News + Events

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, founded in 1915, assigns a theme each February for the observance of Black History Month. In 2024 the theme on which the Association is focusing is African Americans and the Arts. The intention, as ASALH writes, is not to “limit the exploration of the Black experience, but to bring to the public’s attention important developments that merit emphasis.” We encourage you to visit the Association’s website and learn more about this year’s theme and previous ones. You may also wish to participate in its month-long 2024 Black History Month Virtual Festival.

Events and programming are also available at these sites, the Library of Congress at https://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov, and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) at https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-showcases-rich-collection-of-stories-to-celebrate-black-history-month/.

In recognition of Black History Month here at Smiley Library, peruse our most recent acquisitions featuring Black history and cultural themes, and Black authors, with which to continue to remember, honor, celebrate, and inspire. Look for books on display in the Library near the Circulation Desk. As always, ask a librarian for help finding anything.

(Reposted from 2020-22)

New Books – Fiction

2020 – 2021

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a son of formerly enslaved parents, embarked on the establishment of February as Black History Month. He was a teacher and school administrator who in 1912 became the second African American, after W.E.B. Du Bois, to earn a PhD from Harvard University. In February 1926 he launched the precursor of the celebration with “Negro History Week,” designated for the second week in February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Dr. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Each year the Association, which continues to support Dr. Woodson’s cause, assigns a theme to the celebration. The theme for 2021 is “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity” — ideas to ponder as we read.

Please refer to previous blog post Celebrating Black Authors and Black Lives for additional titles. Take a look too at our extensive Catalog for older items on the subject, as well as those for children and young adults. Check them out through our Books to Go program or in person during our new public hours.

Also, don’t forget our eLibrary which includes, besides e-items for download, the new Black Life in America database. This primary source collection provides materials in which you may research the experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media, from 1704 to today. It is an expansive window into centuries of African American history, culture, and daily life — as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent.

Streaming video service Kanopy, also located in our eLibrary, features films about racial and social injustice. Inspiring documentaries, like “The Talk: Race in America,” “P.S. I Can’t Breathe,” and many others, can help contribute to a more open dialogue about race relations in modern America.

And finally, for even more ways in which to learn about Black history, view the Heritage Room’s Black History Month webinar series. available for viewing at the AKSPL Special Collections YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx1V0OiVDDpGORavA_W6icQ,  or on Facebook under the Video tab.

The offerings include:

• “African American Literature” by Professor Charles Williams of Chaffey College
• “Lincoln’s Greatest Decision: Emancipation and the Use of Black Troops” with Smiley Library Director Don McCue
• “Black Voice News and the History of the Black Press” by Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds
• (Link here to local newspaper Black Voice News)
• “Hidden in Plain Sight: African Americans in the Library’s Historic Collections” with Archivist Dr. Nathan Gonzales

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Centennial Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

The Tulsa race massacre took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of White residents, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked Black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is alternatively known as the “Tulsa race riot” or the “Black Wall Street massacre.”

See also, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission website, https://www.tulsa2021.org/, and find our books on the subject here:

• The Burning : Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, by Tim Madigan
• Riot and Remembrance : the Tulsa Race War and its Legacy, by James S. Hirsch

• Triumph : the Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics / Schaap, Jeremy
• The Black Civil War Soldier : a Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship / Willis, Deborah
• 42 Today : Jackie Robinson and his Legacy / Long, Michael G., editor
• Courage to Soar : A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance / Biles, Simone
• The Fierce 44 : Black Americans Who Shook Up the World / Reiss, Stephen
• Just As I Am : a Memoir / Tyson, Cicely
• The Truths We Hold : an American Journey / Harris, Kamala
• Finding My Voice : My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward / Jarrett, Valerie
• His Truth is Marching On : John Lewis and the Power of Hope / Meacham, Jon
• A Promised Land / Obama, Barack
• Becoming / Obama, Michelle
• Tough Love : My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For / Rice, Susan E.
• I Will Not Fear : My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith under Fire / Beals, Melba
• Black Radical : the Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter / Greenidge, Kerri K.
• Fannie Lou Hamer : America’s Freedom Fighting Woman / Brooks, Maegan Parker
• Greyboy : Finding Blackness in a White World / Brown, Cole / Reyburn, Susan
• The Dead Are Arising : the Life of Malcolm X / Payne, Les
• Frederick Douglass : Prophet of Freedom / Blight, David W. *Pulitzer Prize winner, History, 2019
  
