More Historical Fiction with Female Characters by Female Authors

In honor of Women\’s History Month, here are more historical fiction books in the library\’s collection that feature female characters or subjects, and are written by female authors:

The Dressmaker\’s War begins in 1939, and is about a talented English would-be modiste named Ada who makes some bad choices and is trapped by the Nazis into making dresses for German women at Dachau.  Unfortunately, Ada continues to make some bad choices after the war ends and she returns home, but they are complicated by postwar conditions in England (that were particularly unfriendly to working-class women, as was the judicial system) and her not-supportive family.  Mary Chamberlain\’s novel is compelling, and there is a historical note and acknowledgements at the end.  This title is available as an e-book in our OverDrive collection.


Salt to the Sea is historical fiction based on some little-known real-life events and places – Operation Hannibal, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, and the fate of the original Amber Room.  The story takes place in January 1945, near the end of World War II, when the German navy launched Operation Hannibal to evacuate citizens and military wounded across the Baltic Sea ahead of the approaching Russian army.  The Wilhelm Gustloff was a former cruise ship used in this evacuation.  The Amber Room in the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, was looted by the Nazis, hidden, and never found again (it was later reconstructed in the palace).  All play a part in the narrative.

The story is told by four first-person narrators:
– Joana, a Lithuanian woman around age 21 who has medical training,
– Emilia, a Polish 15-year-old,
– Florian, a 19-20-year-old Prussian trained in art restoration, and
– Alfred, a young German sailor.

Joana is traveling with a group of refugees that include a blind girl, a shoemaker, and a little orphan boy.  Emilia is originally traveling alone, but is saved from an attack by a Russian soldier by Florian.  The two of them meet up with Joana\’s group and eventually wind up in the port city of Gotenhafen (now known as Gdynia), where Alfred is helping to prepare the Gustloff for the evacuees.

Part of the intrigue of the book is that few people know about Operation Hannibal or the Gustloff, despite the immense disaster.  The Amber Room is somewhat peripheral to the story – it provides the motivation for Florian\’s actions – but it is especially interesting given that amber is the national gem of Lithuania, where author Ruta Sepetys\’ father is from. This e-book is also available in our OverDrive collection.


The Translation of Love, by debut author Lynne Kutsukake, explores a little-used setting for historical fiction:  post-World War II Japan, during its occupation by the United States.  The story is told through five voices:  twelve-year-old girls Fumi and Aya, their male teacher Kondo, Fumi\’s older sister Sumiko, and Cpl. ­Yoshitaka (Matt) Matsumoto.  Aya is a Japanese-Canadian \”repatriated\” with her native Japanese father to his homeland after the war.  Sumiko works as a bar girl, entertaining American occupation troops, to buy food and medicine for her family after her father\’s bookstore is bombed out.  Kondo moonlights translating and writing letters in English, mostly for bar girls whose American boyfriends have gone home.  And Matt, a Japanese-American whose family was interred in the war (despite his older brother earning a Purple Heart when killed in action in Europe), works for General Douglas MacArthur\’s office as a translator.

Sumiko goes missing and Fumi gets the English-speaking Aya to write a letter for her to MacArthur asking for his help finding her.  The girls end up giving the letter to Matt, and he and an office typist, Nancy (another Japanese-American, but one still trapped in Japan since Pearl Harbor) decide to help the girls find Sumiko.  Kondo gets pulled into their story as well.

In an article, the Japanese-Canadian Kutsukake said,

The idea came from a book called Dear General MacArthur, written by Japanese historian Rinjirō Sodei. The book is a study of the letters written to General MacArthur during the occupation period…So I began thinking about what kind of person would write a letter to General MacArthur…. I wanted the person to be a 12-year-old because General MacArthur quite famously called Japan \”a nation of 12-year-olds.\”

Nancy Wu is an appropriate narrator for the e-audiobook (available in our OverDrive collection), and makes the 12-year-olds sound just their ages.  This was a great debut novel about a time-and-place setting few know much about.

Historical Fiction by Female Authors with Female Characters

In honor of Women\’s History Month, here are some historical fiction books in the library\’s collection that feature female characters or subjects, and are written by female authors:

Helen Simonson\’s The Summer Before the War starts in the summer of 1914, when 23-year-old, orphaned Beatrice Nash is hired by the school board of the small town of Rye in England to be the Latin teacher.  In the first part of the book, the reader gets to know the independent Beatrice and her champions, Agatha Kent, her London government employee husband John, and their nephews, medical student Hugh Grange and poet Daniel Bookham.

The title is a bit of a misnomer, as World War I starts about 23% into the book.  The first impact on the town of Rye is the arrival of a number of Belgian refugees – Beatrice takes a beautiful young girl named Celeste into her small apartment, so she can be near her widowed father, taken in by an American writer living across the street.

Later, though, British soldiers are drawn into the war, and both Hugh and Daniel enlist (Hugh as a surgeon) – along with Beatrice\’s promising Romani (Gypsy) Latin student nicknamed Snout.  Simonson does an outstanding job showing the impact of the war on these participants as well as their friends and loved ones back home in Rye.  She also subtly takes on issues such as women\’s roles and rights in that era, as well as class distinctions and prejudices.  Simonson lists numerous research sources in her acknowledgements at the end of the book.  This title is available as an e-book in our OverDrive collection.

Based on the real-life \”Alice Network\” of mostly-female spies centered in Lille, France, on the border with Belgium, during World War I, this book has two story lines, one set during World War I and the other in 1947.  Eve Gardiner is the character that ties them together.  She begins 1915 as a 22-year-old file clerk in England, recruited to spy in France during the war because she can also speak French and German – with a stammer in all languages that makes people overlook her and assume she is stupid.

The 1947 Eve is a broken woman with gnarled hands, contacted by 19-year-old American Charlotte \”Charlie\” St. Clair, who is trying to find her French cousin Rose, last seen working in 1943 in a restaurant in Limoges, France, called Le Lethe, owned by a Monsieur Rene.

That hits close to home for Eve – whose cover while working as a spy involved working in a restaurant in Lille, also called Le Lethe, and also owned by a Monsieur Rene – the evil Rene Bordelon, a Frenchman collaborating with the Germans.

The tale goes back and forth in time and between narrators.  Along the way, the reader meets the real-life head of the Alice Network, Louise de Bettignies, aka Alice Dubois, aka \”Lili\” (among many code names) in this book.  Author Kate Quinn does a masterful job weaving this (and other) real-life character(s), places, and incidents into the story, which is available as an e-book on OverDrive.

\”The Nightingale\” is the code name for a member of the French Resistance during World War II, and it\’s also the last name (in English) for three characters in the book, Vienne Rossignol Mauriac, her younger, single sister Isabelle Rossignol, and their father Julien Rossignol.  They are each part of the resistance, in different ways.  Vienne\’s story in some ways is the most compelling, for she has to pretend to be \”normal\” both for the sake of her children and because of the German officers billeting in her home.

Kristin Hannah states in her author\’s note and a conversation in the reading group guide that she based Isabelle on a \”young Belgian woman named Andrée de Jongh, who had created an escape route for downed airmen out of Nazi-occupied France,\” while researching the Siege of Leningrad (also in World War II) for another novel.

