What'd Ya Do Today, Billy Joe?

It is 1966 in a small Southern town, and Billy Joe Tyler, a nine-year-old black boy, is preparing to go to an all-white school in the morning. Despite a white minister's assurance that he will walk with Billy Joe into the school, Billy Joe's mother has deep reservations, and tensions within the family grow. There is considerable fear after an unseen, noisy gang of hoodlums threatens the family. Billy Joe's father, however, will not be deterred from seeing that his son has the chance for a good education--one that he himself never had. "And someday Billy Joe's gonna get to choose his work, and it's gonna be what he wants, not just whatever's left over for him to take!" When his parents must rush off to their jobs the next morning, an anxious Billy Joe turns to his devoted grandmother. Left nearly mute by a stroke, she hands him a small gift which reassures him, and he hurries off to meet the waiting school bus. This story of one family's courageous struggle to overcome fear during an important time in U.S. history has been a prize winner in four national play contests.