Addy's Summer Place

This is one of the American Girls Short Stories books.

Addy, her mother, and her sister, Esther, are going to New Jersey for a Fourth of July holiday. They are going to visit Addy's father, who works there.

They had to ride in a train car that was for colored people only, and they had some ice cream at a ice cream parlor that was, again, for colored only. Addy runs into a young white girl who hates black people.

Addy's mother tries to explain to her why she has to remember to “stay in her place.” Addy later finds the white girl stealing one of their rabbits from her father's rabbit trap, and finds out the girl is mistreated by her mother.

The book also includes historical information, and a section on how to make ice cream.

Even though the book is short, it's good, in that it examines just how prejudice affected black people after the end of the Civil War. No matter what direction black people of the time turned, there were going to run into racial prejudice. It could range from people disliking people, to blacks not being allowed to use the same stores, etc, that white people could, all the way to violence, including lynchings.

It is also unfortunate that other groups of people have also faced similar discrimination, including Native Americans, Jews, Hispanics, Irish, Germans, Orientals, and almost any other immigrant group you can think of. Even in today's world Native Americans have their reservations, blacks still run into discrimination, some people still speak against the Jews, and the Mexicans and other Hispanics have become the second-most discriminated and disliked group.

Sometimes it seems nothing really changes.

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