This book is available in our OverDrive collection as both an e-book and an e-audiobook.  Polly Stone was an excellent reader – she has lived in France, and it shows in the audio version, which won the 2016 Audie Award for Fiction and was a finalist for best female narrator and Audiobook of the Year.

Women\’s History Month

March is Women\’s History Month. This is the time of year to recognize the experiences and contributions of America\’s women. Starting in 1981 Congress recognized the second week of March as \”Women\’s History Week.\” In 1987, it was upgraded to a month-long commemoration.

Sex ratio by county in 2010. The redder the county the more women there are than men, the bluer the county the more men there are than women.
U.S. Census Bureau [Public Domain]. 

The 2010 US Census counted 143,368,343 women in the population, which is 50.9% of the total. In that year, only 10 states had larger male populations than female (Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming). The other 40 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico) had larger female populations.


Timeline of Women\’s History 

1607 Pocahontas saved English colonist John Smith\’s life in Virginia. 

1636 Anne Hutchinson challenged the teachings of the religious leaders in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She was convicted of heresy and banished. 
1650 Anne Bradstreet became the first published poet in America. 
A Woman\’s Inner World: Selected Poetry and Prose of Anne Bradstreet by Anne Bradstreet

1655 Elizabeth Key, a slave of mixed African and English heritage, successfully won her freedom via a lawsuit in the Virginia Colony. In 1661, the Virginia colonial assembly (House of Burgesses) passed legislation to prevent other slaves from winning their freedom in a similar way.
\”Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key\’s Freedom Suit: Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia\” in Akron Law Review by Taunya Lovell Banks

1692 Hundreds of people (mostly women) were accused of witchcraft in Salem, MA. Twenty people were executed, 14 of whom were women. 
In the Devil\’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton

1756 Lydia Chapin Taft is the only known woman to cast a vote in colonial America. She voted in multiple town elections in Uxbridge, MA.

1765 When men formed the Sons of Liberty organization to protest British taxes, women formed the Daughters of Liberty organization.
Liberty\’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800 by Mary Beth Norton

1774 Ann Lee founded the United Society of Believers in Christ\’s Second Appearing (commonly known as the Shakers) religious movement in America.
Mother\’s First-Born Daughters: Early Shaker Writings on Women and Religion by Jean McMahon Humez

Abigail Adams (1744-1818), 2nd First Lady of the United States.
By Gilbert Stuart [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. 

1776 Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John Adams (who was serving in the Continental Congress) stating: \”And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784 by Abigail Adams

         The New Jersey constitution allowed female property owners to vote. It was the only place in the United States where women could vote at that time. In 1807, an act was passed that limited voting rights to free white male citizens.

         According to legend, Betsy Ross created the United States flag. No firm evidence has yet been found to confirm this legend. 

1781 – Margaret Catherine Moore Barry (aka Kate Barry) served as a messenger and scout for American forces at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War.

1782-83 Deborah Sampson, of Massachusetts, disguised herself as a man and served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. When her true identity was discovered she was honorably discharged.
The Female Review: Life of Deborah Sampson, the Female Soldier of the War of Revolution by Herman Mann

1790 Judith Sargent Murray published her essay \”On the Equality of the Sexes.\”
First Lady of Letters: Judith Sargent Murray and the Struggle for Female Independence by Sheila L. Skemp

1792 Sarah Pierce founded the Litchfield Female Academy school for girls.

1805-06 Sacagawea served as a guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Making of Scagawea: A Euro-American Legend by Donna J. Kessler

1821 Emma Willard founded the Troy Female Seminary (now known as the Emma Willard School) the first women\’s higher education institution in the United States.
Emma Willard, a Pioneer Educator of American Women by Alma Lutz

1834 Female factory workers in Lowell, MA staged one of the first strikes in American history in protest of wage cuts.
Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860 by Thomas Dublin

Lowell Mills factory workers circa 1870.
[Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons. 

1835 Angelina and Sarah Grimké became active in the abolitionist and women\’s rights movements. They were the first female agents of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Angelina was the first woman to address a legislative body in America when she presented anti-slavery petitions to the Massachusetts legislature in 1838.  
The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Rebels Against Slavery by Gerda Lerner
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women by Sarah Moore Grimké

1841 Dorothea Dix began her investigation of the poor treatment of mentally ill people in Massachusetts. In 1843, she presented her findings to the Massachusetts legislature, which convinced them to make reforms. In later years, she conducted similar investigations in other states.
Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 1843 by Dorothea Lynde Dix

1844 Sarah Bagley formed the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. It was the first labor union for women in the US. 
The Lowell Offering: A Repository of Original Articles, Written Exclusively by Females Actively Employed in the Mills by Maria Louise Thomas 

1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized a women\’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Attendees signed the \”Declaration of Sentiments\” which included a demand for women\’s voting rights. 
The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Women\’s Rights Convention by Judith Wellman

1849 Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery. Over the next 10 years she helped hundreds of slaves escape the South via the Underground Railroad. 
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton 

Harriet Tubman (1821-1913) in 1880.
By H. B. Lindsley [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1851 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony began a life-long partnership advocating for a variety of social reform movements. In 1852, they formed the the New York Women\’s State Temperance Society. In 1863, they formed the Women\’s Loyal National League, which supported the abolition of slavery. In 1866, they founded the American Equal Rights Association. In 1868, they began publishing a women\’s rights newspaper called The Revolution. In 1869, they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, which advocated for women\’s voting rights.
The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: Revolution [Streaming Video]

         Former slave Sojourner Truth gave her famous \”Ain\’t I a Woman?\” speech at a women\’s rights convention in Ohio.
Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter

1869 – Wyoming granted women the right to vote. They were followed by several other western territories/states: Utah in 1870, Colorado in 1893, and Idaho in 1896.

1872 Susan B. Anthony, and 14 other women, were arrested for voting in Rochester, NY.

1874 Frances Willard founded the Women\’s Christian Temperance Union.
Frances Willard: A Biography by Ruth Birgitta Anderson Bordin

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony ( sometime between 1880-1902)
By David B. Edmonston [Public Domain]. 

1881 Clara Barton, who served as a nurse in the US Civil War (1861-65), founded the American Red Cross.
The American Red Cross: From Clara Barton to the New Deal by Marian Moser Jones
Clara Barton: In the Service of Humanity by David H. Burton

1889 Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened Hull House, which provided social services for Chicago\’s working poor. It is the most famous and longest-lived example of the Settlement House Movement in America.
Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy: A Life by Jean Bethke Elshtain
Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams

1890 The National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

1892 Ida B. Wells published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, an exposé into the lynching of African Americans in Memphis, TN.
\’They Say\’: Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race by James West Davidson

1893 Florence Kelley shared the findings of her investigation into the conditions of child laborers in Chicago with the Illinois legislature. The state followed her recommendations, and also appointed her the state\’s chief factory inspector. In 1899, she became head of the National Consumers League and used that position to encourage consumers not to buy products from companies that employed children.
Civilizing Capitalism: The National Consumers\’ League, Women\’s Activism, and Labor Standards in the New Deal Era by Landon R.Y. Storrs
Some Ethical Gains through Legislation by Florence Kelley

1904 Muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell published History of the Standard Oil Company. It exposed the company\’s corrupt practices. In 1911, the company was dissolved and split into several separate companies due to its monopolistic practices.
Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller by Steve Weinberg

1910 Washington state granted women the right to vote. They were soon followed by California (1911), Kansas, Oregon, Arizona (1912), Alaska (1913), Nevada, and Montana (1914).

