Check out what the African American Studies Program is reading and watching.
Michelle Obama
In her memoir, First Lady Michelle Obama takes us from her childhood in Chicago, Illinois, to Princeton University, and to her life with Barack Obama—before and after he was President of the United States. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn how one Black family achieved the American Dream on their way to becoming the first Black occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Richard Wright
Set in Chicago in the 1930s during the Great Depression, Native Son tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a 20-year-old Black man who takes a job working for the Daltons, a rich White family who own the building in which Bigger lives with his mother and two siblings. Native Son is probably my favorite books to teach because it’s an engaging read and examines how White racism and systematic racism create the Bigger Thomases of American society.
Sapphire
The book opens with the reader learning that 16-year-old Claireece Precious Jones is illiterate and pregnant with her father’s second baby. Although the story continues to go downhill from there, I find the book to be full of hope and with lessons to appreciate the good life we might already have.
