Black History Month – Wrap-Up

I hope everyone doesn’t stop learning about black history after this shortest month of the year is over. The more we are exposed to diverse people and cultures, the more we understand about each other, and the greater our empathy will be. In 1954, a white professor of constitutional law, Charles L. Black, Jr. helped [...]

Black History Month: February 27, 1902 – Birthday of Marian Anderson

As a young girl, Marian Anderson sang all parts in her church choir: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. She got professional training starting at the age of 19, and at the peak of her career, she was regarded as the world’s greatest contralto. 
When she made her Town Hall debut in New York on December [...]

Black History Month: Review of “A Wish After Midnight” by Zetta Elliott

Note: This review was just run this past August, but it seems eminently appropriate to run it again as part of Black History Month, and because it was recently picked up for publication by AmazonEncore. (“AmazonEncore” is a publishing division of Amazon.com established to help readers discover exceptional books from emerging authors.) This book of [...]

Black History Month – Review of “Blood Done Sign My Name” by Timothy Tyson

I was delighted to see that a movie has just been released based on this excellent memoir. Blood Done Sign My Name is one of those books that will leave you feeling raw and bruised, but also touched and inspired. It will be interesting to see how the movie approaches the horrific facts of this [...]

Black History Month: Review of “Stonewall Jackson’s Black Sunday School” by Rickey E. Pittman; Illustrated by Lynn Hosegood

This hagiography of Stonewall Jackson for children features a cover picture of someone who looks like a mixed-race version of Stonewall Jackson, reading the Holy Bible to three happy black children. Stonewall Jackson, the famous general of the Confederacy, is depicted as a benevolent leader and mentor of black slaves. He did in fact establish [...]

Black History Month: February 23, 1868 – Birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (pronounced doo-BOYSS) was an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author, and editor. He was born three years after the end of the Civil War in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His family had lived there for generations and his ancestors had fought in the American Revolution. Du Bois attended Fisk [...]

Review of “When She Flew” by Jennie Shortridge

In 2004, a Vietnam vet and his 12-year-old daughter were discovered living in Portland Oregon’s Forest Park. The man and girl had lived in the park for four years. According to police, they appeared clean, well fed and healthy, and the girl was well-spoken beyond her years. A police officer found the man a job [...]

Black History Month: February 21, 1933 – Birthday of Fabulous Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, known as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and activist who recorded over forty live and studio albums. She had a unique musical style that combined classical training with an interest in a broad range of musical genres, including jazz, folk, broadway, pop, and spiritual. Although she died in [...]

Black History Month: My Hero – Paul Robeson

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know I cannot go for very long without posting about the person I admire most: Paul Robeson. This remarkable man was born in 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey to a father who was an escaped slave. In spite of the atmosphere of segregation and [...]

Review of Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Seventeen-year-old androgynous, mixed-race Micah Wilkins is a pathological liar and perhaps worse. As the narrator of this story, she struggles to tell the unidentified listener the truth about the death of her boyfriend, Zach Rubin. Micah attends a small, progressive high school but doesn’t fit in; the other students consider her a “freak.” As a [...]