JENN McKINLAY: Today marks the start of Black History Month. Having been a public librarian for twenty years, this was always a glorious month for book displays. An opportunity to showcase stories and history and unsung heroes, well, as you can imagine, it gets librarians all in a fizz. So much to highlight and share and only one month to do it! Ack!
Recently, publishing has come to realize that authors of color are woefully underrepresented and they've stepped up their game to be much more inclusive and supportive. This is such a huge win for readers! I am just thrilled that we will have so many amazingly diverse stories available to us now.
It also made me think back on the books I read as a child of the 70's/80's and I was trying to remember the first book I read by an author of color - beyond the picture books I loved such as The Snowy Day by Jack Ezra Keats. Sadly, it took me awhile to pin it down.
I was a freshman in high school and I chose to write a paper about I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I remember falling love with her use of language and thinking that my own rough and tumble beginnings would make me strong and possibly a storyteller -- like her. This is one of my favorite quotes:
So, what about you Reds? Who is the first author of color that you remember reading?
HALLIE EPHRON: Great question. The first ones I remember were James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On The Mountain and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Also, assigned pre-college reading: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The first book by a woman of color took longer - the one I remember is THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker. Shocking that it took so long.
RHYS BOWEN: Gosh, I’m trying to remember. My childhood reading was certainly confined to white writers only. There were writers of Indian descent in England but not any of African that I knew about. The first time I was conscious of a black writer was reading the autobiography of Frederick Douglass and being blown away by his eloquence, a man who grew up as a slave! It wasn’t until well into adulthood that I discovered Maya Angelou and she immediately became one of my favorite poets.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I had to think about this, too. The first? I had to look up the exact words, but we did read the poetry of Langston Hughes. When I googled, I remembered the poem “I, too” which includes “Tomorrow / I’ll be at the table / When company comes. / Nobody’ll dare / Say to me, / “Eat in the kitchen. It ends with “I, too, am America.”
Langston Hughes
Of course we read Richard Wright’s Native Son, and Ellison’s Invisible Man. And at some point, James Baldwin’s essays The Fire Next Time. But when, and the first one? That is such a good question. (And I’d love to hear how we talked about them. Possibly pretty cringe-worthy.)
LUCY BURDETTE: cringe worthy is what I am thinking as well, Hank. I really can’t remember reading a single book from a black author. Maybe there were some in my mind has let them go, but it’s possible there weren’t. I wasn’t good at reading books that I hadn’t chosen, and I suppose that hasn’t changed one bit!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: The first thing I thought of was John Howard Griffin’s BLACK LIKE ME, published in 1961. Of course, Griffin WASN’T black. He was a white novelist from Texas who dyed his skin and traveled through the segregated south. Griffin might have eventually come to see his book as cultural appropriation--he wrote some years later that it was “absurd for a white man to presume to speak for black people when they have superlative voices of their own,” but it is still a remarkable document and had a powerful effect on me as young teen. Here’s a link to a 2011 piece in Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/black-like-me-50-years-later-74543463/
I later read James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, and then Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, of course, but it was the Griffin book that really opened my eyes to segregation for the first time.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I couldn't recall the name of the first African-American author I read, but I remember the novel, so I went looking: CONTENDING FORCES by Pauline Hopkins (who, it turns out, was born in Portland, Maine!)
My grandmother ran an antique/vintage/junk shop out of her enormous 19th century barn. One of the former box stalls was completely lines on three sides by old books, and during my 12th, 13th and 14th summers I read through most of them. I loved the over-the-top romantic drama of the late 19th/early 20th century women's novels, and Pauline Hopkins was a great example of the genre. There were terrible villains, mistaken identities, at least two women who are supposed to have died but show up later, and lots of romance.
And the whole thing is about several generations of a Black family in the south and the north. It's only thinking back on it now that I realize Hopkins must have been using the popular commercial conventions of the day to educate white readers on Black life and to create understanding and empathy around the prejudices prevalent then... and unfortunately, still with us today.
So, what about you Readers? Who is the first author of color that you remember reading?
For more reading recommendations (sorry, librarian!) here's a list of favorite Black authors from the African American Literature Book Club: https://aalbc.com/authors/top50authors.php?
Well, I know Ralph Ellison was the first black author I read . . . my books of choice for pleasure reading were science fiction and “Invisible Man” was one that I read and enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteAnd Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” still gives me goose bumps . . . .
And when you read it, you hear her magnificent voice, don't you?
DeleteShe did have a magnificent voice!
DeleteIndeed, she did . . . .
