Books We’re Reading + Books You’re Reading

We think a perfect starting place for our Book Club on Race recommend reading is “Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.” The book was co-authored by local civil rights legend Patricia Stephens Due and her daughter, Tananarive Due. The book chronicles the history of the civil rights movement right here in Tallahassee, through the eyes of one mother and her daughter. Find the book on Amazon here. Stay tuned for announcements through the Village Square newsletter about this book (and others). If you’re not subscribed, you can sign up here.

In the year prior to his assassination, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King isolated himself in a house in Jamaica where he wrote what was to become his final book. The culmination of King’s focused thought ultimately became “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” In it he offers this stark warning: “Together we must learn to live together as brothers or together we will be forced to perish as fools.” Read more about King’s prophetic wisdom written almost fifty years ago about the challenges we face today here. Find King’s book, which offers an insightful roadmap for actions we might still take today, online here.

Bill Lowman is starting a book club to discuss the book The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness: Eurocentric History, Psychiatry and the Politics of White Supremacy. The group will be meeting at 11am on Saturday twice a month on Bill’s front porch. He’ll provide refreshments. You can contact Bill directly for more information at olaitan@gmail.com

We’ll be collecting book ideas from you and adding them to this list. Email them to liz@tothevillagesquare.org. And while you’re thinking about books, also consider “Watch/Listen Party” ideas – powerful movies that might form the basis of a very real conversation, or even television and radio shows. Here’s a list of films on race issues to get the ball rolling.

Request an invitation or volunteer to host a group.