50 Fun Facts About Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, how does Papa secretly stop the mob lynching T.J. Avery?

Papa sets his own cotton afire, so the men drop T.J. to save the neighboring plantation's trees. A quarter of the Logan crop burns, and Cassie works out the truth without being told.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what does Uncle Hammer sell so the Logans can pay off the bank?

His Packard goes because the bank suddenly demands the whole loan, under pressure from white neighbors angry about the boycott. He turns up on foot with the money and leaves again within a day.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which French novelist does Papa tell his children was a Black man?

Alexandre Dumas was the grandson of an enslaved African woman in what is now Haiti. Cassie and Stacey unwrap his adventure novels on Christmas morning, along with licorice, oranges and bananas.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, how do the Logan children get even with the school bus that splashes them?

They dig a ditch across the road at lunchtime, and an afternoon of rain widens it into a pond that breaks the bus's axle. The white pupils walk for about two weeks while it is out of action.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, T.J. wins Stacey's new coat by saying it makes him look like what?

A preacher is the jibe that works, because the coat from Uncle Hammer is too big for Stacey. Uncle Hammer then lets T.J. keep it for good, to teach his nephew not to be talked out of what is his.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the white children's school with two buses honors which Confederate leader?

Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's only president, sat in Congress for Mississippi before the Civil War. Cassie notices the state flag flying above the American one outside the school.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the title's words come from what, voiced by Mr. Morrison as he stands guard?

A song opens chapter eleven, aimed at the approaching storm by the man guarding the Logan house. Mr. Morrison has kept that watch ever since Papa was hurt.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, how does Cassie get her revenge on Lillian Jean Simms?

Cassie befriends her, then fights her in the woods after a month of carrying the older girl's books and collecting her secrets. Those secrets keep Lillian Jean from telling anyone at home.

On the first day of school in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what does Little Man do to his reader?

Little Man stomps on it after reading the chart inside, which shows the book reached Black pupils only once white children had worn it out. His teacher answers with a switch.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what does Mr. Morrison do when Kaleb Wallace's truck blocks the road?

Mr. Morrison moves it aside by hand after checking the cab for a gun, while Kaleb threatens to shoot him for injuring his brothers. He later tells Mama her children are like the family he never had.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which national crisis has cut crop prices and sent Papa away to find work?

The Great Depression has dragged crop prices down since 1930, so the harvest no longer covers the mortgage and taxes. Papa spends most of each year away laying railroad track.

Most Black families near the Logans in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry farm a landlord's fields under which system?

Sharecropping pays the landlord in crops, and when tenants join the boycott their landlords raise that cut from half the harvest to sixty percent. The Logans can resist because their land is their own.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which plantation owner keeps pressing Big Ma to sell him the Logan land?

Harlan Granger wants back the acres his family once sold off to pay taxes. He drives over to badger Big Ma, and later hints that the bank could call in the Logans' loan.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which white boy walks to school with the Logans despite being whipped for it?

Jeremy keeps meeting the Logans at the crossroads even though his own schoolmates pick on him for it. At Christmas he turns up at their door with a bag of nuts and a present he made himself.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what does T.J. covet in Barnett's store and later help the Simms brothers steal?

A pearl-handled pistol sits in a display case at the Mercantile, and T.J. badly wants it. During the break-in the storekeeper is struck with the flat of an axe, and he dies the next morning.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what are the white vigilantes who killed Mr. Morrison's family called?

Night men is the book's name for them, and Mr. Morrison tells how they attacked his family's home one Christmas when he was six. Papa insists that the children stay and listen.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which river city do the Logans shop in to avoid the Wallace store?

Vicksburg is an overnight journey away, which is why poorer neighbors struggle to join the boycott. Papa is ambushed on the road back from one of those shopping runs.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what is Mama teaching when school board men walk in and fire her?

Slavery, and the profit it made for those who owned people, is a subject the county's textbook leaves out. Her visitors accuse her of teaching what is not in the approved book and dismiss her on the spot.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which white lawyer backs Black families' credit and later blocks a lynch mob?

Mr. Jamison shields T.J. with his own body, then parks his car across the road so the mob cannot drive the boy away. The Logans bought half of their land from his family.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what is the real first name of the six-year-old the Logans call Little Man?

Clayton Chester is what his teacher calls him as she scolds him for asking for a cleaner book. The youngest Logan is fussy about neatness and walks slowly to keep the road dust off his clothes.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what happens to Sam Tatum after he calls storekeeper Mr. Barnett a liar?

Tarred and feathered is the punishment a mob hands out, after Tatum accused the storekeeper of charging him for goods he never ordered. T.J. brings the news to the Logan children.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which handmade Christmas gift does a white neighbor boy bring Stacey?

A flute, which the boy carved himself, puzzles Stacey until Papa suggests it repays a year of friendship. Papa also warns that friendship between Black and white is rarely on equal terms.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which small tree does Papa show Cassie as a lesson in never giving up?

A fig tree on the Logan farm is smaller than the trees around it yet keeps doing what it has to do. Papa says the family must be the same after frightened neighbors drop out of the boycott.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what breaks Papa's leg when gunmen ambush him on a stormy road?

A rolling wagon does it: a bullet grazes Papa's head and the wagon rolls over his leg. He had been refitting a wheel that came off, probably loosened on purpose in town.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, in which neighboring state does Papa spend months laying railroad track?

