|
The Best of Enemies by Osha Gray Davidson
|
|
|
|
The Best of Enemies : Race and Redemption in the New South by Osha Gray DavidsonRead the original book by Osha Gray Davidson, who will be speaking at the Durham Reads Together author headliner event at the Hayti Heritage Center's Great Hall on Monday, October 14 at 7:00pm.
|
|
|
The Best of Enemies (DVD)Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell star as Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis in this theatrical version of The Best of Enemies.
|
|
|
The Sellout by Paul BeattyF BEATTY, P. The town of Dickens, California is such an embarrassment that it has been removed from the state map. In a plot to bring attention to the town, the narrator initiates a scheme involving re-segregating the local school, a scheme which eventually results in a trial before the Supreme Court. Booklist says this novel is “frequently laugh-out-loud funny and, in the way of the great ones, profoundly thought provoking.”
|
|
|
New Boy by Tracy ChevalierF CHEVALIER, T. In a retelling of Shakespeare’s Othello, Osei, a Ghanaian student at an upscale private school in 1970s Washington, D.C., is befriended by popular girl Dee, but runs afoul of Ian, the schoolyard bully. “Chevalier's brilliantly concentrated and galvanizing improvisation thoroughly exposes the malignancy and tragedy of racism, sexism, jealousy, and fear.” (Booklist)
|
|
|
The Night Train by Clyde EdgertonF EDGERTON, C. In a small North Carolina town in 1963, two teenagers, one white and one African American, unite over a shared love of music. This novel “focuses on an important moment in American history when soul music and rock 'n' roll begin to break down racial barriers among the young.” (Library Journal)
|
|
|
They Come in All Colors by Malcolm HansenF HANSEN, M. During the Civil Rights era, Huey Fairchild is brought to New York City by his mother, who hopes to escape the racial unrest of their small hometown in Georgia. He finds himself enrolled as the only non-white student in Claremont Prep, a prestigious boys’ school. Library Journal calls this novel “rewarding for a wide range of readers.”
|
|
|
The Air Between Us by Deborah JohnsonMYS JOHNSON, D. Tensions are high in the 1950s community of Revere, Mississippi as the federal government plans to integrate the schools. At the same time, the investigation into the death of a local man in an apparent hunting accident brings to light the complex relationship between two local physicians, one white, one African American. Booklist calls it a “heartwarming debut” with “its insightful take on human nature and an endearing cast of characters.”
|
|
|
Betsey Brown by Ntozake ShangeF SHANGE, N. In 1957 St. Louis, thirteen-year-old Betsey Brown, who is being bused to a white school, is at the forefront of integration, something her father supports and her mother opposes. Kirkus calls this book “a fresh, unself-conscious novel of black middle-class life--not color blind by any means, but free and secure enough to let the Brown family be diverse, funny, and sweetly human.”
|
|
|
F SHINER, L. Michael Cooper accompanies his dying father to Durham, North Carolina, where he learns about his family’s past and the part his father played in the construction of a highway through the center of Hayti, a thriving African American community. Publishers Weekly calls it a “powerful and affecting” novel that provides a “splendid depiction of Durham’s changing social fabric.”
|
|
|
Warriors Don't Cry : a Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba BealsB BEALS, M. Presents an account of Melba Beals's junior year at Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, during which her family suffered threats, personal attacks, and even a murder attempt, and explains how they endured with faith, courage, strength, and love. A starred review in Kirkus Reviews says, “The sense of immediacy in Beals's well-crafted account makes the events seem like they happened yesterday.”
|
|
|
Some of my Best Friends are Black : the Strange Story of Integration in America by Tanner Colby305.896 COLBY This book chronicles America's troubling relationship with race through four interrelated stories: the transformation of the Birmingham school system; a Kansas City neighborhood's fight against housing discrimination; the curious racial divide of the Madison Avenue ad world; and a Louisiana Catholic parish's forty-year effort to build an integrated church. “Pointing out the shortfalls of court-ordered busing, affirmative action, and other well-intentioned programs, Colby's charming and surprisingly funny book shows us both how far we've come in bridging the racial divide and how far we've yet to go,” says a review in Publishers Weekly.
|
|
|
A Girl Stands at the Door : the Generation of Young Women who Desegregated America's Schools by Rachel Devlin379.263 DEVLIN Historian Rachel Devlin explores the history of the school desegregation fight from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s by portraying the lives of African American girls and their families who defied the Jim Crow system wherein children first experienced the reality of segregation. Library Journal calls it “a thoroughly researched, well-written work about civil rights, American history, and the momentum of political change that young people, particularly women, initiate.”
|
|
|
Going to School in Black and White : A Dual Memoir of Desegregation by Cindy Waszak Geary379.263 GEARY The school careers of two teenage girls who lived across town from each other - one African American, one white - were altered by a court-ordered desegregation plan for Durham, North Carolina in 1970. As adults, they reflect on how school desegregation influenced their personal lives. Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina poet laureate, says that “Going to School in Black and White offers unique opportunities for deepening our understanding about implicit biases and stereotypes.”
|
|
|
In August of 1966, the year federally mandated integration of the schools went into effect, Jim Grimsley entered the sixth grade in his small eastern North Carolina hometown. For the first time, he would be in a classroom with African American children. Forty years later, Grimsley, a critically acclaimed novelist, revisits that school and those times, remembering his personal reactions, and his growing awareness of his own mostly unrecognized racist attitudes. "Jim Grimsley isn't one to shy away from the pained and difficult memories of his childhood . . . haunting,” says Kirkus Reviews.
