Leons Story

Leon's story
By: Leon Walter Tillage
Collage art by Susan  L Roth
Leon Walter Tillage 1997

I will admit that when I went in to this story I was not expecting much at all. I was in the mindset that it was just another multicultural book about slavery and racism and that I have heard it all before. However, I was severely shocked and taken aback by the content of it and I feel like my initial perspective while going in to the book had thrown me off my guard. I honestly do not even feel like it is really a children's story because it is just that brutal.  Even though it is the truth of what had happened back then it was described so vividly that you almost felt like you were seeing it. What got to me the most was when the father was run over by the car, I was absolutely appalled by this, and later on when Leon is talking about how the hoses during the marches would peel their skin off I was revolted. The book was just so well written in its few pages, but was also very vivid and graphic. I know for sure I would not feel comfortable reading this book to any student that is under 6th grade.

As I got into the more graphic parts of the book, the water fountain scene, the dog scene, and the father scene, I was always thinking what grade this would be best suited for. I feel like teaching this by the time 8th grade or high school rolls around would be much too late in my opinion because I do not think they would take it seriously. However, I would be scared to show this to 6th graders because I wouldn't want to scar them for life, but at the same time I would really want them to see how bad racism was, and how much of a negative time it was. As bad as it may sound I feel like a student by 6th or 7th grade would need this smack in the face of seeing how bad it was before they assimilated to thinking it was fun to make racist jokes and such.  I feel like in order to really try and nip racism you have to start early, and I feel that around 6th grade is when the bullying really begins to come into play with it being a lot more serious. From my experiences, 6th grade was when people stopped picking on you for the clothes you wore or the books you read,but to WHO you were and what you represented.

Other than the brutality of the book I really liked how it was split up into sections like school and family cause it kept each section to one theme so you could learn about it easily, and it never got confusing which would be really useful for students I believe. I felt like I actually really learned a lot from this book and it was a huge eye opener to what really happened then. It is so scary and unbelievable that this happened so recently and that people could honestly take enjoyment in this life style, I don't know how anyone could kill for fun, and just blow it off because "things like that just happen sometimes." I feel that this book is so important for people to read because it shows us that we can stop this even if it is small things. In just its 100 pages, Leon's Story has really changed my outlook on life.