Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North

The book takes place in 1919, with the main character being Nellie Lee Love, an eleven-year-old girl. She and her family live above the funeral parlor which they own.

The book deals with two kinds of prejudice. The most obvious one is white prejudice against blacks. Nellie starts out the book living in Tennessee, and there's a lot of KKK-type violence that takes place. An uncle of hers is killed after being severely beaten, but the local sheriff tries to pass it off as some kind of accident.

Her family moves to Chicago to escape the troubles but finds out that prejudice also exists in the North. The story includes what happened in a riot in Chicago that left 38 people dead, 15 whites and 23 blacks.

There's also another kind of prejudice shown in the book, though, and that is black on black prejudice, where light-skinned blacks were looking down on dark-skinned blacks.

It's a good book and covers some events most people might not know ever happened.


Yadult Index

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