and she tells Phoebe everything.  They go to a school dance and no one asks them to dance.   Two boys are soon forced to dance with them.  As the boy dances with Remi, he speaks about another girl as she passes by saying that she is really beautiful.  Then he asks Remi if she is considered attractive in her own country.  Remi doesn't feel as beautiful as other girls.  Soon, her family and friends from Lagos come.  She feels beautiful again and she even gets a boyfriend, Akin.  They go to parties and she realises as she dances that there is nothing more beautiful than a Yoruba Girl Dancing. 
Quote: " ' I say,' he said, 'are you considered attractive in your own country?' " (Bedford 174).
Reaction: This is when Remi dances with the boy and he asks her that rude question.  You can't just ask someone that question. He is ignorant.  

Yoruba Girl Dancing (pgs.82-131)

Summary:As days passed Remi continued to have to sleep in the dormitory alone, even though she persisted in asking Matron, the woman who watched over her, if she could sleep with her.  Soon girls in all shapes and sizes began to arrive to the school.  They crowded the place and made it noisy, each looking for their dormitorys.  Matron brought Remi to hers and introduced her to her new roomates.  There was Jessica, who would be in charge of Remi, Anita, and 2 other new girls who broke down in tears from being far away from family.  As Jessica tried showing Remi around, Anita started a romour that the black skin color on Remi would rub off on the lighter skin girls if they touched her.  The girls tried not touching her.  Anita was really jealous, though, of Jessica spending all this time with Remi, so that's why she started the romour.  Remi tried so hard to fit in the school, explaining her culture, where Anita made it harder.  She began to make up stories about her life in Africa in order to keep them interesting.  Remi finally stood up for herself and confronted Anita.  Remi got bad reports in school which her dad who wrote to her, wasn't to happy about it.  
               Years passed in England and Remi was getting along with everyone now, even Anita.  Soon summer came and in the letters she got from her father, she awaited a response saying she was going to Africa, but istead her father said she would be staying there.  For the holidays, she would be staying with Aunty Betty.  Gerald, Bettys son and also Remi's crush, was whom Remi played games with.  They went on a vacation to a resort and had a great time that summer.  Soon, Remi went back to school and made a promise to herself that she would get good reports in school.  Then, she hears that her father is coming to England to go see her in school.  He gets there and Remi doesn't recognize him, but soon she remembers. 
Quote:" 'The black comes off, ' she declared in a voice of doom"( Bedford 86).
Reaction: This is when Anita spreads the romour of black rubbing off.  That was very rude to say because it is just skin.
               

Yoruba Girl Dancing (pgs 49-81)

Summary: As Remi gets up from bed, she realizes she is on the ship, in the middle of nowhere.  She then races from the cabin to the railings of the ship to hang head down, with her feet wrapped around them.  In her nightgown she feels the wind against her skin and is lost for a while.  She then feels someone tugging on her.  Remi swings upright to a girl her size, thinking it is a child just like her.  The girl tells her it is a shame she is out there in her nightgown and grabs her with a hurtful grip by the arm and takes her to Bigmama in the cabin.  There she finds out that the girl she thought was a child was really an adult.  Remi and the woman, Miss Smith, did not like eachother.
                  Bigmama needs a lot of rest and so they came up with a way to supervise Remi.  Miss Smith is going to teach Remi what she is going to learn in boarding school, to have a head start.  Remi thinks Miss Smith is very crazy. One day as they start the teaching, Remi fakes that she is sick and Smith brings her back to the cabin to rest.  Remi wants to then explore what the ship has because she figures it has much more.  She goes downstairs to the third deck where she knows Miss Smith won't be.  She meets the guy that runs the ship, Mr Lowther, and he shows her around.  Soon the ship arrives to its destination.  Remi meets all the family members that are there, but she is sad her mother and father are not there.  She misses everyone back in Lagos. Later, she meets with Aunt Grace who is there studying in college.  Aunt Grace takes her to her new school, but they soon find out that they have gone a week early.  Remi stays anyway and doesnt like it.
Quote:  " 'Don't go,' I wailed.." (Bedford 79).
Reaction: This is when Aunt Grace has to leave her at the school to go back to her college.  Remi doesn't want her to leave and feels as if she is getting pulled away from everyone, while she is only 6 years old.  That is very sad because she is very young and she has to be far away from her family.     

