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Author Evelyn Coleman visits John Muir Elementary

The adventures of “White Socks Only"

by Jonathan Gramling

Part 3 of 4

On February 10-11, children's book author Evelyn Coleman visited Madison to read to the students at John Muir Elementary School. Coleman, author of the critically acclaimed children's book "White Socks Only," is, in a way, no stranger to the Madison area although this was her first trip to Wisconsin. Among her many published works are two History Mysteries titles, "Mystery of the Dark Tower" and "Circle of Fire," written for Middleton's Pleasant Company's American Girl doll line.

It was fitting that Coleman read "White Socks Only" to the class at John Muir during Black History Month because "White Socks" is a disarmingly simple, yet complex, story about integration in the South from the eyes of an innocent African American girl who drinks from a "whites only" water fountain and is confronted by a White man.. And while it may appear to be a simple children's story, "White Socks" was a labor for Coleman. It took her three years to write it.

Coleman's original version focused on the incident at the water fountain, but Coleman realized that wouldn't work, tore that manuscript up, and started over. "I started over just trying to write about the little girl with my goal being to create a feeling of love for the little girl first," Coleman said during an interview with The Madison Times. "Then, if something happens to her, no matter who does it, you're with her. I didn't want to run the risk that people might be with the man. That's why she's doing something silly like trying to fry the egg on the sidewalk."

The most controversial part of the story is when the man hits the little girl. This part also went through some revisions. "In the original that I actually sold, the White man does not hit her with the belt," Coleman said. "He didn't have a belt. He just yelled at her. My editor said 'No, it has to be more powerful than that.' Then, I eventually relinquished. It was difficult for me to have him hit her and the other people. The interesting thing is that I have had teachers who complain that is a little bit too violent for their students. And I've also had someone ask me if I had to have him hit her. I said 'The bottom line is that in reality, he might have lynched her.' In reality, they would have hurt her much more than I have them hurt her in the book. So, I am already being mindful and holding back. I grew up during that time, so I know it wasn't taken lightly. People didn't care that you were a child. If you stepped out of that line, you were hurt."

And indeed, the confrontation at the water fountain is very powerful and moving because Coleman expertly sets up a sharp comparison between innocence and cruelty through the character development at the beginning of the story. "I read it to a 1,000 teachers at once and they're just so happy when I'm at the first part of this story," Coleman said. "And when that girl steps up on those steps, you can hear a pin drop because every teacher knows something bad is going to happen and they are holding their breath. It's amazing how different the first feeling for that story is from the second feeling. Then at the very end when the chicken is on the water fountain, there is relief. I can hear the relief. But my work - The New York Times was the first to bring that out - is the only book, the first book that had a touch of revenge in it for Black people. I like to think of it as fairness, not revenge. But that's what they called it."

One of Coleman's most fulfilling moments as a writer came when she presented to a class at an elementary school attached to the Gallaudet School for the Deaf in Washington, D.C. An elementary school teacher was using "White Socks" in her classroom and asked Coleman to visit the class. An interpreter read to the class and signed for them. "One of the students was Black and the other kids were White," Coleman recalled. "One of them was this really beautiful blond haired little boy with blue eyes. When the interpreter finished 'White Socks Only,' he jumped up and signed frantically 'That's me. That little girl is me.' Not only had he transcended race, but gender as well. We all cried: me, the teacher, the interpreter, and the other little kids.' Those kinds of moments keep me going because every now and then, I swear I am going to quit. I'm never going to write another line. I'm over. I'm done."

Coleman also learned that the interpretation of "White Socks" is in the eye of the beholder. Coleman learned that a group of sixth grade students from a small town in Georgia had adapted "White Socks" into a play and she was invited to see the play, which the children had turned into a comedy. Coleman accepted the invitation. "All of the adults were shocked," Coleman recalled. "They just sucked the air out of the room until I laughed. They were terrified. But it was funny to me. And when it was over, the teacher was very apologetic. I said 'You don't have to apologize. I am honored that those children are so innocent that they couldn't understand that part of the story.' They saw it just as a story about a bad man getting what he deserved. And it had nothing to do with race in their minds. That's how they portrayed the story. The big White man was this tiny little boy with some big overalls on. He went 'Ho, ho, ho.' He was like a villain Santa Claus. He was just so funny. Adults will always see that story differently than children. And adults who were born during or before the civil rights movement will always see that in a different way."

Final installment: Writing values