Louisiana keeps Papa away from spring until winter, because the farm alone cannot pay the taxes and mortgage. He brings Mr. Morrison home from the railroad as a hired hand and protector.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, in which northern city does Uncle Hammer live, away from Mississippi's racism?

Chicago is where he went to get away, and his earnings there help the family more than once. His quick temper makes every visit home a risk.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the Logan land was first sold to pay taxes during which era?

Reconstruction is when a Northerner bought the acres, and Cassie's grandfather later purchased them from him. The old owner's family has wanted them back ever since.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what do the Wallaces threaten for boycotting families who owe them money?

The chain gang, with the sheriff's help, is the threat that scares indebted tenants back to the Wallace store. Papa later fears the same fate for T.J.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which Great Faith teacher switches Cassie and Little Man over the worn books?

Miss Crocker cannot see why the children object to the label inside, and tells Cassie it only says what she is. She thinks the pupils should be grateful for any books at all.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, how does Mama deal with the insulting chart inside the school's hand-me-down books?

Mama pastes paper over it in each of her children's books, then does the same for her whole seventh-grade class. Months later that act is held against her when she loses her job.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, separate schools reflect which segregation system that lasted into the 1960s?

Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation across the South from the late 1800s until Congress overturned most of them in the mid-1960s. In the novel they explain why one school has buses and the other has none.

Which American children's book prize did Mildred D. Taylor win for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?

The Newbery Medal for 1977 went to what was only her second book, drawn from family stories of Mississippi. The medal honors the year's most distinguished American writing for children.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Big Ma, who holds the deed to the land, is which relative of Cassie?

Papa's mother is Caroline Logan, who still works the fields and shares a bed with Cassie. She tells her granddaughter how her late husband bought the land piece by piece.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what must Cassie do after Charlie Simms twists her arm on a sidewalk?

Cassie has to apologize to his daughter a second time, because Big Ma fears she will be hurt if she refuses. Cassie counts it the cruelest day she has ever lived through.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, what makes Cassie speak up angrily inside Barnett's Mercantile?

White customers are served first, one after another, while T.J.'s order sits for close to an hour. When Cassie reminds the storekeeper, he insults her and orders Stacey to take her out.

Which future Oscar winner played Uncle Hammer in the 1978 TV film of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?

Morgan Freeman had found fame on the children's series The Electric Company, and his Oscar came decades later for Million Dollar Baby. Claudia McNeil played Big Ma in the same adaptation.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, to which market town does Big Ma drive before dawn to sell milk and eggs?

Strawberry disappoints Cassie on her first visit, a small and shabby place where Big Ma must set up far from the market entrance. The spots near the gate belong to white sellers.

Mildred D. Taylor says the Logan stories behind Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry came above all from which relative?

Her father was a storyteller who passed on the family's history, as did her uncles and an aunt. Taylor has said that without him her books would not exist.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, why does Mama whip Stacey during a history test?

He holds cheat notes that he has just grabbed from T.J., whose trick it was. After school Stacey chases him to the Wallace store, where the two fight until Mr. Morrison pulls them apart.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, where does the Logans' white friend sleep to get away from his own family?

A tree house is his refuge from older brothers he dislikes, and he believes he can see the Logan farm from it. He invites the Logan children up, but Stacey coldly turns him down.

Which short book first introduced Cassie Logan and her family, a year before Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?

Song of the Trees won first prize from the Council on Interracial Books for Children two years before it was published. In it Cassie tries to save the family's forest from lumbermen.

Which sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry rejoins Cassie Logan as a seventeen-year-old in 1941?

The Road to Memphis sends Cassie, Stacey and their friends on a drive to get Moe Turner safely out of Mississippi. It won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1991.

Before writing Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor spent two years with the Peace Corps in which country?

Ethiopia was her posting soon after college. Back in the United States she took a master's degree in journalism and helped create a Black Studies program.

In which Ohio city did Mildred D. Taylor, author of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, grow up and attend university?

Toledo became home when her family left Mississippi while she was a young child, and she graduated from the city's university in 1965. She later settled in Colorado.

In which Mississippi city was Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry author Mildred D. Taylor born, before a move north?

Jackson, the state capital, was her home only in early childhood, before the family moved north. Her great-grandfather was a former slave, the son of an African-Indian woman and a white landowner.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, why does Mrs. Barnett think all three burglars are Black?

Two wear stocking masks, so R.W. and Melvin Simms pass unrecognized while T.J. goes in barefaced. Her mistake lets the brothers pin the killing on him.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which yearly church gathering is under way when T.J. shows off his white friends?

The revival fills seven days of late summer with services, visiting and food. T.J. arrives in a suit, tie and hat with R.W. and Melvin Simms, and nobody is impressed.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, T.J. is caught leafing through The Negro, a book by which Black scholar?

W. E. B. Du Bois was one of the founders of the NAACP in 1909. T.J. claims he only wanted to read about the Egyptians, but he has been hunting for the questions on Mama's history test.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which book do Christopher-John and Little Man each unwrap on Christmas morning?

Aesop's Fables comes in two different editions, one for each of the younger boys. The children also get new clothes from Uncle Hammer.

In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which younger brother does T.J. Avery let take the blame for his own misdeeds?

Claude is more afraid of T.J. than of their mother, so he accepts the blame for a trip to the Wallace store that was his brother's idea.