Free at Last!: Stories and Songs of Emancipation [Paperback]

True stories and traditional songs shed light on a lesser known era in African-American history — the crucial decades between Emancipation and the start of the Civil Rights movement.

An International Reading Association Teachers' Choice

A Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice

A Chicago Public Library Best Book

Rappaport and Evans reprise the passion and power that informed their 2002 collaboration, shining their spotlight on the progess and struggles of African Americans from 1863 to 1954. Vigorous prose is punctuated by poems, songs, and excerpts from primary sources, all of which illuminate the peculiar experiences of a people freed and still not free. — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Back matter includes a list of important dates, an artist’s note, sources, resources for further information, and an index.  THE STORY OF HARRIET POSTLE

Harriet Postle shifts her weight from side to side in bed. It is hard finding a comfortable sleeping position when you are seven months pregnant. She reaches over to touch her

husband, when she hears a thundering noise outside.

"Postle, we know you’re in there! You’d better come out!"

Harriet knows who is yelling — the Ku Klux Klan men wearing masks, tall pointed caps, and long white robes.

Her oldest son wakes and ducks under the mattress. The baby wakes and starts to fuss. Her husband darts out of bed, loosens three floorboards, and jumps into the hiding place they prepared months ago. She replaces the planks. She steps into her skirt to cover her nightshirt, but she is so flustered she gets entangled in the material.

"Postle! Open up this door! You can’t hide from us!"

Harriet scoops up the baby and plops down in a chair over the hiding place. She puts her hands over the baby’s ears, trying to block out the furious banging.

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