Book Recommendations from 2015
Hello! I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything, but I’ve been having a hard time getting back into the groove and routine of writing. One of my intentions for this year is to write more regularly, so this short blog post is a first step.
As the title of this post suggests, I originally wrote these book recommendations back in 2015, when I first read these books. I decided to post them on this new blog because, why not? Lol. I still feel the same way about these books as I did 5 years ago, and the subject matter is absolutely just as relevant now as then. I edited and updated some of my language reflect recent events, but the bulk of the recommendations is still the same. Enjoy!
At the dark end of the street: Black women, rape, and resistance-A new history of the civil rights movement from Rosa Parks to Black power by Danielle L. McGuire
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning how the southern civil rights movement originated in the women-led struggle to obtain justice for Black women who were victims of sexual violence by White men. While reading this book, I felt like I had been lied to my whole life. Neither in school nor in any of the history books I read, did I learn that Black women’s resistance to the systemic sexual violence that we were experiencing across the South began the modern civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, Rosa Parks, a leader in this struggle, has had her anti-rape organizing completely erased from most mainstream literature about her life and activism. After you finish reading At the Dark End of the Street, go read The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks! Jeanne Theoharris, the author, does an excellent job of telling the story of Rosa Parks, including detailing her racial justice organizing in the 1930s and 40s. One of the main takeaways from At the Dark End of the Street for me is that Black women have always led the struggle for justice for Black women, and we continue to do this today. I hope that in 50 years when young people are learning about the Black Lives Matter movement, that the leadership of queer Black women is not erased.
This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
A common judgment of the protests and rebellions of the Black Lives Matter movement that have arisen due to the continued police murders of Black people is: what would MLK think about all this rioting? Many people also like to create memes that juxtapose photos of current protests with photos of civil rights marches in the 1960s, with the marchers immaculately dressed and being “nonviolent.” Charles E. Cobb Jr. explores the nuances of the nonviolent civil rights movement that are often ignored by people who seek to find fault with the tactics of today’s youth activists. While many civil rights organizations publicly committed to nonviolent civil disobedience, others did not. There was much disagreement within the movement, particularly in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), about nonviolence.
Young Black people who traveled to the deep south to engage in movement work such as voter registration, stayed with Black families who protected not only themselves, but also the organizers, with guns. Many movement leaders also owned guns, including Dr. King, although most did not carry them to marches and other acts of civil disobedience. Violence by White people in retaliation for Black people daring to assert their humanity was real, vicious, and deadly. In my opinion, even more activists would’ve been killed and the movement stalled, if it wasn’t for Black southerners organizing to keep people safe. Mr. Cobb has written an important book that illuminates the various strategies and tactics of the civil rights movement. I think it’s crucial that we understand that not everyone agreed with each other all the time! It’s absolutely okay to disagree as long as we are all clear and in agreement about what our ultimate goals are. The U.S. is currently in an election year, and there seems to be much online strife between people who are involved in various facets of social and political engagement, whether it’s grassroots organizing, working for a political candidate, or doing policy/advocacy work. We can all co-exist doing the type of work that connects with us, and one type isn’t more important than the other. That’s what This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed gets at. Go read it!