DeleteAnd if I stop to think about it, I’m still amazed at the happenstance of a wrongly-shelved book that led me to reading Ralph Ellison’s book in the first place . . . .
Langston Hughes was probably the first Black writer I read. Most off the books I read about Black characters (Sounder, The Egypt Game) were written by White people. I was more aware of Black musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington when I was growing up.
ReplyDeleteNow I have a question for Jenn the librarian. While I understand the need to have a month to focus on Black achievement, why not feature Black writers all year round in the library's "Read Great Authors" displays? You don't have to save them up for February, do you?
LOL - of course, we included Black authors in displays year round. The wonderful thing about libraries is we were acknowledging, supporting, and promoting authors of color long before publishing caught on.
DeleteGo, Team Librarian!
DeleteGigi,
DeleteGreat question!
Jenn,
Team Librarian!
Diana
The first book I remember reading by a Black author is THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker.
ReplyDeleteAnd the first Black mystery writers I remember reading are Walter Mosley and Eleanor Taylor Bland, both in the early 1990s.
Here is a nice directory of Black mystery authors. I have read a good number of them.
https://www.ifoundthisgreatbook.com/black-mystery-authors-directory/black-mystery-authors-a-z/
Fantastic! Thank you, Grace. Hub and I were so happy when Mosley brought Easy Rawlings back.
Delete* Rawlins- curse you, autocorrect!
DeleteGRACE,
DeleteThanks for reminding me. I have a collection of books written by Barbara Neeley, who is a new to me author. I think she is a Black author.
Diana
DIANA: Yes, Barbara Neely wrote the excellent Blanche White mysteries. I also enjoyed those books but I read them later on in the 1990s, after Mosley and Bland.
DeleteJENN: Yes, I am also happy that there is a new Easy Rawlins book this year.
This is an easy one for me. I was in high school in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement. One of our English classes featured Black writers. My first was the poetry of Langston Hughes. Followed by James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. Powerful stuff.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t it? Brilliant writers.
DeleteMy first Black Author? Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, then I read the Count of Monte Cristo. When I was in high school, I got hooked on the historical romances by Frank Yerby. Yerby's 1946 novel "The Foxes of Harrow" was the first book by a black author to sell over a million copies.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember reading books by black authors when I was a child. Other than The Snowy Day, which was huge when I was in Library School, I had to wait until I worked in an inner city library to meet John Steptoe and Virginia Hamilton (The People Could Fly). I hope the 21st century publisher's will embrace all the voices of all the authors. There is still a lot of work to be done.
Coralee, I never realized that Dumas was not white. I read a few of his books but until you wrote this morning, I did not know.
DeleteWhich brings up another question about literature. What is "black" literature?
So many people didn’t know Dumas was Black. We read him in high school and our teacher made a point of sharing that fact.
DeleteLiterature created by and for Black people is the definition of Black literature. Much like Women’s Fiction is books by and for women. Seems to me we’ll have reached a new plateau when it’s all just literature or fiction. We have a ways to go with our inclusion and diversity.
I remember that Dumas was Black, but I didn't get around to reading him until I was in college.
DeleteCoralee,
DeleteThanks! I remember reading the Count of Monte Cristo in high school. I could not recall if the author was Black. I made the comment below before I read your comment.
Diana
I had no idea he was black. I read his books
DeleteWow. I don't think I read Invisible Man, or Baldwin. Somewhere I have a book with text by Langston Hughes and stunning black and white photographs of families in the south, but the name escapes me. I have yet to get to Frederick Douglass. And I also read Things Fall Apart, but none of this was when I was very young.
ReplyDeleteI was deeply moved when I read Maya Angelou. I read Alice Walker, some Toni Morrison, and loved the Barbara Neeley Blanche White mystery series.
Love Toni Morrison and Alice Walker but my fave has long been Zora Neale Hurston, who Alice Walker saved from obscurity by bringing attention to her work and her unmarked grave in the 1970’s.
DeleteEdith,
DeleteI recall reading ABOUT Frederick Douglass in my history classes. I think I may have read his book for my history classes at Uni.
Diana
My experience with black authors is similar to many of you. I read The Invisible Man in a lit course.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are very conscientious of bringing books by authors of color into their homes. Benjamin, at 3, has more books by non white authors than I ever have had.
Wonderful! This brings me great joy!
Deletee.e. cummings in my high school senior lit class. I'd write my favorite lines along snow drifts and watch them melt away in the sunshine.
ReplyDeleteCummings is a lovely poet but not one of color.
