How a childrens book became a Best Picture nominee and made the case for Black dignity.
It seems a simple story about a sharecropper family and their dog Sounder.
Yet William H. Armstrong’s 1969 children’s novel uses a quaint premise as its Trojan horse.
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It is 1933, in the backwoods of Louisiana.
It’s a rigged system where even the raccoons and possums evade Nathan’s rifle.
Three white men arrive soon after and cart Nathan off to jail, shooting his dog for good measure.
But the story is also surprisingly hopeful.
As Taj Mahal sings, “Someday there be a change,” indeed.
EW’sA Celebration of Black Filmis available onAmazonand wherever magazines are sold.