Image of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
Picture published in The New York Work in 1911 [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons. 

1911 The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City caused the deaths of 146 workers, 123 of whom were female. As a result the International Ladies\’ Garment Workers Union, along with other groups, organized a massive protest over poor working conditions. New York state passed legislation to address their concerns.
The Triangle Fire by Leon Stein

1914 Margaret Sanger was arrested in New York for disseminating information about birth control. In 1916, she opened the first birth control clinic in the US and was arrested again. In 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League, and by 1942 this organization merged with others to become Planned Parenthood.
The Margaret Sanger Story and the Fight for Birth Control by Lawrence Lader
The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger by Margaret Sanger

1916 Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, became the first woman elected to the US House of Representatives.

1917 Members of the National Woman\’s Party held a silent protest over voting rights outside the White House. Known as the \”Silent Sentinels,\” they were arrested and went on a hunger strike in jail. Their force-feeding by prison officials gained national attention.
The Story of the Women\’s Party by Inez Haynes Gillmore

 Women march in New York  City in 1917, displaying placards containing signatures of over 1 million women demanding the right to vote.
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1920 The 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified. It granted women the right to vote across the United States. The National American Woman Suffrage Association thus transformed itself into the League of Women Voters.
Victory, How Women Won It: A Centennial Symposium, 1840-1940 by National American Woman Suffrage Association

1924 Nellie Ross, of Wyoming, became the first woman elected governor of a US state.

         Florence Prag Kahn, of California, became the first Jewish woman elected to the US House of Representatives.

1932 Hattie Caraway, of Arkansas, became the first woman elected to the US Senate.

         Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting a flight around the Earth.
Lost Star: The Search for Amelia Earhart by Randall Brink

1933 Francis Perkins became the first woman to serve on the US Cabinet. She served as Secretary of Labor until 1945.
Madam Secretary, Francis Perkins by George Whitney Martin

1941-45 During World War II women\’s participation in the workforce increased dramatically, and the military created women\’s branches in each of the armed services: WAVES (Navy); WAC (Army); SPARS (Coast Guard); and WASP (Air Force).
Angles of the Underground: The American Women Who Resisted the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II by Theresa Kaminski
Bands of Sisters: U.S. Women\’s Military Bands during World War II by Jill M. Sullivan
Beyond Rosie the Riveter: Women of World War II in American Popular Graphic Art by Donna B. Knaff
Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II by Molly Merryman
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy

Four WASPs in 1944: Frances Green, Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner, and Blanche Osborn.
By U.S. Air Force photo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1955 Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, thus sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.
She would not be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Herbert R. Kohl

1960 The first birth control pill was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and made available on the market.
America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation by Elaine Tyler May

1963 Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which sparked the second-wave feminist movement.
Betty Friedan: The Personal is Political by Susan Oliver

1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex.
The Longest Debate: A Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by Charles W. Whalen

         Patsy Mink, of Hawaii, became the first Asian American woman elected to the House of Representatives.

1965 In Griswold v Connecticut the Supreme Court struck down laws that restricted a married couple\’s right to use contraceptives.

1966 The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded.
Governing NOW: Grassroots Activism in the National Organization for Women by Maryann Barakso

Shirley Chisholm first African American woman elected to Congress (1968), and the first African American to seek the presidential nomination from a major party (1972)
By Thomas J. O\’Halloran, U.S. News & World Reports.
Light restoration by Adam Cuerden [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1968 Shirley Chisholm, of New York, became the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives.

1972 Title IX of the Education Amendments prohibits sex discrimination in all aspects of education programs that receive federal support.
A Place on the Team: The Triumph and Tragedy of Title IX by Welch Suggs

         In Eisenstadt v. Baird the Supreme Court ruled that an unmarried person has a right to use contraceptives.

1973 In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court ruled that women have a right to an abortion.
Abortion: The Supreme Court Decisions, 1965-2007 by Ian Shapiro
Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History by N.E.H. Hull

1975 In Taylor V. Louisiana the Supreme Court ruled that women could not be excluded from juries.

1977 Patricia Roberts Harris became the first African American woman to serve on the Cabinet. She served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development until 1979.

Sandra Day O\’Connor being sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice in 1981.
 By The U.S. National Archives [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1981 Sandra Day O\’Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice by Sandra Day O\’Connor

1982 The Equal Rights Amendment failed to be ratified by the states.
The Equal Rights Amendment: The History and the Movement by Sharon Whitney

1984 Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for Vice President by a major party.
Changing History: Women, Power, and Politics by Geraldine Ferraro

         Madeleine M. Kunin, of Vermont, became the first Jewish Woman elected governor of a US state.

1989 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Florida, became the first Hispanic American woman elected to the House of Representatives.

1992 Carol Moseley Braun, of Illinois, became the first African American woman elected to the Senate.

         Diane Feinstein, of California, became the first Jewish woman elected to the Senate.

1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

2001 Elaine Chao became the first Asian American woman to serve on the Cabinet. She served as Secretary of Labor until 2009.

2007 Nancy Pelosi became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics by Ronald M. Peters

Speaker Nancy Pelosi along side Vice President Dick Cheney during President George W. Bush\’s 2007 State of the Union address.
By White House photographer David Bohrer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

2009 Hilda Solis became the first Hispanic American woman to serve on the Cabinet. She served as Secretary of Labor until 2013.

         Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic American woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx by Jonah Winter

2010 Susana Martinez, of New Mexico, became the first Hispanic American woman elected governor of a US state.

         Nikki Haley, of South Carolina, became the first Asian American woman elected governor of a US state.

2012 Mazie Hirono, of Hawaii, became the first Asian American woman elected to the Senate.

2013 Penny Pritzker became the first Jewish woman to serve on the Cabinet. She served as Secretary of Commerce until 2017.

2016 Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for President by a major party, and the first woman to win the popular vote in a presidential election.
Living History by Hillary Clinton

         Catherine Cortez Masto, of Nevada, became the first Hispanic American woman elected to the Senate.

2017 A record number of women served in the 115th Congress: 22 in the Senate (out of 100) and 89 in the House of Representatives (out of 435).

Tarleton\’s Dick Smith Library has a wealth of resources for learning more about women\’s history. Such as these titles:

The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time by Kathleen Kuiper
American Women Activists\’ Writings: An Anthology, 1637-2002 by Kathryn Cullen-DuPont
Antebellum Women: Private, Public, Partisan by Carol Lasser
Breaking the Wave: Women, their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985 by Kathleen A. Laughlin
First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the Lives of 45 Iconic American Women by Susan Swain
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts
Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America by Charlotte S. Waisman
Sisters: The Lives of America\’s Suffragists by Jean H. Baker
Still Paving the Way for Madam President by Nichola D. Gutgold
Women\’s Rights by Sharon Hartman Strom
Women\’s Suffrage by Richard Haesly
       
Let us know if you need any assistance with library resources at 254-968-9249 or [email protected].

