Joshua fi't the battle of Jericho; and we fi't the battle of the books. At first, we had none at all. If we asked, the white folks would say that the children "wouldn't read 'em if they had 'em." We didn't think that. When the county did start to furnish books, the children had to rent them in the fall and turn them back in the spring, and we never got a new book to give out, in return for the fee. Even so, the books never would go around to everybody. Most had to look on. I'll tell you something else that I saw in my day: segregated books. The County library truck used to come around with colored and white stacks—in other words a stack of old books and a stack of new.

— Mamie Garvin Fields, Lemon Swamp and Other Places

Mamie Garvin Fields taught in the sea islands off South Carolina during the first decades of the 20th century. In classrooms crowded with as many as 60 children, Mrs. Fields encouraged her students to embrace the power of education to liberate the mind and spirit. She also struggled, with equal parts tenacity and creativity, to better the conditions her students faced. She "fought the battle of the book" in many ways--soliciting resources from her own community, defying county rules, and confronting the White school officials. She took these actions to make sure her students could read and "to make each child understand that he was somebody."

In this issue of TCLA, students, parents, and teachers join the 'battle of the books' by reporting on access to learning materials within their own schools. Parent advocates in South Gate decided to conduct a student survey on learning materials after reading their official School Accountability Report Card or SARC. Given the experiences of their own children at South Gate High School, parents couldn’t accept the SARC’s claim that there are "sufficient numbers of textbooks to support the school's instructional program." The parents’ survey confirmed their fears. 69% of South Gate High School students surveyed reported that they do not have a set of textbooks in all their classes. 70% responded that they do not have textbooks that they can take home.

Unfortunately, these conditions extend beyond South Gate. A survey conducted at Lynwood High School produced similar results. 77% of students do not have textbooks in all their classes; 60% do not have books to take home. In addition, only 25% reported that they have access to decent quality dictionaries and thesauruses in their English and History classes. Even fewer—less than 7%—have a computer and printer in all their classes.