The Sunday Outing

While Gloria Jean Pinkney’s, The Sunday Outing, is not a Coretta Scott King award winner and it does not focus on issues of racism and segregation, I found this to be an excellent example of African American literature as it does focus on issues of economic status experienced by many African Americans. Pinkney’s book, constructed from childhood memories, tells the story of young Ernestine who loved going down to the North Philadelphia train station to watch the trains roll by and listen to her great-aunt Odessa tell her stories about her “great- uncle Ariah who had worked for the railroad”; the one thing that Ernestine wanted more desperately than anything was to be lucky enough to ride on one of the trains that she loved watching so much. When Ernestine presents this idea to her group of friends they tell her that she will never be able to ride on a train, but Ernestine believes otherwise. The issue that Pinkney presents is a matter of economic difficulty experienced by many African Americans. Ernestine’s parents were saving money in order to move into a house and therefore could not afford to buy her a ticket; in the text it is evident that her family can not afford things that other families obviously could afford. Ernestine realizes that she must give up certain things in order to obtain others. In the story, Ernestine suggests that rather than buy new school clothes, which she really did not need, she could put the money towards buying a ticket to ride the train to visit her relatives in Lumberton, North Carolina. Her parents decide that this is a good idea and end up allowing her to take the trip. I thought this book was a good piece of African American literature because it teaches children that even in times when racism is not as prevalent, not all have it easy; there are still obvious differences in economic status. Pinkney shows how something as little as riding on a train, that may be taken for granted by some, for others may become a privilege. Pinkney does a fine job of providing yet another African American experience, different than those commonly portrayed in what is considered African American literature.



Works Cited

Pinkney, Gloria Jean, and Jerry Pickney. The Sunday Outing. New York: Dial, 1994.