Hutchins Library News Blog - Library Homepage at Berea College

Juneteenth promotional graphic from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In center features a reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation.

A few library resources for celebrating Juneteenth

06/18/2025

Angel Rivera

Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. June 19th, 1865 was the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce emancipation. Though the federal holiday started in 2021, many communities have been celebrating it and continue to do so.

Here are a few books from our collections you can read. Title links lead to the catalog record so you can locate the book.

Ralph Ellison's novel, Juneteenth, may be of interest. If you've read his Invisible Man, you may want to try this next.
On Juneteenth by Anette Gordon-Reed.
How the word is passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America by Clint Smith.
Go back and get it : a memoir of race, inheritance, and intergenerational healing by Dionne Ford.

Want to find some scholarly articles or other periodicals? Try one of our databases which you can access from our website. Please note: if you are off campus, you will need to authenticate access with your Berea College credentials and DUO. If you would like assistance using our databases or any other of our resources, you can visit or contact us at the Reference Desk. Our contact information is on our website where you can also chat virtually with the Reference Desk and set up an appointment with a librarian for in-depth research.

Academic Search Complete
America: History and Life.
J-Stor.
Ethnic Newswatch.

Here are some free online resources that may also be of interest:

The Wikipedia entry for Juneteenth. It provides a history overview and list of references.
Congressional Fact Sheet for Juneteenth, from the Congressional Research Service. You will find a link to the PDF document at the site.
An article from the Library of Congress.
A digital toolkit with various resources for Juneteenth from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian. This is where I found the graphic for Juneteenth.
Some resources from PBS to learn about Juneteenth.

Finally, from now to the end of the month, we have a small library display of books with a slideshow that you can come view during library regular hours.

History, African & African American Studies

From Our Shelves: War Made Invisible

06/11/2025

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

Welcome to another edition of “From Our Shelves” where I read a book from our collections and write a short review.

This week I read War Made Invisible: how America hides the hidden toll of its military machine (link to library catalog) by Norman Solomon. In this book the author discusses in detail how the United States stays in a continuous state of war, but its citizens have no idea it is happening. The US Government uses all kinds of propaganda and subterfuges to cover up the constant warfare, and the American media is complicit in the process. This is something that both political parties maintain when they are in power.

The book mainly stays within the late 20th Century and into the 21st Century. The role of 9/11 in ramping up the American war machine is prominent, but the United States was already deep in constant warfare well enough before 9/11.The narrative in the book is not fully linear; the author often jumps back and forth in time. Overall, the military industrial complex is very much alive, well, and wealthy in the United States. The book is not an easy read at times, but it is worth reading. It is well written and accessible. Locally, classes in political science may be interested in adding it to their reading lists.

History, Political Science

An image of Harvey Milk, a young man dressed in business suit, smiling as he looks at the viewer. Text underneath: Harvey Milk Day May 22

Honoring Harvey Milk Day: some library resources

05/22/2025

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

May 22 is Harvey Milk Day, a day to honor the life and legacy of the first openly gay politician in California and civil rights leader and activist. Sadly, he was assassinated by a political rival in 1978, but his legacy and contributions live on.

If you would like to learn more, here are some library resources that may be of interest:

An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings (e-book).
Harvey Milk: his lives and death by Lillian Faderman (biography, e-book).
The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQI Activism (essay collection, print edition). See the essay “The Mayor of Castro Street.” You can find the book in the General Collection Stacks (2nd floor) by call number 323.326 B873r 2015.
Milk (2009, film). This is the biopic of his life with Sean Penn portraying Harvey Milk. You can find it in our DVD Collection in the main floor under call number DVD 791.437 M644 2009.
The Times of Harvey Milk (2004, Documentary). You can find it in the DVD Collection under call number DVD 364.152 T583 2004 Discs 1-2.

If you want to find and read articles on Harvey Milk, LGBTQ+ topics, and other civil rights issues, the following databases may be of interest. You can find our databases on our library website via the “Databases A-Z” link:

Academic Search Complete
Alt Press Watch
J-Stor
Project Muse

Resources from the open web:

Harvey Milk on Wikipedia.
Harvey Milk Day on Wikipedia.
The Harvey Milk Foundation.
The Mayor of Castro Street. This is the 1982 biography written by Randy Shilts. I was a bit surprised our library does not have it at the moment, however, you can borrow it online via the Internet Archive.

Notes: Please note that to access our library's electronic resources off campus, you will need campus authentication (your Berea College username, password, and DUO authentication). You can also access our electronic resources if you visit the library in person.

If you need research assistance, you can always stop by the reference desk, use the chat widget on the library website, or make an appointment with one of the librarians from the library website.

To borrow books on Internet Archive, you will need an account with Internet Archive. If you do not have one, you can set up a free account with Internet Archive. I have one, and I do use it. Just click on their “Sign Up/Log In” link to get started.

History, Political Science, Civil Rights / Race Relations

Cover of the book 'Antifa: the Anti-fascist handbook' by Mark Bray. Cover has title in black letters, a black circle with two red flags inside it.

From our shelves: Antifa

05/21/2025

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

Welcome to another edition of “From our shelves” where I read a book from our collection and write a short review about it. This week I am reviewing Antifa: the antifascist handbook by Mark Bray.

The term “fascism” seems to be in the news constantly. We also often hear the terms “anti-fascist” or “antifa.” If you want to learn more about what antifa is and its history, this book is a pretty good primer that goes over the history of anti-fascism, Antifa, to today. The history starts around the 1920s with the rise of Hitler and Mussolini then the author takes us through to the 20th century and into the 21st century.

The book has six chapters including history of the movement, interviews with anti-fascists from around the world, though the focus is a bit Eurocentric, tactics and philosophy of the movement. The book offers an accessible text, and unlike other texts on the topic this one does not get bogged down in theory and jargon. It also includes a list of resources for further reading.

You can find the print edition of the book Antifa: the anti-fascist handbook in the library's General Collection Stacks (second floor) under call number: 320.533 B827a 2017 (link to catalog record).

History, Political Science

Remembering and learning about Pope Francis (1936-2025)

04/22/2025

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

Pope Francis (link to his Wikipedia entry), the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign ruler of Vatican City, passed away on the morning of April 21, 2025. Here at the library we offer our condolences to Catholics here and around the world as well as others mourning his death. Pope Francis was the first non-European Pope since the 8th century (that first one was Gregory III from Syria), the first Latin American Pope, and the first Pope member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

For folks wanting to learn more about Pope Francis, here are some resources available at the our library as well as online.

A small sampling of news reports about his death:

If you want to search for more news articles and news sources from the U.S. and around the world, our library offers the database Access World News, which can be found on our library website under "Electronic Resources." Access World News, also known as Newsbank, offers "full text from nearly 3,700 U.S. and 2,300 International newspapers. Direct links are available to search Kentucky and Appalachian Region newspapers, major metro titles, international resources, newswires, broadcast transcripts, America's news magazines, world and US newspapers."

