A review of the black history themed books that I've read since last February
Kugels and Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina. Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey. University of South Carolina Press, 2023. 256 pages.
South Carolina became home to some of the first Jews to ever live in North America, with the first recorded Jewish settlers arriving in Charleston in the 1690s. Over the centuries, more Jews arrived, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi, then Germans, Russians, and Eastern Europeans, at the turn of the 20th century and, later, escaping the Holocaust. Jewish families adapted and blended their traditions and foodways in their new home, influenced by contact with other ethnic groups, black and white, and by new and different ingredients that they found. The result is this history and cookbook, containing some 80 recipes alongside dozens of stories about their creation and history. As I've said lots of times in the past, it's hard to go wrong when combining food and history, and this book is a revealing insight into a particular culture.
Five-Carat Soul. James McBride. Riverhead Books, 2017. 320 pages.
This is a collection of previously unpublished short stories by one of my favorite writers of fiction, James McBride. As one familiar with McBride's work would expect, the stories are full of deep insights into human nature and vivid characterizations, and most of them are history related. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. Members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives. The final story is set in a zoo, with the animals as the characters grappling with the big questions about life, the natural order of things, and their relationship with the "smellies" - humans. Each story is a treat.
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. Kate Anderson Brower. Harper, 2015. 320 pages.
If you enjoyed the murder mystery comedy "The Residence" on Netflix, as I did, you may have been surprised, as I was, to learn that it was inspired by a nonfiction book, a history of the White House through the eyes and recollections of the men and women who work there daily as maids, butlers, ushers, cooks, plumbers, electricians, engineers, florists, nannies, and even calligraphers and have devoted their lives to serving the nation by saving its First Families, often for decades. The author interviewed dozens of employees and wrote a truly fascinating account of what goes on behind the scenes and out of sight of the public. The main focus is on the administrations from Kennedy to Obama, but there are historical tidbits that cover the entire history of the White House, going back to its first occupants, John and Abigail Adams. Getting the employees to share their experiences was quite a feat. Only a handful of White House employees have ever published their memoirs, and there is a universal sense of pride and professionalism among the employees of "The House," as they call it, that exists almost nowhere else. Employees are fiercely protective of the families that employ them and often reveal very little about their work even to friends and family members, sometimes not even revealing to acquaintances where they work. For many, telling stories in public was unthinkable. Their work is demanding and draining, but they often form deep and lasting relationships with each other and with the Presidents and their families. This was a great read, a very informative and entertaining look at how things work, the people that make it work every day, and the First Families of the past 50 years. (Readers may be surprised to learn which families, and family members, are the most and least fondly remembered.)
Harriet Tubman Live in Concert. Bob the Drag Queen. Gallery Books, 2025. 239 pages. (Audio version 4hrs, 17 minutes)
Wow! I had no idea what to expect when I first learned about this book, but I immediately pre-ordered it. We've been fans of Bob the Drag Queen since his first appearance on "RuPaul's Drag Race" and have seen him on a couple of stand-up comedy tours, but a book about Harriet Tubman? It blew me away. Pure creative genius and one of the most original things that I've read in a very long time.
Picture it: NYC, present day. People from the past, including many major historical figures have suddenly returned to life. There's no explanation, almost no attention paid to it in the story. It's just the mechanism which makes the story possible. Don't worry about it. "The Returned" live their lives and integrate into the present. Cleopatra, for example, becomes a hugely successful makeup and fashion Instagram influencer. Harriet Tubman, and several of the people she led to freedom on the Underground Railroad, have returned, and she's on a mission, again - a mission from God. She contacts Darnell Williams, a once-hot hip-hop writer and producer whose music career is struggling, and tells him that God has chosen him to assist in her mission. While one might deny God, nobody dares to say No to Harriet Tubman! Her mission: create an epic hip-hop album and stage show, a la "Hamilton." In her first life, Tubman freed about 700 people from physical chains, and many more indirectly. Now, she's back to free millions from metaphorical chains of all sorts. Darnell has his own metaphorical chains to break, and he goes to work, with Harriet's guidance, to break free into his own authentic self. This is a fantastic work, and I so hope that Bob is actively working to create a real album and show; it could be bigger than "Hamilton." I highly recommend the audio version. Not only is Bob the reader, but it also includes two of the show's songs at the end. (NOTE: The photo above was generated using AI. There is no known photo of Harriet Tubman spittin' fire.)
A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution. Andrew Lawler. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025. 544 pages.
