In the novel, “Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry” the author Mildred D Taylor tries to give us a vivid experience of what it was like living in the times of the Great Depression.  During that time blacks had yet to be freed and given equal rights and opportunities.  The novel suggests in the era of immense inequality blacks had to work twice as hard to thrive in times of social injustice and segregation.

During The Great Depression, most blacks had to default to using sharecropping as their main source of income.  It was rare for them to own their own land.  Sharecropping left them with little money because it all went to the white landowners.   As a result, they had to work twice as hard to even put food on their table.  An example of this from the novel was what Mr. Turner said, “I got no cash money. Mr. Montier signs for me up at that Wallace store so’s I can get my tools, my mule, my seed, my fertilizer, my food, and what few clothes I needs to keep my children from running’ plumb naked.” Mr. Turner also said,” When cotton-pickin’ time comes, he sells my cotton, takes half of it, pays my debt up at that store and my interest for they credit, then charges me ten to fifteen percent more as “risk” money for signin’ for me in the first place. This year I earned me near two hundred dollars after Mr. Montier took his half of the crop money, but I ain’t seen a penny of it”.  From what Mr. Turner said in the sentences above this shows he makes little money and whites like Mr. Montier take it from them as “risk” money holding it over their heads.  This also shows they make the blacks rely on them because they take more than their fair share of the profits.  As a result, making them work harder to even provide for their families.  Because of the lack of rights and freedoms as well as resources, there was not much that could be done about it

The white landowners made it extremely difficult for any black person to gain any sort of independence.  When they thought the blacks are trying to get some freedom they shut it down like when the Logans are trying to stop the sales at the Wallace’s.  A good example of this is when the landowners who are involved in sharecropping increase prices.  Mr. Lanier said, “Mr. Granger making it hard on us, David.  Said we gonna have to give him sixty percent of the cotton, ‘stead of fifty… now that the cotton’s planted and it’s too late to plant more. . .. Don’t s’pose though that makes much difference. The way cotton sells these days, seems the more we plant, the less money we gets anyways”.  These examples demonstrate they felt they had no way out; no control and it was evident the whites don’t care for them. They wanted to make sure they didn’t have any freedom.   By creating this kind of culture, they were they are punishing them for trying to get some independence.  Another[tf8]  example of this awful treatment was when Mr Granger threated to take the land away from the Logan family.  Mr Logan said to Mr Granger, “You being white you can just ‘bout plan on anything you want.  But I tell you this one thing: You plan on getting this land, you’re planning on the wrong thing.” Mr. Granger then followed with, “there’s lots of ways of stopping you, David”.  All these examples from the novel demonstrate how much they struggled to keep what was theirs. 

Discrimination was a problem that didn’t just impact the black adults, it also came into play in the lives of the kids.  For example, when the Logan kids walk to school every day the bus antagonizes them and made fun of them because of the color of their skin. They called them names and splashed them with water, mud, and dirt whenever they could.  In the novel it states, “Little man headed toward the bank, but it was too steep.  He ran franticly along the road looking for a foothold and, finding one, hopped onto the bank, but not before the bus had sped past enveloping him in a scarlet haze while laughing white faces pressed against the bus windows.” This just shows the social injustice of the era and how kids even treated blacks.  Another example from the novel was the bus driver also likes to entertain his passengers by sending them slipping on the muddy road.  I’m not surprised by the behavior of the children, because it was what they watched the adult do.

Unfortunately, this behavior of discrimination was continued on from adults towards children.  When Cassie went to Strawberry with Big Ma, she accidentally bumped into Lillian Jean leaving Mr. Barnett’s store. Lillian Jeans' father yelled at her, while grabbing her arm and throwing her off the sidewalk.  This was absolutely humiliating for Cassie because it was a complete accident.  Cassie was at the Barnett Mercantile and was not getting help because Mr. Barnett would go on to make a white person order instead.  Unfamiliar with this Cassie said, “Uh . . . ‘scuse me, Mr. Barnett, “I said as polity as I could, waiting a moment for him to look up from his wrapping. “I think you forgot, but you was waiting on us ‘fore you was waiting on this girl here, and we been waiting a good while now for you to get back.” Mr. Barnett then says,” Whose little ni**** is this.” This clearly made Cassie angry, and she was again humiliated.  Unfortunately, Cassie didn’t understand the social standard for blacks in this time, meaning they shouldn’t be waited on before whites or argumentative towards them.  They yelled at Cassie with hatred to get out of the store.  This demonstrates how they had little regard for someone different than themselves or even take into consideration she was a child who needed help.  This is a perfect example of discrimination because of the color of her skin.

Some people may argue that blacks were freed from slavery and discrimination because they made some money and due to the Great Depression, some were able to purchase their own land. However as demonstrated throughout this article and the novel it clearly shows they had very little rights, made very little money and had almost the same amount of freedom as when they were slaves. All of these events and reactions correspond to the message, blacks had to work twice as hard to thrive in this kind of environment where social injustice, racial discrimination and segregation was still very prominent.     

In conclusion, this novel helped me have a better understanding of the difficulties and hardships many black Americans have endured throughout history.  Unfortunately, social injustice still occurs today, and we still have a lot of work to do.