Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis was published in 1999. Like his main character Bud, Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan.
Curtis drew many of the book's events from the actual circumstances of the Great Depression and stories of the 1930s passed down through his family. He especially wanted to show the plight of African Americans during the 1930s. Only a subset of jobs were open to African Americans during the 1920s, a time of economic prosperity, and when the Great Depression hit, many of those jobs disappeared. Two of the available jobs were redcap (railway porter) and musician/entertainer, jobs held by Curtis' two grandfathers. Curtis bases the characters of Lefty Lewis and ...