|
|
|
YAF Draper, S. For ages 11-16 In 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas, Sylvia Patterson is finishing the eighth grade and is occupied with typical eighth-grade concerns, from relationships with friends to a new romance. But that changes when she is selected to be one of the first African American students to integrate Little Rock Central High School. While excited at first, over the summer Sylvia grows to appreciate the challenges and the real dangers of attending the formerly all-white school and wonders if this is the path she should take. The author presents a teenager who must struggle to make the right choice for herself while balancing the expectations of her family and community.
|
|
|
J 379.263 TONATIUH For ages 6-9 Through a combination of words and art, the author tells the story of the Mendez family who fought to desegregate schools in California. The Mendez family moved to Westminster, California in 1944 and tried to enroll the children in the local school only to be told that they would have to go to the separate “Mexican School” despite their American citizenship. Upset by this injustice, the Mendez family joined with three other families in a lawsuit, a lawsuit they won in 1947, paving the way for the eventual Brown v. Board of Education decision. This book brings to life an important but little-known episode in the long fight for school integration.
|
|
|
JB BEALS, M. For ages 10 to 14 In this memoir, Beals recounts personal stories from her childhood in Jim-Crow Arkansas in the 1940s and 1950s. She details the everyday violence and indignities faced by the African American community, ranging from having to use separate bathroom facilities to enduring the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan. With the encouragement of a loving and supportive family, Beals transforms her fear and frustration into the determination to make a change, leading eventually to her volunteering to participate in the integration program at Central High School.
|
|
|
JB BOYCE, J. For ages 10-14 In this memoir in verse, Boyce narrates her experience as one of twelve students who were the first African Americans to integrate the public schools in Clinton, Tennessee in 1956. Boyce describes the reality of daily life in the segregated South, her family’s personal experiences and the tension and violence that accompanied the integration of the schools. Despite all that she endures, Boyce maintains a stubborn hope that racial equality is possible and that she can help to make it a reality.
|
|
|
JF PINKNEY, A. For ages 10-14 Pinkney presents the fictional diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, an African American girl living in 1950s Virginia. Following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Dawnie Rae is chosen as one of the first African American students to integrate the local public school. The novel realistically presents the hostility, harassment and violence experienced by students like Dawnie Rae. At the same time, Dawnie Rae is a fully realized character, describing her hopes, her achievements and her fierce attachment to her family.
|
|
|
Ruby BridgesDVD FEATURE RUBY In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges is the first African American child to integrate the New Orleans Public School System. On the first day of school, she is escorted to the entrance by federal marshals, and sits in an empty classroom because white families have pulled their children out of the class. She and her family persist despite death threats and other forms of harassment. They are determined that Ruby should get a good education.
|
|
|
DVD FEATURE LOVI Loving is the true story of the interracial marriage of Richard and Mildred Loving that became the center of the Supreme Court case that outlawed anti-miscegenation laws across the country. Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter fall in love and they soon discover that she is pregnant. They rush up to Washington, D.C. where they can get legally married. But back home in Caroline County, Virginia, their marriage license is illegal. They are forced to live in D.C. until the ACLU takes up their case and pursues it to the Supreme Court.
|
|
|
Remember the TitansDVD FEATURE REME In 1971, a court order forces the desegregation of Virginia high schools. Two schools, one with primarily white students and one with primarily African American students, are combined, as are their football teams. The head coaching job goes to Herman Boone, the coach at the African American high school, despite the successful record of the white coach, Bill Yoast. Yoast agrees to stay on as an assistant coach, and the team navigates all the problems that arise from integration during their first year. The movie stars Denzel Washington and Will Patton.
|
|
|
HurricaneDVD FEATURE HURR Ruben “Hurricane” Carter is an up and coming middleweight boxer, with a realistic shot at a title fight. That is, he was, until he is arrested and convicted of a triple homicide and sentenced to three life sentences. As the years pass, he writes a biography in which he proclaims his innocence. It is read by Lesra, a Canadian kid who starts a movement to get Carter exonerated. The movie stars Denzel Washington as Carter.
|
|
|
|
The Butler DVD FEATURE BUTL Forest Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, a butler in the White House who serves eight presidents over his thirty-plus year career. In that time, he witnesses American history being made, while he and his family deal with prejudice and generational struggles as his oldest son joins the civil rights movement and his wife struggles with addiction. This film is based on a historical figure.
|
|
|
DVD FEATURE INTH Philadelphia homicide detective Virgil Tibbs is waiting for a train in rural Sparta, Mississippi when he is arrested by the local police. The African American detective is suspected of murdering a businessman from out of town who was thinking of building a factory. Police chief Gillespie, once he determines that Tibbs is not the murderer, reluctantly asks for his help in solving the case. Tibbs agrees to do so even at great personal risk to himself. Stars Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.
|
|
|
|
For personalized reading recommendations from Durham County librarians, try My Next 5! Simply complete an online form to tell us a little about what genres, books, and authors you like (or dislike). A DCL librarian will review your submission and reply with a list of the next five books you should read!
|
|
Want to keep up-to-date on new books at the library? on everything from Horror to Home & Garden!
|
|
NoveList Plus is a comprehensive database of fiction and nonfiction titles for all ages, including recommendations, articles, and lists for your fiction and nonfiction needs. DCL cardholders can access NoveList Plus from any computer.
|
|
Check out the library's top ten checkouts! Lists include top tens for adult fiction and nonfiction, movies, young adults fiction, picture books and kids' fiction.
|
|
If you are having trouble unsubscribing to this newsletter, please contact the Durham County Library at
919-560-0100, Administration Building, 101 E. Morgan St., Durham, NC 27701
librarywebmaster@durhamcountync.gov
|
|
|