Want more academic articles about Pope Francis, the papacy, the Conclave, and/or the Catholic Church, or religion in general? Then you can use the Religion Database, also accessible from the library website under "Electronic Resources." Religion Database, also known as ProQuest Religion, "provides an excellent source of religious news and information, informative details on doctrines and philosophies, and scholarly reports on religious history. More full-text journals have been added in related religious studies, such as philosophy, ethics, and international perspectives."

Want to read some books on Pope Francis? Our library has a selection of e-books that may be of interest. Here is a small sampling of titles:

Pope Francis and the Search for God in America by Maria Clara Bingemer (Editor); Peter J. Casarella (Editor); Archbishop Christophe Pierre

Call Number: E-book

ISBN: 9780813233796

Publication Date: 2021-06-25

In Tutti Fratelli, Pope Francis has called again for a "culture of encounter," But how should his theology, pastoral practice, and social message be understood and applied in the Church of the Americas, a single but complex reality that extends from South to North? This volume offers analyses from experts looking back to the Argentine pontiff's first fateful encuentros in the Americas as a help for understanding the present reality of the Church in the Western Hemisphere. The group includes theologians, historians, and political scientists, and the unique contribution of the volume lies in the panoramic perspective offered by the book as a whole. The initial essays set the stage for the volume as a whole, offering rich insight into Argentine and Latin American history, the world from which the Pope came and to which he returned in 2015, as well as surveying the impact of the Latin American "theology of the people" on the Pope's visit to the U.S.Additional essays address theological, historical, and pastoral engagements that cut across several of the visits. The final group of essays is dedicated to the visits themselves and is arranged in the order that they occurred. Pope Francis and the Search for God in América is offered to all the members of the Church in América, South and North, old and young, with the hope that it will spur even more thought, reflection, prayer, and service.

Pope Francis and the Caring Society by Robert M. Whaples (Editor)

Call Number: E-book

ISBN: 9781598132892

Publication Date: 2017-09-01

Pope Francis and the Caring Society is a thoughtful exploration of the Pope's earnest call for a dialogue on building a truly compassionate society. Francis's fervent support for uplifting the poor and protecting the environment has inspired far-reaching discussions worldwide: Do capitalism and socialism have positive or negative social consequences? What is the most effective way to fight poverty? And what value does a religious perspective offer in addressing moral, political, and economic problems? Pope Francis and the Caring Society is an indispensable resource for consideration of these vital questions. Edited by Robert M. Whaples, with a foreword by Michael Novak, the book provides an integrated perspective on Francis and the issues he has raised, examining the intersection of religion, politics, and economics. Readers will discover important historical and cultural context for considering Francis's views, along with alternative solutions for environmental preservation, a defense of Francis's criticism of power and privilege, a case for market-based entrepreneurship and private charity as potent tools for fighting poverty, and an examination of Francis's philosophy of the family. Pope Francis and the Caring Society is essential reading for anyone interested in creating a better, more caring, and prosperous world.

Pope Francis by Mario I. Aguilar

Call Number: E-book

ISBN: 9780718842314

Publication Date: 2014-05-29

Pope Francis: His Life and Thought paints a compelling picture of a truly remarkable pope, considering his life in detail until his election as Pope Francis in 2013. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was a highly unusual candidate for the papacy for two main reasons: the 'pope from far away' is the first non-European to be elected, and, furthermore, he began his career as a Jesuit, one of 'God's soldiers'. Members of the order traditionally do not ascend the hierarchy of the Church, and it took a personal request from Pope John Paul II for Bergoglio to leave the Society of Jesus and accept his appointment as bishop. Bergoglio's theological principles have been profoundly shaped by these two factors. However, the author also reveals that the evolution of his thought was deeply affected by his simple Argentinean upbringing and his fearless work in the slums of Buenos Aires as a young Jesuit and as a senior member of the Church. Bergoglio has consistently emphasised the importance of alleviating the suffering of the poor, following the teaching of Vatican II, and in keeping with his own unflinching morality. This volume reveals Pope Francis as remarkably humble and altruistic man, doctrinally conservative, and engaged less in politics than in the struggle to re-centre the Church at the margins of society. It will be of great interest to any reader who wishes to know more about this inspiring individual.

Lead with Humility by Jeffrey Krames

Call Number: E-book

ISBN: 9780814449127

Publication Date: 2014-09-09

How did a relatively unknown priest from Argentina rise so quickly from obscurity to one of the top leaders of the twenty-first century? The answer lies in his humility, as well as the simple principles that have sprung from it. In the years since his election to the highest position in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has breathed life into an aging institution, reinvigorated a global base, and created real hope for the future. His early accomplishments have been so remarkable that in 2014, Fortune magazine awarded the top spot of their coveted World's Greatest Leaders list not to a captain of industry or political leader but to the new pontiff. Lead with Humility explores 12 of these principles and shows how other leaders and managers across a broad spectrum can adapt them for the workplace with just as impressive results as our great pope has. These invaluable principles include: Don't stand over your employees--sit down with them. Don't judge--assess. Take care of people, not lobbies. Go where you are needed. Temper ideology with pragmatism. Don't change--reinvent! Even just a few years in, it is clear to all that Pope Francis's ability to inspire the world is unprecedented in modern times. Lead with Humility reveals the power of his methods, and helps anyone lead with the humility, grace, and authenticity that has elevated the pope to where he is today and had a direct impact in inspiring everyone and everything around him.

Pope Francis' Little Book of Wisdom by Andrea Kirk Assaf

Call Number: E-book

ISBN: 9781612833507

Publication Date: 2015-09-01

Pope Francis appears to be changing the face of Roman Catholicism. He has infused what some consider a staid institution with openness and optimism. He has faced off against established power interests within the Vatican. He has reformed the Church's finances. And, most importantly, he has asked that Catholics approach one another and non-Catholics with candor, humility, and love. He has made the papacy and the Church relevant once again. A pope of the people, Pope Francis' teachings have been praised and shared by the faithful and nonreligious alike. Exploring themes such as faith and prayer, love and family, peace and poverty, this collection is accessible to all who admire the man and are inspired by his wisdom. Included in this gift-format edition are fifteen chapters on wide-ranging topics including: On Family On the Law of Love On the Nature of God On Humility and Faith On Sacrifice and Suffering On Prayer On Peace

Some resources for other related topics:

Need to learn what is a Conclave? How a Pope is elected? Other topics about the Catholic Church? For starters, we offer the The New Catholic Encyclopedia. Below is the information so you can find the set in the Reference Collection. The link also includes information for accessing the encyclopedia online as an e-book. This is a resource I often suggest to students and other researchers needing basic information about the Catholic Church. It also has some entries that can be useful for researchers exploring other Christian areas and denominations.

New Catholic Encyclopedia by Catholic University of America Staff (Contribution by)

Call Number: Reference - Stacks 282 N533 2003

ISBN: 9780787640040

Publication Date: 2002-09-13

The first edition of this reference work, called the Catholic Encyclopedia, was published around the turn of the 20th century, with the last revised edition appearing in 1967. This new edition includes the best of the previous entries - many completely revised and updated - as well as new entries, written by subject experts, covering the latest topics of interest. Many thousands of articles are biographical profiles of the people who make up the history of the Catholic Church.

