The Flag Was Still There by McKean and Bennett

THE FLAG WAS STILL THERE by David McKean and M. Todd Bennett is a scholarly work which traces “A History of the American Experiment in Five Anniversaries:” 1776, 1826, 1876, 1926, and 1976. THE FLAG WAS STILL THERE received a positive review from Kirkus and praise from well-known historians like Douglas Brinkley and Walter Isaacson. However, it is fairly dense and would be daunting for our high school students, even those enrolled in AP US History. The reoccurring patterns (discrimination, nativism, corruption) and “inflection points” beg to be documented in a more accessible form – what interesting, informative, and necessary conversations they could prompt as the nation will soon be celebrating 250 years. Kudos to McKean, a former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, and Bennett, a professor of history at East Carolina University, for highlighting these key issues.

I'll Make Me a World by Jarvis R. Givens

I'LL MAKE ME A WORLD by Jarvis R. Givens received a starred review from Library Journal and was the notable non-fiction LibraryReads selection for February. This text contains four essays and purports to share “The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month.” There is a great deal of history, including multiple images, and many stories related to figures critical to both the creation and the commemoration of Black History Week in 1926 and then Black History Month in 1976. However, the overall tone is quite scholarly and academic which could unnecessarily restrict readership. Givens is a Professor of Education and African and African American Studies and the co-founding faculty director of the Black Teacher Archive at Harvard University. He freely shares his personal experiences as a student and as a mentor. That personal history was quite interesting as well as the many more widely recognized historical anecdotes which he included. Givens feels passionately about this subject and that was evident in his research (Notes comprise about ten percent of this text and a detailed Index is included). Crafting an “abridged” version for high school students would be worth pursuing. 

Murder at the Wham Bam Club by Carolyn Marie Wilkins

Set in rural Illinois during the roaring 1920s, MURDER AT THE WHAM BAM CLUB by Carolyn Marie Wilkins has a fun, catchy title, but the story moved slowly. Wilkins seems to rely on quite a few stereotypes with a great deal of focus on being psychic and seeing auras. Honestly, that did not seem interesting after a while, especially with all of the repetition throughout the story. The main character, Nola Ann Jackson, is a young twenty-one-year-old widow who shares second sight abilities with her Aunt Sarah. When another young woman, Lilly, goes missing, from a school (Phyllis Wheatley Institute for homeless colored girls) that Nola Ann attended, the Director asks for help, implying that the police force will not give the case appropriate priority. I can readily see Nola Ann (as fearless as PBS’ Miss Scarlett) returning in future mysteries (and it does look like Let the Murderer Say Amen is scheduled for a July 2026 publication), but it is hard to always feel that she really is experienced enough or that local crime bosses and politicians would continue to listen to her. Readers interested in using “magic” to solve a puzzle would also enjoy the more modern day Lina Chern’s mysteries (Play the Fool and Tricks of Fortune).

Was That Racist? by Evelyn R. Carter

WAS THAT RACIST? by Evelyn R. Carter describes in detail “How to Detect, Interrupt, and Unlearn Bias in Everyday Life.” Carter is a social psychologist, author of cutting-edge research, and a consultant on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.  Her text is relatively short, but powerful, with chapters that discuss topics like how racial bias can be subtle or the magnitude of White privilege. She objectively defines terms like systemic racism or bystander effect and offers relatable examples as when she talks about comments from her own healthcare provider. One of her strongest positions is that “to stop biased behavior, you must call out the person responsible for the behavior” and she devotes another chapter to various means (e.g., public declarations) for calling out bias. Yet another chapter explores ways in which children learn bias and how and when they discover race and racism, again with some memorable personal anecdotes. Resources listed in that chapter are valuable, too: EmbraceRace; social justice books for teens; We Need Diverse Books; and PBS Kids for parents. Near the end, Carter acknowledges the current difficult situation and references Dr. King’s famous speech: “We shall overcome ... because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Her call to action is blunt and hopeful: “If we collectively take responsibility for calling out bias -- questioning how our families, workplaces, and communities can improve, and actively working toward that vision -- change will follow.” WAS THAT RACIST? is thoroughly researched and notes comprise approximately twenty percent of the text. 

