Pictures at the Protest (The Virginia Mysteries)

In 1959, the Prince Edward County, Virginia, public schools closed for five years. Back then, it wasn’t over a health pandemic, but because county leaders refused to desegregate white and Black schools. So when long-hidden photographs surface from the student protests along Main Street in Farmville, Sam, Derek, and Caitlin are on the case to help identify the brave teenagers who stood for justice nearly sixty years ago. Their search winds through Virginia’s checkered racial past of Jim Crow and Massive Resistance, sending them to key sites like the Moton Museum, Evergreen Cemetery, Jackson Ward, and the Virginia State Capitol, and courageous voices like Barbara Johns, Oliver Hill, and Maggie Walker. But when protests over Confederate monuments and cries for social justice ignite their city, will the kids use their lessons from history to take a stand in the present? How far will they go to support new friends while confronting faces from the past? Middle-graders will love the fast-paced modern-day adventure with a twist of history of a critical time in our nation’s civil rights journey. Throughout his Virginia Mysteries series, author Steven K. Smith expertly combines fictional mystery plots with real historical locations and figures like Mount Vernon, Jamestown, St. John’s Church, Colonial Williamsburg, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and many others, making them a hit with families and educators alike. Also by Steven K. Smith: The Virginia Mysteries Book 1 – Summer of the Woods Book 2 – Mystery on Church Hill Book 3 – Ghosts of Belle Isle Book 4 – Secret of the Staircase Book 5 – Midnight at the Mansion Book 6 – Shadows at Jamestown Book 7 – Spies at Mount Vernon Book 8 – Escape from Monticello Book 9 – Pictures at the Protest Book 10 – Pirates on the Bay Book 11 – Danger on the Stage Brother Wars Series Brother Wars Cabin Eleven The Big Apple Final Kingdom Trilogy (Ages 11+) The Missing The Recruit The Bridge