Fight for the Right to Read

Learning Goals

• Identify Samuel Wilbert Tucker and explain how he helped organize the 1939 Alexandria library sit-in to challenge racial discrimination.
• Sequence the protest’s main events and explain why the participants used peaceful action to seek equal access to books.
• Use details from the text and illustrations to describe how unfair library rules affected Black community members.
• Explain why access to books matters and propose ways to make a classroom or school library welcoming to everyone.

Activity Steps

1. 1.Introduce the question, “Who should be allowed to use a public library?” Explain that the book tells about a time when Alexandria, Virginia, denied Black residents equal library access because of their race. Locate Virginia on a map if available.
2. 2.Read Fight for the Right to Read aloud. Pause to discuss Tucker’s plan, the protesters’ actions, and the library’s response. Ask, “What details show that the protesters prepared carefully and acted peacefully?”
3. 3.Create a class sequence chart: unfair library access → Tucker’s planning → the library sit-in → the response and aftermath described in the book. Have students support each entry with a text detail or illustration.
4. 4.Discuss the difference between an unfair rule and a fair rule. Ask, “Did the response to the protest provide equal access? What in the book supports your thinking?” Help students distinguish a separate library from equal access to the same public library.
5. 5.Have students create a “Books Belong to Everyone” poster. Students in K–2 draw a welcoming library and dictate or write one sentence connecting it to the book. Students in grades 3–5 write a short paragraph explaining how Tucker and the protesters challenged injustice, using two book details.
6. 6.Share posters and agree on two actions that make your classroom library welcoming. Close with an exit response: “The Alexandria protesters fought for the right to read because…”