The American Revolution and The Great Contradiction

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns is subtitled “An Intimate History” and it is certainly a detailed one. The series which is airing on PBS is roughly twelve hours long and the companion book is itself just over 600 pages. That means many, many people are mentioned, and I found it interesting to learn about them, like Capt. Isaac Davis who led his neighbors and fellow minutemen at Lexington Green. The research is impeccable, if overwhelming at times. I am grateful to all involved for trying to present as much factual information as possible, particularly, the firsthand accounts, but I miss some of the myths (e.g., Nathan Hale and the only one life to give quote), too. The bibliography is almost a dozen pages, each single spaced and with three columns of sources; plus, there is another similarly formatted five pages of illustration credits. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION received a starred review from Booklist.  

According to the publisher’s summary, THE GREAT CONTRADICTION by Joseph J. Ellis “reckons with the two great failures of America’s founding: the failure to end slavery and the failure to avoid Indian removal.” Ellis is a widely recognized authority on the Revolutionary Era, having won both the Pulitzer Prize (Founding Brothers) and the National Book Award (American Sphinx). In his latest work, he discusses, for example, how a majority of signers of the Declaration owned slaves. Honestly, I was shocked at some of the quotes which were shared; like Ben Franklin (who subsequently changed his views) writing in 1751 “… in America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all blacks and tawneys, of increasing the lovely white and red? But perhaps I am partial to the complexion of my country, for such kind of partiality is natural to Mankind.” Commentary and analysis in THE GREAT CONTRADICTION is based on significant research (approximately twenty percent of the book comprises Notes and bibliographical references) and the tone is rather scholarly throughout. However, Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal (calling it an “important and necessary perspective”), and Publishers Weekly all gave this text a starred review. Ellis provides a unique and fascinating look into contemporary perspective on these crucial issues during the nation’s formation.

The Black Family Who Built America

THE BLACK FAMILY WHO BUILT AMERICA is written by Cheryl McKissack Daniel, the award-winning president and CEO of McKissack & McKissack. Her family’s company is America’s oldest minority-owned construction firm and she shares the history of its development, founding, and works throughout the twentieth century until today. However, unlike Invisible Generals or The Warmth of Other Suns, THE BLACK FAMILY WHO BUILT AMERICA is written in a rather dense style, making it difficult to fully appreciate the many anecdotes about “projects like the Morris Memorial Building, Capers C.M.E. Church, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.”

Cheryl McKissack Daniel strives to be inspiring, noting, for example, “Without any hesitation, I said, ‘McKissack will do it!’ That became my motto. If I heard anything that needed to be done, I'd say, ‘we'll do it!’ It didn't matter whether we had any idea how to do it or not. I had a talented staff; I knew we could figure it out.” The multi-generation legacy is quite remarkable and readers can further appreciate the design talent described by Cheryl's twin in this video hosted by CNBC:

Resist by Rita Omokha

RESIST by Rita Omokha is subtitled “How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America.” The author is an award-winning Nigerian American journalist and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In RESIST she traces people and events from the 1920s (time of Scottsboro Nine) through the Civil Rights Era (Brown v. Board and education) to protests over Trayvon Martin and George Floyd and beyond. In late 2020 Omokha traveled over 13,000 miles (thirty states in thirty-two days); she spoke with 127 people and several of their stories are included. Omokha calls herself a storyteller ("drawn to the unsung. To the disenfranchised. To those often relegated to the shadows.") and says it is "important for me to make history personal." Her eloquent writing is filled with emotion: “Today's youth have become a generation forced to witness, from infancy, the perpetuation of injustice and the normalization of othering and subjugation. But in recent years, when such injustices occur, these atrocities pop up on their screens nonstop.” I learned much from Omokha’s book and the social justice efforts of people like Ella Baker, the Bates Seven at NYU, and defenders of the Jena Six, students at a Louisiana high school. Plus, she highlights numerous new – to me – details about other, more famous, activists or events (e.g., Obama’s 1981 speech against apartheid in South Africa). Omokha has included extensive notes and a helpful index. RESIST received a starred review from Booklist (“both incredibly detailed and accessibly readable … an essential text”).

