Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Water Tossing Boulders
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.adrienneberard.com/
CITY: Williamsburg
STATE: VA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.adrienneberard.com/about/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2016012863
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016012863
HEADING: Berard, Adrienne
000 00366nz a2200109n 450
001 10103782
005 20160310093638.0
008 160310n| azannaabn |n aaa
010 __ |a n 2016012863
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC |e rda
100 1_ |a Berard, Adrienne
670 __ |a Water tossing boulders, 2016: |b ECIP t.p. (Adrienne Berard) dataview (journalist based in the Mississippi Delta; first book)
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Columbia University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Delta State University, Cleveland, MS, writer-in-residence.
AWARDS:Joan O’Sullivan Scholar, Newswomen’s Club of New York, 2012; Deadline Club Scholar, Society of Professional Journalists, 2013; Lynton Fellowship, Columbia University, 2013; J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, 2014.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Adrienne Berard is a writer based in Williamsburg, Virginia. She holds a degree from Columbia University. Berard has served as a writer-in-residents at the Mississippi college, Delta State University. In 2012, the Newswomen’s Club of New York named her a Joan O’Sullivan Scholar. The following year, she was named a Deadline Club Scholar by the Society of Professional Journalists and the recipient of a Lynton Fellowship from Columbia University. Bishop was also given the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award in 2014.
Love and War
Berard’s first book is Love and War, a work of nonfiction. The volume focuses on Jonathan “Jack” Keith Idema, who lived an unconventional life. Idema, whose father was a veteran of World War II, decided to enter the military, as well. He enlisted in the U.S. Army soon after graduating high school. Idema served a single term in the Army but was not asked to remain in the service. Instead, he was discharged and became part of the Army Reserve Special Forces. After many complaints about his behavior, Idema was removed from the Army Reserves.
Idema started a paintball supply company, founded a counter-terrorism organization called Counter Group, and hosted military equipment conventions. Criminal charges against him mounted over the years. The first major accusations were for wire fraud, for which Idema served three years in prison. Idema also sued others, mostly unsuccessfully. After the September 11th attacks, Idema became obsessed with finding and killing Osama bin Laden and illegally entered Afghanistan to find him and, while there, began imprisoning and torturing Afghan citizens. After being offered amnesty, Idema moved to Mexico, where he became involved in other shady enterprises and died of AIDS in 2012. Berard also profiles Idema’s romantic partner.
Water Tossing Boulders
In 2016, Berard released Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight To Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South. The volume focuses on the Lums, who were Chinese American and who lived in the South during the early-1900s. Jeu Gong Lum, the father, immigrated to the United States in 1904 and settled in Mississippi. Berard explains that immigration was experiencing a backlash at that period in time, making Lum’s arrival in the U.S. difficult. Lum married a woman named Katherine and began having children, including a daughter, Martha. During the 1920s, Martha began attending Rosedale School, an educational institution that accepted white students but not black students. Martha proved to be bright, earning all A’s in her classes. However, in September of 1924, the principal of the Rosedale School told the Lums that Martha and her sister could no longer attend the school because of their race. They would be forced to attend the “colored” school. Katherine and Jeu Gong Lum chose to fight the principal’s order and enlisted the help of Earl Brewer, a lawyer who had once served as the governor of the state of Mississippi. Brewer took the case through various courts and ultimately argued the case in from of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927. The justices, led by former president William Taft, ruled in favor of the Lums. Berard explains that this was the first case involving school segregation to be presented to the court.
Water Tossing Boulders received mixed reviews. A Publishers Weekly writer suggested: “A current of antiblack sentiment overwhelms a story of an immigrant family simply wanting the best for their children.” Jewell Anderson, critic in Library Journal, noted that the book offered “a fresh perspective” on race relations in the South during the Jim Crow era. Anderson also suggested that the book would be “potentially useful for students of specifically Asian American or Southern history.” Booklist contributor, Terry Hong, called Berard’s prose style “a bit uneven.” However, Hong concluded: “This chronicle of a little-known case of early-twentieth-century miscarriage of civil rights is enlightening and instructive.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2016, Terry Hong, review of Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South, p. 14.
Library Journal, October 15, 2016, Jewell Anderson, review of Water Tossing Boulders, p. 102.
Publishers Weekly, August 1, 2016, review of Water Tossing Boulders, p. 59.
ONLINE
Adrienne Berard Home Page, http://www.adrienneberard.com/ (May 9, 2017).
Beacon Press Web site, http://www.beacon.org/ (May 9, 2017), author profile.*
Adrienne Berard is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She has been the Writer-in-Residence at Delta State University in Mississippi and now resides in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Awards
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, 2014
Winner of Columbia University's Lynton Fellowship, 2013
Deadline Club Scholar, Society of Professional Journalists, 2013
Joan O'Sullivan Scholar, Newswomen's Club of New York, 2012
Representation
Ghosh Literary
Contact: berardadrienne [at] gmail.com
ADRIENNE BERARD
AboutLinksOn Our Blog
Adrienne Berard is an award-winning journalist and graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She has been the Writer-in-Residence at Delta State University in Mississippi and now resides in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Author photo: Jon Mark Nail
QUOTED: "a fresh perspective."