Fiction and Popular Nonfiction by Black Authors

If you\’d like to read fiction or popular nonfiction by Black authors, the library has some good options to choose from. Below are just a few of them.

Fiction:

 
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (format: paper) – In this Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novella, Binti, the first of the Himba people to ever go off to space and attend the prestigious Oomza University, encounters angry and deadly aliens called Meduse. The Dick Smith Library also owns a copy of Okorafor’s Lagoon, a “first contact” sci-fi novel set in Lagos, Nigeria.
Everfair by Nisi Shawl (format: paper) – An alternate history steampunk novel set in the Belgian Congo.
The Brightest Day: A Juneteenth Historical Romance Anthology (format: paper) – This collection includes Lena Hart’s “Amazing Grace,” Kianna Alexander’s “Drifting to You,” Piper Huguley’s “A Sweet Way to Freedom,” and Alyssa Cole’s “Let It Shine.”
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (format: paper) – Walter Mosley’s first published book, a hardboiled mystery starring Easy Rawlins, a recently unemployed black war veteran who’s hired to find a young white woman.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (format: paper) – In this time travel novel, Dana, a modern black woman, finds herself traveling back and forth between her home in the present (1976) and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation.
Beloved by Toni Morrison (format: paper | audiobook | e-book) – This Pulitzer Prize winning novel was inspired by the story of Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (format: e-book) – In this contemporary YA novel, Starr Carter witnesses a police officer kill her unarmed best friend.















Nonfiction:

Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince with Elaine DePrince (format: e-book) – The memoir of Michaela DePrince, a Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer who currently dances as a soloist for the Dutch National Ballet.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (format: e-book) – This book, recently made into a movie, tells the story of the African American women mathematicians working at NASA, starting with World War II and continuing on through the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Race.

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae (format: audiobook) – A collection of humorous essays, read by the author herself.

Four Recent Award Winners by African American Authors

At the recent announcement of the annual Youth Media Awards by the American Library Association (ALA), four books by African American authors won multiple awards during this African American History Month.  All of the books were honored by ALA\’s Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) with a Coretta Scott King (CSK) Author Book Award or Honor designation, given each year to African American authors of books for children and young adults that \”demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.\”

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, was an CSK Author Honor Book.  In addition, it also won the William C. Morris Debut Award, which honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens, and was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book for excellence in young adult literature.  Its audio version, narrated by actress Bahni Turpin, won the 2018 Odyssey Award as the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.  You can access an e-book version of this book in the Tarleton Libraries\’ OverDrive collection.  The novel is about a girl named Starr whose two worlds (predominantly-white prep school by day, low-income black neighborhood by night) collide when she witnesses the death of her unarmed friend by a police officer.

Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds, was a CSK Author Honor Book, a Printz Honor Book, and an Odyssey Honor Book, for the author\’s own narration in the audio format.  In addition, the novel was named a John Newbery Honor Book as a distinguished contribution to American literature for children.  Written in free verse, the book is the story of a 60-second elevator ride that changes the life of 15-year-old Will as he encounters people from his past when seeking to avenge the shooting death of his brother.  This book is being acquired for the Dick Smith Library Curriculum Collection on the lower level.

Crown:  An Ode to the Fresh Cut, written by Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Gordon C. James, received a Coretta Scott King honor in both the author and illustrator categories, and named a Newbery Honor Book.  It was also chosen as a Randolph Caldecott Honor Book for the artists of the most distinguished American picture books for children, for Gordon James\’ impressionistic oil illustrations.  This picture book is about an African American boy\’s visit to the barber shop.  This book is also being acquired for the Dick Smith Library Curriculum Collection on the lower level.
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson, won the Coretta Scott King Author Book Award and was also a Newbery Honor Book.  The book is also on the 2018 Lone Star Reading List created by the Texas Library Association, with recreational reading recommendations for students in middle school, grades six, seven, and eight.  The novel is a coming-of-age tale about Jade, an artistic black teenage girl.  This book is also being acquired for the Dick Smith Library Curriculum Collection on the lower level.

African-American Authors Win Library Association Awards

Jacqueline Woodson,
2012 Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers\’ Literature
[24 Aug 2012] / Tulsa City-County Library /
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The American Library Association (ALA) announced its annual Youth Media Awards on Monday, February 12, 2018, appropriately enough in Library Lovers Week!  And, fittingly for African American History Month, the three awards given to individuals for their body of work (and not a specific title) went to African American female authors.

Administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of ALA, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was first given to that author in 1954. The medal in bronze \”honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children over the years.\” The award is presented every two years.

The 2018 winner is Jacqueline Woodson, who has written picture books, young adult novels, and a memoir in poetry, many of which have won other awards.

We have 15 titles by Jacqueline Woodson in Tarleton Libraries collections in Stephenville and Fort Worth and in our OverDrive e-book collection.

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Eloise Greenfield, cropped from
  Hands on theFreedom Plow Book Talk
 [5 Oct 2010] / teachingforchange / CC BY-NC 2.0

Angela Johnson was named the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which \”honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.\”

The annual award, established in 1988, is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA, and is sponsored by School Library Journal magazine. It recognizes an author\’s work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world. 

We have 11 books by Angela Johnson in the Curriculum Collection on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library.

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Eloise Greenfield won the 2018 Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, named in memory of children’s author Virginia Hamilton.  It is presented in even years to an African American author, illustrator or author/illustrator for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults, and who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution.  The award is sponsored by ALA\’s Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT), and the winner gets a medal and a check for $1,500.

We have 11 books that Greenfield authored or co-authored in the Dick Smith Library, ten children\’s books on the lower level, and a memoir in the stacks on the upper level.  

African American History Month

February is African American History Month. This is the time we recognize the experiences and contributions of Americans of African ancestry. The idea of celebrating African American history began in 1926 when the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History) founded Negro History Week. Dr. Carter G. Woodson chose the week in February that included the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1976, President Gerald Ford proclaimed the first Black History Month, and it has been a month-long recognition ever since.

\”Percent Black or African America, 2010\” by Jon T. Kilpinen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The 2010 census counted 42,020,743 African Americans in the United States. That represents 13.6% of the total population and a 15.4% increase since the 2000 census.

Timeline of African-American history

Click the links below to learn more about each topic. Many of these link to resources available through our subscription databases. If you are a Tarleton student, faculty, or staff you can access these resources from off-campus with your NTNET username and password. 