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass : an American Slave / Douglass, Frederick
• The Chiffon Trenches : a Memoir / Talley, Andre Leon
• Officer Clemmons / Clemmons, Francois S.
• Black Is the Body : Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine / Bernard, Emily
• George Washington Carver : a Life / Vella, Christina
• Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation / Norrell, Robert J.
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings / Angelou, Maya
• My Journey with Maya / Smiley, Tavis
• My Grandfather’s Son : a Memoir / Thomas, Clarence
• Thurgood Marshall : a Twentieth-Century Life / Crowe, Chris
• Black Klansman : Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime / Stallworth, Ron
• Zora and Langston : a Story of Friendship and Betrayal / Yuval, Taylor
• Mighty Justice : My Life in Civil Rights / Roundtree, Dovey Johnson

Cookbooks

• The Full Plate / Curry, Ayesha
• The Rise : Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food / Samuelsson, Marcus
• Jubilee : Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking / Tipton-Martin, Toni
• Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook : A Celebration of African American Cooking / Lukas, Albert

DVDs

• Harriet [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Erivo, Cynthia
• Marshall [videorecording (Blu-ray disc and DVD)] / Hudlin, Reginald
• Hidden Figures [videorecording (DVD)] / Melfi, Theodore
• Blackkklansman [videorecording (DVD)] / Lee, Spike
• Jackie Robinson [videorecording (DVD)] / Burns, Ken
• 42 : [videorecording (DVD)] the Jackie Robinson Story / Helgeland, Brian
• The Hate U Give [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Tillman, George
• Beloved [videorecording (DVD)] / Winfrey, Oprah
• If Beale Street Could Talk [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Jenkins, Barry
• Green Book [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Farrelly, Peter
• Us [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Peele, Jordan
• Black Panther [videorecording (Blu-ray disc)] / Coogler, Ryan
• Get Out [videorecording (DVD)] / Peele, Jordan
• Moonlight [videorecording (DVD)] / Jenkins, Barry
• 12 Years a Slave [videorecording (DVD)] / McQueen, Steve
• Django Unchained [videorecording (DVD)] / Tarantino, Quentin
• Lincoln [videorecording (DVD)] / Spielberg, Steven
• The Help [videorecording (DVD)] / Stockett, Kathryn
• Precious (based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire) [videorecording (DVD)] / Daniels, Lee
• The Secret Life of Bees [videorecording (DVD)] / Prince-Bythewood, Gina
• The Great Debaters [videorecording (DVD)] / Washington, Denzel
• The Tuskegee Airmen [videorecording (DVD)] / Markowitz, Robert
• Glory [videorecording (DVD)] / Fields, Freddie
• Roots [videorecording (DVD)] / Margulies, Stan
• To Kill a Mockingbird [videorecording (DVD)] / Mulligan, Robert

Graphic Novels

• Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred : A Graphic Novel Adaptation / Duffy, Damian
• Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower : A Graphic Novel Adaptation / Duffy, Damian
• I Am Alfonso Jones [text (graphic)] / Medina, Tony
• Black Panther [text (graphic)] / Coates, Ta-Nehisi
• To Kill a Mockingbird [text (graphic)] : A Graphic Novel / Fordham, Fred

History

Humor

• Surrender, White People! : Our Unconditional Terms for Peace / Hughley, D.L.
• You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey : Crazy Stories About Racism / Ruffin, Amber
• The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell : Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-leaning, Asthmatic, Black and proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-up Comedian / Bell, W. Kamau