DeleteMy mistake.
DeleteIt was probably Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN (I think that's pretty much a high-school staple), followed closely by Alice Walker's THE COLOR PURPLE and the poetry of Maya Angelou. I once saw a video of her reciting "Still I Rise," it was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThe Girl read BELOVED in high school.
I love it when high school curriculums are so inclusive. Although, the young ones don’t seem to need the push as so many of their fave artists (rap, hip hop, pop) are artists of color.
DeleteCan you tell I grew up in the South? None of these authors were on our required reading lists.
DeleteMissouri is a strange mix of north and south. I attended one year of high school in Lees’s Summit, parents had moved temporarily back home to take care of family matters. Anyway, I was assigned many books by black authors in my English literature classes there. I am a California native and our reading was very inclusive of many cultures. I am unsure who the first black author was in my reading. I know it was elementary school, but I don’t recall the author’s name,
DeleteInteresting, Susan. I think there's a big urban/rural split in Missouri, too.
DeleteYes, there is a big difference between urban and rural in my Mom’s home state. Lee’s Summit was still rural when I was there, but I guess close enough in proximity that Kansas City had a larger influence and created a more diverse population. My Mom is from central Missouri Coopers county and it used to be fairly progressive, though I haven’t been there recently so maybe it had changed. All my first cousins living in Missouri are Democrats, definitely an interesting dynamic. Several relatives served in the state legislature, all democrats too,
DeleteThe first book that I read that I thought was written by a person of color, wasn't. For reasons I don't recall now, when I read Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown I was convinced the author was not white. So I was very surprised at some point later to see a picture of her. Other than that, I have no idea who my first black author was.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I hear the title Rubyfruit Jungle, I think of it being referenced in the movie Educating Rita. Such a great film.
DeleteRichard Wright NATIVE SON
ReplyDeleteClassic!
DeleteLangston Hughes and his Mother to Son poem made me discover how words can tell a story.
ReplyDeleteOther authors of color I have read Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Walker, Eric Jerome Dickey, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan, Nikki Giovanni, and etc.
I remember telling my young nephew at the age of six that the author of The Three Musketeer, Alexandre Dumas was a black man. I quizzed him on this every time I saw him. Who is Alexander Dumas? He would say, "he was a black man who wrote The Three Musketeer" He was ever so proud when he could tell me this and his classmates.
I love that, Dru! You’re a great auntie.
DeleteYou're a great auntie, Dru! That is a wonderful story!
DeleteI have much to read and a lot to learn...
ReplyDeleteWe all do.
DeleteI had no idea Alexandre Dumas was a black man! I didn't read The Three Musketeers until about 18 years ago, and realized that the barracks described in the book was very likely either the hotel we'd stayed at in Paris, or nearby.
ReplyDeleteTerry McMillan and Alice Walker were my intro to black female writers, with Toni Morrison hard on their heels. Nikki Giovanni lived here in Cincinnati for a long time and had a regular column in Cincinnati Magazine during the time when I subscribed, so I used to read her poems and essays routinely.
My most recent, and very much enjoyed reading from black authors were Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Friend of JRW, Lisa Braxton's Talking Drum. My book club is reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
And how can we forget these current Black mystery authors: VM Burns, Kellye Garrett, Alexia Gordon, Frankie Y. Bailey, Walter Mosely, and Gar Anthony Harwood, among others.
The science fiction author, Samuel R. Delany, is Black.
DeleteGigi, as is the very prolific Octavia Butler.
DeleteGigi, I had no idea Delany was Black. He was one of my early sci-fi heroes, too.
DeleteBe sure to include Stephen Mack Jones. His mysteries are terrific. Irwin and I both love his style.
DeleteWe are definitely blessed with Black mystery authors! Adding one of my new faves Abby Collette!
ReplyDeleteYes, love Abby Collette and Tracy Clark!
DeleteThe list of Black mystery authors I provided above is a good list which includes those listed by Karen.
And the Crime Writers of Color, mentioned by Julia, is a new group that highlights early and the new crop of great mystery fiction authors.
Cheryl Head, Delia C. Pitts, Patricia Sargent
DeleteR. Franklin James. Rae was busy as the co-chair of Bouchercon 2020 but still wrote 2 series: the Hollis Morgan mysteries (6 books) and a new series in 2019 with a sleuth named Remy Bishop.
DeleteI'll add Rachel Howzell Hall is a wonderful contemporary author of color, too.
DeleteI see another blog post just for mystery authors of color! Because we also have Vivien Chien, Naomi Hirahara, debut author Mia Macapagal to name a few.
