JEFFGOTTESFELD

The greatest civil rights struggle story you've never heard happened in August, 1939, in Alexandria Virginia, when a young Black attorney and six young Black men risked everything for the right to read. 

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Alexandria, Virginia -- just across the Potomac from D.C. -- opened its inaugural pubic library in 1939. Jim Crow South, so whites-only. Alexandria native and young lawyer S.W. Tucker wasn't having it. He organized what came to be known as the sit-down strike -- a read-in to integrate that library. It was the first ever civil disobedience test case. He nearly won. 

 

Written with my dear friend Michelle Y. Green (A STRONG RIGHT ARM) 
Illustrated by Kim Holt (JUSTICE KETANJI)  
Publication September 9,  2025. Preorder, now!  ​​