Mildred Taylor's own ancestors were slaves in the state of Mississippi, as were the ancestors of the novel's protagonist, ten-year-old Cassie Logan. Mildred Taylor wrote Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in the 1970s, at the height of the Black Power movement and at the beginning of an increasing presence of African-American history in education. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry represents a South in which racist sentiments had tangible effects in the form of segregation, lynch mobs, and unfair distribution of resources. The book itself takes place in 1933, during the Great Depression. The injustices portrayed in the book have their roots in the era of slavery which lasted until the Civil War and which, shamefully, continues to influence racial conduct in America in the 1930s and today. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a product of three different eras of black history.
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