Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight To Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South

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.