The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave's Journey from Bondage to Freedom by David F. Walker

Wow. So I've heard of Frederick Douglass from history class. Famous abolitionist and writer, right? He is so much more than that. He was a slave, a father, a runaway, a freedman, an orator, a poet, a newspaper publisher, and the most photographed man of the 19th century. This book takes you through his entire life story, and it is a fascinating one. The art is beautiful, and the author clearly did a lot of research to make the fullest story possible. It offers a very honest and revealing look into the realities of slavery in the early 1800's. I'm probably going to go pick up Douglass' autobiographies now.

Amazing! Read this. Fascinating history.

192 pages

Extraordinary Black Missourians: Pioneers, Leaders, Performers, Athletes, and Other Notables Who've Made History by John A. Wright, Sr. and Sylvia Wright

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Missouri TV personalities such as Julius Hunter, news anchor, journalist, and author, musicians W.C. Handy and Count Basie, and politician Freeman Bosley, Jr. are some of the black Missourians who are in this wonderful book.  240 pages.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Sarah Grimke grew up in Charleston, South Carolina during the nineteenth century. Her family was part of the privileged, wealthy,  slave-owning class; her father was a renowned judge, and they were considered at the top of the planter class, the elite of society. Yet at a young age, Sarah somehow became opposed to slavery. As a young woman, she became a Quaker, moved north, and became an abolitionist. Later, she and her younger sister, Angelina, became the first female abolition agents in America, and among the earliest feminist thinkers.

This is a fictionalized story about Sarah and a slave girl given to her on her eleventh birthday to be her personal maid. Hetty was the same age as Sarah, and their stories are told in alternating chapters of the book. The story of Sarah is based very closely on the actual historical events. However, the story of Handful (Hetty's slave name) is largely fiction.  The two parallel stories draw a stark contrast between the lives of slaves, and those who enslaved them.

This is a powerful book about the ways in which societies structure themselves on power and privilege - and then lie to themselves about the injustice inherent in these systems.


384 pages

Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim

This is a haunting story of love and friendship set in antebellum Virginia and Ohio.  The baby Lisbeth is handed over to Mattie, her black, enslaved wet nurse, moments after birth, which begins the bond that is carried through both women's lives. Elizabeth is the privileged daughter of southern plantation owners, and Mattie is, of course, enslaved. Mattie cares for and loves the child just as she loves her own, and Lisbeth spends more time with Mattie than her own distracted mother. As Lisbeth grows into womanhood, Mattie finds that she must seek freedom for her own family and she escapes, which produces some of the most harrowing scenes in the text. Lisbeth later, upon the realization of just how horrifying slavery really is, escapes herself with an abolitionist minded husband. Both women find themselves in Ohio, where the story takes on a melancholy tone, as race and class still impact their existence.

252 pages