L OST N EIGHBORHOODS
Black History
v
Good Books: History Month Reading
B OOK
R EVIEWS
by Kam
Williams
‘To the
Mountaintop:
My Journey
through the Civil
Rights Movement,’
by Charlayne Hunter-
Gault
C
harlayne Hunter-Gault
is an accomplished
reporter who, over the
course of an enviable career,
has won a couple of
Emmys, a Peabody Award
and been named the Jour-
nalist of the Year by the
National Association of
Black Journalists. While
many might recognize her
as a veteran television news
correspondent from her
stints at CNN, PBS and
NPR or as a writer whose
pieces have been published
by the New Yorker and the
New York Times, most
folks are probably unaware
of her critical contribution
to the dismantling of the
Jim Crow system of segre-
gation during the Civil
Rights Era.
In 1961, one of the blood-
iest years in the integration
movement, she and a class-
mate, the late Hamilton
Holmes, became the first
African-Americans admit-
ted to the University of
Georgia when the NAACP
won a lawsuit filed on their
behalf. A few days later,
accompanied by their par-
ents and attorney Vernon
Jordan, the pair negotiated
their way to the school’s
registrar’s office through a
menacing gauntlet of rau-
cous whites shouting racial
epithets.
Although the two new stu-
dents had good reason for
fear and trepidation about
being left alone on a hostile
campus in the heart of Klu
Klux Klan country, they
never let the intimidation
get the better of them and
went on to graduate from
the college. To the Moun-
taintop:
My
Journey
through the Civil Rights
Movement is a moving
memoir which eloquently
recounts their historic
achievement in glowing
detail.
This fascinating autobiog-
raphy covers a half-dozen
pivotal years in Charlayne’s
life, the period from 1959 to
1965. Besides intimately
recounting her personal
experiences during that dif-
ficult period, the author also
covers what other activists
were simultaneously doing
elsewhere around the coun-
try in the quest for equality,
whether participating in sit-
ins, freedom rides or
attending the March on
Washington.
The book is written in a
user-friendly style designed
to engage readers 12 and
over, and arrives illustrated
by a cornucopia of iconic
black-and-white photos and
newspaper reprints. Kudos
to Ms. Hunter-Gault for
crafting such a poignant,
very personal reminder of
just how hard-fought was
the struggle which ultimate-
ly led to the triumphant
election of our first African-
American president.
Learning about
the Africans
That Came to
the Americas!
by L.E. Chavous
A
fter Lee Chavous
became a father a few
years ago, he soon found
himself worrying about his
son’s prospective education.
He knew that the formative
years are critical, and that
the history books tend to
marginalize, overlook, or
inaccurately recount the
contributions of African-
Americans.
Wanting his little boy to
grow up fully aware not
only of his ancestors’ cen-
turies-long struggle for
equality but of how they
also helped shape the coun-
try in myriad ways, Lee
decided to write his own
illustrated texts. Aimed at
kids aged 8-11, the first in
his very informative series,
Learning about the Africans
That Came to the Americas,
offers
an
impressive
overview of slavery from
the black perspective.
For black youth, one of
the unfortunate aspects of
learning is having to unlearn
misinformation, like the fact
that John Brown was actual-
ly a hero who freed slaves,
not an insurrectionist hung
for stealing plantation own-
ers’ property. That’s why it
was refreshing to see that
this book describes Brown
as an “abolitionist.”
That distinction is impor-
tant, because it rightfully
recasts him as a hero to any-
one who takes to heart the
words of The Declaration of
Independence which states
that “All men are created
equal,” and further stipu-
lates that it is your right and
your duty to revolt against
any government denying
your unalienable rights to
life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.
But I digress. As to layout,
Learning about the Africans
That Came to the Americas
was cleverly constructed as
a history lesson being nar-
rated by a doting father to
his young son named
Christopher OluFela. The
engaging story winds its
way from a slave castle on
the coast of West Africa
through
the
Middle
Passage to the shores of the
Americas.
It addresses the brutality
of slavery before recalling
the amazing exploits of leg-
endary freedom fighters like
Harriet Tubman, conductor
of the Underground Rail-
road,
and
Toussaint
L’Ouverture, leader of the
Haitian Revolution. And to
show just how far we’ve
come, the postscript fea-
tures a tip of the cap to
Barack Obama as the first
African-American President
of the United States.
Congrats to concerned
papa Lee Chavous for pub-
lishing the first in what is
likely to prove to be a price-
less series of sensible
supplements to the tradi-
tional American History
textbooks.
‘Killing the
Messenger:
A Story of Radical
Faith, Racism’s
Backlash, and the
Assassination of a
Journalist,’
by Thomas Peele
A
ny Western journalist
who’s honest will
admit that they’re scared to
write anything critical about
Islam, since it doesn’t take
much to make a mullah put
a price on your head. Con-
sider the recent history.
Everyone from novelist
Salman Rushdie to Danish
cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
have had to go into hiding
because of all the death
threats they received after
publishing material Mus-
lims deemed offensive. And
Dutch director Theo van
Gogh was stabbed to death
by a disgruntled fundamen-
talist because he made a
movie about honor killings
and other forms of violence
still being perpetrated
against innocent females in
the name of Allah.
Much closer to home,
Chauncey Bailey, editor-in-
chief of the Oakland Post,
was shot dead on the morn-
ing of August 2, 2007. He
was about to expose a store
called Your Black Muslim
Bakery as a front for a crim-
inal operation dealing in
drugs, sex slaves and mur-
der.
For more about your neighborhood go
online to www.TheSkanner.com
Page 8 The Portland and Seattle Skanner v BLACK HISTORY EDITION v February 22, 2012