1527-39 After surviving the ill-fated Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, Estevanico (an enslaved African) led an expedition into present-day New Mexico on behalf of Spain in 1539.
\”Estevanico, Negro Discoverer of the Southwest: A Critical Reexamination\” in Phylon by Rayford W. Logan

1619 First record of African slaves brought to English North American colonies. Approximately twenty arrived in Jamestown, VA that year.
\”Blacks in Virginia: A Note on the First Decade\” in The William and Mary Quarterly by Alden T. Vaughan

1641 Mathias de Sousa (a freeman of African decent) was elected to the Maryland colonial assembly.

1655 Elizabeth Key, a slave of mixed African and English heritage, successfully won her freedom via a lawsuit in the Virginia Colony. In 1661, the Virginia colonial assembly (House of Burgesses) passed legislation to prevent other slaves from winning their freedom via this legal route.
\”Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key\’s Freedom Suit: Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia\” in Akron Law Review by Taunya Lovell Banks

1712 About two dozen slaves led a revolt in New York City.

1724 France enacted the Code Noir in its Louisiana colony. The first body of laws that governed both slaves and free blacks in North America.
\”Colonial Intimacies: Legislating Sex in French Louisiana\” in William & Mary Quarterly by Jennifer M. Spear

The Transatlantic Slave Trade began in the late 15th century and continued to the mid 19th century. It is estimated that 12 to 15 million Africans were enslaved and transported to the Americas during that time, and about half arrived in the 18th century. Approximately 7% of the total were brought to the area that is now the United States.
The African Slave Trade: Precolonial History, 1450-1850 by Basil Davidson
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African by Olaudah Equiano
The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History by James A. Rawley

Stowage of the British slave ship Brookes under the regulated slave trade act of 1788. By Plymouth Chapter of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1738 Beginning in 1693, Spain offered freedom to slaves who escaped from English colonies to Florida. In 1738, hundreds of escaped slaves established Fort Mose (also known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose) near St. Augustine. It was the first community of free blacks in North America.
\”Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida\” in The American Historical Review by Jane Landers

1739 The Stono Rebellion took place in South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising in colonial America, with approximately 120 deaths. After suppressing the rebellion, the South Carolina colonial assembly responded by enacting the Slave Code of 1741. That law prevented slaves from growing their own food, assembling in groups, earning money, or learning to read and write.
Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 to the Stono Rebellion by Peter H. Wood
Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt by Mark M. Smith

1741 New York Slave Conspiracy – rumors of slaves plotting to burn the city caused panic among the white community. Thirty four people were executed for allegedly being involved in the conspiracy.
New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan by Jill Lepore

1752 Astronomer and clock-maker Benjamin Banneker built the first clock in America. In 1789, he successfully predicted a solar eclipse. In 1791, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson appointed him to the planning committee that designed Washington DC.
Benjamin Banneker: Pioneering Scientist by Ginger Wadsword

1770 Crispus Attucks was shot and killed by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre. He is known as the first casualty of the American Revolution.

1773 Phillis Wheatley, a young slave living in Boston, published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Many doubted that she could have published such a work, but she proved herself when she successfully passed an oral examination conducted by a board of Harvard University professors.
Complete Writings by Phillis Wheatley
The Trials of Phillis Wheatly: America\’s First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Phillis Wheatley (1753-84).
This illustration was in the Frontispiece to her book Poems on Various Subjects.
By Scipio Moorhead [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1775-83 During the American Revolution approximately 5000 African Americans served in the Continental Army, and approximately 1000 served on the British side. Many African Americans who sided with the British settled in Sierra Leone after the war.
The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution by Sidney Kaplan
The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution by Gary B. Nash

During, and in the years following, the American Revolution a number of slaves were granted freedom by their owners, and several Northern states began outlawing the practice (most did so gradually). However, the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 resulted in a growing demand for slaves in the South during the first half of the 19th century.

1777 Vermont abolished slavery.
1780 Pennsylvania enacted a gradual emancipation law.
1783 The Massachusetts Supreme Court abolished slavery.
1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island enacted gradual emancipation laws.
1787 The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in the territories \”North West of the River Ohio.\”
The Northwest Ordinance: Constitutional Politics and the Theft of Native Land by Robert Alexander
1789 New Hampshire abolished slavery.
1793 Eli Whitney (or was it Catherine Greene?) invented the Cotton Gin. This made growing cotton as a cash crop possible throughout much of the South, which led to increased demand for slave labor.
Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America by Angela Lakwete
1799 New York enacted a gradual emancipation law.
1804 New Jersey enacted a gradual emancipation law.

This graph shows a correlation between cotton production and the increasing number of slaves in the early 19th century.
By Conrad Zbikowski (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1800 The White House and US Capitol buildings were completed in Washington DC. They were built with slave labor.

1804 Ohio enacted Black Codes, becoming the first non-slave holding state to pass laws restricting the rights of African Americans.

1808 The United States abolished the international slave trade. Although African slaves continued to be smuggled illegally into the country, the domestic slave trade took on increasing importance.
Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life by Steven Deyle
Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy by Howard Jones

1811 The German Coast Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in US history, took place in the Louisiana Territory. It was eventually suppressed with the assistance of federal troops.

1814 Joseph Savary became the first African American to hold the rank of major in the US Army. He led the Battalion of Freemen of Color which fought under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.

1816 The American Colonization Society was formed. It promoted freeing slaves and settling them in Africa. Throughout the mid 19th century, it assisted thousands of former African American slaves to settle in Liberia.
The African Colonization Movement 1816-1865 by P. J. Staudenraus
Back to Africa: A History of Sierra Leone and Liberia by Richard West

1821 Thomas Jennings became the first African American to receive a patent. He invented a dry cleaning process and created the world\’s first dry cleaning business.

1822 Demark Vesey was arrested and executed for plotting a slave uprising in Charleston, SC.
The Denmark Vesey Affair: A Documented History ed. by Douglas R. Egerton
Denmark Vesey: The Slave Conspiracy of 1822 by Rober S. Starobin

1823 Alexander Twilight became the first African American to receive a degree from an American college. In 1836, he became the first African American elected to a state legislature (Vermont).

1831 Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Virginia.
The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt by Patrick H. Breen
Nat Turner by Eric Foner

Frederick Douglass (1818-95)
By unknown (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

1838 Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery, and became active in the Abolitionist Movement. In 1845 he became nationally famous with the publication of his autobiography. After the Civil War he served in several government posts including Minister to Haiti from 1889-1891.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
There was once a slave…The Heroic Story of Frederick Douglass by Shirley Graham Du Bois
Speeches by Frederick Douglass (audio reenactments of Douglass\’ speeches)

1845 Macon Allen became the first African American to practice law.

1847 Dr. David J. Peck became the first African American to graduate from a US medical school.

1849 Harriett Tubman escaped from slavery via the Underground Railroad. Over the next 10 years she made 19 trips back to slave states and helped approximately 300 slaves escape to freedom.
Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad by Levi Coffin
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton
\”Wanted Dead or Alive\”: The True Story of Harriet Tubman by Ann McGovern

1851 Former slave Sojourner Truth gave her famous \”Ain\’t I a Woman?\” speech at a women\’s rights convention in Ohio.
Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter

1857 The Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Among other things, this infamous court decision found that constitutional rights did not apply to African Americans, whether they were free or slave.
The Dred Scott Case, Its Significance in American Law and Politics by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery\’s Frontier by Lea VanderVelde

1861 Philip Reid, an enslaved sculptor, completed his work on the Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the Capitol dome in Washington DC. 

The Statue of Freedom on top of the US Capitol Dome. Created, in part, by the work of Philip Reid.
By Andreas Praefcke (Self-photographed) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons.

