Black History Month

blackhistorybanner1Hello Everyone!  Today it’s the start of the 2015 Black History Month in the United States. I typically comb the internet and television to find enriching programs to continue my education.

One of my favorite booktuber Frenchiedee is coordinating a great effort to showcase booktubers for this month that will be sharing information regarding books about or written by black people. So if you have a chance check out her YouTube channel, Frenchiedee to find out more.

Today I am starting a new book in honor of this month:

forbiddenfruitForbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus

Forbidden Fruit is a collection of fascinating, largely untold tales of ordinary men and women who faced mobs, bloodhounds, bounty hunters, and bullets to be together — and defy a system that categorized blacks not only as servants, but as property.

Here you’ll meet, among other extraordinary characters, a fugitive slave from Virginia who spends seventeen years searching for his wife. A Georgia slave couple that sails for England with federal troops trailing behind. A white woman who falls in love with her deceased husband’s slave. A young slave girl who is delivered to her fiance; inside a wooden chest.

Acclaimed journalist Betty DeRamus gleaned these anecdotes from descendants of runaway slave couples, unpublished memoirs, Civil War records, census data, magazines, and dozens of previously untapped sources. This is a book about people pursuing love and achievement in a time of hate and severely limited opportunities. Though not all of the stories in Forbidden Fruit end in triumph, they all celebrate hope, passion, courage, and triumph of the human spirit.

I hope you find time to explore and learn more this month whether via a book, television or visual arts program in your town.

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

Comments

  1. I am currently reading The Help. When I am done reading it I would love to borrow Forbidden Fruit from you?

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