Yoruba Girl Dancing (pgs. 18-48)

Summary: Everyone was in the cathedral at the church on Sunday.  Aunt Rose believed that God would allow some rich people to enter heaven. Later, Grandma spoke to the young ones in the house. She was there to find out who brought the spell.  She began by saying how in that house they were all Christians.  She knew someone tried to bring juju into the house.  She asked Nimota to step foward because she belived she was guilty and Nimota did.  Nimota said she didn't do anything. She was lying. Later she called up Remi who tried lying too and got caught in her lie.  Since no one wanted to confess they all got beaten to learn their lessons. 
                   Remis' parents finally arrived in Lagos.  She was so happy to see them and her mom was happy to see her too.  She didn't see her father until later and when she did he just screamed at her to put on her shoes even though she was going to bed.  He wished his first child- Remi- was a boy.  He felt ashamed.  The wedding came and Sisi was beautiful. There was so much dancing and eating.  They had a great time.  Then Remi left with her family back to where her family lived.
                  After Remi's mother would tell her and her brother a bed time story.  It was about her grandfather and they loved it.  Then all of a sudden,  before morning, Patience woke them up in a hurry. They had to go back to Lagos.  Grandpa died and so they had to go back.  After the funeral and all the crying, things calmed down.  Later Remi found out bad news.  Her father arranged for her to attend boarding school in England even though she was only six.  She had to leave her mom, brother, father, grandma and more. Only her Aunts would be with her there because they would go there to study. 
                 Remi departed from her family on a ship with Bigmama.  After a while, she began to cry and yell loudly.  She was away from home and only six!
Quote: "The switch snaked down six times on my outstretched palm, the pain was insupportable..."(Bedford 21).
Reaction:  This is when Grandma was beating Remi.  That is very harsh to hit with a switch.  Remi says it really hurt and that is six times.  You should at least hit with a  belt.

Yoruba Girl Dancing by Simi Bedford (pgs.1-17).

Summary: Remi Foster, the main character in the novel, is a young Nigerian girl who lives in Serra Leone.  Her Grandpa and grandma don't speak to eachother.  They are a very religious family where they read the Bible a lot and go to church. She reads the bilble daily with them.  With her grandpa she has read about Moses and the Israelites escaping Egypt from the Pharaoh.  One day when she has read the bible with her grandpa she asks him if they used to be slaves and her grandpa says that they did in America long ago.  Remi never wants to go to America now.  While they are eating one day Remi tells her grandpa how Sisi Bola is getting married.  The wedding is going to be at their house. In their house, lives a lot of people like the foster children, and the rest of the family.  Her best friend is Yowande, one of the foster children. One day Nimota, her nurse,and Remi go to Jankara market where Nimota wants to get a spell to put on Yetunde, a girl, so that she would be too sick to attend any of the celebrations.  All family is then gathered in the house to speak about the colors for the celebration of the wedding.  Grandma soon finds out about the spell plan and gets angry.
Quote: "Any impression of cosiness however was dispelled by a second glance at her eyes.."(Bedford 7).
Reaction: This is where Remi is speaking about her grandmother.  Usually you feel comfortable around a grandma, not in a scary way like this. 

A Mighty Long Way (pgs.163-205)

Summary:  Carlotta got home from Chicago and immediately started school-her last year at Central.  She recieved a school ID card in the mail because now they wanted to kow who was going in and out of the school.  One of her teachers she recieved didn't really like blacks, so whenever the white students did something, the teacher just turned around and looked the other way.  She felt lonely and she began missing the way her life was when she still had attended Dunbar.  She couldn't participate, in sports or anything.  Labor Day weekend came.  Carlotta was in her bedroom sleeping.  The red, cityowned station wagon used by the fire chief, exploded.  This led to flames in his driveway.  minutes later a second explosion happened.  The glass front of a building blewout.  Minutes after that, there was a third explosion.  Fire damaged the ground floor of an adminitrative office.  There were sirens.  Soon investigators found out that the suspects threw sticks of dinamite to cause the explosions.  They got arrested.  None of this was that shocking to Carlotta.  Later she gets an explosion of her own on her house.  Once again, it was dinamite  sticks.  Her father got accused of sending 2 black men to explode his house, so that he could get insurance money.  The 2 black men are Herbert Monts and Maceo Binns.  Carlotta knew Herbert ever since she was small.  They were innocent.  The authorities had no evidence.  Carlotta feels guilty for all the problems.  She is determined to keep going to Central.  Court was in session.  The jurors were all white.  The 2 black men were found guilty and were arreseted.  They got five years prison.  The school year was ending  and graduation  was coming.  Soon it came and she accomplished her goal of graduating.
Quote:" I had a driver's license" ( Lanier 166).
Reaction:  She began driving when she was young and that is very young.  She began around 12 or 13 years old.   