Our Reference Collection has other resources on the Catholic Church and Christianity in general that may be useful at this time or any other time patrons need to learn and/or do research on Catholicism and Christianity. If you need assistance, please feel free to stop by the Reference Desk, and we will be happy to help you.

What's a Conclave? A Papal Conclave "is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope" (from Wikipedia). Wikipedia can offer a good start, but if you want to learn more, in addition to some of the resources listed above, here are some books from our collection that may be of interest:

Heirs of the Fisherman by John-Peter Pham

Call Number: Stacks 262.13 P534h 2004

ISBN: 9780195178340

Publication Date: 2004-11-30

The election of a new pope always captures the world's attention, as all eyes turn to the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, where the color of the smoke is our only clue to the secret deliberations inside. In this fascinating volume, former Vatican insider John-Peter Pham takes us where outsiders have never gone before, providing vital background to the selection of the heir of the fisherman. Here is a highly accurate portrait of the modern Vatican--indeed, the only account to reveal the striking changes to papal succession procedures made by Pope John Paul II. Blending political and ecclesiastical history, Pham goes beyond a mere description of the complex rituals--including a rare insight into the dramatic shifts inside the College of Cardinals, whose 130 members now hail from 57 nations around the globe. Pham takes us into the secret conclave (from the Latin cum clave, "with key"), where the electors are kept under lock and key, incommunicado, until they have selected a new pope. Here we find a fascinating chronicle of political intrigue set in the context of ritual--including a chapter devoted to the intrigues of the 20th century where the first conclave had an emperor's veto and the last was won by the first non-Italian in four centuries because the Italians were bitterly divided. In a most timely analysis, Pham also provides a valuable one-by-one assessment of the present-day cardinals and possible candidates (papabili, or pope-ables) to succeed John Paul II. He explores the legacy of this highly influential pope--looking beyond his papacy to discuss the highly-charged issues that his successor will have to confront, including financial and sexual scandals, the roles of priests and women, and the very future of the church itself. And throughout the book, he provides a gold mine of information that make this book an indispensable reference, including appendices that contain biographical notes on many of the key personalities of Catholicism past and present as well as a useful glossary of Catholic history and theology. Here then is an illuminating history and must-have guide to a vitally important world event, one that is moving ever closer and will be watched with intense interest by more than a billion people around the globe.

The Election of Pope Francis by Gerard O'Connell

Call Number: E-book

ISBN: 9781626983199

Publication Date: 2019-04-24

Here is a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of history in the making-- the election in 2013 of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the first Latin American pope, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope to choose the name Francis. The author, a friend the Pope, now reveals what actually happed inside the secret conclave.

A note on accessing some of our electronic resources. Some of the resources I am discussing here are library subscriptions. To access them, you can do so at the library. Otherwise, you need to have Berea College credentials (username, password, and DUO authentication to access them). If you are not part of the Berea College community (students and currently employed faculty and staff), as I stated, you can visit our library and access the resources inside the library. You may also be able to access some of these resources via your local public or academic library. Need assistance? Feel free to contact the reference desk.

Photo credit: Photo of Pope Francis in public domain. Photo shows Pope Francis, an elderly white man, dressed in white papal vestments, holding his staff on the left hand. He stands in front of an altar.

History, Religion, Religious Expression

Celebrating Women's History Month in 2025

03/10/2025

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

A cartoon style graphic of Rosie the Riveter, a working woman in blue denim with a red rag over her head, flexing an arm and smiling, with sleeve rolled up. Text: We can do it! #WomensHistoryMonth March is Women's History Month. This is an annual observance where we take time to acknowledge and highlight the many achievements and contributions of women in society. In the United States, it has been a tradition for the President of the United States to sign a proclamation to recognize the observance (link to the 2025 proclamation from the White House).

Want to learn more about the month and observance? Here are some online resources:

Women's History Month site from the U.S. Government.
The Wikipedia entry, which provides some additional information for the observance internationally. This entry includes links to previous US presidential proclamations if you wish to view them going back to the mid-1980s. You can also check the list of references for additional information.
Women's History Month from the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.
Women's History Month from the National Women's History Museum.

You can also visit Hutchins Library to find books and other resources on women's history and accomplishments during March and throughout the year. I did some searching in the library catalog, and I found some books that may be of interest. Books are listed in no particular order. If you need assistance finding these or other resources, you can visit the Reference Desk at Hutchins Library or contact us via chat on the library website. Our website also offers additional information on ways to contact us.

Herstory by Deborah G. Ohrn (Editor); Gloria Steinem (Introduction by); Ruth Ashby (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 305.409 H5726

ISBN: 9780670854349

Publication Date: 1995-06-01

This book contains 120 biographical sketches of women who changed the world, placing them in the context of their times, & taking the viewpoint that women's history has largely been ignored. The section on Mead's anthropological work also includes two lesser-known female anthropologists: Elsie Clews Parsons & Ruth Benedict. Introduction by Gloria Steinem, extensive bibliography, & three indexes: geographical, alphabetical, & occupational.

Mobilizing Minerva by Kimberly Jensen

Call Number: Stacks 940.373 J547m 2008

ISBN: 9780252032370

Publication Date: 2008-02-08

American women did more than pursue roles as soldiers, doctors, and nurses during World War I. Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War reveals women's motivations for fighting for full citizenship rights both on and off the battlefield. The war provided chances for women to participate in the military, but also in other male-dominated career paths. Intense discussions of rape, methods of protecting women, and proper gender roles abound as Kimberly Jensen draws from rich case studies to show how female thinkers and activists wove wartime choices into long-standing debates about woman suffrage and economic parity. The war created new urgency in these debates, and Jensen forcefully presents the case of women participants and activists: women's involvement in the obligation of citizens to defend the state validated their right of full female citizenship.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Call Number: Stacks 510.925 S554h 2016

ISBN: 9780062363596

Publication Date: 2016-09-06

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA at the leading edge of the feminist and civil rights movement, whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space--a powerful, revelatory contribution that is as essential to our understanding of race, discrimination, and achievement in modern America as Between the World and Me and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The basis for the smash Academy Award-nominated film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black "West Computing" group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens. Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country's future.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Call Number: Stacks 973.932 O122b 2018

ISBN: 9781524763138

Publication Date: 2018-11-13

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft; Carol H. Poston (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 305.42 W864v 1988

ISBN: 9780393024272

Publication Date: 1987-10-01

The First Edition of this Norton Critical Edition was both an acclaimed classroom text and ahead of its time. This Second Edition offers the best in Wollstonecraft scholarship and criticism since 1976, providing the ideal means for studying the first feminist document written in English.

Bell Hooks: the Last Interview by bell hooks; Mikki Kendall (Introduction by)

Call Number: Stacks 305.488 H784b 2023

ISBN: 9781685890797

Publication Date: 2023-07-18

bell hooks was a prolific, trailblazing author, feminist, social activist, cultural critic, and professor. Born Gloria Jean Watkins, bell used her pen name to center attention on her ideas and to honor her courageous great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks. hooks's unflinching dedication to her work carved deep grooves for the feminist and anti-racist movements. In this collection of 7 interviews, stretching from early in her career until her last interview, she discusses feminism, the complexity of rap music and masculinity, her relationship to Buddhism, the "politic of domination," sexuality, and love and the importance of communication across cultural borders. Whether she was sparking controversy on campuses or facing criticism from contemporaries, hooks relentlessly challenged herself and those around her, inserted herself into the tensions of the cultural moment, and anchored herself with love.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Call Number: Stacks 824.92 G285b 2014

ISBN: 9780062282712

Publication Date: 2014-08-05

A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generation In these funny and insightful essays, Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.

