Touchy Subject

Hmmmm....What a tough topic. How would I teach riots and lynching in my classroom and basically the whole feeling of this time? There is a great chapter book that is out titled Leon's Story. I read it about four years ago so some of the topics are kind of sketchy, but I definitely remember the whole jest of the book. It is about a young boy named Leon who is living during the time period of lynching and the KKK. At one point I believe that he even watched his father die when some young rich white boys were out hotrodding and ran him over with their car, and then had no repercussions to them. The story shows some of the trials that Leon had to go through just because of his color of skin during this time period. It was very interesting.
By using this narrative text I would be able to introduce the concepts that were discussed today and be able to let the kids express their feelings about what happened. While my fourth graders are probably too young to then go on and learn about these things more in depth, they would gain a basic knowledge of these things that would then be expanded upon in the future.