BOOK reMARKS

Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Lillian M. Redd, Library Specialist I

Two hundred and fifty years of internal combustion miasma. Two hundred and fifty years of ingrained forced acceptance of a life of hard labor, broken family ties, lost identity and servitude. Four million enslaved people. Generations upon hopeless generations grievously passing on a culture that flaunted their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

During the Great Depression (1936-1938), the federal government decided to record the remembrances of these older former slaves. As part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), this project became the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives, of which this title depicts the lives of those persons living on plantations in South Carolina.

Before Freedom... is about real people; not just numbers, not just statistics, but true-to-life stories that give us a peek into their everyday lives. Here are day-to-day occurrences and descriptions; some written in dialect, others interpreted by the federal worker to provide clarity.

It’s all here:

Sunrise to sunset labor
Branding of slaves by judiciously tacking on the owner’s surname as their own
Acceptance of physical abuse
Abomination of family separations
Hint of wide-spread slave breeding

Yet, for all those generations who endured the destruction and corruption that was placed upon them, we see a people who were inventive and creative. Their hard scrabble lives showcased their ingenuity while belying a system that was not theirs for gain.

Cabell Library E445.S7 B44 1989

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by David Folmar, CLUAC Member

The book is a subversive statement in itself, masquerading as a book of graphics about the last great age of illustrated movie posters. It is really an examination of the so-called “Blaxploitation” movies of the 70’s and what they meant to the community of filmmakers then and now. The poster art is beautiful in a way that modern poster art for movies is not. It is heroic and informative and showcases the best of the illustrator's art of the period. The book, however, is so much more. It is a collection of interviews with the artists who made the black movies of 70 and the artwork that helped define them.

The interviewees include stars of the period like Pam Grier, Rudy Ray Moore and Isaac Hayes as well as movie makers like modern creative forces Ice-T, Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino. They educate they reader about how the black movies of the 70’s were both a breakthrough for the black community and a chance for black actors to get work that let them star inside the Hollywood system. They hold that, far from being simply exploitative of the black community, they were part of a film movement that helped a lagging Hollywood system and proved a breakthrough for the black actors of today like Will Smith and Denzel Washington. The movies themselves also gave voice to a community that previously had no voice, and myths to a people who lacked heroes that were not just imitations of established, white-accepted roles for the black community.

Cabell Library PN1995.9.N4 M32 1998

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Patricia Selinger, Head of Preservation

It was a tense moment. Sojourner Truth was about to speak at the second Women’s Rights Convention in 1851. Truth had been making many Americans uncomfortable as she spoke publicly of the hypocrisy of democracy when racism and sexism were tearing the country apart. Her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, was published the year before and she had joined an abolitionist speakers bureau. Her supporters secured her a place on the program. As soon as she spoke, ongoing discussions halted. The elegant, privileged white feminist women at the meeting, who thought they could speak authentically for slave women, were quiet. Truth’s life stood in stark contrast to theirs, and she spoke much more persuasively than they could. She called on women who did not want her to speak or join the discussions to face their hypocrisy. She denounced men in the audience for withholding rights from their mothers, sisters, and wives. The question, “Ar’n’t I A Woman” perfectly captured the difference between black and white antebellum women.

Deborah White, a distinguished professor of history at Rutgers University, wrote a concise book on the development of stereotypes of slave women as well the horrors they were forced to face in their daily life. She describes well the issues and differences between slave and free women. While all women of the time were powerless and exploited to a degree, black women experienced an extreme form of persecution. Extensive footnotes authenticate her research and work. White proposed that the female slave trade had little to do with the woman’s ability to work; instead, it had everything to do with physical attractiveness and the black woman’s ability to have children -- children to benefit the slave owner alone. In essence, slave women were little more than sexual objects. White persuasively documents how the stigma persists to modern times. Black women have no era in history where they were respected or held privilege as a class in American society.

Nine years later Sojourner Truth was speaking again, this time on the abolition of slavery. Rumors circulated in the audience that Truth was actually a man posing as a woman. Men demanded that she show her breasts to prove she was a woman. She did, saying that it was to their shame that she did so. At that time, “No” seemed to be the answer to the question “Ar’n’t I A Woman”. White argues that the black woman is still waiting for an affirmative answer.

The text of the speech “Ar’n’t [Ain’t] I A Woman?” can be found online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.html. The book was White’s first publication and won the Letitia Brown Memorial Book Prize.