Sister Outsider by Audre. Lorde

Call Number: Stacks 824.914 L867s 2020

ISBN: 9780143134442

Publication Date: 2020-02-25

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature, with a foreword by Mahogany L. Browne. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.

This Bridge Called My Back by Gloria Anzaldúa (Editor); Cherríe Moraga (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 820.809 T448

ISBN: 9781438454382

Publication Date: 2015-03-01

Originally released in 1981, This Bridge Called My Back is a testimony to women of color feminism as it emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, the collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, "the complex confluence of identities--race, class, gender, and sexuality--systemic to women of color oppression and liberation." Reissued here, nearly thirty-five years after its inception, the fourth edition contains an extensive new introduction by Moraga, along with a previously unpublished statement by Gloria Anzaldúa. The new edition also includes visual artists whose work was produced during the same period as Bridge, including Betye Saar, Ana Mendieta, and Yolanda López, as well as current contributor biographies. Bridge continues to reflect an evolving definition of feminism, one that can effectively adapt to, and help inform an understanding of the changing economic and social conditions of women of color in the United States and throughout the world.

In Search of Our Mother's Gardens by Alice Walker

Call Number: Stacks 828 W177s

ISBN: 9780151445257

Publication Date: 1983-10-10

As a woman, writer, mother, and feminist, Walker explores the theories and practices of feminism, incorporating what she calls the “womanist” tradition of African American women.

Need or want some popular and/or academic articles? You can try one of our databases. Please note: to access our databases off campus you will need to authenticate with your Berea College credentials and DUO. These and other databases can be accessed through the library website under "Databases A-Z."

Academic Search Complete
Humanities International
Alt Press Watch
J-Stor
CQ Researcher
Project Muse
Hein Online

Image credit: From the U.S. Embassy in Argentina This is a US Government publication and thus not subject to copyright so can be used by the public.

History, Women's & Gender Studies

A few more books for Black History Month 2025: Biographies

02/24/2025

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post with a small reading list for Black History Month. While I was writing that post and selecting books for the list, I found a few more books that may be of interest this month and beyond. This time I am focusing on biographies, memoirs, and similar works. Some these books feature prominent and known figures and others feature people who need to be better known. Books on this list are in no particular order, and they are all available here at Hutchins Library.

The First Black Marines: an Oral History by Trevor R. Getz; Robert Willis; Joseph H. Geeter III; Liz Clarke (Illustrator)

Call Number: Stacks 359.96 G394f 2025

ISBN: 9780197650370

Publication Date: 2024-10-24

The First Black Marines: An Oral History tells the extraordinary stories of the men who made history as the first African Americans to serve in the US Marine Corps. Based on extensive oral history interviews with a group of veterans conducted by the authors, this new title in OUP's Graphic History Series documents the experiences of these men as they underwent training at the segregated Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, North Carolina, during the 1940s and served in the Pacific theater of World War II. Narrated in the authentic voices of the Marines and featuring powerful imagery, this book provides a personal and moving account of the challenges they faced and overcame as pioneers in the US military during the Jim Crow era of widespread racial segregation and discrimination. The graphic history is accompanied by a highly accessible introduction to an inquiry-based approach to historical research and the methodology of oral history that empowers students to develop and conduct their own research projects in their communities. In addition, the book includes a brief overview of the historical context in which the Marines' stories unfold as well as a carefully chosen set of primary documents.

John Lewis by Raymond Arsenault

Call Number: Stacks 328.7309 L674za 2024

ISBN: 9780300253757

Publication Date: 2024-01-16

In this first book-length biography of Lewis, Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis's upbringing in rural Alabama, his activism as a Freedom Rider and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, his championing of voting rights and anti-poverty initiatives, and his decades of service as the "conscience of Congress." Both in the streets and in Congress, Lewis promoted a philosophy of nonviolence to bring about change. He helped the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders plan the 1963 March on Washington, where he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial. Lewis's activism led to repeated arrests and beatings, most notably when he suffered a skull fracture in Selma, Alabama, during the 1965 police attack later known as Bloody Sunday. He was instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and in Congress he advocated for racial and economic justice, immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, and national health care. Arsenault recounts Lewis's lifetime of work toward one overarching goal: realizing the "beloved community," an ideal society based in equity and inclusion. Lewis never wavered in this pursuit, and even in death his influence endures, inspiring mobilization and resistance in the fight for social justice.

Bring Judgment Day by Sheila Curran Bernard

Call Number: Stacks 782.421 L839zb 2024

ISBN: 9781009098120

Publication Date: 2024-07-11

Known worldwide as Lead Belly, Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949) is an American icon whose influence on modern music was tremendous - as was, according to legend, the temper that landed him in two of the South's most brutal prisons, while his immense talent twice won him pardons. But, as this deeply researched book shows, these stories were shaped by the white folklorists who 'discovered' Lead Belly and, along with reporters, recording executives, and radio and film producers, introduced him to audiences beyond the South. Through a revelatory examination of arrest, trial, and prison records; sharecropping reports; oral histories; newspaper articles; and more, author Sheila Curran Bernard replaces myth with fact, offering a stunning indictment of systemic racism in the Jim Crow era of the United States and the power of narrative to erase and distort the past.

American Imam by Taymullah Abdur-Rahman

Call Number: Stacks 297.87 A136a 2024

ISBN: 9781506489285

Publication Date: 2024-02-27

Imam Taymullah Abdur-Rahman's incredible life story weaves the contemporary Black American experience with the Black Muslim American experience and emphasizes the role of interreligious dialogue in the fight for abolition and justice. By the time he was twelve, Taymullah Abdur-Rahman (born Tyrone Sutton) was a rising pop star, recruited as part of the R&B group Perfect Gentlemen, with a top-ten hit, national teen magazine covers, and an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.However, after his music career peaked, Abdur-Rahman found himself back home, with little to show for his success. He became a teen father struggling to survive in Roxbury, MA. Seeing Islam as a way to discipline himself in an unrelenting environment, he converted. He went on to work in a maximum-security prison as a Muslim chaplain, where he became zealously focused on saving souls instead of understanding the outside forces that lead men to prison. Later, in his work as the first paid Muslim chaplain at Harvard, Abdur-Rahman began to seek counsel outside of Islam, engaging with Jewish and Christian mentors who opened his eyes to the gifts of interreligious dialogue and helped lead him to what he was truly seeking: enlightenment. With this new framework, he returned to working with prisoners and clearly saw the cyclical effects of systemic racism that keep Black and brown people locked up and without support in America today. A sweeping narrative, American Imam voices the contemporary concerns of Black Muslim Americans in the shadow of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, in the aftermath of 9/11, and in light of the fights for social justice and prison abolition. Abdur-Rahman's story sounds an indelible rallying cry for understanding across race, religion, and cultural divides.

