Four Hundred Souls ★★★★★

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★★

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain is a non-fiction book written by 90 Black writers and poets about the history of African Americans from 1619 to 2019 told in ten parts and 80 chapters with ~5 year increments.

I read this as an audiobook checked out from the library and read by a full cast of both authors and actors. I was glad to listen to the book AND I will also be purchasing it to keep in my personal library and read again.

The book starts in 1619 when the first Black people were brought to America on the White Lion. From there I learned so much including about John Casor, the first Black slave; St. Augustine, FL the first free Black settlement; Plessy v. Ferguson, which I never realized happened in New Orleans; Alice Walker’s critical role in the reprinting and critical success of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, The Clarks, who were clinical psychologists that provided research on the effects of segregation in Brown v. Board of Education; and that Joe Biden wrote the 1994 crime bill (?!?). Obviously these are just a small handful of examples, each chapter is different, focusing on individuals, movements, historical fiction, poetry - all coming together to depict precisely what they claim: a community history.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, IT SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING. Check it out from your local library, buy it from your local bookstore, do whatever you have to do to read this book, it is a gift to to the world.

I have also read How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped From the Beginning by Kendi and I 10/10 recommend both books.

If you liked Four Hundred Souls, I also recommend Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo, Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall, Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors.

#happyreading

Ms.Bjork