1861-65 Approximately 200,000 African Americans served in the Union armed forces during the Civil War.
Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era by John David Smith
Paying Freedom\’s Price: A History of African Americans in the Civil War by Paul D. Escott

1863 The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1st. This executive order by President Lincoln declared \”…slaves within any State…in rebellion…shall be…forever free…\” This proclamation did not outlaw slavery in the border states that remained loyal to the Union (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri).
Lincoln, Congress, and Emancipation by Paul Finkelman
Lincoln\’s Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union by Louis P. Masur

1865 The Freedmen\’s Bureau was established to provide health care, education, and technical assistance to freed slaves. The Bureau terminated its work in 1868.
A History of the Freedmen\’s Bureau by George R. Bentley

         On June 19th, enslaved African Americans in Texas received news of emancipation. Thus creating the Juneteenth holiday.
Juneteenth!: Celebrating Freedom in Texas by Anna Pearl Barrett

         The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. It outlawed slavery throughout the US.
Who Freed the Slaves?: The Fight Over the Thirteenth Amendment by Leonard L. Richards

1866  Approximately 80 African Americans were killed in race riots in Memphis, TN and New Orleans, LA.
An Absolute Massacre: The New Orleans Race Riot of July 30, 1866 by James G. Hollandsworth Jr.

         Congress approved the creation of four all-black regiments of the US Army. They were nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers by Native American tribes in the west.
The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Black Cavalry in the West by William H. Leckie

Buffalo Soldiers of the 25th Infantry, Montana 1890.
By Chr. Barthelmess [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1868 The 14th Amendment to the constitution was ratified. It granted citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United States, and reversed the Dred Scott v Sanford decision.
The Adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment by Horace Edgar Flack

1870 The 15th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. It states, \”The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied…on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.\”
The Right to Vote: Politics and the Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment by William Gillette

         Hiram Revels, of Mississippi, became the first African American to serve in the US Senate, and Joseph Rainey, of South Carolina, became the first African American to serve in the US House of Representatives.
Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007 by The United States Congress House Committee on House Administration

1873 A white mob killed hundreds of African Americans in Colfax, Louisiana after a disputed election.
The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction by LeeAnna Keith

1875-1910 Southern states enacted a variety of Jim Crow Laws. These laws enforced the segregation of races in educational facilities and public places. Additionally, these laws made it effectively impossible for African Americans to vote via the creation of poll taxes and literacy tests.
American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow by Jerrold M. Packard
The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward

1876 Edward Bouchet became the first African American to earn a doctoral degree when he graduated with a PhD in Physics from Yale University.
Edward Bouchet: The First African-American Doctorate by Ronald E. Mickens

1892 Ida B. Wells published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, an exposé into the lynching of African Americans in Memphis, TN.
\’They Say\’: Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race by James West Davidson

Lynchings in the US by decade from 1865-1965.
By Bcrowell [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

1895 Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute (now University), delivered his Atlanta Compromise speech. He advocated that African Americans should focus on economic development rather than political and civil rights.
Uncle Tom or New Negro?: African Americans reflect on Booker T. Washington…100 Years Later by Rebecca Carroll
Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington

1896 In Plessy v. Ferguson the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation laws were constitutional, and established the \”separate but equal\” doctrine.
Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents by Brook Thomas
Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson by Blair Murphy Kelley

        George Washington Carver, botanist, was appointed Director of Agricultural Research at the Tuskegee Institute. His research benefited peanut and sweet potato farmers.
How to Grow the Peanut and 105 ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption by George Washington Carver
My Work is that of Conservation: An Environmental Biography of George Washington Carver by Mark D. Hersey

1898 A white gang attacked the biracial government of Wilmington, NC and overthrew the elected government of the city. Approximately 60 African Americans were killed in the violence.
Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and its Legacy by David S. Cecelski

1899 Scott Joplin, a Texas native, composed Maple Leaf Rag, which began the Ragtime music craze of the early 20th century.
Complete Piano Rags by Scott Joplin

1901 George H. White, the last African American elected to congress in the 19th century, left office. Due to the impact of Jim Crow laws, no African Americans served in Congress for the next 28 years.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) journalist who investigated lynchings in Memphis, TN.
By Barnett (http://blackusa.com/ida-b-wells-barnett/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1903 W.E.B. Du Bois published Souls of Black Folk. He rejected Booker T. Washinton\’s argument and recommended that African Americans strive for political and civil rights.
Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift by Jacqueline M. Moore
W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet by Edward J. Blum

1904 George Edwin Taylor became the first African American to run for president. He was nominated by the National Liberty Party.

1908 Jack Johnson, a Texas native, became the first African American heavyweight boxing champion.
My Life and Battles by Jack Johnson

1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed.
NAACP: A History of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People by Charles Flint Kellogg

1913 President Woodrow Wilson\’s Administration implemented segregation in federal government departments, which caused many African American federal employees to lose their positions.
Racism in the Nation\’s Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson\’s America by Eric Steven Yellin

1914 Garrett Morgan invented the gas mask, which was widely used in World War I. In 1923, he invented the three-way automatic traffic signal.
Garret Morgan by Sarah L. Schuette

1915 The Great Migration of African Americans out of the South began, and continued through the 1960s. Approximately 7 million African Americans left the South during this time.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America\’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

1916 Marcus Garvey brought his Universal Negro Improvement Association to the United States, and promoted the Back to Africa movement.
Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey by Colin Grant

1917-18 United States entered World War I. Approximately 400,000 African Americans served.
African American Army Officers of World War I: A Vanguard of Equality in War and Beyond by Adam P. Wilson
Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I by Adriane Lentz-Smith

1919 The Red Summer race riots occurred in 25 cities across the country. The deadliest riots took place in Elaine, AR, where over 200 people were killed, and Chicago, IL where approximately 40 people were killed.
Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919 by Grif Stockley
The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot by Chicago Commission on Race Relations

1920s-30s The Harlem Renaissance, an African American literary and artistic movement, had a profound impact on American cultural life. Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neal Hurston were prominent writers in the movement. Blues and Jazz musicians like Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong became household names.
Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance by Cary D. Wintz
Harlem: Negro Metropolis by Claude McKay
Let America be America Again by Langston Hughes
Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel by Zora Neale Hurston
The Bluesman: The Musical Heritage of Black Men and Women in the Americas by Julio Finn
The History of Jazz by Gunther Schuller
Music is my Mistress by Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life by Laurence Bergreen

View of the Apollo Theater Marquee, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948 by William P. Gottlieb [Public Domain] via The Library of Congress.
The Apollo Theater opened in Harlem in 1934.  