Night Flyer by Tiya Miles; Henry Louis Gates (Series edited by)

Call Number: Stacks 306.362 T885zm 2024

ISBN: 9780593491164

Publication Date: 2024-06-18

Harriet Tubman is among the most famous Americans ever born and soon to be the face of the twenty-dollar bill. Yet often she's a figure more out of myth than history, almost a comic-book superhero. Despite being barely five feet tall, unable to read, and suffering from a brain injury, she managed to escape from her own enslavement, return again and again to lead others north to freedom without loss of life, speak out powerfully against slavery, and then become the first American woman in history to lead a military raid, freeing some seven hundred people. You could almost say she's America's Robin Hood, a miraculous vision, often rightly celebrated but seldom understood. Tiya Miles's extraordinary Night Flyer changes all that. With her characteristic tenderness and imaginative genius, Miles explores beyond the stock historical grid to weave Tubman's life into the fabric of her world. She probes the ecological reality of Tubman's surroundings and examines her kinship with other enslaved women who similarly passed through a spiritual wilderness and recorded those travels in profound and moving memoirs. What emerges, uncannily, is a human being whose mysticism becomes more palpable the more we understand it--a story that offers us powerful inspiration for our own time of troubles. Harriet Tubman traversed many boundaries, inner and outer. Now, thanks to Tiya Miles, she becomes an even clearer and sharper signal from the past, one that can help us to echolocate a more just and sustainable path.

A Few Days Full of Trouble by Wheeler Parker; Christopher Benson

Call Number: Stacks 364.134 T574zp 2023

ISBN: 9780593134269

Publication Date: 2023-01-10

The last surviving witness to the lynching of Emmett Till tells his story, with poignant recollections of Emmett as a boy, critical insights into the recent investigation, and powerful lessons for racial reckoning, both then and now. In 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was lynched. That remains an undisputed fact of the case that ignited a flame within the Civil Rights Movement that has yet to be extinguished. Yet the rest of the details surrounding the event remain distorted by time and too many tellings. What does justice mean in the resolution of a cold case spanning nearly seven decades? In A Few Days Full of Trouble, this question drives a new perspective on the story of Emmett Till, relayed by his cousin and best friend--the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., a survivor of the night of terror when young Emmett was taken from his family's rural Mississippi Delta home in the dead of night. Rev. Parker offers an emotional and suspenseful page-turner set against a backdrop of reporting errors and manipulations, racial reckoning, and political pushback--and he does so accompanied by never-before-seen findings in the investigation, the soft resurrection of memory, and the battle-tested courage of faith. A Few Days Full of Trouble is a powerful work of truth-telling, a gift to readers looking to reconcile the weight of the past with a hope for the future.

Built from the Fire by Victor Luckerson

Call Number: Stacks 976.686 L941b 2023

ISBN: 9780593134375

Publication Date: 2023-05-23

When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his family joined a community soon to become the center of black life in the West. But just a few years later, on May 31, 1921, the teenaged Ed hid in a bathtub as a white mob descended on his neighborhood, laying waste to thirty-five blocks and murdering as many as three hundred people in one of the worst acts of racist violence in U.S. history. The Goodwins and their neighbors soon rebuilt the district into "a Mecca," in Ed's words, where nightlife thrived and small businesses flourished. Ed bought a newspaper to chronicle Greenwood's resurgence and battles against white bigotry, and his son Jim, an attorney, embodied the family's hopes for the civil rights movement. But by the 1970s urban renewal policies had nearly emptied the neighborhood. Today the newspaper remains, and Ed's granddaughter Regina represents the neighborhood in the Oklahoma state legislature, working alongside a new generation of local activists to revive it once again. In Built from the Fire, journalist Victor Luckerson tells the true story behind a potent national symbol of success and solidarity and weaves an epic tale about a neighborhood that refused, more than once, to be erased.

King: a Life by Jonathan Eig

Call Number: New Book Display 323.092 K53zei 2023

ISBN: 9780374279295

Publication Date: 2023-05-16

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father--as well as the nation's most mourned martyr. In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history's greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime. Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

The Talk by Darrin Bell

Call Number: Graphic Novels 305.896 B433t 2023

ISBN: 9781250805140

Publication Date: 2023-06-06

Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are. Through evocative illustrations and sharp humor, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. While coming of age in Los Angeles--and finding a voice through cartooning--Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbors, and police officers and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans and showcasing revealing insights and cartoons along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And now Bell must decide whether he and his own six-year-old son are ready to have The Talk.

His Name Is George Floyd (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Robert Samuels; Toluse Olorunnipa

Call Number: Stacks 305.896 F645zs 2022

ISBN: 9780593490617

Publication Date: 2022-05-17

The events of that day are now tragically familiar: on May 25, 2020, George Floyd became the latest Black person to die at the hands of the police, murdered outside of a Minneapolis convenience store by white officer Derek Chauvin. The video recording of his death set off the largest protest movement in the history of the United States, awakening millions to the pervasiveness of racial injustice. But long before his face was painted onto countless murals and his name became synonymous with civil rights, Floyd was a father, partner, athlete, and friend who constantly strove for a better life. His Name Is George Floyd tells the story of a beloved figure from Houston's housing projects as he faced the stifling systemic pressures that come with being a Black man in America. Placing his narrative within the context of the country's enduring legacy of institutional racism, this deeply reported account examines Floyd's family roots in slavery and sharecropping, the segregation of his schools, the overpolicing of his community amid a wave of mass incarceration, and the callous disregard toward his struggle with addiction--putting today's inequality into uniquely human terms. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with Floyd's closest friends and family, his elementary school teachers and varsity coaches, civil rights icons, and those in the highest seats of political power, Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa offer a poignant and moving exploration of George Floyd's America, revealing how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.

A Worthy Piece of Work by Michael Hines

Call Number: Stacks 371.1 M849zh 2022

ISBN: 9780807007426

Publication Date: 2022-05-24

The story of Madeline Morgan, the activist educator who brought Black history to one of the nation's largest and most segregated school systems. A Worthy Piece of Work tells the story of Madeline Morgan (later Madeline Stratton Morris), a teacher and an activist in WWII-era Chicago, who fought her own battle on the home front, authoring curricula that bolstered Black claims for recognition and equal citizenship. During the Second World War, as Black Americans both fought to save democracy abroad and demanded full citizenship at home, Morgan's work gained national attention and widespread praise, and became a model for teachers, schools, districts, and cities across the country. Scholar Michael Hines unveils this history for the first time, providing a rich understanding of the ways in which Black educators have created counternarratives to challenge the anti-Black racism found in school textbooks and curricula. At a moment when Black history is under attack in school districts and state legislatures across the country, A Worthy Piece of Work reminds us that struggles over history, representation, and race are far from a new phenomenon.

