Sources of Light by Margaret McMullan

 It's 1962, a year after the death of Sam's father--he was a war hero--and Sam and her mother must move, along with their very liberal views, to Jackson, Mississippi, her father's conservative hometown. Needless to say, they don't quite fit in.
    People like the McLemores fear that Sam, her mother, and her mother's artist friend, Perry, are in the South to "agitate" and to shake up the dividing lines between black and white and blur it all to grey. As racial injustices ensue--sit-ins and run-ins with secret white supremacists--Sam learns to focus with her camera lens to bring forth the social injustice out of the darkness and into the light.

"Sources of Light" is an historical fiction book which takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement in 1962. Samantha aka "Sam" is a fourteen-year-old girl living with her professor mother after her father is killed in the Vietnam War. Sam and her mother have a black maid, Willie Mae who helps with the chores around their house. When Sam starts school she begins to witness the horrific racist acts against black people. She witnesses first hand the segregation between blacks and whites. When her mother's photographer boyfriend, Perry gives her a camera to use, Sam begins documenting the acts of violence against the blacks and even the whites who are helping to fight for equal rights. Lots of facts are shared throughout the book and a powerful theme is learned at the end. Some plot points were a little off topic, but the book wraps up nicely. A great recommendation for middle school female readers.