Carter Reads the Newspaper: A March Black History Post

Peachtree, 2019

This post is intentionally released on March 1, and it's an important new picture book that suits any age. The tag line says it all, yet not nearly enough: "Carter G. Woodson didn't just study history. He changed it."
I've been grateful, as a citizen and as an educator, for Black History Month which "ended" yesterday. It's a resource and reminder of the countless contributions of Black men and women to advance ALL people. Even so, I have long been concerned that annual attention to one specific month meant that many resources, especially picture books, end up relegated to a cabinet or back shelf after the month ends. 

A new picture book has me shifting my perspective on this repeated rant (here). CARTER READS THE NEWSPAPER is written by outstanding nonfiction author Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by the remarkable author and artist Don Tate.

This is a story of how Woodson (Carter) made it his life's work to develop literacy and, eventually, to turn Black history into an annual celebration. Inspired by his father's pursuit of knowledge, Carter's passion for history grew from a childhood in which the legacy of enslavement, including illiteracy, was evident among Carter's own family and friends. The hardships he suffered as a child are heartbreaking, including being injured in a mine accident. He pursued his own education at every opportunity, despite severe adversity. In 1926, as a history professor, he was able to establish a national Black History Week, the origins of our present monthlong designation.
This book is rich with images, names, dates, and taglines for both well-known and less famous Black innovators and leaders, as well as providing an author's note, bibliography, resources, and more. After reading this valuable biography of Woodson as a leader among his family and eventually for us all, I will temper my concerns about a designated "month" potentially limiting attention to neglected history-makers. Instead, I'll celebrate Woodson's leadership and encourage the reading and sharing of this book. Perhaps that alone will remind others to keep Black History books circulating all year long. 

Here are a few examples i've featured in the past that deserve attention all year long. Many more can be seen here, here, here, and here, among others: 

The recent Academy Award winning movie, THE GREEN BOOK, has been criticized for taking a white-savior approach. For a more authentic understanding of the need for and use of THE GREEN BOOK, read this historical fiction picture book.

RUTH AND THE GREEN BOOK, is written  by Calvin A. Ramsey and Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. It provides the immediacy of individual lives and relatable illustrations that evoke personal and visceral responses from readers of any age. Back pages provide further insights and explorations from the authors and offer resources for further exploration and research on the topics and characters portrayed. Now, more than ever, providing young people with the facts of our own history and the ease with which individual liberties were distorted and restricted is essential. It's not a bad time for adults to review these stories and resources, any month of the year.

More than Anything Else. by Marie Bradby, illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet. 1995

Description

After slavery ended a family struggles to survive, with father and sons shoveling salt from dawn to dark. The younger boy's compelling thirst is for the power of letters, of reading.  Only indirectly, on the last page, do we see that this story depicts the early days of literacy development for Booker T. Washington.

I hope my intentional expansion of this black history post into March (Women's History Month) will serve as a reminder that history (and picture books) matter and we should feel an obligation to open the eyes and hearts of others to our shared heritage all year long.

The Case For Loving: Supreme Court Decisions Matter

While serving as a first round panelist for Cybils nonfiction earlier this winter, I read and posted some notes about THE FIRST STEP: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial, written by Susan E. Goodman and illustrated by E. B. Lewis. (Read it HERE.)

As Goodman so adeptly points out, within the text and in the back matter, the court loss described was, in fact, a gain. By laying the foundation for future cases and eventual successes, civil rights cases culminated in the landmark BROWN vs. BOARD OF EDUCATION ruling in 1954-55.
Labeling that last ruling as landmark is not meant to suggest it succeeded in ending segregation and discrimination in education. Nor was that the last case the Supreme Court would face regarding Constitutional protections for civil rights. Far from it. But it, too, was another step, a giant one, in the continuing process of opening hearts and minds to the reality that the only race that matters is the human race. 

Arthur A. Levine Books, 2015

The same is true for the Supreme Court ruling described in The Case for Loving:

The Fight for Interracial Marriage, written by Selina Alko and illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko. Although this simple picture book portrays an adult issue (confirming the constitutional right to interracial marriage), the narration and illustration combine to make it a kid-friendly, empathetic experience for even the very young. 

(A 2016 film depicts an adult version of the true story of Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter . See a Movie trailer on YouTube, HERE.)

At its core, this compelling and dramatic story is  about family. Alko focuses on the human desire (and right) of all people to pursue happiness through marriage and raising a family, freely and safely, anywhere in our country. From the cover, through the end pages, and winding across every spread, iconic images of happiness and love (hearts, flowers, birds and music) combine with active children engaging in familiar family situations to depict real people living real lives. The illustrations adopt a folkart approach with colorful collage, paint, and stamp art, presenting a child-like take on a mature story. Kids "get" this, they rebel against the injustice, cheer for the strength and validity of of the court challenge, and revel in the eventual victory.

An equally valuable use for this book will be with older readers. It's an ideal way to introduce an immediate experience with the mid-twentieth-century "legal" manipulations and maneuvers that sustained Jim Crow laws for more than a century beyond the emancipation of enslaved people. The inimitable Diane Rehm conducts an outstanding program on the topic of Jim Crow laws, providing voice to several points of view in an interview, here. Another resource to share is the NPR program that examined the official Congressional apology for slavery and Jim Crow laws from the summer of 2008, here. In each case, both the transcript and the recordings are available to allow for careful discussion and review. 

A rude awakening to the reality of those years can be explored by researching the NEGRO MOTORIST GREEN BOOK, an annually updated resource for anyone of color traveling south during the many decades of segregation and unchecked activity by the Klu Klux Klan. This article in Smithsonian Magazine details the origins and need for THE GREEN BOOK.

Carllrhoda Books, 2010

Those sophisticated investigations, though, can be translated to the heart by another picture book, RUTH AND THE GREEN BOOK, written  by Calvin A. Ramsey and Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. In this case, as in Alko's and Goodman's books, the immediacy of individual lives and  the relatable illustrations evoke personal and visceral responses from readers of any age. In each book the back pages provide further insights and explorations from the authors and offers resources for further exploration and research on the topics and characters portrayed. Now, more than ever, providing young people with the facts of our own history and the ease with which individual liberties were distorted and restricted is essential. Actually, it's not a bad time fro adults to review these stories and resources.

(For more on the Supreme Court, check this recent post about Deby Levy's I DISSENT: Ruth bader Ginsberg Makes Her Mark.)