Knockin' On Wood

By Lynne Barasch. In 1912, in South Carolina, an African American boy named Clayton Bates, was just 5 years old. He got the chance to dance every time he could. He had no shoes but that did not stop him. (Nothing did.) He had no music, but he made rhythms by clapping his hands and tapping his feet. Clayton's mom worked at a cottonseed farm, for two white men. She got paid less than she deserved. Clayton hated farming. He escaped the field work then he walked to town to the barber shop. There was always an audience to watch him dance. When Clayton was 12 years old he got his leg caught in a cotton factory machine. Back then they had no hospitals that would take him so they took it off with no machine or anything like that. Clayton had crutches made out of broomsticks. His uncle made him a wooden leg. Now Clayton can tap rhythms. Soon he was dancing with white people in masks. He could not eat with them but that soon changed. Clayton Bates had made history.
Reviewed by: M.P. and M.G.