"potentially useful for students of specifically Asian American or
Southern history."
Berard, Adrienne. Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of
Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight To Desegregate
Schools in the Jim Crow South
Jewell Anderson
Library Journal.
141.17 (Oct. 15, 2016): p102.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Berard, Adrienne. Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight To Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow
South. Beacon. Oct. 2016.224p. notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9780807033531. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9780807033548. SOC SCI
Berard (Love and War) makes mostly good on her intention to illuminate the lives of the Chinese immigrant Lum family who lodged an early
desegregation effort in 1920s Mississippi. In the appeal to allow their daughter to continue her education among the white peers she matriculated
with throughout her years at the local school, the family enlisted the help of former governor Earl Brewer. Brewer and the legal machinations of
the family's efforts briefly overtake the narrative and readers may lose sight of the Lum family; however, they circle back into the spotlight at the
end. Berard makes solid use of research materials, such as city directories, but more information on the Lums would have been helpful in
presenting a fuller picture of family ambitions. The volume does provide a fresh perspective on what was left behind when so many African
American citizens fled the South as part of the Great Migration. VERDICT Potentially useful for students of specifically Asian American or
Southern history.--Jewell Anderson, Savannah Country Day Sch. Lib., GA
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Anderson, Jewell. "Berard, Adrienne. Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight To Desegregate Schools
in the Jim Crow South." Library Journal, 15 Oct. 2016, p. 102. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466413044&it=r&asid=320f2ff1875af9a4f5f053c593d6c855. Accessed 5 May 2017.
5/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494012234554 2/5
Gale Document Number: GALE|A466413044
---
QUOTED: "a bit uneven."
"This chronicle of a little-known case of early-twentieth-century miscarriage of civil rights is enlightening and instructive."
5/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494012234554 3/5
Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese
Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in
the Jim Crow South
Terry Hong
Booklist.
113.1 (Sept. 1, 2016): p14.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South. By Adrienne
Berard. Oct. 2016.224p. Beacon, $26.95 (9780807033531). 344.73.
Thirty years before Brown v. Board of Education struck down segregation in public schools, a Chinese American family in the Mississippi Delta
fought to continue their daughter's education. On September 15, 1924, Rosedale School's principal banned nine-and-a-half-year-old, straight-A
student Martha Lum and her older sister from school because of their "colored" Chinese ancestry. The Lum family decided to fight, and their
lawsuit became "the first U.S. Supreme Court case to challenge the constitutionality of segregation in Southern public schools." Filed by former
Mississippi Governor Earl Brewer, the case took on a Southern gothic-like legal cast, ending with twenty-seventh president-turned-chief justice
William Taft writing the final decision. Although the writing is a bit uneven, with clumsy attempts at florid language ("daughters of an ancient
nation called China") and repetition in spite of the book's slim size, Berard's intention to "restor[e] Gong Lum v. Rice to its rightful place in
history" is undeniably noble. And the fact that the school district where the Lums filed suit remains segregated almost a century later is sobering
proof of the book's significance. --Terry Hong
YA: This chronicle of a little-known case of early-twentieth-century miscarriage of civil rights is enlightening and instructive. TH.
Hong, Terry
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hong, Terry. "Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South."
Booklist, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 14. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463754970&it=r&asid=91cffe77bc79e686d9ca7081c225b1d9. Accessed 5 May
2017.
5/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494012234554 4/5
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463754970
---
QUOTED: "A current of antiblack sentiment overwhelms a story of an immigrant family simply wanting the best for their children."
5/5/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494012234554 5/5
Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese
Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in
the Jim Crow South
Publishers Weekly.
263.31 (Aug. 1, 2016): p59.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South
Adrienne Berard. Beacon, $26.95 (244p) ISBN 978-0-8070-3353-1
Berard (Love and War) tells the story of the Lum family, a Chinese American family living in the Jim Crow-era South, from the father's perilous
arrival to the United States in the winter of 1904 during a time of anti-immigration sentiment to the 1927 lawsuit Gong Lum v. Rice, the first
Supreme Court decision against school segregation. Berard conveys why Jeu Gong Lum wanted better lives--and better schools--for his two
daughters, particularly Martha, who was a straight--A student, during a time when segregated black schools often had inadequate facilities. But
the book does not go into detail about the poor conditions of black public schools, so when Katherine Lum says, "I don't want my children to
attend 'colored' schools" and one of their lawyers argues that "the Mongolian is on the hither side ... between the Caucasian and African" as the
premise of the case, a current of antiblack sentiment overwhelms a story of an immigrant family simply wanting the best for their children. As a
result, this divisive narrative that focuses less on the importance of obtaining freedom and a better education for all U.S. citizens than on how one
family fought to secure privilege for their children. Agent: Anna Ghosh, Ghosh Literary. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South." Publishers
Weekly, 1 Aug. 2016, p. 59+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460285722&it=r&asid=738959caac5b96ea14bed8978a1f053d. Accessed 5 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A460285722