Books
Book Review: ‘Round & Round Together,’ by Amy Nathan
even that of Dr. Martin Luther
King, who specifically referred to
his frustration with precisely the
same predicament in his historic
Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
For this reason, America owes a
debt of gratitude to Amy Nathan
for writing “Round & Round
Together,” a welcome reminder of
the ten-year struggle to integrate
Baltimore’s Gwynn Oak Amuse-
ment Park. It was whites-only from
its opening in 1894 right up until
Sharon Langley became the first
black child allowed on a ride there
on Aug. 28, 1963, the very same
day that Dr. King delivered his
prophetic “I Have a Dream”
speech.
The title of “Round & Round
Together” was inspired by the fact
By Kam Williams
Special To The Skanner News
“About four months before the
March on Washington, Dr. Martin
Luther King was arrested during
demonstrations in Birmingham,
Alabama. While in jail, he wrote a
letter in which he explained why
he protested…
‘When you suddenly find your
tongue twisted and your speech
stammering as you seek to
explain to your six year-old
daughter why she can’t go to the
amusement park that has just
been advertised on television,
and see tears welling up in her
little eyes when she is told that
Funtown is closed to colored chil-
dren, and see the depressing
clouds of inferiority begin to form
in her mental sky… then you will
understand why we find it difficult
to wait.’
This book tells the tale of the
nearly decade-long struggle to
liberate [Gwynn Oak’s] once
whites-only
merry-go-round,
weaving its story into that of the
civil rights movement as a whole.”
— Excerpted from Chapter One (pgs.
9 & 12)
O
ne of my earliest childhood memo-
ries from back in the Fifties was
asking my mother if the family
could go to Palisades Amusement Park right
after watching a TV commercial featuring
kids enjoying its rides and swimming pool.
My hopes were dashed when she patiently
explained that we couldn’t because colored
people weren’t allowed in.
Who knows whether a kid ever fully
recovers from having it ingrained in your
brain at such a tender age that you’re a sec-
ond-class citizen? And yet, just such a sce-
nario ostensibly played out in millions of
other African-American homes back then,
Page 6 The Portland Skanner February 1, 2012
America owes a
debt of gratitude
to Amy Nathan for
writing “Round &
Round Together,” a
welcome reminder of
the ten-year struggle
to integrate Baltimore’s
Gwynn Oak
Amusement Park
that it was the park’s merry-go-round that
little Sharon rode that fateful afternoon. In
the book, the author seamlessly interweaves
eyewitness accounts of the long effort to
desegregate Gwynn Oak with descriptions
of what was simultaneously transpiring
elsewhere around the country in the Civil
Rights Movement.
The text arrives amply augmented by
dozens of archival photos taken at Gwynn
Oak, many of which show demonstrators
being carted away by cops for trying to
cross its strictly-enforced color line. It also
includes a number of iconic images already
emblazoned on the nation’s consciousness:
of the March on Washington, of dogs being
set loose on picketers in Birmingham, Ala.,
of a firebombed Freedom Riders’ bus, and
of Rosa Parks being arrested for refusing to
sit on the back of the bus.
A profoundly moving tribute to the intrep-
id unsung heroes who risked their lives to
help bring an end to Baltimore’s Jim Crow
Era.