I haven't started my reading yet, as I am finishing
up some reading related to dementia, but I have books on the way.
I am writing now because of a question that was
asked on Twitter for recommendations on a Black History Month reading list.
That is a question I take seriously. I did end up making a few recommendations.
Most of them came from the lists I had assembled for
previous months. I can think of books that would be good that I read for
different reasons, or before I started doing this. Still, I believe that doing
this every year has made a difference for me.
I also noticed a trend in which books felt most
important to me.
Slavery by Another Name: The
Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas A Blackmon
At the Dark End of the Street: Black
Women, Rape, and Resistance - A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from
Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, Danielle L, McGuire
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black
America (2007 edition), Lerone Bennett Jr.
Mainly it's that they are things that are not
commonly known.
Blackmon's book is important for everyone who thinks
that slavery has been over since 1865, and so there are no excuses for the
families who haven't caught up financially since then. There are other factors
in that, which Ta-Nehisi Coates covers in "The Case for Reparations",
which could also be excellent reading for this month:
On this particular continuation of slavery there is
an article by the author that I have seen being passed around as well. I
haven't read it yet, but it would be a good introduction, and then the book is
still there if you want to read more:
When people object to the existence of a separate history month (often disingenuously), saying it should be taught and integrated all
year long, Bennett has the book for you. He not only goes over what was going
on with black Americans, from colonial days on, but also the impact on all of
society, which was important. You understand the United States better after reading it.
All of that is important, but one of the most
important things is that it shows people doing things who are often forgotten.
We read about black abolitionists and journalists before we even think of
abolition happening. So often we only remember what the white people did, and
what was done in a certain period; that's an incomplete picture with gaping
holes.
That is a huge part of why McGuire's book is so
important. It is much easier to remember the male faces of the Civil Rights
Movement, but so much of the organizing and research came from women, and it
was going on before it started being televised.
When we erase the work of any group - whether
intentional or not - it can perpetuate the notion that only some people can
contribute. If enough people accept that it becomes easy for the marginalized individuals
to believe it's true. Don't believe it.
Even with Harriet Tubman, whom we remember as a
black woman, we frequently forget that she had disabilities: first seizures and
sleeping disorders from a head injury, and then arm and shoulder problems from
an attack by the conductor and passengers on a train. Her first injury happened
because she was a slave, and her second because she was black. There are
reminders in knowing that, but also in seeing how much she accomplished anyway.
I could recommend other books too, but those might
be the most important ones for right now.
And, since I was thinking about it, here's the full
list since I've been doing this.
2010
Time On The Cross, Robert William Fogel and Stanley Engerman
The Slave Community, John W Blassingame
Beloved, Toni Morrison
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
2011
Race First: The Ideological and
Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement
Association, Tony Martin
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Ralph Bunche: An American Life, Brian Urquhart
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, Ralph Abernathy
2012
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis
Experiment, James H Jones
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed,
Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Adam Hothschild
Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone
Wrong, Raymond Bonner
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, Wes Moore
Black Like Me, John Griffin Howard
2013
Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A
Daughter's Civil Rights Journey, Ana Maria Spagna
Mirror to America, John Hope Franklin
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes
Slavery by Another Name: The
Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas A Blackmon
For colored girls who have considered
suicide/When the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake Shange
The American Experience: The
Abolitionists (video)
The House I Live In (video)
2014
The Quest of the Silver Fleece, W. E. B. Du Bois
Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and
Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves, Art T Burton
Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence
Thomas, Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson
To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of
Ida B. Wells, Linda O McMurray
Countee Cullen: Collected Poems, Major Jackson editor
The Harlem Hellfighters, Max Brooks and Caanan White
Spies of Mississippi, directed by Dawn Porter (video)
Black Indians: An American Story, directed by Chip Richie (video)
2015
At the Dark End of the Street: Black
Women, Rape, and Resistance - A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from
Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, Danielle L, McGuire
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Black Panther: The Complete Collection, Christopher Priest and others
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton,
1965-2010, Lucille Clifton
Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the
Oregon Territory, Gregory R Nokes
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black
America (2007 edition), Lerone Bennett Jr.
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