A Mighty Long Way (pgs 124-162)

Summary: There are eight of the students left in Central High School.  Segregationists have failed with their telephone threats and more to try and get the students out of Central.  They now begin to target their parents.  Money becomes low to them and many lose their jobs.  Carlotta says when she came from school one day, she overheard her father saying how he got laid off.  Many of the other 7 students' parents had problems with their jobs too.  The segragationists also targeted the Arkansas Gazette newspaper because it supported intergration.  One day, the newspaper puplished an unsigned letter that was going around the neighborhood, on the front page.  The segregationists considered the stores, that were advertised in the newspaper, as being supporters too. They were going to go against these stores.
               Ernie, one of the nine, was graduating from Central.  He had persevered.  Carlotta wanted to go to his graduation, but everyone only got 6 tickets for the closest family members.  Carlotta listened form the radio instead.  Once Ernie got on stage, there was total silence everywhere, but he got his diploma anyway.  The media also mentioned that Martin Luther King was there too. 
               Soon summer arrived.  The eight took a plane to Chicago to be honored by the Chicago Defender.  Minnijean met up with them there making that nine of them.  They were honored in many different states and cities that summer like New York and more.  They traveled all over the place.  Carlotta says it was the best summer ever. Later, she went to Camp Minisink that same summer and enjoyed it a lot.  Washington D.C. was their last stop before their summer ended and then they went back to Little Rock. 
                Carlotta's junior year was delayed because of intergration issues again.  Faubus was determined to not intergrate Central.  Many of the eight moved and now only Jefferson, Elizabeth,Thelma, Melba, and Carlotta was to attend Central.  The sports schedule of  the school continued, but their was no education going on for anyone, not even the whites.  The Dunbar community center arranged for students to study courses there.  Carlotta worried about her education.  Later, she gets sent to Cleveland on a new adventure, to finish high school there with the Christopher family.  Soon, because the Christophers want to help a child with no support, Carlotta gets sent to Chicago. She still doesn't have enough credits from the courses to complete 11th grade, so she goes to Chicago to attend summer classes.  She stayed with her relatives.  Here in Chicago she falls in love with music and goes to many of the music events.  She's having so much fun.
                 Central allows intergration again and now it starts very early in August.  Only Carlotta and Jefferson are left at Central.  Carlotta's summer classes don't end untill the last few weeks of August, so she begins her senior year a little late.  Jefferson is left to comfront the school by himself but Elizabeth tags along even though she already completed high school, just so he won't go alone.    
Quote: "Much of white Little Rock blamed Mrs. Bates and our parents for the crisis" (Lanier 147).
Reaction: The economy of Little Rock was suffering.  There was no education going on and Faubus kept telling the whites that if it wasn't for them, the schools could have been opened.  It isn't their faults, it's Faubus' fault.

A Mighty Long Way (pgs 82-123)

