July's Book List: The Black Community

The face you make when you have 

something serious on your mind

          As we enter another month in the year 2020, every month so far has been surprising and unexpected. I figure that July will come with more surprises as well. With that being said, June has been the most eye opening. While riots and protests has been taking place since May, a lot of us (Americans) are realizing that we haven't learned the complete history on African Americans through the United States educational system. We are noticing a lot of gaps and missing links to the history we did learn. For example, a lot of Americans may have learned about Deborah Sampson Gannett and other white women who disguised themselves as men to fight at American wars, but how many of you heard about Cathay Williams? I know I sure didn't until last week. I always believed that the American educational system needed to be fix, but now I see more problems with the educational system to add to my already long list. This is why in this article, I will be showcasing a list of books you should include into your summer reading list when it comes to the history of the Black community in America.

1.  African American Women's Rhetoric: The Search for Dignity, Personhood, and Honor by Deborah F. Atwater

I recommend reading this book to gain a complete understanding on the connection of slavery and the damage it has caused on Black women and girls' self-esteem. This book can also give people insight on why a lot of Black girls feel as though they have to represent themselves a certain type of way until they see other representations of Black women and girls that act, think, and look like themselves. If you like this text, you're going to enjoy Atwater's other book, "The Rhetoric of Black Mayors." The second book just might give us insight on why our non-white mayors are having a hard-time standing up for what is right when it comes to Trump and the Republican party's negative views on the treatment of Colored/ Black people.

2. Shadow Bodies: Black women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics by Julia Sheron and Jordan- Zachery

This book has the same goals as Deborah F. Atwater but these authors goes in depth by providing  deep history on the beauty standards placed on Black women and girls from the very moment they became slaves to Europeans. The authors then extends their awareness to the current failed system we see with women of color in the medical field as patients and when they get selected for roles in politics. 

3.  Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King

You may have read and followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work and probably memorized lines from his speeches, but have you thought about learning the steps it took in order for us (Black/ African Americans) to gain the amount of freedom we are able to experience today that Dr. King himself and our ancestors wasn't able to experience. After reading this book, I encourage you to find more books discussing the Segregation, Slavery, and Civil War experiences by authors representing as a Black (Negro) American, slave, free person, a mixed race, a first generation American, an immigrant, white people on both the Confederate and Union sides, and maybe other races to gain a full picture on what it must have been like to live during those time periods. I feel as though, you can't really learn the whole story until you learn about it from all sides.

4. "A Friend to All Mankind" : Mrs.  Annie Turnbo Malone and Poro College by. John H. Whitfield

I have mentioned Annie Malone's name before in one of my February articles this year, but many people still believes that Madam C. J. Walker was the first female to become a Millionaire in the United States. If you think this is true then you are wrong and it shows another example on the missing history we didn't receive while in school. In fact, it was Annie Turnbo Malone who was the first female Millionaire; who changed the Black hair industry in the United States, and trained other beauticians at her hair school. The only fact that has remained correct is that Madam C. J. Walker  was the first female to be documented as a Millionaire in the United States. I don't want to ruin the story for you before you learn the story yourself so I will stop here.

After learning the whole story of Mrs. Malone and the relationship of Madam C. J, Walker and Annie Turnbo Malone, you may want to question other inventors stories your teachers told you about in history classes and during every Black History Month presentation because there is a lot of pieces of history we need to learn in order to know the whole story. 

5. How Not to Get Shot: And Other Advice From White People by D. L. Hughley and Doug Moe

For my last recommendation, I recommend this book for my non-Black counterparts who believes there are ways around for Blacks to not get harm by police officers, while at the same time tries to understand the lives of people in the Black community. I'm going to let them find out for themselves if their advice is any good or helpful. I'll just say that I recently recommended this book to a white female counterpart on Facebook under a comment on the Fox 5 news channel after she tagged me in a comment about this very topic first.

I hope I made you interested in checking out at least one of these books from the list if not all of them. I promise you, you shouldn't be disappointed. Let me know which book you've choose to read first? If you've read one of these books already, let me know your thoughts on them. Also suggest to me the books you're currently reading.