Surrounded: America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832

Gr 7-10–This graphic novel follows one of the earliest civil rights legal cases in America, which grew from one woman’s effort to educate Black girls. Prudence Crandall ran a girls’ boarding school in Canterbury, Connecticut, and in 1832, she opened the school to Black students. The locals protested; educating girls was a waste of time but educating Black girls was dangerous. As the white girls left and Black girls enrolled, the community responded with vandalism, blocking supplies, and even poisoning their well. Crandall persisted, even challenging Connecticut law in court and won. The community responded by burning the school down. That was the end of the school, but its impact was far-reaching. The main text gives an overview of these events but is lacking. While it does show how easily communities can go from fear to violence, the story is told at a fairly superficial level. There are several characters whose actions don’t make sense in the narrative. Without the back matter provided by the Prudence Crandall Museum, readers would not learn how this event affected education, the abolitionist movement, and future civil rights court cases. The layered, collagelike art brings a certain energy, but the colors, muddy at times, are used without consistency in the depiction of people, mood, or settings.