April 13, 1947, holds little significance in the American historical memory, and yet that day was one in a long series that led to the legal desegregation of American schools. On that morning, Marguerite Daisy Carr, a 14-year-old black girl from Washington, D.C., attempted to enroll at Eliot Junior High School, the all-white middle school closest to her home. Carr’s efforts to integrate the school, which were supported by her family and local black community, preceded the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education by seven years ... Recognizing the young black girls and women who were at the forefront of the civil rights movement is the central achievement of Rachel Devlin’s meticulously researched history, A Girl Stands at the Door. ... A Girl Stands at the Door tells an important story about young black women who ushered in a movement. Just as black women 'set the world on fire' — to quote the historian Keisha N. Blain — in global freedom struggles, young black girls took it upon themselves to stand up when others would not.
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