While the American Revolution officially began in April 1775 at Lexington and Concord, two major events occurred in January 1776 that were pivotal in fueling the Patriot cause. Thomas Paine published his pamphlet "Common Sense" laying out the arguments for independence. The other event is perhaps less known today, but it was perhaps even more effective: On January 1, 1776, the city of Norfolk, Virginia was burned to the ground. No other American city in history has been completely and utterly destroyed as Norfolk was. Twenty years later, visitors were still stunned by the vast ruins and fields of debris. For 250 years, the Norfolk fire has been blamed on the British, specifically the royal governor Lord Dunmore. As a result of the fire, Dunmore was vilified on both sides of the Atlantic and labeled a war criminal. Patriot propaganda painted him as a cruel and witless libertine who hosted huge orgies with enslaved women in the Governor's Palace when he wasn't wantonly destroying the lives of his subjects. Following the Norfolk fire, Dunmore was even shunned by his peers in the House of Lords who believed that he had gone too far. Dunmore died in a state of ignominy, and his family was reduced to relative poverty, ostracized by the British upper class.
The kicker? Dunmore and the British didn't destroy Norfolk. THE PATRIOTS INTENTIONALLY BURNED THE CITY TO THE GROUND, and this fact was always known. The Patriot propaganda machine used the destruction to maximum advantage to stir patriotic fervor. The fact is that Norfolk was a Loyalist stronghold, and British warships did destroy a few dozen structures, mainly warehouses and docks, but 95% of the buildings destroyed were intentionally ignited by Patriot troops under orders from Patriot officers and political figures. Why? They wanted to punish Norfolk for being strongly Loyalist, and Dunmore, once extremely popular and respected governor among the landed gentry and yeoman farmers alike, had crossed the line. He recruited and armed free and enslaved black Virginians to fight for Britain, promising freedom in return. This book tells a great, formerly untold, story and illustrates that history is extremely complicated and never just black and white. In this situation, you have black and white Patriots wearing engraved brass breastplates or embroidered shirts saying "Liberty or Death" going into battle against Dunmore's black Ethiopian Regiment troops wearing breastplates engraved with "Liberty For Slaves."
The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn. Amrita Chakrabati Myers. The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. 296 pages.
Even the buffest of history buffs outside of Kentucky have probably never heard of Richard Mentor Johnson, the ninth Vice President of the United States and presidential contender who was a US Representative and Senator for years and whose political career was enhanced by stories that he was the man who killed Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames. His family was among the first white settlers of Kentucky and was a prominent family in the area of Georgetown for decades. However, Johnson's story goes much deeper, and it is an incredibly important and quintessential part of southern history and the legacy of slavery.
For six months each year, Johnson lived in a boarding house in Washington while doing the young nation's business by day and attending the young society's most exclusive society affairs by night. As far as Washingtonians knew, he was a lifelong bachelor. His Kentucky neighbors knew different, and, later, political opponents used that knowledge to tarnish his career and to thwart his presidential aspirations. The secret? He was married. To an enslaved woman that he "owned," a woman named Julia Chinn. He and Julia had two daughters who were legally his property as well. He never officially freed wither Julia or his daughters. Julia died enslaved, and her daughters weren't freed until the ratification of the 13th amendment. That doesn't make Johnson that unique. The history of American slavery is the history of interracial sex, consensual and not consensual. Slaveowners viewed enslaved women as their sexual property, and that view was universally accepted even if it was not stated aloud. Slaveowners raped, cajoled, bribed. Some treated their concubines as wives. Some freed their lovers and children. Some sold them when there was too much gossip and people started noticing resemblances. A few left their property to their enslaved or freed wives or children.
Johnson stands out because he called Julia his wife. The preacher of the church that Johnson's family co-founded married them. He gave Julia complete and total authority to run his plantation and the Choctaw Academy (a federally funded school for young Choctaw men that provided a major income for Johnson) that was located on his property. His daughters married local white men, and they and their descendants have "passed" ever since, with the vast majority of their descendants never knowing their family history until the last few years. In this book, Myers digs deep to tell Julia's story for the first time. Because there isn't much of a paper trail, (Johnson's papers are sparse for such a political man. It is thought that his brothers destroyed most of his letters and documents upon his death due to shame.), there is a lot of "could have," "probably," "possibly," and the like, and a lot of references to similar stories, but she does an excellent job of telling the important story and bringing it to light. Important and extraordinarily complicated. Spoiler alert: don't go thinking Johnson was heroic.
