The Big Lie
Guest post by Kristine Schwartzman

After the Civil War, part of the Reconstruction plan included giving formerly enslaved Black Americans land, land owned by the very people who enslaved them. Intended to give freed Black people a start on building their lives, the plan died right along with Abraham Lincoln. 

In this groundbreaking historical investigation, Reveal tracks the lives of 1,250 freed people who were given land, only to have white supremacist Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln’s death, pave the way for former enslavers and landowners, to get the land back. And, how they succeeded!

So, why bring this up now? Because the consequences still resound today. Reparations given, and then taken away - turned once hopeful lives into further toil and poverty that passed down through generations. Those families still pay the price of being kidnapped from their homes, and turned into property. This is not the “past.” It is now.

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman and world-renowned cellist Jan Vogler collaborate on a unique performance of Gorman’s poem, “What We Carry,” set to Vogler’s performance of "Suite for Violoncello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude." Amanda Gorman’s latest book, “Call Us What We Carry,” is available now. Jan Vogler’s album, “Bach: The Cello Suites” is available for streaming here:  https://sonyclassical.lnk.to/VoglerBachCelloSuites.

View the performance from Stephen Colbert's Late Show, here:

Experiencing A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. With Children
Guest post by D.A. Smith

Reviewing a children’s book can sometimes present challenges beyond the scope of reflecting on the images and sometimes rhyming words used to entertain and teach our youngest members of society. There are well known childhood favorites, whimsical fantasies, fairy tales, sweet bedtime stories and endearing characters to choose from, and then there are books that conjure more silence than laughter.
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For me and my children, few words were needed to express the thoughts and emotions that came from reading David A. Adler’s A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr., illustrated by Robert Casilla. 

​It’s not that the book isn’t beautiful, it is. The writing was not too complicated, it was clear, and the story was easy to understand even for… a child. And maybe that in itself is the reason so few words came. We got it. A boy, a faithful boy, grew into a man who changed the course of history through bold acts of strength and love, and he died at the hands of someone who was guided by fear, anger and dare I say, hate. 

When my youngest looked up at me after the story and said, “Wait. So, the boys' parents didn’t want them to play with Martin because of his skin color?” I could only answer, “Yes. That’s what I understand.” to which my eldest said “I am so glad we don’t live like that anymore.” To her I said “Well, it’s because of men like Martin Luther King, Jr. that we don’t” She then got up and went to her room, presumably to think while she worked on a friendship bracelet. 

What I kept to myself the morning we read Adler’s book is a truth as simple and as old as recorded history can confirm. Human hearts are messy. Thinking of other people as different as we are, whether because of skin color, religious affiliations, political allegiances, languages or even economic standing is a fool's game. What we hold in common is far more profound, and that is something Martin Luther King Jr. understood. Love is the answer. 

Historically, as we review some of our nation's beginning footsteps, we often forget some of the major players who contributed so very much to the building of our nation. 

Recently, I heard President Biden, a descendant of Irish immigrants, comment during his historic visit to Ireland on the ways that Irish immigrants significantly contributed to the fabric of our nation. 

In a previous post, Riding the Rails: From the Underground Railroad to the Transcontinental Railroad, we talked about the profound influence migrant and immigrant workers had. They were not welcomed with open arms, but often enslaved, derided, and greeted with violence. 

 From Riding the Rails:

"The year is 1863... as many as 15,000 Chinese immigrants do the dangerous, backbreaking work of blazing a path across the US to make the Transcontinental Railroad a reality. As they dynamite their way west, thousands die.

In other parts of the country, hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of enslaved people bend over under the scorching sun, toil in the vast fields of cotton, rice and tobacco, to build the very economic backbone of the United States."

Today, immigrants play a powerful role in the nation's economy. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities states that "In fact, immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy in many ways. They work at high rates and make up more than a third of the workforce in some industries. Their geographic mobility helps local economies respond to worker shortages, smoothing out bumps that could otherwise weaken the economy. Immigrant workers help support the aging native-born population, increasing the number of workers as compared to retirees and bolstering the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. And children born to immigrant families are upwardly mobile, promising future benefits not only to their families, but to the U.S. economy overall."

Irish, Black, Asian, Native, European - we all descended from immigrants. It's who we are. 