1921 Over 80 people were killed in a race riot in Tulsa, OK.
Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and its Legacy by James S. Hirsch

1923 A white mob destroyed the African American community of Rosewood, FL. An estimated 40 people were killed in the riot.
\”The Rosewood Massacre and the Women Who Survived It\” in The Florida Historical Quarterly by Maxine D. Jones

1931 Nine African American males (aged 12 to 20) were falsely convicted of raping two white women on a train near Scottsboro, AL. They spent many years in prison before they were finally released.
The Last of the Scottsoboro Boys: An Autobiography by Clarence Norris
Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South by Dan T. Carter

1932 The US Public Health Service began the Tuskegee Institute Syphilis Study. Approximately 400 African American men were infected with syphilis without their knowledge or consent. The purpose of the study was to see the full effects of untreated syphilis on the human body. The study ended in 1972.
Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy by Susan Reverby

1936 Track star Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.
Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler\’s Olympics by Jeremy Schaap

1940 Hattie McDaniel was the first African American actor to win an academy award. She won it for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind.
Gone with the Wind [DVD]
Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood by Jill Watts

1941 US Army authorized the creation of the Tuskegee Air Squadron, usually known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Led by Benjamin O. Davis Jr., they had an excellent record of service in World War II.
Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II by J. Todd Moye
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography by Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

Tuskegee Airmen in 1942 or 1943.
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

1941-45 Over 1 million African Americans served in the US military during World War II.
Blood on German Snow: An African American Artilleryman in World War II and Beyond by Emiel W. Owens
Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day\’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War by Linda Hervieux
Let us Fight as Free Men: Black Soldiers and Civil Rights by Christine Knauer

1943 – Approximately 38 people were killed in the Detroit, MI race riot.
Race Riot, Detroit 1943 by Alfred McClung Lee

1947 Jackie Robinson became the first African American major league baseball player of the modern era. There were major league African American baseball players in the 19th century (like Moses Fleetwood Walker), but the sport was segregated in the 1890s.
Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball by Scott Simon

1948 President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order desegregating the armed forces.
Foxholes & Color Lines: Desegregating the U.S. Armed Forces by Sherie Mershon

1950 Juanita Hall became the first African American to win a Tony award. She won for her role as Bloody Mary in South Pacific.
Juanita Hall Sings the Blues [Streaming audio]
South Pacific: A Musical Play by Richard Rodgers

         Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
A Life Distilled: Gwendolyn Brooks, her Poetry and Fiction by Maria Mootry
Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks

         Ralph Bunche became the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ralph Bunche Discusses United Nations Policy to End Wars [Streaming Video]

1951 Harry Moore, NAACP official in Florida, was assassinated.

1954 US Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case.
Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy by James T. Patterson
Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America\’s Struggle for Equality by Richard Kluger

1955 Fourteen-year old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till by Sephen J. Whitfield
Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe

        Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. In response, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a year-long boycott of the segregated bus system in Montgomery, AL.
Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott by Stewart Burns
She would not be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Herbert R. Kohl

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) being fingerprinted after being arrested for boycotting public transportation in Montgomery, AL in 1956.
By Associated Press (http://www.rmyauctions.com/lot-8002.aspx) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1957 – Nine African American students were prevented from enrolling at Central High School in Little Rock, AR when, under the direction of Governor Orval Faubus, the Arkansas National Guard and white rioters blocked their entrance. Weeks later President Dwight Eisenhower deployed the US Army 101st Airborne to Little Rock to protect the students.
Little Rock: Race and Resistance at Central High School by Karen Anderson

          Althea Gibson became the first African-American woman to win the Wimbledon tennis championship.
Charging the Net: A History of Blacks in Tennis from Althea Gibson to Arthur Ashe to the Williams Sisters by Cecil Harris

1958 The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was formed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as its first president.
Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow

1960 Four African American college students organized a sit-in to protest Woolworth\’s whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. A few months later, 150 black and white college students in North Carolina formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to organize future sit-ins and other protests.
Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC by Faith S. Holsaert
In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson
Sit-in: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney

1961 SNCC organized the Freedom Rides, integrated interstate bus rides, though several Southern states. They encountered violence in Anniston, AL where the bus was firebombed.
Freedom\’s Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides by Derek Catsam

1962 James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violent protests broke out. Two were killed and over 300 injured. President John F. Kennedy deployed US Marshals and National Guard to restore order.
An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 by William Doyle
The Battle of Ole Miss: Civil Rights v. States\’ Rights by Frank Lambert

1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and spent 11 days in jail for organizing non-violent protests in Birmingham, AL.
The Radical King by Martin Luther King Jr.

        Although Governor George Wallace gave a speech at the schoolhouse door proclaiming \”Segregation forever,\” Vivian Malone and James Hood were able to enroll at The University of Alabama. Integrating the school without violence.
The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation\’s Last Stand at the University of Alabama by E. Culpepper Clark

        Medgar Evers, NAACP official in Mississippi, was assassinated.

        Hundreds of thousands attended the March on Washington demonstration demanding civil rights for African Americans, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous \”I Have a Dream\” speech.
The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther Kin Jr.\’s Dream by Gary Younge

       The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL was bombed killing four African American girls ages 11-14.
Last Chance for Justice: How Relentless Investigators Uncovered New Evidence Convicting the Birmingham Church Bombers by T.K. Thorne

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68) delivers his \”I Have a Dream\” speech in Washington DC in 1963.
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1964 The 24th amendment to the constitution was ratified. It outlawed poll taxes.

        Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali) won first of three world heavyweight boxing championships.
Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon by Michael Ezra

          SNCC organized the Freedom Summer project to register black voters in Mississippi. Three activists (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) who were involved in the project were murdered.
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford
We are not Afraid: The Story of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney and the Civil Rights Campaign for Mississippi by Seth Cagin

         President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. It prohibited unequal application of voter requirements and racial segregation in public accommodations.
The Longest Debate: A Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by Charles W. Whalen

1965 Malcolm X was assassinated.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X.

         On March 7th, civil rights activists attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, AL to bring attention to continuing denial of voting rights for African Americans. They were violently suppressed by Alabama State Troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On March 21st, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. successfully led a larger group to complete the march.
From Selma to Montgomery: The Long March to Freedom by Barbara Combs   
This Day in History: March 7th, 1965 – \”Bloody Sunday\” in Selma, AL [Streaming Video]

         President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. It prohibited literacy tests and racial discrimination in voting. It gave the Justice Department enforcement powers to protect voting rights.
Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr., and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by David J. Garrow

        Watts Riot took place in Los Angeles, CA over allegations of police brutality against African Americans. Thirty four people were killed.
The Politics of Violence: The New Urban Blacks and the Watts Riot by David O. Sears

1966 President Johnson appointed Robert C. Weaver as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Making him the first African American to serve in the Cabinet.
The Urban Complex: Human Values in Urban Life by Robert C. Weaver

         The Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, CA.
Survival Pending Revolution: The History of the Black Panther Party by Paul Alkebulan

         Bill Cosby became the first African American to win an Emmy award for his role in I Spy.
Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television by Donald Bogle

1967 The Supreme Court ruled interracial marriage bans unconstitutional in the Loving v. Virginia case.
Loving: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy by Sheryll Cashin

         Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court.
Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary by Juan Williams

         Race riots occured in Newark, NJ (23 killed) and Detroit, MI (43 killed).
This Day in History: July 12,1967 – Riots Break Out in Newark [Streaming video]
The Detroit Riots, 1967 [Streaming video]

Thurgood Marshall (1908-93) photographed in the Oval Office in 1967.
By Okamoto, Yoichi R. (Yoichi Robert) Photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides

        President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law. It prohibited racial discrimination in the sale or renting of housing.

