Non-Fiction for African American History Month

The following titles are new non-fiction that record and continue the African-American Experience. All three of these books seek to tell the story of the contributions of African-Americans in the fields of education and publishing; they also seek to inspire future generations--no matter their race--to raise themselves up out of poverty and ignorance.

First, we have Progressive Education in Black High Schools: the Secondary School Study, 1940-1946 by Craig Kridel. This is a catalog of sixteen black high schools that existed in the American Southeast. Between 1940 and 1946, the Rockefeller Foundation's General Education Board funded a study that looked at the instruction and outcomes of these schools. The project was based upon cooperation and experimentation and helped to develop a generation of African American educators who recognized the hypocrisy society showed blacks and, at the same time, display a willingness to engage in the various forms of struggle to educate the black population. Included in this book is Magnolia Avenue High School here in Vicksburg.

The second book is called The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America written by Ethan Michaeli. Founded by Robert S. Abbott in 1905, The Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, sparked the Great Migration, and helped to focus the electoral power of black Americans. Hundreds of thousands of copies were smuggled into some of the most isolated and segregated communities in the American South. Abbott himself became known as a "Modern Moses" and was one of the first black millionaires in America. The newspaper's clout helped to elect mayors and presidents, including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. Reporters braved lynch mobs and policemen's clubs to report on the state of race relations in the country. Many famous African Americans wrote columns for the paper as well, including Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King. A moving look at the power of the press to force a change in the status quo.

The third and final book is The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community is Inspiring the World written by Nadia Lopez with Rebecca Paley. In 2010, Nadia Lopez started her middle-grade public school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy, in one of America s poorest communities, in a record heat wave and crime wave. Everything was an uphill battle getting the school approved as well as recruiting teaches and students; not to mention, having to solve a million new problems every day. From violent crime to vanishing supplies, Lopez was determined to break the downward spiral that had trapped too many inner-city children. The lessons came fast: disengaged teachers, wayward students, and the educational system itself, rarely in tune with the already disadvantaged and ill-prepared. Things were at a low ebb for everyone when one of her students told a photographer that his principal, Ms. Lopez, was the person who most influenced his life. The posting on Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York site was the pebble that started a lucky landslide for Lopez and her team. Lopez found herself in the national spotlight and headed for a meeting with President Obama all the while inspiring and guiding those entrusted to her tutelage.