Walk with Me by Kate Clifford Larson

Call Number: Stacks 973.049 H214zLa 2021

ISBN: 9780190096847

Publication Date: 2021-09-01

Few figures embody the physical courage, unstinting sacrifice, and inspired heroism behind the Civil Rights movement more than Fannie Lou Hamer. For millions hers was the voice that made "This Little Light of Mine" an anthem. Her impassioned rhetoric electrified audiences. At the Democratic Convention in 1964, Hamer's televised speech took not just Democrats but the entire nation to task for abetting racial injustice, searing the conscience of everyone who heard it. Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1917, Hamer was the 20th child of Black sharecroppers and raised in a world in which racism, poverty, and injustice permeated the cotton fields. As the Civil Rights Movement began to emerge during the 1950s, she was struggling to make a living with her husband on lands that her forebears had cleared, ploughed, and harvested for generations. When a white doctor sterilized her without her permission in 1961, Hamer took her destiny into her own hands. Bestselling biographer Kate Clifford Larson offers the first account of Hamer's life for a general audience, capturing and illuminating what made Hamer the electrifying force that she became when she walked onto stages across the country during the 1960s and until her death in 1977. Walk with Me does justice to the full force of Hamer's activism and example. Based on new sources, including recently opened FBI files and Oval Office transcripts, the biography features interviews with some of the people closest to Hamer and conversations with Civil Rights leaders who fought alongside her. Larson's biography will become the standard account of an extraordinary life.

The Assault on Elisha Green by Randolph Paul Runyon

Call Number: Stacks 305.896 R943a 2021

ISBN: 9780813152387

Publication Date: 2021-10-26

On June 8, 1883, Rev. Elisha Green was traveling by train from Maysville to Paris, Kentucky. At Millersburg, about forty students from the Millersburg Female College crowded onto the train, accompanied by their music teacher, Frank L. Bristow, and the college president, George T. Gould. Gould grabbed the reverend by the shoulder and ordered him to give up his seat. When Green refused, Bristow and Gould assaulted him until the conductor intervened and ordered the assailants to stop or he would throw them off of the train. Friends advised Green to take legal action, and he did, winning his case against his assailants in March 1884, though with only token compensation. The significance of this case lies not only in the prevailing justice of the 1800s, but also in the fact that a black man won a lawsuit against two white men. In The Assault on Elisha Green: Race and Religion in a Kentucky Community, historian Randolph Paul Runyon recounts one man's pursuit of justice over violence and racism in the nineteenth century. He tells the story of Green's life and follows the network of relationships that led to the event of the assault. Tracing these three men's lives brings the reader from the slavery era to the eve of the First World War, from Kentucky to New Mexico, from Covington to the Kentucky River Palisades, with particular focus on Mason and Bourbon Counties. In this engagingly written tale, Runyon masterfully interweaves background information with the immediacy of the harrowing attack and its aftermath, revealing the true character of the primary actors and the racial tensions unique to a border state.

The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Call Number: Stacks 306.874 T884t 2021

ISBN: 9781250756121

Publication Date: 2021-02-02

Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning--from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. 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. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America's racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families' safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers. These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.

If you want to find more books or other materials on this or other topics, you can visit the library website and check the library catalog.

Need assistance, please stop by or contact the Reference Desk.

History, African & African American Studies, Biographies, Abolitionists /Antislavery Movement, African Americans

February 2025 Spotlight on Black History Month: a small reading list.

02/10/2025

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

February is Black History Month in the United States and other parts of the world. This is a time when libraries often offer suggested reading lists to help the community learn more through reading. Today I would like to highlight some books that may be of interest this month and throughout the year. These books are all available at Hutchins Library. If you want to find more, you can always visit our library website, check the library catalog, and do a search for more titles. Need assistance? You can stop by the Reference Desk during regular library hours, use our chat service, and/or set up an appointment with a librarian. See our website for hours and details.

Our History Has Always Been Contraband by Colin Kaepernick (Editor); Robin D. G. Kelley (Editor); Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 973.049 O937 2023

ISBN: 9798888900574

Publication Date: 2023-07-04

"The centuries-long attack on Black history represents a strike against our very worth, brilliance, and value. We're ready to fight back. And when we fight, we win." --Colin Kaepernick. Since its founding as a discipline, Black Studies has been under relentless attack by social and political forces seeking to discredit and neutralize it. Our History Has Always Been Contraband was born out of an urgent need to respond to the latest threat: efforts to remove content from an AP African American Studies course being piloted in high schools across the United States. Edited by Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Our History Has Always Been Contraband brings together canonical texts and authors in Black Studies, including those excised from or not included in the AP curriculum. Featuring writings by: David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Zora Neale Hurston, W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, James Baldwin, June Jordan, Angela Y. Davis, Robert Allen, Barbara Smith, Toni Cade Bambara, bell hooks, Barbara Christian, Patricia Hill Collins, Cathy J. Cohen, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Saidiya Hartman, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and many others. Our History Has Always Been Contraband excerpts readings that cut across and between literature, political theory, law, psychology, sociology, gender and sexuality studies, queer and feminist theory, and history.

I have personally read this book and recommend it.

My Black Country by Alice Randall

Call Number: Stacks 781.642 R188m 2024

ISBN: 9781668018408

Publication Date: 2024-04-09

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author presents "a celebration of all things country music" (Ken Burns) as she reflects on her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Alice Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood's "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)". Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity. What emerges in My Black Country is "a delightful, inspirational story of persistence, resistance, and sheer love" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of this most American of music genres and the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture. As country music goes through a fresh renaissance today, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is the perfect gift for longtime country fans and a vibrant introduction to a new generation of listeners who previously were not invited to give the genre a chance.

The Stolen Wealth of Slavery by David Montero; Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword by)

Call Number: Stacks 381.44 M778s 2024

ISBN: 9780306827174

Publication Date: 2024-02-06

This groundbreaking book tracks the massive wealth amassed from slavery from pre-Civil War to today, showing how our modern economy was built on the backs of enslaved Black people--and lays out a clear argument for reparations that shows exactly what was stolen, who stole it, and to whom it is owed. In this timely, powerful, investigative history, The Stolen Wealth of Slavery, Emmy Award-nominated journalist David Montero follows the trail of the massive wealth amassed by Northern corporations throughout America's history of enslavement. It has long been maintained by many that the North wasn't complicit in the horrors of slavery. The truth, however, is that large Northern banks--including well-known institutions like Citibank, Bank of New York, and Bank of America--were critical to the financing of slavery; that they saw their fortunes rise dramatically from their involvement in the business of enslavement; and that white business leaders and their surrounding communities created enormous wealth from the enslavement and abuse of Black bodies. The Stolen Wealth of Slavery grapples with facts that will be a revelation to many: Most white Southern enslavers were not rich--many were barely making ends meet--with Northern businesses benefitting the most from bondage-based profits. And some of the very Northerners who would be considered pro-Union during the Civil War were in fact anti-abolition, seeing the institution of slavery as being in their best financial interests, and only supporting the Union once they realized doing so would be good for business. It is a myth that the wealth generated from slavery vanished after the war. Rather, it helped finance the industrialization of the country, and became part of the bedrock of the growth of modern corporations, helping to transform America into a global economic behemoth. In this remarkable book, Montero elegantly and meticulously details rampant Northern investment in slavery. He showcases exactly what was stolen, who stole it, and to whom it is owed, calling for corporate reparations as he details contemporary movements to hold companies accountable for past atrocities.