Cabell Library E 443 .W58 1985

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Patricia Selinger, Head of Preservation

This book was the first full-length narrative written by a slave in America. When it was originally published in 1861 it created a heated controversy. Those for slavery denounced it as fiction, written by and for abolitionists. It was said that a real slave, even one who had been taught to read and write, could never write so well. That the author used a pseudonym for herself and the people she wrote about only added to the argument against the book's authenticity. Controversy aside, the book stands on its own as a narrative of a woman born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813. To escape she hid for seven years in a small attic over a store room waiting for the right opportunity, which finally came when she was 29. Even then she had to hide in northern cities from her pursuers -- bounty hunters and her former master’s family.

This book revealed to me the complicity of society in the slave economy. I had deluded myself into thinking that those who did not own slaves were somehow removed from slavery. Yet they were public servants and businessmen and laborers who all benefited from slavery. Accounts describing townspeople raiding slave cabins to take whatever they pleased, even under the eye of the owner, angered me. Descriptions of her master's sexual harassment and torment appealed to women, then and now, to have compassion and denounce slavery. Her master's pride demanded compliance which she never gave. Yet she did compromise her principles and gave herself to an unmarried landowner of a higher class, by whom she had two children. While this effectively prevented her owner from raping her, it didn’t stop him from constantly reminding her of what he could do…if he wanted. She was not alone in her torment. Her sexual decisions were a source of shame to her, but they also demonstrated how she had at least exercised her freedom of choice. Many women of the time had no such freedom. I gained new insight into the fate of slave women who had both color and gender working against them.

Harriet Jacobs' life is admirable for overcoming obstacles and purity of purpose. After 1865 she was active in the Freedman's Bureau and organized education, health care, and necessities for African-Americans making the transition to freedom. Her life and values are a shining example for us all to do more to help others and follow our ideals.

The library’s copy of this book is a Norton Critical Edition which provides extra material to put the book in context. It includes letters that authenticate the work as that of Harriet Jacobs, other works by Jacobs, reviews at the time of its publication, published articles, and criticism, which are a compelling aside. I highly recommend this book.

Cabell Library E444 .J17 2001

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Kevin Farley, Collection Librarian for the Humanities

Richmond, Virginia, by local author Elvatrice Parker Belsches (part of the Black America Series from Arcadia Publishing), is profusely illustrated with historic photographs of people and places associated with the African-American experience. Belsches provides a comprehensive survey of this crucial, and often overlooked, aspect of Richmond history. Ranging from contributions to business, education, entertainment, medicine, politics, and religion, Belsches charts the increasing growth of influence of Richmond's black citizens on the life of the city. Essay-length captions accompany rare photographs, establishing a timeline of pivotal moments that define the importance of these contributions to Richmond. The chapter on the role of blacks in the medical field includes biographies of Dr. Sara G. Jones -- "one of the first African Americans to pass the medical boards in Virginia" in 1893 -- and Dr. John Howlette O.D., D.O.S. -- "a pioneering optometrist in Richmond who practiced for over 50 years within the historic Jackson Ward district." Belsches also emphasizes the role of organizations and societies that served as professional supports for those who sought to improve the life of black Richmonders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although seldom remembered now, the contributions of the individuals Belsches commemorates should never be forgotten.

VCU Libraries presents a talk by Elvatrice Parker Belsches today, from 2-3:30 at Tompkins-McCaw Library, in the Distance Education Room, 2-010, with a reception and book-signing to follow in the Special Collections Reading Room at Tompkins-McCaw Library. Belsches will present "Above and Beyond: A Celebration of the Leonard Graduates," on her work documenting the contributions of graduates of the Leonard Medical School graduates of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina to Richmond in the early 20th century. For further information and details, please visit the VCU Libraries Black History Month website, at http://www.library.vcu.edu/bhm/.

VCU Libraries Special Collections (Reference, Non-Circulating) F234.R59 N424 2002

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Kevin Farley, Collection Librarian for the Humanities

The works of the acclaimed Harlem Renaissance dramatist, essayist, musical collaborator, novelist, and poet Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967) comprise a crucial record of the African American experience in the first half of the 20th Century. Hughes' poetry from the 1920s and 1930s especially captures the tenor of Harlem voices, allowing the vibrancy of living speech to emerge from the printed page. Defying the simple caricatures of black speech that often prevailed in American literature in previous decades, Hughes' poetry collections -- especially The Weary Blues (1926), The Dream Keeper and Other Poems (1932), and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) -- created a space in which the true voices of Harlem could tell their own stories. Using everyday words and rhythms from the voices around him, and mixing echoes of the extraordinary energy of the Jazz music that was becoming more intricate, expressive, and irrefutable, Hughes' poetry constitutes an immortal oral history of one of the most important times and places in American history. "I've known rivers," Hughes writes in "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the / flow of human blood in human veins," and the voices of Hughes' poems, like the rivers he celebrates, have become part of that ancient wisdom.