1972 Shirley Chisholm became the first African American to seek the presidential nomination from one of the two major political parties. She won 152 delegates at the Democratic National Convention.
What to Start a Revolution?: Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle by Dayo F. Gore

         Barbara Jordan of Houston, TX and Andrew Young of Atlanta, GA became the first African Americans elected to the Congress from the South since 1898.
Barbara Jordan, a Self-Portrait by Barbara Jordan

1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing January 20th as a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1989 President George H.W. Bush appointed Colin Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Making him the first African American to hold that position.
The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell by Oren Harari

         Douglas Wilder, of Virginia, became the first African American elected as governor of a US state.

1992 Riots broke out in Los Angeles, CA after a jury found police officers not-guilty of assault  against Rodney King. Fifty-four people were killed in the rioting. 
L.A. Riots Revisited [Streaming Video]

1993 Toni Morrison became the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Click here for a complete list of books written by Toni Morrison in our library\’s collection.

1997 Tiger Woods became the first African American to win The Masters Tournament professional golf championship.
Tiger Woods: A Biography by Lawrence J. Londino

2008 Barack Obama became the first African American elected President of the United States.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama
Barack Obama: An American Story by Bob Carlton

Barack Obama being sworn in as 44th President of the United States, January 20th, 2009.
By Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo, U.S. Air Force [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

2013 The Black Lives Matter organization was founded following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. The organization gained national attention in 2014 following protests over the killing of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Angela J. Davis
Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter by Jordan T. Camp

Books & eBooks

The Dick Smith Library has a large collection of books and other resources relevant to African American history.
Such as these titles: 

African American History: An Introduction by Joanne Turner-Sadler
Anti-Black Violence in Twentieth-Century Texas by Bruce A. Glasrud
Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African Americans in Aviation and Space History by Von Hardesty
Children of Fire: A History of African Americans by Thomas C. Holt
Creating Black Americans: African-American History and its Meanings, 1619 to the Present by Nell Irvin Painter
Free Blacks in Antebellum Texas by Bruce A. Glasrud
In the Black: A History of African Americans on Wall Street by Gregory S. Bell
The Power to Die: Slavery and Suicide in British North America by Terri L. Snyder
Slavery, Civil War, and Salvation: African American Slaves and Christianity, 1830-1870 by Daniel L. Fountain
White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 by Winthrop D. Jordan

Also, be sure to explore our Black History subject guide to discover more library resources on this topic. If you have any questions about library resources please contact us at [email protected] or 254-968-9249.

Lotta Moody: Inspiration for Moody Hall

Lotta Moody in the 1923 Grassburr

Moody Hall, a former girls\’ dormitory on the east side of campus built in 1936, was recently renovated to become offices for part of the university Information Technology Services department.  They moved in last month, and one staff member wanted to know more about the woman for whom the building was named.

Lotta Irene Hensarling Moody (1895-1980) is first mentioned (and pictured) in Tarleton materials on page 23 in the 1923 Grassburr yearbook (published that spring), as matron (dorm mother for Wilkerson Hall, aka “The Dump”).

Her husband, William Emmett (W. E.) Moody (1893-1980), is on the very next page – he is listed as “storekeeper.”  He was with Tarleton as early as May 1921, based on a reference to him playing on the faculty baseball team in the May 4, 1921 J-Tac student newspaper.

from the 15 October 1932 J-Tac, p. 4

In the 1922 yearbook, W. E. is listed as the “booker and accountant.”  A Miss Annie Cameron is listed as matron that year, so it appears Mrs. Moody took over the job the following year.

According to an article in the J-Tac of January 18, 1936 (when her resignation was announced), she later graduated from the Cosmopolitan School of Music and Dramatic Arts in Chicago.

Mrs. Moody was a very popular dorm matron.  A search for \”Mrs. Moody\” in the online J-Tacs produced 155 issues with references to her using that term.  Besides the example shown to the left, other articles referred to her hosting teas and dances, making fudge and other candy, and providing marshmallows for campfires.Lotta is last pictured in the yearbook in 1936 (see below).  The newest girl’s dormitory, finished in the summer of that year, was named in her honor.

By the time of the 1940 U. S. Census, Lotta and Emmett (as W. E. was also called) were living in Piedmont, Grimes County, Texas.  He was a farmer and she was not employed.  They had no children.  They died in 1980 within 15 days of each other, and are both buried in Erwin Cemetery in Navasota, Grimes County, Texas.

Lotta Moody in the 1936 Grassburr

Library Subject Guides: Black History

If you\’re not sure where to start your research on the library\’s website, one of the things you might want to check out is our subject guides. For African American History Month, we\’re highlighting our Black History Subject Guide page, which includes a list of Black history-focused databases, professional journals, and other useful resources.
Screenshot of Tarleton State University Libraries Black History Subject Guide page
Although a search in Discovery can be an excellent way to dive into a topic, sometimes it\’s better or easier to explore specific databases. Here are just a few of the databases listed on our Black History Subject Guide:
  • African American Archives – Primary sources relating to African American History from the 1670s-1940s, and originating from North America and the Caribbean.
  • Race Relations in America – Primary sources relating to the history of the civil rights movement in America. Includes audio records, photographs, scrapbooks and more from 1943-1970.
  • Slavery in American and the World: History, Culture & Law – Legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. Includes cases, legal commentary, books and pamphlets.
  • African American Music Reference – Reference texts on jazz, ragtime, gospel, spirituals, and more. Search or browse specific people, historical events, genres, titles, publishers, or instruments.

New Year, New Titles

2018 brings new titles to the Periodicals department, many of whom having already found their home in the stacks.

As the majority of academic journals move away from print, Amy Castillo, Coordinator for Periodicals and Electronic Resources, has a vision for the physical collection going forward: lifestyle and hobbies. The decision is generating a positive buzz from students and staff alike, especially as traditionally unrepresented topics are added.

While not all of the new titles have arrived just yet, check out what\’s currently on the shelves and be sure to watch out for the latest in Periodicals.

The Advocate, and Out

\”Gay news – commentary, arts & entertainment, health, parenting, and politics. The Advocate is the leading source for up-to-date and extensive LGBT news.\”

The Advocate\'s authoritative coverage of LGBT news, politics and opinion along with every issue of Out. The best deal in gay publishing today!


Men\’s Health 

\”The Brand Men Live By, For Fitness, Nutrition, Health, Sex, Style and Weight Loss Tips.\”

Men\'s Health Magazine

\”..a quarterly journal devoted to the exploration of the quest for meaning as it is expressed in the world\’s myths, symbols, and religious traditions, with particular emphasis on the relationship between this store of wisdom and our modern life.\”


Harper\’s Bazaar

\”Sophisticated, elegant and provocative, Harper\’s Bazaar is your source for fashion trends straight from the runway, makeup and hair inspiration, chic wedding and travel ideas, plus all of your movie, TV, and pop culture news.\”

Image result for harper\'s bazaar magazine

Sunset

\”Recipes and wine recommendations, inspiring home and garden designs and DIYs, travel and outdoor adventure ideas, and lifestyle tips for living in the West.\”

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