Black History Month

Miller Library would be remiss if we let Black History Month pass without telling you about some of our new books dealing with African American issues and history. All of the books discussed below were published in 2007 and are part of our collection.

African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations explores the history, customs, and symbols associated with traditional and contemporary religious and secular events observed by Americans of African descent. 394.269 G285a

Interested in sports? Race, Sport and the American Dream discusses the genetic argument, the athletic industrial complex, and future of sports. 796.089 S646r. Tennis fans will enjoy Charging the Net: a History of Blacks in Tennis from Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to the Williams Sisters. 796.342 H313c

Interested in history? The friendship and work of Frederick Doublass and Abraham Lincoln are recalled in The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes. 973.7114 O11r. Thomas Jackson discusses Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle for economic justice in From Civil Rights to Human Rights 323.092 K53Yj. Many Minds, One Heart presents SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and its 1960s' movement. The movie The Great Debaters tells the story of James Forman, and you can read his speech at the Waveland November 1964 debate in this book. 323.1196 H714m.

Talkin Black Talk contains essays on ebonics, rap, and other aspects of language, education, and social change. 427.973 B346t

Business and Law are discussed in two books. Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present discusses the struggles for education, property rights, civil liberties, voting rights, and criminal justice. 342.7308 B882r. The Real Pepsi Challenge tells the story of breaking the color barrier in American business. 338.7 C247r

The development of black identity through art are discussed in Picturing the New Negro which presents illustration in the Harlem Renaissance. 760.044 G598p

African-American Muslims are one of the groups included in American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion. 297.09 B274a

Finally, the Coretta Scott King award book for 2008 is Elijah of Buxton. This children's book tells the story of eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, who uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom. J 813 C978e

In Cold Blood

The Kansas Center for the Book's 2008 title is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Published in 1966, the book tells the now famous story of the brutal killings of the Western Kansas Clutter family and their murderers. Our current library display features news articles from the time of the murders (1956) as well as information about the book, which brought in a new way to write nonfiction, sometimes called "The New Journalism." Capote was consumed by this story, as captured in the recent film Capote.

Find out more about the One State, One Book project at: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/kcfb/incoldblood.htm