The poetry of Langston Hughes has often been set to music, and his poem cycle "Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz" will be performed Friday evening, February 23, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. at the VCU Singleton Center for the Performing Arts by The Langston Hughes Project, a presentation by The Ron McCurdy Quartet and Dr. Diane Richardson.

Cabell Library PS3515.U274 A6 1990

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Kevin Farley, Collection Librarian for the Humanities

Perhaps no other novel from the nineteenth century -- and perhaps no other novel in the history of American literature -- is as controversial as Uncle Tom's Cabin, by anti-slavery activist and novelist, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Even in its own time, the novel was extraordinarily divisive -- though not for reasons that 21st Century readers would expect. When first published in 1852, Stowe's depiction of the general brutalities of slavery, and of the particular inhuman acts of slave-owners, was seen by many white readers across the nation as excessive and improbable. And as the historical moment that incited Stowe to write her novel receded (the growth of the abolition movement, the Civil War), critical focus shifted to the depiction of the title character, a slave whose fortitude -- or perhaps docility, as is often argued -- enables him to endure the gradually worsening conditions of slavery, as, through a series of bargains, he is sold to lesser and lesser beneficent masters. Yet Stowe's Uncle Tom -- a name that now represents passive acceptance of unspeakable injustices -- embodies all of the virtues -- profound Christian faith, stoic indifference to the misfortunes of fate, and especially unparalleled moral and physical courage to defend the weak -- that her white readers claimed to value above all others. In showing Uncle Tom's virtues, and cataloging the lack of them in most of the novel's white characters, Stowe holds an unflattering mirror up to her society, daring an unflinching self-examination of their consciences. Stowe's conflicted depiction of Uncle Tom, however, perfectly captures the inherent racism of her times, as well as the ongoing presence of this problem in contemporary America. This new edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin, illustrated profusely with original and recent portrayals of the novel's characters, and annotated with insightful commentary by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (an acclaimed scholar of African American Studies), provides extensive historical context for the novel and also its critical reception, debate, repudiation, and abiding controversy.

Cabell Library PS2954.U5 2007

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Michael Rawls, Administrative Office Specialist III

In the fifty years since the publication of Peculiar Institution, historians have produced a significant number of works on American slavery -- developing a variety of interesting sub-fields and topic specializations. Yet, this work remains among the best as a departure point for understanding the world of the ante-bellum slave and it should be considered a prerequisite for subsequent readings on the subject.

Stampp divides his research into ten neatly compartmentalized chapters, each detailing a particular aspect of slave life. The chapter entitled, "A Troublesome Property," for instance, examines various means by which slaves resisted their bondage -- from running away to sabotaging farm implements. Likewise, "To Make Them Stand in Fear," illustrates the frightening level of brutality that was ever-present in the plantation system. Other chapters address the workday lives of slaves, their material condition, legal and familiar status, slave auctions, and the paradoxical role of domestic servants. The last two chapters examine economic factors and social attitudes regarding slavery, respectively, with an eye toward answering the arguments of those who hold an ameliorative view of the institution.

Thankfully, the necessity of the last two chapters has diminished greatly since the book was first published, but it serves as a reminder of the importance of this work. When Peculiar Institution was written, the prevailing view of slavery was one of paternalism and benevolence -- akin to the depiction of slavery in Gone with the Wind. In academics, the prominent work of historian Ulrich Phillips served to legitimize such opinions. Against this backdrop, Stampp's challenge was nothing less than to change America's attitude regarding slavery. Rather than explicitly condemning slavery, he simply describes it in a dispassionate tone. He leaves it to the source material itself to convey the horrors of slavery, trusting the reader to develop their own sense of condemnation. Stampp’s efforts met with resounding success. Peculiar Institution became a classic that is widely used in college and high school classrooms to this day and can be counted among the finest examples of historical revisionism.

Cabell Library E441 .S8 1956A

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Serena Haroian, Collection Librarian for Business and Public Affairs

In his book, The Black Digital Elite, John T. Barber profiles twenty-six African Americans who have made significant contributions to the advancement of technology over the past four decades. From inventors to CEOs, educators to policy-makers, the compilation of perhaps unfamiliar names and faces adds richness to the history of technological innovation. Beyond the biography, each profile includes an insightful discussion about the digital divide, its persistence and how African Americans can create new paradigms for themselves in order to bridge the gap.

A common thread throughout the book is that African Americans have proven to be willing consumers of technology but they have not generally been the benefactors of the economic opportunities brought about by technology, especially the Internet. One clear path to changing this, says William Kennard, former Chairman of the FCC, is to ensure racial equality in education and access to technology.