Let Us March On by Shara Moon

LET US MARCH ON by Shara Moon is a debut work of historical fiction centered on the FDR White House. The main narrator is Lizzie McDuffie, a maid who was married to FDR’s valet, Irvin “Mac” McDuffie.  Their decades long association with the Roosevelts was clearly quite close, although it was a bit hard using modern eyes and biases to accept the idea of consulting one’s maid on federal policy or asking that person to take an active role like the one Lizzie held in presidential campaigns. Moon wrote that Lizzie referred to herself as “Secretary-On-Colored-People’s-Affairs” and Moon repeatedly stressed Lizzie’s private conversations with the President regarding overtures to organizations like the NAACP and its leaders. This was a fascinating look at “influence” as the civil rights movement was coalescing, but it was disappointing that the preview did not contain a list of sources or any commentary from the author. Readers interested in this time period may also want to look for The First Ladies by Benedict and Murray.

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

GOOD DIRT by Charmaine Wilkerson (Black Cake) is the story of the Freeman family over 100s of years, beginning in Africa, through their slavery in America, transitioning to sailors and tradesmen, and, later, professionals. In the present day, the main characters are parents Ed and Soh and their children Ebby and Baz. Tragically, Baz is killed during a burglary and Ebby witnesses it as a ten-year-old. Wilkerson writes movingly of the impact: “They went through the motions, based on memory. And this rote behavior had its value. Sometimes, all a person had was a routine, or a series of rituals, to hold things together. … Before Baz was killed, the four of them together had formed a unit, each one linked to the others. Without the fourth section, without Baz, they no longer knew the shape of themselves.” Gradually, Ebby and her parents learn to ignore the media coverage, change houses, and struggle to rebuild their lives, keeping the hurt and secrets from each other. It is another blow, when Ebby’s groom, a white man named Henry, runs off before their wedding. Ebby flees to France where no one knows her and Wilkerson employs multiple flashbacks to fill in the family story, including the work with clay (good dirt) as potters on the plantation in the 1800s. Mirroring current debates, Ed Freeman points out that “History is a collective phenomenon. It can only be told through a chorus of voices. And that chorus must make room for new voices over time.” Wilkerson employs multiple narrators and perspectives which, with the time shifts, contribute to some confusion. But resilience in the face of trauma is a recurring theme that will comfort readers: “So much of life must go forward on faith…” GOOD DIRT is the top pick for January 2025 LibraryReads.

Take Care of Them Like My Own by Ala Stanford

TAKE CARE OF THEM LIKE MY OWN by Ala Stanford, pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctors Consortium, deserves a wide readership. It is a fascinating tale, although there could be some triggering due to the discussions of child abuse. Stanford embraces her life story (subtitled “Faith, Fortitude, and a Surgeon's Fight for Health Justice”) and relates it in great detail. Clearly, Stanford confronted prejudice and discrimination throughout her pioneering and remarkable career. She comments on biases in the medical system, including a lack of “generational knowledge, kind of like generational wealth” and relates numerous shocking (to me) instances such as when a supervisor torpedoes Stanford’s chances at a future placement by outright lying about her. She is an accomplished, inspirational fighter, and I hope that many readers locate TAKE CARE OF THEM LIKE MY OWN. It is well-written and an engrossing read. Book Groups could consider promoting it with the newly published Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson.

What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris

WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND by Wanda M. Morris (Anywhere You Run) centers on Deena Woods, a 39 year-old who recently lost her mother, her lawyering career, and her marriage. She is back in her hometown of Brunswick, Georgia and underemployed when she comes across some disturbing questions about local real estate transactions. Like her earlier novel, Morris explores systemic racism in an objective and powerful way. Deena is in danger, but gradually puts herself in a position where she can be a strong activist and have an impact.  WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND received a starred review from Booklist (“Not to be missed”), was a LibraryReads selection for June, and was recommended as one of “5 mystery novels for late-summer reading” by The Washington Post. Readers are sure to learn from and to enjoy this diverting read.

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky

PAY DIRT by Sara Paretsky is book number 22 in the much-loved V.I. Warshawski series. Although the majority of private investigator Warshawski’s adventures have been in Chicago, Paretsky chose to set this mystery primarily in Lawrence, Kansas – where Paretsky grew up, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks, and an area that experienced significant violence over slavery’s legality prior to the Civil War. As readers will discover, there are certainly flashbacks and relevance for some historical events in the mid-1800s. In the present day, however, Warshawski is battling her own demons after the death of her lover’s student. She is, surprisingly, a mere shadow of her former highly resilient self. Locating and helping a drug-addicted college student goes some way towards recovery – she even accepts a new case but is then abruptly fired and forced to confront the discovery of another body. Under suspicion for murder and feeling off her game, Warshawski persists and utilizes her full coterie of supporters – Lotty, Mr. Contreras, Murray, and locals from Lawrence, including an aspiring journalist and two scrapyard operators – to fight corruption, greed, and evil.

