Mildred Taylor has written a masterpiece with the novel, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.  This vivid story of Cassie Logan and her siblings, Stacey, Little-Man and Christopher-John allows the reader to know what life was like for African-Americans during the Great Depression and in the deep South of Mississippi.  The story begins with the children going to school and quickly the reader witnesses the racism of the children’s hometown when the white bus driver purposely drives the bus so close to the walking children that they are splashed with the Mississippi mud. Throughout the novel racism is clearly seen when Cassie is pushed by Mr. Simms for not addressing his daughter as “Miss Lillian”, when the night men come riding, when the Berry’s are burned to death and no action is taken, and finally when T.J. Avery is wrongly accused. The novel is from the point of view of the sassy character Cassie and the reader sees the role of racism and hard times through the eyes of an observant child.
 
    Amid this hatred and racism from their white neighbors, the Logan family is a strong one with Big Ma, Mama and Papa, these strong characters help make the children who they are and they also help the family survive.  There is a constant worry in the Logan household about money and the condition of the land.  There is always a threat that the Logan family will lose their land and thus, lose their livelihood.  When Mama loses her job at Great Faith due to racism and T.J. Avery’s mouth times get tougher and the reader sees the stress of having Mama out of work and Papa far away on working the railroad.
 This story of the Logan children introduces many other characters such as Mr. Morrison who comes to live with the Logan family when he can no longer find work and Papa asks him to work the farm and watch over his family while he is away. Another central character in the novel is T.J. Avery.  T.J. is one of Stacey’s best friends and he is known for getting into trouble.  T.J. constantly wants to use Stacey to cheat at the Great Faith School and he finally succeeds and allows Stacey to receive the punishment.  T.J. constantly disobeys and stretches the truth.  He goes to the Wallace general store and this is where he meets the Simms brothers, Melvin and R.W. T.J. gets mixed up with these two white boys and he does not realize that these boys only are making fun of him and wish him harm.  T.J. forgets about his old friends Stacey and the rest of the Logan children because he is jealous of them and how their family owns their own land (Many people in the community, especially poor white people, resent the fact that the Logan family owns their own land and home).  He quickly spends all his time with the Simms brothers and the community begins to have fearful thoughts about this unlikely friendship.  The thoughts prove to be correct when R.W. and Melvin frame T.J. in Strawberry, Mississippi.
 
    T.J. wanted the pistol in the general store in Strawberry and the Simms brothers said they would get it for him.  The brothers forced T.J. to break into the store with them and steal the pistol.  When the owner came down the stairs the Simms brothers (with hoses over their faces) hit him over the head and the owner died.  After this horrific episode the brothers beat T.J. and told him to tell no one what had just occurred.  T.J. immediately went to the Logan’s home and told Stacey everything that had happened.  He only wanted Stacey to take him home and so he did with Cassie alongside him.
When T.J. safely returned to his house a gang of white men including, the Simms brothers, arrived at the Avery house and threw all of the family outside while they beat and called them horrible names; they were looking for T.J. and they wanted to hang him for the murder of the general store owner.  The sheriff finally arrived around the same time that a fire started near the Logan farm and the Granger plantation (the white man, Mr. Granger who sharecropped his farmland beside the Logan land).  The fire was what saved the life of T.J. at that moment in time.  All of the night men present quickly went to put the fire out and save the crops.  T.J. was taken by the sheriff, with the hope of being able to get a fair trial.  The novel ends with Cassie worried about the land and the fate of T.J.