The long-term solution is not new. It’s as old as Brown v. Board of Education. We must ensure racial equality in education. But the new twist is that technology is dramatically transforming education in this society and, if we don’t make sure that all kids have equality of access to technology, the digital divide will only widen.

Those profiled express a central message that, in order to prosper and drive social change in a period of technological and economic growth, African Americans must have the abilities to participate at all levels of technology, from developing software to creating cyber-networks.

Cabell Library E185.615 .B297 2006

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

"What good is science fiction to Black people?" If you have ever wondered this, or if you've ever thought that the future was limited to shiny, cybernetic miracles, you need to read Bloodchild and Other Stories. A collection of five short stories and two wonderfully spare essays on the art of writing, this book serves as a fine introduction to the works of Octavia Butler (1947-2006).

Butler's novels have won the most prestigious awards in the science fiction world, even though they often deal with questions of race and culture that have not always captured the attention of science fiction writers, or the interest of science fiction readers. Her protagonists are frequently strong Black women - think Celie by way of Ellen Ripley. The stories in this volume include everything from synthetic diseases that rob people of their basic humanity to the subtleties of interpersonal relations in difficult circumstances. The title story is a science fictional exploration of the relationship between two unequal species that stands as a mind-bending exploration of slavery and human bondage. There are no laser swords or starships here - only a series of meditations on the possibilities of being human.

Cabell Library PS3552.U827 A6 2005

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Jennifer Darragh, Reference Librarian for Behavioral and Social Sciences

Albert French's I Can’t Wait on God is a richly visual, multi-layered novel set in a predominantly African American Pittsburgh neighborhood (Homewood) in the summer of 1950. The focal characters of the story are Willet Mercer, a beautiful young woman and her man Jeremiah Henderson. Willet, who has a palpable air of sadness about her, is eager to leave Homewood behind for New York City. In order to obtain money to leave, Jeremiah is propositioned to have Willet become a prostitute for Tommy Moses, a local pimp holding some pretty hefty purse strings. While the deal is being cemented, Willet suddenly stabs Tommy Moses to death. In shock, both Jeremiah and Willet hastily steal what money Moses had on him, ditch his body, and take his car to flee Pittsburgh. After the murder, French's novel splits to follow Willet and Jeremiah while they are on the run -- eventually leading to rural North Carolina and the source of Willet's sadness -- and how life continues on in Homewood. French's ability to evoke powerful imagery and develop multiple characters with considerable depth results in both an interesting and memorable story.

Cabell Library PS3556.R3948 I3 1998

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Kevin Farley, Collection Librarian for the Humanities

"My whole life," Malcolm X observes toward the end of his groundbreaking autobiography, "had been a chronology of -- changes." One of America's most profound social philosophers, and a dedicated religious leader, Malcolm X brings to bear on each page of his life story the unflinching imperative to examine the causes and consequences of the social injustices -- the devastation (physical, emotional, and spiritual) that racism seeks to inflict -- that constrain and prevent transformation. Change is the key theme of the life of Malcolm X, as he spares no one, and especially not himself, from the imperative to examine, reflect, understand, critique, evaluate and re-evaluate, transform and change whatever form of injustice, whether conscious or unconscious, that hinders the progress of truth. From a directionless life, to a life of focused determination, to serve his faith and free himself and others from illusions, Malcolm X's influence continues the work of change and transformation, more than forty years after his death in 1965. "Despite my firm convictions," he wrote after his historic journey to Mecca in 1964, "I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth."

Cabell Library E185.97 .L5 1992
Cabell Library Internet Resources E185.97 .L5 A3 1996eb

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Ray Bonis, Archival Assistant for Collections, Special Collections and Archives

Although the documentation by historians and archivists of Richmond's African American history began in earnest in the 1970s, a complete monographic history of black Richmond has yet to be written. A new work published this year on the city's architectural history comes close. It covers subjects ranging from slavery and the emergence of freed peoples and their leaders to the city's African American churches and once vibrant neighborhoods.

Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia was published by the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods (A.C.O.R.N.), the highly visible and successful local preservationist group which has purchased and renovated a number of vacant and abandoned properties in the city. Their interest in Richmond's African American history, including their preservation advocacy of structures built before and after the Civil War, led to the publication of this book. Built by Blacks was written by Selden Richardson, former Archivist for Architectural Records at the Library of Virginia, who currently serves as the President of the Board of A.C.O.R.N. Dr. Maurice Duke, a professor emeritus of English at VCU and a local historian, provided many of the photographs for the book. Archival images from Richardson's own collection are also used as illustrations.