Paretsky cites two recent books as influencing her writing in PAY DIRT. One, The Agitators by Dorothy Wickenden focuses on the lives of Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright as they fight for abolition and women’s rights. I plan to review it here soon. The second, This Is Not Dixie by Brent M. S. Campney, is an academic work about the racist violence in Kansas from 1861 to 1927 published by University of Illinois Press. I was amazed to learn that Paretsky “wrote and discarded seven drafts before arriving at the storyline that makes up the book.” Her hard work is evident and fans will truly appreciate another great mystery filled with danger and suspense.

An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin

AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin is indeed “A Personal History of the 1960s,” and it is a truly fascinating one. I had no idea that her husband was Dick Goodwin, an advisor and speechwriter for both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. The soaring rhetoric of those times is surely missed today, and Kearns Goodwin does an excellent job of recounting events from an insider perspective (she herself later was an aide and biographer for President Johnson), complete with numerous excerpts and commentary from other public service contemporaries. In addition to sharing insights about the Kennedy administration, Kearns Goodwin documents the shock coupled with necessary planning and preparations after his assassination. She discusses international policy as well as the development of domestic programs like Johnson’s Great Society. Here, for example, is a short excerpt from the Voting Rights speech which Dick Goodwin wrote and Johnson delivered in an unusual address to both houses of Congress:

AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY is highly recommended; for a sense of Kearns Goodwin’s intimate writing style, turn to this short essay about LBJ’s decision to not run in 1968, taken from the book and recently published in The Wall Street Journal. NOTE: beginning in October, The Briscoe Center for American History will host an exhibition on The Goodwin Papers: “History and Fate: The Goodwins and the 1960s”. 

Medgar and Myrlie by Joy-Ann Reid

I first heard about MEDGAR AND MYRLIE by Joy-Ann Reid when I saw an interview with her on pbs NewsHour:

 

Reid, an MSNBC host, subtitles her text “Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America” and delves into his life and civil rights work as well as deeply into that of his wife, Myrlie, after Medgar’s assassination in June 1963. Medgar Evers was a soldier stationed in Europe during WWII. He came home to Mississippi where he later worked for the NAACP in an era when headline news dealt with the murder of Emmett Till, the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, lunch counter sit-ins and retail boycotts, and integration of state college campuses. Reid argues that Evers’ activism “was the foundation on which later efforts by SNCC, CORE, and other organizations were built.” She conducted more than a half dozen interviews with Myrlie (who was NAACP National Chair in 1995) and also provides significant research – more than a fifth of the book is devoted to notes, bibliography, and an index. MEDGAR AND MYRLIE received a starred review from Booklist (“Reid’s spotlight shines brightest on the commitment the Everses made to the movement and to each other”). A love story involving Mississippi, America, and each other. Reid writes, “he pressed her to understand that he did his work because he loves her and their children.”

Redwood Court by DéLana R. A. Dameron

REDWOOD COURT by DéLana R. A. Dameron has a creative cover and was chosen as a Reese’s Book Club Pick, plus it has received accolades from talented writers like Ann Napolitano (Hello Beautiful), Renee Watson (Piecing Me Together) and Jacqueline Woodson (Red at the Bone). And, Dameron’s series of stories about multiple generations of a Black family living at Redwood Court in Columbia, South Carolina is in some ways reminiscent of their family novels. But Dameron’s work seemed more complicated. For example, she finds it necessary to introduce her many characters in a list which became a handy reference for me because I found it difficult to clearly picture the characters and to remember how they were originally connected to each other. It was also a challenge to relate to a suburban enclave where (perhaps reflecting the 1960s time period, or the culture, or even the sheer determination of one woman named Weesie) neighbors seemed to be overly involved in each other’s business. The publisher says that this text from an established poet “is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.” Perhaps something will strike a chord with you?