Summary:The nine students are now allowed to go back to school.  They are dropped off  at Mrs. Bates' home and escorted to school in cars with the NAACP.  A police officer had called them and told them to enter through the side door.  They did and then went to their classrooms.  That same day while they were getting escorted, journalists were beat up by the mob out front.  One of them, Wilson was hit with a brick in the head, causing him to get a disease with a nervous condition.  He died 3 years later.  That first day she got pushed and more.  Later that day, the nine were all escorted out of school while school was still in session in a hurry.  They were in danger because of the angry mob.  They had to cover up with blankets in the car so no one wouldn't see them.
               That night Carlotta, watched television where President Eisenhower, gave a speech saying how he will try his best to protect the nine and that there should be peace.  He also said how he was going to send the military force troops to Little Rock to escort the nine throughout the whole day of school.  They nine, ready to go to school again, met at the Bates' home.  The troops got there and escorted them to school. This time they walked into the front entrance of the school.  There daily lives as students at Central was a battle.  They got called names, they got pushed and spit on.  Carlotta struggled with this and had to learn how to protect her own self.  Her guard seemed to not see or hear anything, like the spitting, so she had to learn different techniques of defending herself.  Once her books got pushed out her hand and as she bent down to get them, another kid kicked her from behind making her fall on her face.  She learned things like walking close to the wall really helped.  Carlotta hated speaking about her day at school because it made her relive something she didn't want to.  It made her lose energy and feel down.
             One of the people who bothered Carlotta was a redheaded girl.  She would constantly step on Carlotta's heels over and over again on purpose, which caused her to bleed.  The nine were warned not to do anything back to them, so she just kept on walking.  One day, though, as the redheaded girl did her daily routine, Carlotta turned around and the girl froze in silence.  The girl She walked away.  
              Minnie, one of the nine, got suspended because she dumped chili on a boys head.  The boy was bullying her and she let her anger take over her.  Later, that year, she got suspended again and eventually expelled.  People were so angry about intergration, there were many bomb threats of the school. There were sympathetic kids at school and also the trouble makers.  The sympathetic ones were nice to the nine, but were never seen with them. 
Quote: "So without a word, I just wiped my face against the sleeve of my dress and kept on trekking."(Lanier 100).
Reaction:  This was after the kids in school spit on her face.  She stayed calm and just wiped her face.  This shows she tried her best not to stoop to their level. Its a very hard thing to stay calm like that if someone spit on you.

A Mighty Long Way (pgs 44-81)

Summary: The big news came while Carlotta was attending school one day.  Central High School was now ordered to be intergrated.  Carlotta without thinking wrote her name down on the list of students that wanted to and qualified to attend Central.  She didn't mention it to her parents.  To her it was just any regular decision. 
                 Her home was getting remodled and her father worked 3 jobs in order to give the family whatever they needed.  Her father built many things and even the new master bedroom in there house.  They gave Carlotta the present of keeping the room.  They even bought a really nice television to now watch the latest news.
                When she went to register day a lady sent her home with a card saying that they had to attend a meeting with the superintendent in order to be accepted with her parents.  When she got outside Ms Bates, president of the Arkansas state conference, was waiting there. They soon attended the meeting and they went over the rules that no black boy can look at a white girl.  School was about to start and that night Governor Faubus made a speech about how all should attend school the next day and there would be guards there to keep the peace.  Then the next day they got an announcement that told them that there has been a delay on integration.  A couple days later another announcement was made to go to school.  The kids should meet a block away from school and they would get escorted to the school. When they got there, there was an angry  mob and the guards wouldn't let them into the school because of Faubus' orders.
                 They stayed out of school for a while.  Then they went to court where the attourney Marshall won the case for them.  Now they would just have to wait and see what would happen when they did go to school.

Quote:  "nigger ....nigger....nigger.  It shot out of angry mouths like bullets and pierced my ears again and again." ( Lanier 70).

Reaction:  The mob was very ferocious after seeing the black students walk towards the entrance of the school.  You can just imagine the scene.  She says it shot out like bullets which shows the amount of tension there could have been.  She also said it pierced her ears which shows how strongly the words affected her.

A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School (1 to 43)

Summary- Carlotta begins to explain how growing up she didn't really think about all the rules society had, she just followed them. She didnt think about why blacks had to be separate from whites.  She tells about how she really loves her family which includes grandpa Big Daddy, grandpa Cullins, her father, her mother and more. She grew up in Little Rock where her parents tell her to never act with ignorance like the whites.  Her family thinks of education as a big thing.  One summer she goes to New York to spend time with her aunt Juanita.  There she experienced a life she never experienced before.  There was no separation in where blacks could go and where whites could go.  It was like they were all equal there. She loved the city lights and more.  Then she goes back to her hometown to find that they are trying to integrate schools.  Then something very shocking happens in Mississippi where a teenage boy, Emmett Till, gets violently killed by whites and the photos are very disturbing to Carlotta. She is yet to face her own problems.
Quotation- Her mother told her this. " ' Carlotta, we must be patient with ignorance and never, ever bring ourselves down to their level.' " (Lanier 17).
Reaction-  She is saying how the whites act with lack of knowlegde towards the blacks and how she should never do the same in act of revenge- to just be patient. This quote caught my eye because my parents always tell me the same thing - to be the bigger person.