Dr. Frances Cress Welsing passed away on January 2nd of this year. I remember being exposed to her thru her book, “The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors.” It you have never read it, please buy a copy, download it, or borrow someone’s. Whether you agree with all of it or not, I think it is a good book for a great discussion, especially with all the current events of injustices happening all over the world specifically to people of color.
The more I reflected, I had to think if books that changed my life or truthfully made me more aware of my “blackness” and how great I am. I am thankful for parents who exposed me at a very young age to learning outside of the school system. There is a quote floating around that says, “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.”
I read “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison at age 17. It completely changed my life. My parents, especially my father was adamant of about us not having white dolls to play with. Having gone to schools both public and private, where I was either 1 of the 3 minorities or a part of the full majority, I really did identify with Pecola Breedlove. For those of you who not familiar with her character, she believed she was ugly based on how she and her community based their ideals of beauty on “whiteness”. I read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by the age of 20. I was so inspired by this man and his transition of awakening…it was mind blowing.
Recently, I was asked by a friend, what would be my top 10 reading list. It was hard to put together. This is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. Instead of my top 10 I will call it my foundational top 10 list, meaning the list I would call my “starter” list for every young person.
- The Blues Eye – Toni Morrison
- Autobiography of Malcolm X -Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
- I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings – Maya Angelou
- Go Tell it On the Mountain – James Baldwin
- Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
- The Isis Papers – Dr. Frances Cress Welsing
- Up from Slavery – Booker T. Washington
- Anything by Audre Lorde
- Autobiography of Angela Davis – Angela Davis
- The Living is Easy – Dorothy West
- Our Nig – Harriet E Wilson
Yeah I know I added 11. Too hard for me to delete one of the books from my list…do not shoot me. Now tell me what your top 10 foundational list would be?
shespeaking.com 