February 2006 Archives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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