Black History Month Reads

Activist and lawyer Pauli Murray was the first African American to earn a law degree from Yale (1965!), worked with Betty Friedan, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and argued that “the same reasons used to condemn race discrimination could be used to battle gender discrimination.” I love legal arguments so much (evidence! reason!) and Murray was all about them.

I also love an anthology! This collection comprises pieces from forty-nine writers, ranging from “Sojourner Truth, Hannah Crafts, and Harriet Jacobs, as well as lesser-known writers like Ella Sheppard, who offers a firsthand account of life in the world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers.” The subjects are wide-ranging, but include nineteenth-century social issues such as abolition, women’s suffrage, temperance, and the ever-relevant civil rights.

We don’t just cover adult nonfiction here! Okay, I mostly do. This focuses on 40 Black women who changed the world, including Phillis Wheatley, Bessie Coleman, and Dr. Mae Jemison. Each profile includes an excellent portrait and a brief biography. I would have loved this book when I was a kid and I love it now.

Davis does something super cool here and “demonstrates how the roots of the blues extend beyond a musical tradition to serve as a consciousness-raising vehicle for American social memory.” She does this by looking at three extremely influential blues singers through a feminist lens and providing “the historical, social, and political contexts” you need to interpret their music.