Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1977 novel by Mildred D. Taylor. Part of her Logan family series, it is a sequel to her 1975 novella Song of the Trees. It won the 1977 Newbery Medal. The novel is the first book in the Logan family saga, which includes four sequels (Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981), The Road to Memphis (1992), The Gold Cadillac (1987), and All the Days Past, All the Days to Come (2020)) and three prequels (The Land (2001), The Well: David's Story (1995), and Song of the Trees (1975)) as well as two novellas (Mississippi Bridge (1990) and The Friendship (1987)). In the book, Taylor explores struggles of African Americans in 1930s Mississippi through the perspective of nine-year-old Cassie Logan. The novel contains several themes, including Jim Crow segregation, Black landownership, sharecropping, the Great Depression, and lynching. Plot In 1933, nine-year-old Cassie Logan lives in rural Mississippi with her three brothers, Stacey (twelve years old), Christopher-John (seven years old), and Little Man (six years old). Unlike most black families in their area, the Logan family owns the land on which they reside. It originally belonged to a white plantation owner, Harlan Granger, who sold it to cover his taxes during Reconstruction. Rather than a single, overarching storyline, the bulk of the novel consists of several intertwining plots, each involving one or more members of the Logan family and illustrating various aspects of black/white race relations. Several episodes feature black characters being humiliated by powerful white citizens and being forced to weigh the potential cost of standing up for themselves. At school, Cassie and Little Man notice that the books they use were originally distributed to the white children and given to the black students once they wear out. Cassie's father, David Logan, visits the family from his job on the railroad during the holidays. Mama organizes a boycott of the Wallaces' store because they are the cause of most of the trouble between the blacks and the whites, as well as possibly being members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Wallaces retaliate. Stacey's friend T.J. sets Stacey up to be accused of cheating in school. T.J ends his friendship with Stacey and befriends two brothers, R.W. and Melvin Simms, who are white. The Simms boys convince T.J. to help them burgle the Barnett store. In the process, Mr. Barnett is killed by the