A Most Tolerant Little Town by Rachel Louise Martin

Call Number: Stacks 379.263 M382m 2023

ISBN: 9781665905145

Publication Date: 2023-06-13

In graduate school, Rachel Martin was sent to a small town in the foothills of the Appalachians, where locals wanted to build a museum to commemorate the events of September 1956, when Clinton High School became the first school in the former Confederacy to attempt court mandated desegregation. But not everyone wanted to talk. As one founder of the Tennessee White Youth told her, "Honey, there was a lot of ugliness down at the school that year; best we just move on and forget it." For years, Martin wondered what it was some white residents of Clinton didn't want remembered. So, she went back, eventually interviewing over sixty townsfolk--including nearly a dozen of the first students to desegregate Clinton High--to piece together what happened back in 1956: the death threats and beatings, picket lines and cross burnings, neighbors turned on neighbors and preachers for the first time at a loss for words. The National Guard rushed to town, along with national journalists like Edward R. Morrow and even evangelist Billy Graham. But that wasn't the most explosive secret Martin learned... In A Most Tolerant Little Town, Rachel Martin weaves together over a dozen perspectives in an intimate, kaleidoscopic portrait of a small town living through a turbulent turning point for America. The result is at once a "gripping" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) mystery and a moving piece of forgotten civil rights history, rendered "with precision, lucidity and, most of all, a heart inured to false hope" (The New York Times). You may never before have heard of Clinton, Tennessee--but you won't be forgetting the town anytime soon.

Black Folk: the roots of the Black working class by Blair Kelley

Call Number: Stacks 331.639 K293b 2023

ISBN: 9781631496554

Publication Date: 2023-06-13

There have been countless books, articles, and televised reports in recent years about the almost mythic "white working class," a tide of commentary that has obscured the labor, and even the very existence, of entire groups of working people, including everyday Black workers. In this brilliant corrective, Black Folk, acclaimed historian Blair LM Kelley restores the Black working class to the center of the American story. Spanning two hundred years--from one of Kelley's earliest known ancestors, an enslaved blacksmith, to the essential workers of the Covid-19 pandemic--Black Folk highlights the lives of the laundresses, Pullman porters, domestic maids, and postal workers who established the Black working class as a force in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Taking jobs white people didn't want and confined to segregated neighborhoods, Black workers found community in intimate spaces, from stoops on city streets to the backyards of washerwomen, where multiple generations labored from dawn to dusk, talking and laughing in a space free of white supervision and largely beyond white knowledge. As millions of Black people left the violence of the American South for the promise of a better life in the North and West, these networks of resistance and joy sustained early arrivals and newcomers alike and laid the groundwork for organizing for better jobs, better pay, and equal rights. As her narrative moves from Georgia to Philadelphia, Florida to Chicago, Texas to Oakland, Kelley treats Black workers not just as laborers, or members of a class, or activists, but as people whose daily experiences mattered--to themselves, to their communities, and to a nation that denied that basic fact. Through affecting portraits of her great-grandfather, a sharecropper named Solicitor, and her grandmother, Brunell, who worked for more than a decade as a domestic maid, Kelley captures, in intimate detail, how generation after generation of labor was required to improve, and at times maintain, her family's status. Yet her family, like so many others, was always animated by a vision of a better future. The church yards, factory floors, rail cars, and postal sorting facilities where Black people worked were sites of possibility, and, as Kelley suggests, Amazon package processing centers, supermarkets, and nursing homes can be the same today. With the resurgence of labor activism in our own time, Black Folk presents a stirring history of our possible future.

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones (Created by); The New The New York Times Magazine (Created by); Caitlin Roper (Editor); Ilena Silverman (Editor); Jake Silverstein (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 973 S625 2021

ISBN: 9780593230572

Publication Date: 2021-11-16

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty people stolen from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine's award-winning 1619 Project issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation's founding and construction--and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.

Have you read any of the above? Do you have other titles you would like to suggest? Feel free to leave us a comment.

In addition to the list above, if you are interested in graphic novels, we made a list of titles for Black History Month.

History, African & African American Studies, Abolitionists /Antislavery Movement, African Americans, Civil Rights / Race Relations

Some reading for National Hispanic Heritage Month 2024

09/17/2024

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

September 15 to October 15 is National Heritage Hispanic Month in the United States. The month is a celebration of the efforts, achievements, and contributions of Hispanic Americans. The time period is significant as it coincides with the independence day celebrations of many Latin American countries.

To help celebrate, here is a selection of books by Hispanic American writers available at Hutchins Library. Links go to the library catalog record. If you wish to find more materials please feel free to visit the library reference desk or use the chat widget on the library website (available during library regular hours).

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Call Number: Young Adult S211i 2017

ISBN: 9781524700485

Publication Date: 2017-10-17

A "stunning" (America Ferrera) YA novel about a teenager coming to terms with losing her sister and finding herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home. Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed. But it's not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister's story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Call Number: Young Adult M843go 2020

ISBN: 9780525620778

Publication Date: 2020-02-18

The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark, one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore. The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather's house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather's room. She opens it--and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea's demise, but success could make her dreams come true. In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City--and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Call Number: Young Adult M843me 2021

ISBN: 9780525620808

Publication Date: 2021-06-15

An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes "a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror" (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what she will find--her cousin's husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She's a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she's also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin's new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi's dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family's youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family's past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Call Number: Fiction R995e

ISBN: 9780439120418

Publication Date: 2000-10-01

Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.

Vampires of el Norte by Isabel Cañas

Call Number: Young Adult C213va 2023

ISBN: 9780593436721

Publication Date: 2023-08-15

Vampires, vaqueros, and star-crossed lovers face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda. As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters--her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago. Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind. When the United States invades Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion--and Nena's rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago--is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.

Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez

Call Number: Stacks 973.046 G6427h 2011

ISBN: 9780143119289

Publication Date: 2011-05-31

A sweeping history of the Latino experience in the United States- thoroughly revised and updated. The first new edition in ten years of this important study of Latinos in U.S. history, Harvest of Empire spans five centuries-from the first New World colonies to the first decade of the new millennium. Latinos are now the largest minority group in the United States, and their impact on American popular culture-from food to entertainment to literature-is greater than ever. Featuring family portraits of real- life immigrant Latino pioneers, as well as accounts of the events and conditions that compelled them to leave their homelands, Harvest of Empire is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and legacy of this increasingly influential group.

An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

Call Number: Stacks 305.8009 O778a 2018

ISBN: 9780807013106

Publication Date: 2018-01-30

An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Scholar and activist Paul Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress as exalted by widely taught formulations like "manifest destiny" and "Jacksonian democracy," and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms US history into one of the working class organizing against imperialism. Drawing on rich narratives and primary source documents, Ortiz links racial segregation in the Southwest and the rise and violent fall of a powerful tradition of Mexican labor organizing in the twentieth century, to May 1, 2006, known as International Workers' Day, when migrant laborers-Chicana/os, Afrocubanos, and immigrants from every continent on earth-united in resistance on the first "Day Without Immigrants." As African American civil rights activists fought Jim Crow laws and Mexican labor organizers warred against the suffocating grip of capitalism, Black and Spanish-language newspapers, abolitionists, and Latin American revolutionaries coalesced around movements built between people from the United States and people from Central America and the Caribbean. In stark contrast to the resurgence of "America First" rhetoric, Black and Latinx intellectuals and organizers today have historically urged the United States to build bridges of solidarity with the nations of the Americas. Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americans, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights. 2018 Winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award.

Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar; Héctor Tobar

Call Number: Stacks 305.868 T628o 2023

ISBN: 9780374609900

Publication Date: 2023-05-09

In Our Migrant Souls, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar delivers a definitive and personal exploration of what it means to be Latino in the United States right now. "Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States, and also one of the most rapidly growing. Composed as a direct address to the young people who identify or have been classified as "Latino," Our Migrant Souls is the first account of the historical and social forces that define Latino identity. Taking on the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, media, and pop culture, Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and gives voice to the anger and the hopes of young Latino people who have seen Latinidad transformed into hateful tropes and who have faced insult and division--a story as old as this country itself. Tobar translates his experience as not only a journalist and novelist but also a mentor, a leader, and an educator. He interweaves his own story, and that of his parents' migration to the United States from Guatemala, into his account of his journey across the country to uncover something expansive, inspiring, true, and alive about the meaning of "Latino" in the twenty-first century.

If you want to learn more about National Hispanic Heritage Month and Latinos in the United States, here are a few online resources:

President Biden's 2024 Proclamation of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
National Hispanic Heritage Month federal portal, a "collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration."
The Facts for Features article for National Hispanic Heritage Month from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Via the Library of Congress blog, some ideas on "celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Primary Sources." This is a good resource for school teachers.
You can also check out the Latin X research guide from the Library Of Congress.
The National Archives also has a collection of resources and photos for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Hutchins Library, History, Authors / Literature, Latinx Studies

Learn more about Malcolm X on Malcolm X Day at the library

05/17/2024

Angel Rivera

0 Comments

Malcolm X Day is a U.S. holiday observed either on his birthday, May 19th, or on the third Friday in May. It is observed in some way in 16 states as of this post, often in specific cities and often with educational events and other activities.

To honor the civil rights activist and leader on this day, I am highlighting some books and resources on Malcolm X and his times available at Hutchins Library.

Books listed below, in no particular order, are available here at the library. If you want to find more, you can visit the library website and use the library catalog to search for more books and other resources the library owns or can access. If you need assistance, you can contact or visit the reference desk.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley

Call Number: Stacks 305.896 X11a 1999

ISBN: 9780345350688

Publication Date: 1987-10-12

ONE OF TIME'S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America. Praise for The Autobiography of Malcolm X "Extraordinary . . . a brilliant, painful, important book."--The New York Times "This book will have a permanent place in the literature of the Afro-American struggle."--I. F. Stone

Malcolm X by Manning Marable; G. Valmont Thomas (Read by)

Call Number: Stacks 297.87 X11zm 2011

ISBN: 9780670022205

Publication Date: 2011-04-04

Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year. Years in the making-the definitive biography of the legendary black activist. Of the great figures in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age thirty-nine. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man. In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world. Manning Marable's new biography of Malcolm is a stunning achievement. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography, Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties. Reaching into Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents' activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. Malcolm X will stand as the definitive work on one of the most singular forces for social change, capturing with revelatory clarity a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.

A Lie of Reinvention by Jared Ball (Editor); Todd Steven Burroughs (Editor)

Call Number: E-Book

ISBN: 9781574780512

Publication Date: 2013-07-01

A Lie of Reinvention is a response to Manning Marable’s biography of Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention. Marable’s book was controversially acclaimed by some as his magna opus. At the same time, it was denounced and debated by others as a worthless read full of conjecture, errors, and without any new factual content. In this collection of critical essays, editors Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs lead a group of established and emerging Black scholars and activists who take a clear stance in this controversy: Marable’s biography is at best flawed and at worst a major setback in American history, African American studies, and scholarship on the life of Malcolm X. In the tradition of John Henrik Clarke’s classic anthology "William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond,” this volume provides a striking critique of Marable’s text. In 1968, Clarke and his assembled writers felt it essential to respond to Styron’s fictionalized and ahistorical Nat Turner, the heroic leader of one of America’s most famous revolts against enslavement. In A Lie of Reinvention, the editors sense a different threat to an African American icon, Malcolm X. This time, the threat is presented as an authoritative biography. To counter the threat, Ball and Burroughs respond with a barbed collection of commentaries of Marable’s text. The essays come from all quarters of the Black community. From behind prison walls, Mumia Abu-Jamal revises his prior public praise of Marable’s book with an essay written specifically for this volume. A. Peter Bailey, a veteran journalist who worked with Malcolm X’s Organization for Afro-American Unity, disputes how he is characterized in Marable’s book. Bill Strickland, who also knew Malcolm X, provides what he calls a "personal critique” of the biography. Younger scholars such as Kali Akuno, Kamau Franklin, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Christopher M. Tinson, Eugene Puryear and Greg Thomas join veterans Rosmari Mealy, Raymond Winbush, Amiri Baraka and Karl Evanzz in pointing out historical problems and ideological misinterpretations in Marable’s work.

The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne; Tamara Payne

Call Number: Stacks 320.546 X11zp 2020

ISBN: 9781631491665

Publication Date: 2020-10-20

Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X--all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm's life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century's most politically relevant figures "from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary." In tracing Malcolm X's life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm's Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in her children after Earl's death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm's exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary. With a biographer's unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations--from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder "Fard Muhammad," who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz's 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X's murder at the Audubon Ballroom. Introduced by Payne's daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father's death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.

The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph

Call Number: Stacks 323.092 J835s 2020

ISBN: 9781541617865

Publication Date: 2020-03-31

This "landmark" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist) dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the twentieth century's most iconic African American leaders To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense versus nonviolence, black power versus civil rights, the sword versus the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's militancy is either vilified or erased outright. In The Sword and the Shield, Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define.

The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Call Number: Stacks 306.874 T884t 2021

ISBN: 9781250756121

Publication Date: 2021-02-02

Stamped from the Beginning Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. but virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them. In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes. Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning--from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. 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. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America's racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families' safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers. These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.

Want to do some research on Malcolm X, his work and times? In addition to books and materials from the library collections, you could try using one of these databases available through the library website. Note that if you are off campus, you will be prompted to log in with your Berea College credentials to gain access.

Academic Search Complete
America: History and Life
Ethnic Newswatch
J-Stor

Here are some websites and freely available online resources that may be of interest.

Want to research Malcolm X's papers? They are held at the New York Public Library (some materials may be digitized, check the site for details).
Learn a bit more about the observance via the Zinn Education Project. They also offer other articles and resources on Malcolm X.
Social Justice Books offers a list of books for teaching about Malcolm X from elementary school to adult nonfiction. You can check the library catalog to see which ones we may have.

History, African & African American Studies, African Americans