Books

Our book collection is a combination of authors from every walk of life. They are scholars, activist, graduates, everyday people who have something to share with the world. The intent of our book collection is to understand more about the black experience in the world, and anyone who has a learning perspective is welcome to our book club.

Books that touched on race were among the most challenged as inappropriate for libraries in 2020

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By Shirin Ali Books that talked about racism and racial justice — or told the stories of people of color or the LGBTQ community — were among the most challenged as inappropriate for students in 2020, according to a survey by the American Library Association. As the nation attempted a reckoning in 2020 over the issue of race in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, parents took issue with books that dealt with some of the same issues. For the first time in the survey’s history, six of the 10 most-challenged books — out of 273 books that

How a freed slave triumphed over a White lynch mob in the Jim Crow South

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By Faith Karimi, CNN On the night of January 21, 1897, a mob of White men armed with pistols and shotguns surrounded the home of freed slave George Dinning in southern Kentucky. They falsely accused him of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm and unleashed a hail of bullets into his house, wounding him in the arm and forehead. Terrified for his wife and children, Dinning fired back, killing one of his assailants. In a remarkable story filled with dramatic twists and unusual alliances, Dinning eventually became perhaps the first Black man in the country to win damages against a

Racine is home to one of a handful of Black-owned bookstores in Wisconsin

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By RACHEL KUBIK RACINE, Wisconsin (The Journal Times) — While bookstores around the country are closing as more people are reading online and on devices such as Kindles and Nooks, Wisconsin still has a number of them. In Black History Month 2021, there continue to be only a few Black-owned bookstores in Wisconsin. Racine is lucky enough to have one. Mahogany Gallery, located at 1422 Washington Ave. in Uptown, is an art exhibition area, cultural center and creative space. It’s also a shop selling nearly everything in the room; products include locally made art, apparel, body products, mugs and books.

National Civil Rights Museum virtually hosts new book Four Hundred Souls

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Editors and panelists of the highly anticipated, African American history anthology convene The National Civil Rights Museum brings award-winning authors Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Dr. Keisha N. Blain, editors of the anticipated anthology Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 to its Book and Author Series on Friday, February 5.  Set to release on February 2, the book is a collection of 90 voices telling one of history’s great epic stories. Four Hundred Souls fundamentally dismantles the idea that Africans in America are a monolith by sharing a wide range of experiences that have always existed

Just as I am, by Cicely Tyson

Just as I am, by Cicely Tyson (January) A reigning queen of Hollywood, Tyson  radiated grace and dignity onscreen for more than half a century. The actress was the first African American to appear on a TV drama in the 1960s and later survived a turbulent marriage to jazz great Miles Davis. Now, at 96, she was ready to tell her story. “‘Just As I Am‘ is my truth … plain and unvarnished,” she writes. “And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.”

Liner Notes for the Revolution

“A gloriously polyphonic book. Moving through the tumult of the twentieth century and the millennium, Brooks scores, archives, and curates the history of Black women musicians and their radical modernities. What did they do to be so Black, brilliant, and blue? Listen. And read on.” —Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to exam- ine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of Black women on stage and in the recording studio. How is it possible, she asks, that iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé exist simulta-

Millionaire Moves – Dr. William Pickard – Virtual Book Tour

Fifth Third Bank will host a virtual book tour with William F. Pickard, Ph.D. who is Chairman and Executive Founder of GAA Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management, GAA New Ventures, Co-Managing Partner MGM Grand Detroit Casino, CEO of Bearwood Management McDonald’s and co-owner of five Black-owned newspapers. Dr. Pickard is also creating a new generation of entrepreneurs with Millionaire Moves – Seven Proven Principles of Entrepreneurship: Vision/Attitude, Opportunity, Relationships, Talent/Skillset, Financial, Failure and Faith. Dr. Pickard will share his principles that anyone can use to become a successful entrepreneur. He will also share an overview of his best-selling book and

Fugitive Pedagogy – Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching

Black education was a subversive act from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education in America. The enslaved learned to read in spite of widespread prohibitions; newly emancipated people braved the dangers of integrating all-White schools and the hardships of building Black schools. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, creative responses to the per- sistence of White opposition. From slavery through the Jim Crow era, Black people passed down this

Lessons from Plants

An exploration of how plant behavior and adaptation offer valuable insights for human thriving. We know that plants are important. They maintain the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. They nourish other living organisms and supply psychological benefits to humans as well, improving our moods and beautifying the landscape around us. But plants don’t just passively provide. They also take action. Beronda L. Montgomery explores the vigorous, creative lives of organisms often treated as static and predictable. In fact, plants are masters of adaptation. They “know” what or who they are, and they use this knowl- edge to

Justice Rising – Robert Kennedy’s America in Black and White

A leading civil rights historian places Robert Kennedy for the first time at the center of the movement for racial justice of the 1960s—and shows how many of today’s issues can be traced back to that pivotal time. Bobby Kennedy was an unlikely civil rights hero. A cold warrior who once worked for Joe McCarthy, he grew up in a sheltered world where segregation was the norm. But when he became attorney general in 1961, he plunged headfirst into the politics of race. In this landmark reconsideration of his life and legacy, Patricia Sullivan reveals how he grasped the moment

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