BLACK HISTORY MONTH - POST #2

There is a plethora of books about Black history out there.  I am going to highlight a handful of these books throughout this month.  Let me say that this will not be a definitive list.  I don't have my finger on the pulse of the right books to read. 

Some of these suggestions will be agreed upon by you; some you'll disagree with.  Some you may never have heard of.  Some of the authors of these books you may or may not have heard of.

My hope is to present the titles throughout the month to give you the opportunity to educate yourselves on Black history, which sadly, does not get the full attention it deserves.  

A TASTE OF POWER: A BLACK WOMAN'S STORY

by Elaine Brown

From a childhood of poverty in Philadelphia, which included attending an all-white school, to becoming the only female to lead the Black Panthers, this book tells of Brown's rise through the levels of leadership within the controversial, male-dominated, paramilitary organization in the 1970's.  "Stunning, lyrical, and acute, this is the indelible testimony of a Black woman's battle to define herself." (Amazon description)

THE THREE MOTHERS: HOW THE MOTHERS OF MARTIN LUTHER

KING, JR., MALCOLM X, AND JAMES BALDWIN SHAPED A NATION

by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Much has written about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin, but how much do we know about their mothers?  While all three lived through Jim Crow in this country, they nonetheless taught their sons of their own worth as Black men.  This book tells the stories of Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin.  "These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced." (Amazon description)

FOUR HUNDRED SOULS: A COMMUNITY HISTORY

OF AFRICAN AMERICA, 1619-2019

Edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

This book is the near-equivalent of an encyclopedia of Black history in a single book.  Editors Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain assembled ninety writers for this broad project.  Each writer was given a five-year period to cover, for a total of four centuries of Black history in the United States, before it was "the United States", from 1619-2019.  This is ninety different perspectives, using a variety of writing styles and techniques, that "fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith -- instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness." (Amazon description)

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

by Colson Whitehead

This Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner tells the fictionalized story of Cora, a young slave, an outcast among fellow slaves, who is agrees to join a fellow slave to join the Underground Railroad.  "As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage -- and a powerful meditation on the history we all share." (Amazon description)
This book was the basis for the 2021 Prime Video miniseries of the same name.


If you have any suggestions of books, share your suggestions by clicking on Post a Comment below.

Terry