Stella By Starlight by Sharon Draper

There are a lot of reading experiences being recommended for white people to better understand the black experience in the United States.  I am leaning on those that are more non-fiction in nature but my natural inclination with reading is to go towards fiction, so when I could get a few of them out of the library, I did.
This is a young adult book, which is one of my favorite genres, and is even being recommended for grammar school aged children.
Stella lives in the American South in a community that is racially segregated.  There are encounters big and small that portray just exactly how humiliating and restricting that is.  The schools are segregated.  The black school get the hand-me-downs from the white school.  White men beat up black boys.  The Klan burn down the house of someone who registers to vote.  There is a knee on the back of every person of color, but despite that and the crushing poverty, they have a strong family and a strong community to fall back on.  It is every bit as painful as you can imagine.