Built By Blacks provides the architectural history of many Richmond landmark buildings and biographies of several Richmond African American architects and builders. Richardson's plea throughout the book is for city leaders and planners to preserve what is left of black Richmond. He writes in the introduction that the loss of "Richmond's architectural fabric, from iconic downtown offices and stores to humble bungalows is being compounded constantly." Readers of Built By Blacks will appreciate even more the loss of Richmond's historic cityscape.

Cabell Library – Special Collections and Archives E 185.92 R53 2007
Cabell Library E 185.92 R53 2007

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Jennifer Roach, Undergraduate Services Specialist

Here is a special children's book depicting life for an African-American child confronted with segregation laws of the 1950s. Tricia Ann is finally old enough to go to "Someplace Special" all by herself. Her concerned grandmother sends her off with encouragement, "hold yo' head up and act like you b'long to somebody." Along the way Tricia Ann encounters the Jim Crow sign indicating where she must sit on the bus. She cannot sit on the bench near the fountain her grandfather helped to construct. She is not welcome in the hotel lobby, or the main entrance of the movie theatre. Jerry Pinkney, illustrator, portrays the main character in a vibrant blue dress and she is the focal point of every page. His illustrations show the confusion, disappointment, and frustration Tricia Ann experiences. Tricia Ann finally arrives at the special place her grandmother calls "a doorway to freedom." She reads the words carved into the side of the grand building:

PUBLIC LIBRARY: ALL ARE WELCOME.

We learn from an author’s note that the story is based on personal experiences growing up in Nashville, TN during the segregation of the 1950s.

Cabell Library Juvenile Literature (4th floor) PZ7.M478693 G6 2001

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Monique Prince, Undergraduate Services Librarian

Blood Done Sign My Name is Timothy Tyson's account of a racial hate crime and the surrounding events that took place during his childhood in Oxford, North Carolina. In 1970, African American Henry Marrow was chased, beaten, and shot in the presence of several witnesses by Robert Teel and his sons. Despite overwhelming evidence, the men were acquitted of murder and the events leading up to and following the trial widened the already significant racial gap existing in Oxford. Tyson explores race relations, the civil rights movement, and small-town politics in this honest and well-researched work. He includes his own memories of the time, as well as others' perspectives, including that of the murderer, Robert Teel, civil rights activists, and his own father—a Methodist minister who challenged the white status quo by working towards racial equality and reconciliation in his own congregation.

Cabell Library F264.O95 T97 2004

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Donna Coghill, Public Services Specialist

Set in mid-1930s Pittsburgh, The Piano Lesson tells the story of a brother and sister struggling over an intricately carved heirloom piano. One believes the piano represents the future by selling it to buy land previously worked by their slave ancestors; the other believes the piano represents the future by honoring the past and must remain in the family's possession. Though the piano represents the center of conflict, the real conflict lies in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning exploration of family, heritage and recognition. When reading this play, the reader comes face-to-face with their own family legacy. We can all relate to family struggles, and Wilson exemplifies this with well defined and relatable characters. Perhaps the most touching example of family relations comes when the brother finally comes to his own understanding of what family, heritage and legacy really mean. Read The Piano Lesson as a stirring example of August Wilson's fine work—in 2005 we lost not only a great playwright who told stories of black America, but a man who continually redefined all American Theatre traditions.

Cabell Library PS3573. I45677 P54 1990

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Kevin Farley, Humanities Librarian

Poet Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992 (see here for further information about Walcott and his work), has been an influential voice in the rise of Postcolonial literature, and the consequent development of the academic discipline, Postcolonial Studies (and Postcolonial Literary Theory). In these movements, the experiences of those who have been subjected to colonization—particularly in the former British Empire, including India, Africa, and the Caribbean (an empire that lasted some three hundred years)—are rendered in fictional retellings of the external and internal conflicts instilled by colonization. As many readers instinctively understand, fiction at times serves to work through, or re-imagine, the constraints imposed upon us by the world, by others, and even by ourselves; unlike much literature before it, however, the postcolonialist aesthetic often leaves the conflicts of its narratives unresolved, in keeping with the legacy of colonialism itself. In Walcott's work, and the work of Postcolonial writers, such conflicts lead to a greater understanding of the forces that continue to affect those who have been colonized. This legacy is depicted perhaps most completely in Walcott's contemporary epic poem, Omeros—an extraordinary re-invention of the Homeric epic, the Odyssey. Set in the Caribbean, Omeros (a masterpiece of versification, written in stanzas of Dantean triplets, suggesting the literary echoes that permeate Walcott's poem, as well as the purgatory of enduring and striving to overcome colonialism) portrays the lives of ordinary islanders, who must struggle with scarcity, poverty, unfulfilled dreams, and the embattled desire for transcendence—the detritus left ashore as empire recedes. "Affliction," Walcott writes, "is one theme / of this work, this fiction, since every 'I' is a / fiction finally." The title character, Omeros, is a blind poet who embraces the world around him, its joys, sorrows, violence, and beauty, and celebrates the entwined lives and legacies from which his art takes life.