Literature

• Letters to the Future : Black Women, Radical Writing / Hunt, Erica
• The Toni Morrison Book Club / Bennett, Juda
• In Search of The Color Purple : the Story of an American Masterpiece / Tillet, Salamishah
• The Awkward Black Man : Stories / Mosley, Walter
• Being Property Once Myself : Blackness and the End of Man / Bennett, Joshua
• A Measure of Belonging : Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South / Barnes, Cinelle
• Black Ink : Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing / Oliver, Stephanie Stokes
• Rainbow in the Cloud : the Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou / Angelou, Maya
• The Measure of Our Lives : A Gathering of Wisdom / Morrison, Toni
• The Source of Self-Regard : Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations / Morrison, Toni
• Goodness and the Literary Imagination : Harvard Divinity School’s 95th Ingersoll Lecture : With Essays on Morrison’s Moral and Religious Vision / Morrison, Toni
• The Selected Letters of Langston Hughes / Hughes, Langston
• Well-read Black Girl : Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves : an Anthology / Edim, Glory
• Feel Free : Essays / Smith, Zadie

Music

• Wild Thing : The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix / Norman, Philip
• The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America/Moore, Marcus J
• Queen Bey : a Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter / Chambers, Veronica
• Odetta : A Life in Music and Protest / Zack, Ian
• Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter / Jackson, Curtis “50 Cent”
• Let Love Rule / Kravitz, Lenny
• More Myself : A Journey / Keys, Alicia
• I Am Restored : How I Lost My Religion But Found My Faith / Lecrae
• Straighten Up and Fly Right : The Life & Music of Nat King Cole / Friedwald, Will
• The Meaning of Mariah Carey / Carey, Mariah
• The Beautiful Ones / Prince
• Black Diamond Queens : African American Women and Rock and Roll / Mahon, Maureen
• Billie Holiday : the Musician and the Myth / Szwed, John F.

Poetry

• The Souls of Black Folk / Du Bois, W.E.B.
• Distributed Blackness : African American Cybercultures / Brock, André L., Jr.
• Hood Feminism : Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot / Kendall, Mikki
• A Black Women’s History of the United States / Berry, Daina Ramey
• A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing : the Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland / Hill, DaMaris B.
• Girl Gurl Grrrl : on Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic / Hunt, Kenya
• The Purpose of Power : How We Come Together When We Fall Apart / Garza, Alicia
• Caste : the Origins of our Discontents / Wilkerson, Isabel
• Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man / Acho, Emmanuel
• Race Man : Selected Works, 1960-2015 / Bond, Julian
• A Peculiar Indifference : the Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America / Currie, Elliott
• Long Time Coming : Reckoning with Race in America / Dyson, Michael Eric
• White Tears/Brown Scars : How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color / Hamad, Ruby
• Daughter of the Boycott : Carrying On a Montgomery Family’s Civil Rights Legacy / Houston, Karen Gray
• Culture Warlords : My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy / Lavin, Talia
• Dispatches from the Race War / Wise, Tim
• Wilmington’s Lie : the Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy / Zucchino, David
• Black Futures / Drew, Kimberly
• Conversations in Black on Power, Politics, and Leadership / Gordon, Ed
• Wandering in Strange Lands : a Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots / Jerkins, Morgan
• Just Us : an American Conversation / Rankine, Claudia
• How to Make a Slave and Other Essays / Walker, Jerald
• Black Fatigue : How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit / Winters, Mary-Frances
• South to Freedom : Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War / Baumgartner, Alice
• A Question of Freedom : The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War / Thomas, William G.

Sports

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November with some of the Smiley Library titles listed here. As a reminder, there is no charge to place a book on hold. Just browse below and click on titles in which you are interested!

In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens. The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. In 2021 the United States designated the federal holiday of Columbus Day to also be observed as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994. (source: NativeAmericanHeritageMonth.gov)

Of Local Interest

• Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson. Published in 1884, it features a Scottish-Native American orphan girl, and takes place in Southern California. The Ramona Pageant, which still takes place in Hemet, California, is derived from this character.)
• The hunt for Willie Boy : Indian-hating and popular culture, by Redlands historians James A. Sandos and Larry E. Burgess. A scholarly and ethno-historical examination of an actual incident which took place in Southern California in 1909, and which was the focus of 1960 novel Willie Boy & the last western manhunt and its 1969 film adaptation, “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.” The authors provide compelling research to correct the facts, and to vindicate the Paiute-Chemehuevi Indian called ‘Willie Boy.’

