Rita Odom Moseley

No School Rita Odom Moseley

Atir is a petite 12 year old girl whose world is abruptly turned-upside-down when she accidentally bumps into, and knocks over, the school bully's lunch tray. "It was an accident!" Atir cries in a panicky voice. From that day on her torment begins and drives her to hate school. As a result, she finds herself wishing that there was No School. Suddenly, she is thrown back in time to a place where there really is NO SCHOOL. Enter a world touched by magic as you experience the story of mass resistance through the eyes of an innocent youth who is confronted with bullying. A place with No School is an inspirational story that takes readers on a wonderful adventure while using problem solving and historical context to tackle bullying. Rita Odom Moseley is an African American woman, the older of two children, was raised in the town of Farmville, Virginia, Prince Edward County, where she still resides. She was directly affected as a little girl, with more than 2,300 African American schoolmates and at least 350 whites students by the five-year closing of the public schools in her home town. Her story, and the experience of her schoolmates, is the basis for the book "No School." She was attending Prince Edward County public school system in 1959 when local leaders forced the closure of the schools for five years (1959-1964) rather than desegregating. She was without an opportunity to go to school and get an education for two years. During the third year, she went to Blacksburg Virginia, to attend what would now be considered a middle school, graduating as salutatorian. The next year she attended school at Christiansburg Industrial Institute (CII.)