Cabell Library PR9272.9 .W3 O44 1990

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Monique Prince, Undergraduate Services Librarian

William Shakespeare's Othello is a tragic play about the title character, "the Moor," who at the start of the play has recently married Desdemona, the white daughter of Brabantio, a Venetian senator. Although Othello has proved himself worthy to be general of the Venetian military, marrying into an upper-crust family is another matter altogether. Thrown into the mix is a jealous assistant, Iago, who Othello passed over for a promotion in favor of Cassio. To get revenge on both Cassio and Othello, Iago conceives a plot to convince Othello that his wife is having an affair with Cassio. The result is typically Shakespearean, as bloodshed and tragedy ensue.

Cabell Library PR2829.A2-Many Call Numbers

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Monique Prince, Undergraduate Services Librarian

The Color Purple is one of Alice Walker's most celebrated novels. Its main character is Celie, an African American in the south who writes of her heartache and misery in a series of letters—first to God, then to her sister who is a missionary in Africa. A striking characteristic of this novel is its portrayal of African American men and how they treat African American women. Celie and other female characters are often raped, beaten, treated like mules, and degraded by their husbands, fathers, and lovers. In Celie's case, she goes from growing up with an abusive stepfather to a bad marriage with a much older man who treats her like a servant while spending much of his time with his lover, Shug. Despite their connection to the same man, Shug and Celie forge a unique and loving relationship that allows Celie to transform from being passive and submissive to being independent and self-confident. Her transformation also creates a positive change in her husband, Albert, and despite the tragedies and hardships Celie faced over the years, the reader is left with a sense of optimism about her fate. The Color Purple won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award for fiction.

Cabell Library PS3573.A425 C6

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Monique Prince, Undergraduate Services Librarian

Let the Dead Bury Their Dead is a collection of short stories and a novella set in fictional Tims Creek, a rural North Carolina town closely resembling Kenan's hometown. Many of the stories contain elements of magical realism including spirits, talking animals, and wizards. The novella is ostensibly an academic study of oral histories, diaries, and letters (complete with footnotes to real and fictional sources) relating to the history of Tims Creek. Themes of racial tensions, the black experience, and homosexuality are explored in this novella, as well as in the other short stories in this collection and in Randall Kenan's other fiction and nonfiction works.

Cabell Library PS3561.E4228 L48 1992

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Robert Johnson, Education Services Librarian, Tompkins-McCaw Library

The Black Man's Guide to Good Health is a book of health advice aimed specifically at African-American men.This book's purpose is to empower its readers by giving them the information they need to make good choices. The first chapter is an overall guide to healthy living (involving diet, exercise, stress, etc.) and subsequent chapters discuss ailments individually. Each chapter contains a typical story of an afflicted person, meant to highlight symptoms, diagnosis, and management of the ailment. At the end of each chapter are resources for those seeking more information. The Black Man's Guide to Good Health is a good starting point for those seeking to improve their health.

Community Health Education Center RA777.8 .R44 2001

To view this title or other health-related books visit the Community Health Education Center (CHEC). The CHEC is located on the ground floor of the VCUHS Gateway Building on the MCV campus.

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Ngoc-My Guidarelli, Cataloging Librarian

A young man named Jefferson was accused of killing a white tavern keeper during an attempted hold up which also involved two other black men. Jefferson happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and of the wrong skin color. The time was the pre-civil rights period, the place, the segregated south, and Jefferson was a poor and uneducated black man. During the trial, a well-meaning public defender, in the hope of exculpating his client, claimed that Jefferson was a hog, and as such, was incapable of discerning right from wrong. This offensive remark so deeply affected our protagonist that he behaved like a pig in jail. His godmother, Miss Emma, decided to enlist the help of the plantation teacher, Mr. Wiggins, to make her son a man before he went to the electric chair. The latter was extremely reluctant to help because he only knew how to teach "reading, writing, and arithmetic". Besides, as an educated person, he did not want to deal with white men who often sought to humiliate him. According to him, matters of the soul should be best addressed by a minister. After many visits to the jail, Mr. Wiggins finally broke through Jefferson's wall of silence. His offering of a radio, a notepad and pencil to help Jefferson open up during his final days paid off at last. Jefferson walked to his death standing tall, "on his two feet, like a man" as his godmother had wished. The teacher was supported all along this arduous rescue of a soul by the love of his colleague, Vivian. The author made several references to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ which parallel Jefferson's own execution on a Friday after Easter. Like Jesus, Jefferson was preceded in death by two robbers. A Lesson Before Dying seems to imply that Mr. Wiggins taught Jefferson how to be a man. The end of the story reveals quite the opposite. The condemned man has inculcated to both black and white communities the values of faith and love.

