Rather than a single, overarching storyline, the bulk of the novel consists of several intertwining plots, each involving one or more members of the Logan family and illustrating various aspects of black/white interactions during the nadir of American race relations.

Several episodes feature black characters being humiliated by powerful white citizens and being forced to weigh the potential cost of standing up for themselves.

Cassie's mother organizes a boycott of the Wallaces' store because they are the cause of most of the trouble between the blacks and the whites, as well as possibly being members of the Ku Klux Klan.

At the time of the book's publication, Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Taylor trusts to her material and doesn't try to inflate Cassie's role in these events, and though the strong, clear-headed Logan family is no doubt an idealization, their characters are drawn with quiet affection and their actions tempered with a keen sense of human fallibility.

"[4] In 2014, writing in The New York Times, novelist Ayana Mathis named Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry as the most terrifying book she had ever read.

Mathis wrote of reading the book at the age of nine: "I not only learned what it meant to live a perilous life, surrounded by open hostility, but I also made the grim discovery that such circumstances even existed.

[7][8][9] However, scholar Hyun-Joo Yoo argues that Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry can have a more positive impact: Taylor purposefully writes from the perspective of African American protagonists who are strong-willed and effect change.

[10] Taylor's positive depictions in Roll of Thunder counter the long history of racist and negative stereotypes about African Americans.

[12] In 1978, the novel was adapted into a television film directed by Jack Smight and starring Claudia McNeil as Big Ma, Janet MacLachlan as Mama and Morgan Freeman as Uncle Hammer.

[citation needed] The film won modest praise, including two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Sound Editing.