New Fiction

• Shutter, by Ramona Emerson
• When two feathers fell from the sky, by Margaret Verble
• Fevered star, by Rebecca Roanhorse
• Calling for a blanket dance, by Oscar Hokeah
• The sacred bridge, by Anne Hillerman
• White horse, by Erika T. Wurth
• Tread of angels, by Rebecca Roanhorse

New Non-Fiction

• Native Agency : Indians in the Bureau of Indian Affairs / Lambert, Valerie
• Talking with hands : everything you need to start signing Native American hand talk : a complete beginner’s guide with over 200 words and phrases
  by Mike Pahsetopah
• Indigenous continent: the epic contest for North American, by Pekka Hamalainen
• Path lit by lightning : the life of Jim Thorpe, by David Maraniss
• Born of lakes and plains : mixed-descent peoples and the making of the American West, by Anne Farrar Hyde
• A brave and cunning prince : the great Chief Opechancanough and the war for America, by James Horn
• We refuse to forget : a true story of Black Creeks, American identity, and power
• Notable native people : 50 indigenous leaders, dreamers, and changemakers from past and present, by Adrienne Keene
• Origin: a genetic history of the Americas, by Jennifer Raff
• American Indian Wars : the essential reference guide, by Justin D. Murphy
• The last campaign : Sherman, Geronimo, and the War for America, by H. W. Brands
• Flutes of fire : an introduction to native California languages revised and updated, by Leanne Hinton

New Biography

• Red paint : the ancestral autobiography of a Coast Salish punk, by LaPointe, Sasha taqʷšəblu

Heritage Room items (available by appointment for use in the Heritage Room)

Did you know that the Library’s Special Collections department, the Heritage Room, holds a Carnegie Indian Collection? It began in 1910 with a gift from industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to honor his friend Albert K. Smiley. It includes rare and selected volumes primarily on the Native American tribes of California and the Southwest.

Recently added to the Heritage Room’s Non-Fiction Indian collection is a publication which features the Smiley brothers’ work as Quakers, and that of others, in attempts to achieve Native American justice:

• As they were led : Quakerly steps and missteps toward Native justice, 1795-1940, by Catlin, Martha Claire

Albert K. Smiley served as a commissioner on the Board of Indian Commissioners from 1879 to 1912, the year he died. He founded the Mohonk Indian Conference in 1894 and nominated the presiding officers each year after that until 1912.

Heritage Room periodicals, books

• News from native California, quarterly periodical
• American Indian culture and research journal, quarterly periodical / University of California, Los Angeles, American Indian Culture and Research Center.
• Heritage keepers, periodical / Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Inc., Banning, Calif., Morongo Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians of the Morongo Reservation, California.
• Handbook of North American Indians / Sturtevant, William C.
• Strong hearts & healing hands : Southern California Indians and field nurses, 1920-1950 / Trafzer, Clifford E.
• San Bernardino County Museum Association quarterly / San Bernardino County Museum Association
• West of slavery : the Southern dream of a transcontinental empire / Waite, Kevin (Historian)

Young Readers’ Room (YRR)

• The first Thanksgiving : separating fact from fiction, by Mavrikis, Peter

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Older Fiction and Non-Fiction