Cabell Library PS3557.A355 L47 1994

Cabell Library PS3557.A355 L47 1993

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Shayla Anderson, Community Health Education Center Intern

Woman to Woman, written by OB/GYN specialist, Yvonne S. Thornton, M.D., M.P.H. is a guide that provides women with first hand information on women's health and how to handle issues that may arise concerning their reproductive health.

Woman to Woman offers honest and simplistic information on many topics related to female reproductive health. Some areas highlighted in this book include an in-depth description of the female reproductive system, contraception, when a woman should begin to see an OB/GYN, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, how to find a good gynecologist, and other female problems.

Community Health Education Center RG121 .T49 1997
To view this title or other health-related books visit the Community Health Education Center (CHEC). The CHEC is located on the ground floor of the VCUHS Gateway Building on the MCV campus.

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Robert Johnson, Education Services Librarian, Tompkins-McCaw Library

I can add nothing to the huge body of criticism praising the novel Native Son by Richard Wright. Other works by "Naturalists" such as Stephen Crane and Jack London pit humans as mere animals striving for survival against nature, a force we can't control or really understand. Wright's protagonist, Bigger Thomas, fights for survival against a force he can't control, and that force is the white society that keeps him down, that demoralizes him, that treats him as an animal. The introductory chapter (in which Bigger traps and kills a rat) is the story of the novel in a microcosm, an absolutely brilliant narrative device. This novel is a thought provoking, exciting, and powerful piece of work.

Cabell Library PS3545.R815

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Monique Prince, Undergraduate Services Librarian

Although on its surface, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn might seem a simple tale of a slave and teenage boy rafting down the Mississippi River, its many layers have made this book one of the most challenged of all time. In the preface, Mark Twain warns the reader against analyzing the book too closely: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."

Huckleberry Finn decides to fake his own death in order to escape his drunken father, and hides out on a deserted island. There, he encounters Jim, a runaway slave. They sail south on the Mississippi towards Cairo, where Jim will be able to head north and escape slavery. On the way they encounter crooks, family feuds, and even Huck's old friend Tom Sawyer. The serious undercurrent running throughout the book is Jim's status as a slave and Huck's moral response as he wrestles with his conscience. He was taught to believe that breaking the law (by harboring a slave) would lead to hell, but on the other hand, betraying his friendship with Jim is also wrong. Much has been speculated about Mark Twain's own views on the subject, as this book was written two decades after slavery was abolished. Judge for yourself as you read this timeless American classic.

Cabell Library-Many Call Numbers

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Kevin Farley, Collection Librarian for the Humanities

Julian Houston, an associate justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, grew up in Richmond in the early Civil Rights era. His young adult novel, the semi-autobiographical New Boy, recounts Houston's experiences in the wake of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling against segregation, Brown vs. Board of Education—a decision that sparked the closing of the Prince Edward County school system in Virginia. Houston's story skillfully shows the torn allegiances of Robert Garrett, whose academic success propels him into the world of Draper Academy, a private school in Connecticut in the late 1950s. As Draper's first black student, Garrett must face prejudice in unfamiliar forms, while also struggling with the isolation of being at Draper as the larger struggle for Civil Rights takes place at home. At each stage of his journey, Garrett meets resistance and acceptance from family, friends, and strangers alike, maturing into a compassionate leader and activist against racism.

Cabell Library PZ7.H8225 N4 2005

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Robert Johnson, Education Services Librarian, Tompkins-McCaw Library

Jessi's family is new in town, and is one of the only African American families. When Jessi begins babysitting Matt, part of another family new to town, she discovers she isn't the only person who feels the sting of being "different." Jessi's Secret Language is book #16 in The Baby-Sitters Club series, which spawned a television series and a movie.

Community Health Education Center PZ7 .M35675 J47 1988b

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Patricia Selinger, Preservation Librarian

When was the last time you rushed home to read a book? When was the last time you couldn't wait to read what happened next, made notes of places and people, and followed up on references? Bound for Canaan was all this and more for me. The author made history come alive! I knew little of the Underground Railroad and what I knew was so shallow I felt I had cheated myself by not learning more sooner. Forever I will carry in my heart the spirit of those who sacrificed for their belief in freedom and knowledge for all people. This is a very uplifting book.