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Nancy Kendall's life of working with the Underground Railroad is a constant reminder that there are good Samaritans out there who risked their lives as Nancy Kendall and Andrew Kendall did to help others.

They are often lost in the background. I think they are not mentioned, because their lives don't seem dramatic enough. And, because many of them were, and are, Black themselves. 

We all know Harriet Tubman, of course. But, how many of us have heard of Walter White?

Walter White was a Black civil rights leader who helped form the NAACP. He was a white news reporter who let the rest of America, and the world, in on Jim Crow laws, lynchings, "unsolved" murders, and the crimes committed against Black citizens by white America. 

"White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret" by A.J. Baime uncovers the details of a remarkable life - Walter F. White, a Black activist who risked his own life investigating racist murders while passing for white. He was fair skinned with a racially mixed background who passed easily, leading a dangerous double-life, using white privilege to shine a light on the America's darkest crimes. 

In the wake of yet another Black man's death at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and serve, we take courage in the fact that there are those in the past and present who work to change the course of justice in America. Their stories must be told.
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Guest post by D. A. Smith

A dear friend recently loaned me the children's picture book "Build a House", by Rhiannon Giddens. I wanted to share it with my two daughters. We sat together, the three of us, in the sun and read this extraordinarily simple but beautiful book.

The moving illustrations, by Monica Mikai, convey the nuanced emotions that the words stoically imply. Its message is full of understanding and dignity - the overarching struggle and triumph of a people, displaced, enslaved, ultimately freed and allowed to establish their own homes is outlined in poetry and song. 

After reading through the book and spending time looking at the illustrations, we watched the accompanying music video. Rhiannon Giddens, joined by Yo-Yo Ma, gives melody to the tale. It’s steady, strong and a little haunting. My children have been singing it ever since we first listened to it and have asked several times to hear it again. 

This morning my older daughter sang “you brought me here to build a house…” and my younger daughter corrected her, saying “It's, ‘you brought me here you build YOUR house…’” to which the elder replied “Oh, that’s right,” and quickly went back to singing. 

Their understanding was clear to me then. Children are thoughtful and often guided by an inner compass that points to justice. They were moved by the story, of course. But it was the music that really settled it into their memories.  They quietly sing to themselves and think about what it all means, as they work on other projects. 

I’ve been humming it, too. The words and melody remind us again and again of Rhiannon Giddens' gentle but powerful telling of a story worth cherishing.

​“Through the rhythm of words, the lyricism of images, and the power of song, Rhiannon Giddens makes storytelling come alive. Build a House is a story to tell and to remember.” - Yo-Yo Ma

​The perfect holiday gift for the children in your life. And the grown-ups, too: Order Build a House
Read our previous post to learn more about Rhiannon Giddens. 

Songs of survival. Songs of hope. Songs of a better life. Songs of identity. Songs of despair. And, songs as warnings for fleeing slaves along the Underground Railroad. The songs enslaved people sang, and those they sang after gaining freedom, tell their stories. And, singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens is making sure their stories don’t die.

In an interview on the PBS series Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Giddens talks about her music and why telling these stories is so important. Although her music spans many genres, her album, “They’re Calling Me Home” is filled with songs based on the lives of the enslaved.  

With the most astonishing voice I’ve ever heard, Giddens is a joint Grammy Award Winner, composer, speaker and podcast radio talk show host.  I urge you to check out her music, and in particular, “They’re Calling Me Home.”
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​Giddens is also a writer, soon to publish a children’s book, “Build a House.” Preorder here.

Did you know? Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her People, used a traditional Negro Spiritual to warn slaves to get into the water to deter the scent-sniffing dogs on their trail?

“Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water,
God's gonna trouble the water”

A five-year-old in kindergarten used crayons to draw a picture of his family. He used yellow for everyone else, but when it came to drawing his own picture, he chose the brown crayon. That's when he realized his family was different. And, that's when he started forming his own ideas about identity, and what it means.

In his children's book, "I Color Myself Different," Colin Kaepernick takes us on his journey of self-discovery that every child can relate to. Beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Eric Wilkerson, the book is inspiring and thoughtful. 

Read more about Kaepernick's journey, his activism, and his idea that we can all make this world a more equitable place, "Colin Kaepernick says, 'I Color Myself Different' in his first children's book," an article from NPR.