• The literature of California, an anthology / Hicks, Jack
• When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native nations poetry / Harjo, Joy
• The beadworkers : stories / Piatote, Beth H.
• Empire of the summer moon : Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history / Gwynne, S. C. (Samuel C.)
• Sisters of the lost nation / Medina, Nick
• Surviving genocide : native nations and the United States from the American Revolution to bleeding Kansas / Ostler, Jeffrey
• Rez life : an Indian’s journey through reservation life / Treuer, David
• Heart berries : a memoir / Mailhot, Terese Marie
• We are the land : a history of native California / Akins, Damon B.
• The heartbeat of Wounded Knee : native America from 1890 to the present / Treuer, David
• Why we serve : Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces / Harris, Alexandra N.
• Nature Poem / Pico, Tommy
• The Apache diaspora : four centuries of displacement and survival / Conrad, Paul
• Earth keeper : reflections on the American land / Momaday, N. Scott
• “The chiefs now in this city” : Indians and the urban frontier in early America / Calloway, Colin
• Living nations, living words : an anthology of first peoples poetry / Harjo, Joy
• Poet Warrior: A Memoir / Harjo, Joy
• Black snake : Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and environmental justice / Todrys, Katherine Wiltenburg
• Standoff : Standing Rock, the Bundy movement, and the American story sacred lands / Keeler, Jacqueline
• The taking of Jemima Boone : colonial settlers, tribal nations, and the kidnap that shaped America / Pearl, Matthew
• Cheyenne summer : the battle of Beecher Island : a history / Mort, T. A. (Terry A.)
• Ramona / Jackson, Helen Hunt
• The hunt for Willie Boy : Indian-hating and popular culture / Sandos, James A.
• Willie Boy & the last western manhunt / Trafzer, Clifford E.
• The Lumbee Indians : an American struggle / Lowery, Malinda Maynor
• Blood and treasure : Daniel Boone and the fight for America’s first frontier / Drury, Bob
• The Apache wars : the hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the captive boy who started the longest war in American history / Hutton, Paul Andrew
• Go home, Ricky! : a novel / Kwak, Gene
• The sentence : a novel / Erdrich, Louise
• The healing of Natalie Curtis / Kirkpatrick, Jane
• Crooked hallelujah / Ford, Kelli Jo
• The removed / Hobson, Brandon
• The only good Indians : a novel / Jones, Stephen Graham
• There there / Orange, Tommy
• Eyes bottle dark with a mouthful of flowers / Skeets, Jake
• An Afro-Indigenous history of the United States / Mays, Kyle
• Native women changing their worlds / Cutright, Patricia J.
• Diné bizaad : speak, read, write Navajo / Goossen, Irvy W.
• The Cherokee syllabary : writing the people’s perseverance / Cushman, Ellen
• Tracks that speak : the legacy of Native American words in North American culture / Cutler, Charles L.

Young Readers’ Room

• Everything you wanted to know about Indians but were afraid to ask / Treuer, Anton
• The Marshall Cavendish illustrated history of the North American Indians / Oakley, Ruth
• Sisters of the Neversea / Smith, Cynthia Leitich

Young Adult (located in our Teen Underground area on the lower level)

• Firekeeper’s daughter / Boulley, Angeline
• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People / Reese, Debbie
• Apple: Skin to the Core: a Memoir in Words and Pictures / Gansworth, Eric
• Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band / Staebler, Christian (YA Graphic Novel)

Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022

The American Library Association tracked 1,269 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2022. Of the 2,571 unique titles that were challenged or banned in 2022, here are the top 13 most challenged.

Look for these books on display in the Library. Click on the link to connect to our catalog and a summary of the item.

1. Gender Queer /  Kobabe, Maia

2. All Boys Aren’t Blue : a Memoir-Manifesto / Johnson, George M.

3. The Bluest Eye / Morrison, Toni

4. Flamer / Curato, Mike

5. Looking for Alaska / Green, John

5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower / Chbosky, Stephen

7. Lawn Boy / Evision, Jonathan

8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian / Alexie, Sherman

9. Out of Darkness / Pérez, Ashley Hope

10. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl / Andrews, Jesse

10. A Court of Mist and Fury / Maas, Sarah J.

10. Crank / Hopkins, Ellen

10. This Book is Gay / Dawson, Juno

And others:

The Shining / King, Stephen

The Hunger Games / Collins, Suzanne

The Handmaid’s Tale / Atwood, Margaret

A Clockwork Orange / Burgess, Anthony

Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers / Pilkey, Dav

Bridge to Terabithia / Paterson, Katherine

And Tango Makes Three / Richardson, Justin

To Kill a Mockingbird / Lee, Harper

Fahrenheit 451 / Bradbury, Ray

Brave New World / Huxley, Aldous

Nineteen Eighty-Four / Orwell, George