Saralee Says
Can you imagine meeting your child for the first time and acting very formal, having that child call you Mr., perhaps shaking the child’s hand and then giving them an envelope full of cash? That is what the late Sen. Strom Thurmond did when he met his daughter, according to Essie Mae Washington-Williams. Dear Senator—A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond (Regan Books) by Washington-Williams and William Stadiem is the most talked about biography in recent years.
Thurmond had an affair with teenage girl who happened to be black and a maid for his family. That affair resulted in a daughter whom Thurmond never publicly acknowledged, although his family recognized her after Thurmond’s death.
Dear Senator is a fascinating account of what the author’s life was like growing up thinking her aunt and another man were her real parents and how her world was turned upside down when she learned of her real mother and was taken to Thurmond’s law office and introduced to her father. Washington-Williams shares with grace and forgiveness her heartbreaking story of growing up in a segregated country, and this book is so compelling that it is impossible to put down.
Open Wide the Freedom Gates by Dorothy Height has just been published in paperback (Public Affairs Press) and should be on the required school reading lists. In this memoir, Height shares with the reader her involvement in the civil rights movement and what it was like to serve as president of the National Council of Negro Women from 1957-1998.
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 by Nikki Giovanni (William Morrow) is the perfect gift for that special someone for Valentine’s Day. Did you know that Giovanni went to Fisk? For a book about Tennessee State University read the best, which is A Will to Win by Dwight Lewis and Susan Thomas. If your book club is looking for a book that explores the secrets among the rich and powerful of the black elite then by all means read The Emperor of Ocean Park, now in paperback (Vintage) by Stephen L. Carter or try Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama where he describes the reality of the American dream in a diverse but united nation.
Larry’s Language
A great debate for the black soul often revolves around nationalism versus integration; and these books prove this division is reflected in history, politics and literature. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas (Library of America) is the autobiography of one of the first great national leaders who escapes from slavery and whose autobiography inspires Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Oxford).
W.E.B. Dubois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 by David Levering Lewis (Owl Books) is the outstanding biography of the youth and early development of one of the great men of the 20th century. The book covers how DuBois, author of The Souls of Black Folk (W.W.Norton), came to political awareness and the meaning of his philosophy. This book links the radicalism of the brilliant DuBois and his struggle with the leadership of Booker T. Washington, author of the classic work Up From Slavery (Signet) and provides remarkable insight into the political and personal challenges of their profound but noble disagreements, all of which surface again in the modern civil rights movement between Dr. Martin Luther King and the black power movement.
Classical Black Nationalism: From the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey by Wilson Jeremiah Moses (New York University Press) explains how and why the fiery Marcus Garvey developed a different following than DuBois or Washington in the early 1900s and how these differences created the necessary groundwork for Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and H. Rap Brown in the 1960s.
All this political history by way of good works inspires the rich diversity of the best books by blacks today, featuring the mystery of Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown), the complexity of Now is the Time to Open Your Heart by Alice Walker (Random House), the women of Tony Morrison’s newest book, Love (Knopf), the gritty characters of Drive Me Crazy by Eric Jerome Dickey (Dutton), and the seriousness of Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West (Penguin) and The Michael Eric Dyson Reader (Basic Civitas Books).
Join us for our next book club discussion featuring Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady by Joel Lobenthal (Regan Books).
