MILWAUKEE — Reading about the past can help us in the future. What is on your 2023 book list?
Monday night At The Table was Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Derek Handley. He shares four books written by Black writers that every American should have on their shelves.
"These four books provide an accurate picture of the African American experience, particularly in the 20th century," said Handley.
His picks are --
- America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s (2021). Elizabeth Hinton’s book America on Fire provides a detailed study of Black communities’ “organized” and sometimes violent “rebellion” as protest against police brutality in the 1960’s.
- Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own (2020). Eddie. Glaude Jr. examines the life of the writer James Baldwin with a particular focus on Baldwin’s later writings, which helps up to better understand the racial climate today.
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010) Through narrative, Isabel Wilkerson shows the trek of three individual African Americans making their way to the North and out West to find new opportunities and for some to escape the violence of the American south in the early 20th century.
- Invisible Man (1952). Ralph Ellison’s classic novel is a powerful and thought-provoking exploration of race, identity, and the human condition in the mid-twentieth century.
Watch the video at the top of this article to learn more about the African American experience in America.
Charles Benson and Shannon Sims interview key people in our community during TMJ4's @TheTable segment every weeknight at 10 p.m.
