Claire Hartfield’s A Few Red Drops is a non-fiction account of Chicago’s 1919 race riots, written with a young adult audience in mind. The book deftly describes the numerous causes of the riots and analyzes what they meant for American society then, and what their memory means today. Keeping in mind social, political, and economic reasons for the riots, the book focuses on Black America and attempts to draw lessons for contemporary Americans in understanding race relations. The book covers themes ranging from economic inequality and ‘otherness’ to media influence in the socio-political sphere.