DeleteYes, seconding Karen on Black mystery authors, I highly recommend following Crime Writers of Color on FB and Twitter. In a way not dissimilar to Sisters in Crime back in the eighties, CWoC is dedicated to shining a light on the great crime fiction being written by BIPOC.
ReplyDeleteI want to phrase this in a way that doesn't center white women at the narrative, but I think the struggle to get white women's writing recognized is a useful thing to point at to help (white) people understand why a diversity of voices is better for EVERYONE. Crime fiction became richer, more interesting, and increasingly creative when women writers got a seat at the table. It opened up perspectives that male writers didn't have, and dealt with concerns male writers weren't paying much attention to. It changed the field as a whole, for the better.
Including the stories of people of color - written by people of color - is going to do the same thing. It's going to open up crime fiction, make it more creative, drive new and exciting types of stories and change the field for the better.
When Catriona McPherson was president of Sisters in Crime she took diversity in fiction as her platform. She urged diversity in publishing, including writers of color, but also gender/sexual orientation diversity, raising awareness of implied bias by publishers and readers.
DeleteJulia, I so agree. I've mentioned before that Tony Hillerman is a favorite mystery author of mine. I did struggle with the idea of a white man writing Native American characters. It helped that he did this with a depth of knowledge and experience with the cultures he wrote about--and the people of those cultures respected his effort to 'get it right.' But it will be wonderful when the field is broadened to include all voices.
Delete100 percent, Julia. Well said.
DeleteGreat topic,, thanks Jen. I was planning to take a course with Dick Cass on black women writers of mystery during the winter, but life got in my way. Still I can find those authors and do it myself I'm sure, or get any of you to join me. But for me, I certainly don't thin we ever read black authors at school, we were the epitome of white bread there. But I remember Mildred D. Taylor's Newberry prize winner, "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry". I bought it for Olivia and was transfixed by her strong writing, so looked for others for Olivia and I to read, though I don't think I was keen on them because the author was black but because they were so good. I've read more authors of color over the years and I can't spell their names so bear with me. Indian, Kenyan, Nigerian, Trinidadian. Do we consider Asian authors under authors of color? I can understand the emphasis on Black History month here. It's a chance to explore the community and what better way than through their writings. In the same way that we read past literature that preceded the Me To movement. But my past travels draw me to books about far off places and stories different from my own experiences.
ReplyDeleteCelia,
DeleteThanks for reminding me. Just remembered that I have copies of Harbour Me by Jacqueline Woodson, though I have not read the book yet. My mom loved the book.
Diana
Yes, Asian authors are considered authors of color, too. And there is Native American, Hispanic, and Indian authors, too. So much story goodness. I'm delighted with the shifting dynamic in publishing.
DeleteJenn,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great topic this morning! I am trying to recall the first novel I've read.
Question: Was the author of Count of Monte Cristo Black? If he was, then I recall reading the novel. However, he was born in France ?, not the USA.
I can only recall the recent novels that I have read by Black authors. I cannot recall if Brit Bennett is American or English. She wrote The Vanishing Half, which is one of my favorite novels.
I think Kiley Reid is African American? I read Such A Fun Age, another novel that I liked. And I have mystery novels by Esme Addison, Kellye Garrett, Alexia Gordon, Walter Mosley among others. I read romances by Alyssa Cole, who just wrote her first thriller? mystery? novel. And I have books by Aya de Leon, who just published her first suspense novel.
And I think the first Black mystery author that I read was by ? Earlene Fowler ? if I recall the right name. I met her when there was a Mystery Novel day at a local bookstore. There were many authors, including Penny Warner, at the bookstore. I remember meeting a lady Black mystery author and I wish I remembered the name. The bookstore owner was an African American himself and he had a cat. The bookstore is not there anymore, though.
And I have non-fiction? memoir ? by Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson Obama. I read Measure of Man by either Sidney Poitier or Harry Belafonte. I read books by both of the actors, though I cannot recall the titles.
My earliest memories are reading ABOUT people like Harriet Tubman, though I cannot recall if I read books that she wrote.
My homework for today is to look for the books written by POC, including Black authors. I just got the memoir by Cicely Tyson, who died recently.
Great question this morning!
Diana
Diana, Earlene Fowler is most definitely a white woman. I wonder who that could have been?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI deleted my comment because I made a typo. Trying again.
DeleteI was so sad about Cicely Tyson. What a talent. What an impactful life.
DeleteJenn, me too.
DeleteI remember her as the Cat in Blue Bird.