The author makes history very personal. Each person's biography and struggles are skillfully woven into the history of slavery and development of the Underground Railroad. Chapters are divided by decades 1830 through 1850 after an introduction covering 1800-1820. The author relied on primary source material for his extensive research into the routes, financial links, personal connections, and thoughts of those he writes about. He has a website at http://www.fergusbordewich.com/ with more information.

Cabell Library E450 .B735 2005

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Monique Prince, Undergraduate Services Librarian

Written in the form of an oral history, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is the story of a 110-year-old former slave. She recounts the major events of her life in Louisiana, including slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. Jane Pittman rarely strays from the various plantations where she lives and works, so it is a much more localized perspective than other novels covering these time periods, such as Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man or Richard Wright's Native Son. As such, much is revealed through her relationships with others, including her adopted son, Ned Douglass, who becomes a martyr for civil rights, her first husband, Joe Pittman, and the other women in her community. Jane Pittman is one of the most memorable African American characters—she is aware of her flaws and strengths, and she makes difficult decisions, at times selflessly encouraging loved ones to pursue their path even when that path takes them far from her.

Cabell Library PS3557.A355 A9

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Renée Bosman, Government Information Librarian

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and you'll be unsurprised by anything in between. These words, by which Maya Angelou's mother lived, seem strangely apt to describe an autobiography of oppression and tragedy, but also of joy and humor. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells the story of Angelou's childhood, from Depression-era rural Arkansas to San Francisco at the height of World War II. Her life experiences of those first sixteen years and the issues they explore—integrity, self-esteem, race relations, and rape—make for a compelling read in their own right, but the greatest part of this memoir is the language itself. "For nearly a year," she says, "I sopped around the house, the Store, the school and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible." The vivid descriptions and imaginative metaphors make this book feel like poetry, and also make it a perennial regular on high school reading lists. Yet even if you have previously read this for class, I highly recommend picking it up again, to experience just for the sheer enjoyment of her words.

Cabell Library E185.97.A56 A3

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Robert Johnson, Education Services Librarian

Toni Morrison's Jazz begins in 1926, when a salesman shoots and kills his teenage lover. At the girl's funeral, the man's wife attacks her corpse. The ensuing pages skirt between past, present, and future as the drama reveals itself. Not only is Toni Morrison's novel Jazz a gripping story of love and betrayal, but it also functions as an album of jazz music. It isn't just that Morrison captures the spirit of jazz music, or that she traces the history of the music as it moved from the country to the city (which she does), but Morrison's novel is structured like a piece of music. Characters function as instruments, and sections as songs. In particular, it compares nicely to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, for the differences as much as the similarities. Coltrane's album revolves around spiritual revelation and praise and is almost entirely music, while Morrison's album centers on sex and the secular world and is all words. Both are four songs long, and if the concept of an entirely written word song seems implausible, check out song four "Psalm," which is part music and part free-verse poetry written in the liner notes (not sung). Morrison's book is the work of masterful writer at the height of her powers.

Cabell Library PS3563.O8749 J38 1992

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Monique Prince, Undergraduate Services Librarian

Frederick Douglass published his autobiography in 1845, when he was still legally a slave. This daring move followed his successful speeches at abolitionist rallies after he escaped from slavery. In his Narrative, Douglass tells of his life in Maryland and depicts the harsh and brutal reality of slave life. His eloquent writing style is surprising for someone with no formal education, but as a child he was sent to Baltimore, and his mistress there taught him to read. As he was exposed to progressive ideas in the city, he began to develop abolitionist views that eventually led to his decision to escape and speak out against slavery. This work is viewed by many to be a quintessential example of both autobiography and Slave Narrative genres.

To access this or any other known slave narrative, see the Documenting the American South North American Slave Narratives project.

Cabell Library E449 .D749 Various Locations

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Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries

Reviewed by Robert Johnson, Education Services Librarian, Tompkins-McCaw Library

Set over a period of two days and one night, the action in Go Tell It on the Mountain happens primarily in the past. Ostensibly a bildungsroman exploring 14-yr-old John Grimes' supposed spiritual awakening, author James Baldwin creates a novel of greater depth than that description affords. Baldwin uses the "coming of age" form to compose a narrative involving religious hypocrisy, personal sacrifice, the Great Depression, homosexuality, and the exodus of African Americans from their Southern rural homes to Northern, urban dwellings.

Cabell Library PS3552.A45 G58 1985

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