Witness,+by+Karen+Hesse

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About This Book
=== The Ku Klux Klan had its beginning in the South immediately following the Civil War; its original purpose was to prevent freed slaves from gaining full rights of citizenship. Revived in the early years of the 20th century, the Klan expanded its campaign of hate and violence to include newer immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, and especially Jews and Catholics. Spreading into all parts of America, the Klan attempted to infiltrate small towns and enlist members by creating fear of those who are "different" and professing to embrace truly "American" values. ===

=== WITNESS tells the story of the Klan's attempt to recruit members in a small town in Vermont in 1924. A young black girl, Leanora Sutter, feels isolated by racial prejudice and her mother's recent death. She is befriended by Esther Hirsh, a younger Jewish girl, whose innocence and natural optimism provides a sharp contrast to the other characters. The Klan's hate-filled message of white supremacy is voiced by Merlin, a teenager, and Johnny Reeves, a minister in the town, who both become members. Other characters — the town constable and newspaper editor — try to walk a careful line of neutrality until they realize the importance of taking a stand. Storekeepers Viola and Harvey Pettibone represent two opposing reactions to the Klan's methods as they discuss the issue in their own home. Iris Weaver's character reflects a new freedom for women who had just gained the right to vote. Over the course of many months, residents are affected in many ways by pressures that build in the community, leading up to a climactic moment of violence. In the voices of eleven residents of the town, we experience this series of events from many different points of view, in the form of a poetic play in five acts. As the characters speak directly to the reader and relate the juxtaposition of acts of hate and love, violence and peace, terror and kindness, they illuminate the full range of human strengths and weaknesses in one small town. ===

**//Booktalk://**
===**//Leanora Sutton looks around her and she knows she is different. She is the only African American girl in her small Vermont town. She only has her father, but can he protect her from the hatred she sees in people's eyes as she walks the streets? Esther Hirsh seems friendly as does the lady, Sara Chickering, on whose farm Esther lives with her father. But Leanora knows that some people don't like the Hirshes anymore than they like her. Esther is Jewish and those mean-faced Ku Klux Klan men who parade down the street in their white robe yell out hateful things to both the Suttons and the Hirshes. "Why do they hate me", Leanora wonders? "I haven't done anything to them and Esther is just a sweet little thing with no mother, just like me." Come inside the world of Leanora and Hester and 9 other residents of this 1920's Vermont town who have to make hard decisions about belonging to the side of good or bad, courageousness or cowardliness.//**===

Questions to think about: **1. ** Why did the author choose to tell the story in many different voices? How would your experience of this story be different if it were only told from the point of view of Leanora? of Esther? of Merlin? of Sara Chickering?

 **2. ** The characters speak in a series of free verse poems, each having his or her own distinctive voice. What makes this style effective? How is this book similar to, or different from, Hesse's Newbery Award-winning OUT OF THE DUST?

 **3. ** Esther has a way of speaking that Leanora calls "funny talking." How do these speech patterns affect your perception of Esther? Why did the author choose this particular style for her voice?

 **4. ** Sara Chickering says of the Klan: "There's a kind of power they wield, a deceptive authority." What does she mean by a deceptive authority? Why does the Klan burn crosses and hide their identity behind hoods and sheets?

= = =Ku Klux Klan History:= Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party's Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s. After a period of decline, white Protestant nativist groups revived the Klan in the early 20th century, burning crosses and staging rallies, parades and marches denouncing immigrants, Catholics, Jews, blacks and organized labor. The civil rights movement of the 1960s also saw a surge of Ku Klux Klan activity, including bombings of black schools and churches and violence against black and white activists in the South. [|Article about Civil Rights Activists Missing]

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