As a child, I read some forward books for the times, about Black people but by white people (Bright April and Amos Fortune were two). First Black authors were probably in high school. In my typical small town early 60s high school, we used a surprisingly broad poetry anthology, Modern American/British Poetry, which had good bios too. It included James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen. (lots of women, too) Autobiography Malcom X as part of a library school class on YA reading. I worked in a large public library system in mostly Black neighborhoods, at one of the times the publishing world woke up to diversity. I was a children's librarian reading everything for kids,(ex. Virginia Hamilton, John Steptoe, Walter Dean Myers, Julius Lester) including history (bios: Charles Drew, Benjamin Banneker, Phyllis Wheatly and many more) but also reading Maya Angelou's memoirs and Toni Morison, poetry by Nikki Giovanni, Lucille Clifton, June Jordan, Gwendolyn Brooks. And of course Roots. A big education in a few years.
ReplyDeleteTriss,
DeleteThank you! I think Roots by Alex Haley was the first book that I read by a Black author because the movie was not captioned and I read the book in order to follow the story.
Diana
Oh, those are good ones. There are some fabulous Black authors in YA. I remember my inner city teens loved Greg Neri and Ni-Ni Simone.
DeleteKaren, thank you!
ReplyDeleteI wish that I remembered the name of the Black lady mystery author from that big mystery novels event at the Mystery bookstore. I remember that bookstore in the mid 1990s sold only mystery novels. The only author I recall from that event was Penny Warner. I wonder who that could have been!
Diana
Where was the bookstore? NY? There were several then. Or some other city? Some possible authors at that time would be Barbara Neely and Grace Edwards.
DeleteTriss,
Deletethe bookstore was in a small shopping center in Albany, California. The only places that are still in that three sided shopping center is Round Table Pizza and a Donut shop.
I think she was between 35 to 50 years old?
My answer is I don't know! I read blind. I don't look at gender or race because it doesn't matter to me. The story is what matters. Looking at the comments I would say that perhaps Alexandre Dumas was the first black author I read. I was heavily into classics as a child. My high school and college reading was mainly English classics with a few contemporary authors thrown in. Picture a southern girl reading A Separate Peace trying to relate to Eastern elite preppies. I think I was better off with Dumas.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's how it should be. Hopefully, with the push to publish more books from all cultures, we'll all be better read and more evolved.
DeleteIt is also Black History month in Canada. I am having a harder time coming up with Black Canadian authors I have read. JENNIFER HILLIER is a mystery author (Jar of Hearts and Little Secrets) who lives in Oakville ON. LAWRENCE HILL writes fiction and non-fiction. The Book of Negroes is probably his best known novel. Others?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I'll see what I can find.
DeleteI've been focusing this past year on reading British writers of color. Two of my favorites have been the Booker winner, GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER by Bernadine Evaristo, and QUEENIE, by Candice Carty-Williams.
ReplyDeleteGirl, Woman, Other is brilliant!
DeleteI loved Queenie, too.
DeleteThanks for the rec!
DeleteRalph Ellison's Invisible Man is the first book I recall, or at least the first one I was aware of that was by an author of color. That book made a powerful impression on me. I probably read some Langston Hughes before Ellison's novel, but it was later that I came to love Hughes' poetry. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was either in high school or college. One of my favorite books by an author of color that I should have read long before I did was Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I read it with my son when he read it in high school, and it is such an important book. The influx of the missionaries and their destruction of the native culture is a story that is seen in the missionaries arrival in Hawaii, as told by Sarah Vowell in Unfamiliar Fishes (not an author of color, but an excellent one, too). For Christmas I bought myself Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely, the first Blanche White mystery, and I'm looking forward to reading it soon.
ReplyDeleteOh, those are excellent recommendations, Kathy. Thank you. I'm going to look for Things Fall Apart.
DeleteThe first that I KNOW of might be V.M. Burns and her Mystery Bookshop series. I never paid any attention to an author's ethnicity- if I was interested the book I read it (except for school, when I sometimes had to read an uninteresting one anyway).
ReplyDeleteI adore VM Burns and...drum roll...she's going to be here on Friday!!!
DeleteMy family read a lot of Frank Yerby books. Did not know that he was black! I love V.M. Burns books so looking forward to hearing from her Friday. Stay safe and well.
ReplyDeleteAmong the writers for young people I should certainly have included Louise Meriweather who wrote the groundbreaking Daddy Was Number Runner (1970?) and other books
ReplyDeleteGood recommendation - thank you!
Delete