The Color of Water Lesson Plan

James McBride is a composer, saxophonist, and prominent author. Born to a white mother in 1957 (his Black father died before he was born), McBride grew up in New York in the 1960s, wondering about his and his twelve siblings' dark skin more than the poverty they endured. His best-selling memoir, The Color of Water, tells the story of his childhood and his immigrant mother's escape from her Orthodox Jewish family, and examines the intersection of race, class, and religion in the United States from the 1930s to the 1990s. These themes also appear in McBride's other work, including his novel The Good Lord Bird, which tells a fictionalized account of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry from...