We, the patriots of Color, / will tell you what we did / on day one / of the American Revolution / to quench our thirst for Liberty.
On April 19, 1775, the first battle of the American Revolution began in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. Enslaved men, women, and children were among the first to answer the call, fighting for freedom far beyond that of British rule: the end of their bondage.
Ray Anthony Shepard and R. Gregory Christie imagine the voices of the people of color, both soldiers and civilians, who fought courageously on that day—in a war for liberty that delivered it unequally. Told in verse and illustrated with Christie’s iconic art, these six gripping stories spotlight a vital contradiction and overlooked chapter of the American Revolution—one that demands to be remembered.
Author
Ray Anthony Shepard
Ray Anthony Shepard is the grandson of a slave and was the first African American editor-in-chief of a major educational publishing house. He holds an MAT from Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he received a Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. He has taught at Phillips Andover Academy and Brandeis University. He lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts. rayanthonyshepard.com
Learn More about Ray Anthony ShepardIllustrator
R. Gregory Christie
R. Gregory Christie is the award-winning illustrator of over fifty children’s books, including The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children, edited by Davida Adedjouma, which won a Coretta Scott King Honor for illustration, and Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth, which was selected as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. He lives in Decatur, Georgia, where he also owns and operates a bookstore that sells autographed children’s books. Visit rgregorychristie.com.
Learn More about R. Gregory Christie