The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa's Racial Reckoning. Eve Fairbanks. Simon & Schuster, 2022. 416 pages. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, South Africa underwent a revolution, scrapping more than a century of harshly enforced racial segregation and minority rule and instantly pivoting to a majority-rule democracy - an unparalleled transformation. Americans being Americans, and American media being American media, South Africa basically ceased to exist at that point because we have almost no attention span for domestic events in foreign countries, especially African countries. The Inheritors provides an insight into that transformation for American readers, primarily through the experiences of three South Africans: Dipuo, a young black woman and anti-apartheid organizer, Malaika, her daughter born around the time of the transition, and Christo, a white Afrikaans farm boy who was one of the last South Africans drafted to fight in Angola. Eve Fairbanks built relationships with the three over the course of a decade, and she basically allows them to tell their stories. Readers learn about the struggles of the country through the struggles of these individuals as they try to cope with unprecedented change. It's an extremely moving, enlightening, and thought-provoking book.
She Came To Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman. Erica Armstrong Dunbar. 37 Ink, 2019. 176 pages. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy.
If any American deserves a fresh, thoroughly researched, well-written, originally illustrated, biography that is equally accessible and enjoyable for everyone from grade school to adulthood, it is Harriet Tubman, and this is the book. Of course, we all know the basics, that Tubman was the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad who personally escorted hundreds enslaved people to freedom after her own escape. Some of us may know of her long career as an abolitionist before the Civil War and her service as a spy and nurse during the Civil War. Fewer know that she became the first woman to lead an armed combat mission - a very consequential mission. Even after the war, she never stopped, becoming an active suffragist and an advocate for veterans and for the aged. Tubman's always been near the top of my list of greatest Americans, and this biography is great introduction to her life for yourself and for any younger readers in your life.
The Fifties: An Underground History. James R. Gaines. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 288 pages. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy.
Too many people think of the 1950s as a decade of conformity and complacency, picturing sock hops, soda fountains, and poodle skirts, but, as I tried to impress upon my students each year, there was always turbulence under that placid surface. There was the rise of rock and roll and teenage rebellion which shocked older generations. Beatniks challenged middle-class norms. Artists shook up the art world. The Red Scare and the Lavender Scare sent shock waves through government and society. The civil rights and feminist movements started ramping up. There was a lot of angst, anger, confusion, and conflict. This book celebrates several individuals who were brave enough to stand - often alone - on their principles and lead fights that they believed needed fighting. In particular, Gaines selects gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and environmental movements. A couple of the people discussed are familiar names, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, and Rachel Carson for example, but the others aren't nearly as well known, or as celebrated as they should be. There's Norbert Wiener, a mathematician and computer scientist who is considered the father of cybernetics, the forerunner of Artificial Intelligence. There's Harry Hay who first envisioned a national gay rights movement in the 1940s. There's Pauli Murray whose law school thesis provided much of the legal basis for Thurgood Marshall's arguments in Brown vs Board of Education and whose legal work made sexual discrimination unconstitutional. Gerda Lerner pioneered the concept of women's history as an academic field, despite being told by superiors and colleagues that there wasn't enough material to study. Isaac Woodard was a black WWII veteran who was blinded by a South Carolina sheriff because he dared to look him in the eye. These are all important stories that should be shared. This book should be widely read. Almost makes me wish that I was back in the classroom in order to share them. ... Almost.
Ring Shout. P. Djeli Clark. Tor Nightfire, 2025 (paperback, originally 2020). 192 pages.
If you liked the movie "Sinners," or other horror films by directors like Ryan Coogler and Jordan Peele, then this is the book for you. It's horror, fantasy, and history all wrapped in one virtually non-stop action package. The setting is 1922 in Macon and Stone Mountain Georgia. The Ku Klux Klan has been reborn following the release of the movie "The Birth of a Nation" in 1915. As black veterans returned from World War I and started standing up for their civil rights in Jim Crow America, the Klan mobilized and ramped up violence in response. The Red Summer of 1919, the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, and a spike in lynchings are just some of the events referenced in this book. In Clark's re-imagining, the KKK actually consists of two factions, the Klan, comprising the average American racists, and the Ku Kluxes who are actually demonic monsters created and fed by hate and who only exist by stirring and escalating hate. A small band of women forms for the purpose of destroying the Ku Kluxes. There's Maryse, armed with a magical sword gifted to her by three spiritual aunties who appear to her in visions, Sadie, a sharpshooter, and Chef, who disguised herself as a man and fought as a Harlem Hellfighter in WWI. They're aided by Maryse's spiritual advisor Nana Jean and Molly, a self-taught Choctaw scientist and engineer who devises weapons and strategies along with her female apprentices, and Emma, a German Jewish social revolutionary communist. Following some skirmishes and a major Klux attack on a juke joint in Macon, everybody heads to Stone Mountain, the site where the Klan was reborn and the first crosses were burned, for the final apocalyptic, the-fate-of-the-world-hangs-in-the-balance battle. Clark blends history and horror with Gullah, African, and Caribbean folklore and delivers a very creative and original read and a great ride from beginning to end.
Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen. Cheryl W. Thompson. Dafina/Kensington Books, to be published January 27, 2026. 240 pages. Thanks to Kensington Books for the free advance readers copy for review.
It's taken far too long for the Tuskegee Airmen to get their just due for their service as the nation's first black military pilots and for their legendary record of achievements in World War II, but, at least in the past few decades, the veterans and their stories have been recognized. Unfortunately, not all survived long enough to see it. In fact, 27 of the over 1,000 Airmen were lost during the war, and their service and sacrifice was forgotten to all but their family. Cheryl W. Thompson, an investigative journalist and the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman herself, set out to uncover and tell the stories of those missing men. The result is a really great history of the unit and the men who comprised it, and now, after 80 years, those 27 missing men are getting at least some of the respect they deserve.
Recipes From the American South. Michael Twitty. Phaidon Press, 2025. 432 pages.
This book is a must-have addition to any cookbook or southern history or southern food library. It's the southern version of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in terms of scope and importance. Michael Twitty has become one of America's greatest culinary historians. He started out as a re-enactor, researching and demonstrating the foods and foodways of the American South that resulted from the blending of West African, Caribbean, Native American, and European cultures that resulted from the African diaspora and slavery. His work illustrates both the importance of food history and the power of food to cross boundaries, erase differences, and unite people. However, the region is vast, and even southern food is not monolithic. Twitty presents 260 recipes that cover the entire breadth of southern cuisine. The recipes are tested and prove, the photos are beautiful, and there are short histories of each dish. Cooks will discover familiar recipes for dishes that their families have made for generations, but they will also discover new recipes and learn things about the old and the new in the process. I've made some of the recipes and I will be making more, and the book has already become a first reference for me. It is definitely a classic that should be on any southern cook's shelf.
The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi. Wright Thompson. Penguin Press, 2024. 448 pages.
Place. It is one of the most vital elements of the study of history. It acts as a physical, emotional, and cognitive anchor, a three-dimensional primary document that transforms abstract events from the distant past into tangible, relatable experiences, providing invaluable context to the events that happened upon it and to the lives of the people who lived there, worked there, fought there, loved there, and died there. "Place" provides a connection that is not possible otherwise. Think about the feeling you have on a battlefield or in a home or site, when your senses take it all in and often both a new understanding and a new curiosity arise. I've read very few books in my life that capture place as well as this book does. Wright Thompson has mastered the craft and can teach lessons on the subject. I've had this book ever since it was released, but I've only read it in the past few days. After all, I knew the story of Emmett Till, I taught the story of Emmett Till every year, and I knew it would be a tough read emotionally. And it definitely is. It makes you despair and lose all hope for humanity (if you had any at the start). If you know it, it makes you hear Nina Simone's song "Mississippi G*****n" on a constant loop in your head, and makes you believe that the world and country would be much better off if Mississippi had never existed, or at least hadn't been settled by any new humans after 1600, that Mississippi is hell on earth, populated by the moat deranged and depraved "people" in history. (And when a native Georgian now living in Florida says that, that's saying something.) It is not all depravity, however. The reader is introduced to some truly brave and heroic people that are usually not a part of the story: friends and relatives of Emmett and his mother, witnesses who were previously ignored by the law and by the media, and people who have devoted their lives to keeping the story alive in the 7 decades since. This is not only a new history of the kidnapping and murder of a 15-year old boy and the intense and coordinated effort throughout the state over the ensuing decades to erase it from history and from the minds of white and black Mississippians, but it is also a history of Mississippi, the place, going back to before European contact and encompassing every aspect of its history. The barn in which Till was tortured, mutilated, and murdered is like an epicenter of that history. The Delta Blues were born, King Cotton thrived and collapsed, Indian villages were decimated, and the Archie Manning football dynasty was born, all within a few miles of the nondescript farm shed. All of that comes to life in this book. This book should be the required textbook for Mississippi state history classes. It should be required reading for all Americans.
