Pertinent to our times, any recommendations for books about Jim Crow?
Pertinent to our times, any recommendations for books about Jim Crow?
22 Answers
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading Please wait
Pertinent to our times, any recommendations for books about Jim Crow?
I recently read The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson. It’s mostly about the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south to northern cities, but gives a detailed picture of life in the Jim Crow south. Highly recommended. Also Blood at the Root by Patrick Phillips, about a county in Georgia that expelled virtually all African Americans in the early 20th century (and stole their land and property).
Fiction but Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Campbell Moore is based on the Emmett Till murder. Very good.
Haven’t read it but on my list – Truevine by Beth Macy
“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg
“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander.
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Another vote for “The Warmth of Other Suns”. It made me think about the Jim Crow era in ways I never had before.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stephenson
The Help
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult ~ inspired by a true event that happened in Flint, Michigan just a number of years ago.
I did not realize this was based on a true event.
@Marie ~ it was very heart wrenching to find out it only happened a short time ago. I thought surely the 50s or 60s.
There were several recommendations in a post the other day about a nation in distress. You might want to check them out too
Also recommending The Warmth of Other Suns. Excellent read and enlightening account of Jim Crow era and the effect on 4 families.
Slightly off-tangent, buy you might like Bring The Jubilee by Ward Moore – it’s an sf novel in which the Confederacy win the Civil War.
I just came across this list from Goodreads. To make the list, the author had to be African-American, and the book had to be set in the south during Jim Crow. I’ve read only one, Black Boy, by Richard Wright. (Good!!) Looking forward to more…
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/71564.Novels_Depicting_the_African_American_Experience_in_the_Jim_Crow_South
Good list
Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn
Our times? You must only be talking to old people.
Hidden Figures.
A Gathering of Old Men by Gaines, any by him.
This book is wonderful.