February 02 , 2021
5 Books to Read for Black History Month
It's Black History Month!
The best way to understand our present is to look deeply at our past. To ring in Black History Month, we wanted to share with you a few tremendous stories of Black people thriving, persevering, and overcoming throughout history.
Here are five awesome books from Sunbury Press to read for Black History Month. ⤵️
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The Chubbs
by Clemmie B. Whatley, Ph.D.
A Free Black Family's Journey from the Antebellum Era to the Mid-1900s
Like many Black families living during the Antebellum Era (a period in the history of the Southern United States, from the late 18th century until the start of the American Civil War in 1861) through the Civil Rights Era, the Chubb family endured many obstacles as they strove for a respectful life. The pages of this book take the reader on an historical journey with the Chubb family, who, after relocating from North Carolina, eventually settled in Chubbtown, forming a self-sufficient Black community in the Floyd and Polk County area of northwest Georgia in the 1860s. Understanding the environment and the context of laws and policies became important in defining the lives of the people who lived during these periods. Throughout this book, the reader will find the context of the time used to help them better understand the conditions and frame the factors that influenced free people of color during antebellum times and after the Civil War.
Category: African American History
Page Count: 368
Imprint: Oxford Southern
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Chicken Bone Beach
by Cheryl Woodruff-Brooks
A Pictorial History of Atlantic City's Missouri Avenue Beach
Cheryl Woodruff-Brooks has compiled this history of Atlantic City's racially segregated beach during its heyday from the 1920s through the 1960s and the residents who lived on the Northside near the established Missouri Avenue Beach. Included are images, research, and oral interviews of Atlantic City residents. Despite racial division in America, Chicken Bone Beach functioned as an African-American resort attracting celebrities, civic leaders, and other races.
Category: African American History
Page count: 76 (w/ photos)
Imprint: Sunbury Press
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Golden Beauty Boss
by Cheryl Woodruff-Brooks
The Story of Madame Sara Spencer Washington and the Apex Empire
Category: African American Biography
Page count: 116
Imprint: Sunbury Press
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Long John
by David Orange
The Longest Stride
John Woodruff, the last of the living gold medalists from the 1936 Olympics, was a native of a small Pennsylvania mining town and the grandson of slaves. His friends were all white in his virtually all-white community . However, he had a rude awakening once venturing out into the segregated world in 1935.
Nicknamed “Long John” for his tremendous stride--the longest ever recorded--Woodruff was forced by Olympic competition to cut his pace, and from dead last place challenge the leaders way far ahead, all under the baleful gaze of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Young, black, inexperienced, and arriving at the University of Pittsburgh with 25 cents in his pocket, Woodruff had to endure challenge after challenge. Running was only one facet of his character, who also craved education. Though World War II and the Korean War cut short his stellar athletic career, he continued to battle racism, bigotry, and segregation (for Blacks, Jews, and other minorities), helping others.
Woodruff’s constant victories in life while battling adversity, is a profoundly moving story of a man who represents determination and grit…despite all obstacles.
Category: Biographical Fiction
Page count: 236
Imprint: Milford House Press
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The Indigo Scarf
by PJ Piccirillo
Based on the true story of two slaves who fled their owners with white women into the wilderness of north-central Pennsylvania, The Indigo Scarf interprets the little known legacy of slavery persisting in the north during the nineteenth century. Meticulously researched, the author’s work is informed by scholars in early American slave laws and northern black codes, by experts in post-colonial folkways, and by descendants who live to this day in the fugitive settlement their forbears established. The Indigo Scarf treats the deeper theme of the spirit-breaking impact slavery has had across generations since abolition.
Though shadowed in whiskey-making and timber-pirating, The Indigo Scarf is a paean to devotion, testing the lengths a woman will go to save her man from a burning vengeance as he confronts the privations of a wild frontier while his former owner schemes his return. On a broader scale, the story is a testament to the perseverance and vision of pioneer women who devoted themselves to planting in their offspring the seeds of hope for liberty which may only be realized by descendants they would never know.
Category: Historical Fiction
Page count: 331
Imprint: Brown Posey Press
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