Tag Archives: Carter G. Woodson

February (Feb-roo-airy) has 28 Days

carter-woodson

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

February is the month designated to honor and celebrate the achievements and culture of African Americans in the United States. Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), www.blackpast.org/aah/woodson-carter an African American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. launched the celebration of “Negro History Week” in February 1926; it was the precursor of Black History Month.

Breena Professional Photo

Novelist, Breena Clarke celebrates the history of African peoples in the Americas in three critically acclaimed novels. Add these to your “GotToRead” list for February 2017.

IMG_0598    Eight-year-old Clara Bynum is dead, drowned in the Potomac River in the shadow of an apparently haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters. In scenes alive with emotional truth, River, Cross My Heart weighs the effect of Clara’s absence on the people she has left behind: her parents, Alice and Willie Bynum, torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city, to which they have moved in search of a better life for themselves and their children; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and, most especially, Clara’s sister, twelve-year-old Johnnie Mae, who must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions sparked by her sister’s death as she struggles to decide and discover the kind of woman she will become. Read an excerpt here:  http://bit.ly/2kP20hF

IMG_0599   Even though Sewing Annie Coats and her son, Gabriel, have managed to buy their freedom, their lives are still marked by constant struggle and sacrifice. Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, where the Coatses operate a tailor’s shop and laundry, is supposed to be a “promised land” for former slaves but is effectively a frontier town, gritty and dangerous, with no laws protecting black people.The remarkable emotional energy with which the Coatses wage their daily battles-as they negotiate with their former owner, as they assist escaped slaves en route to freedom, as they prepare for the encroaching war, and as they strive to love each other enough-is what propels Stand the Storm. Read an excerpt here: http://bit.ly/2kNABZR

Clarke-AngelsMakeTheirHope   ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE is set in an imagined community in a mountainous area roughly north and west of Paterson, New Jersey in the 19th century. Russell’s Knob is a hidden, secretive place settled by people who might be described today as bi-racial or tri-racial. The inhabitants describe themselves as runaways and stay-aways. They are people who reject the limiting definitions of racial identity and character of 19th century, mid-Atlantic, North America and live outside of the “white” towns. They are spoken of derisively as “amalgamators” and “race mixers” though their true history is as complex as is the history of settlement in the region. Read an excerpt here: http://bit.ly/1NZsFus

Visit Breena’s website at: www.BreenaClarke.com

https://www.facebook.com/angelsmaketheirhopehere on Facebook

Breena_Clarke onTwitter

 

FE-BROO-AIR-EE is Black History Month

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

I always get a lift in spirits when February comes around because it’s Black History Month. I enjoy the special programming and the unabashed celebration of the history of African people in the Americas.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson was the honored ancestor who. launched Negro History Week in 1926. Woodson chose the second week of February because it falls between the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. This observance evolved into Black History Month in 1976. Known for writing the contributions of black Americans into the national spotlight, Woodson received a Ph.D at Harvard University;  founded the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in 1915;  founded the Journal of Negro History in 1916 and is the author of the book, “The Miseducation of the Negro“, published in 1933.
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY
Read, re-read or introduce a friend to my three historical novels:

Breena Clarke's books

Breena Clarke’s books

LINK HERE TO see AMAZON’S SPECIAL DEALS  on select African American Historical fiction including
ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE
and
STAND THE STORM : http://amzn.to/1Drumxm
 Clarke-AngelsMakeTheirHope
ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE imagines a community that many, even today, would think improbable if not impossible. Dossie is rescued from slavery by Duncan Smoot, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, who gives her refuge in just such an improbable, but possible place, the town of Russell’s Knob, New Jersey.
” . . . the novel swiftly goes from idyllic to horrific but told throughout in language that gives us the verbal music of the period and the soulful reality of this little community of outliers. “Angels Make Their Hope Here” – this tribute to old Jersey is well worth your time.”
            Alan Cheuse, NPR – listen to the full review http://n.pr/UogWl0 
                                             ALL THINGS CONSIDERED on NPR
IMG_0599
STAND THE STORM is set in Civil War era Washington  D.C. and it illumines the lives of a self-emancipated tailor, his indomitable mother, his wife and children.
“An evocative,historically rich book that brings the turbulent Civil war period alive”
             TIME Magazine
 IMG_0598
RIVER, CROSS MY HEART is the story of a young girl’s life in the African American community of Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood in the early 20th century.
“A genuine masterpiece . .  Full of grace and beauty and profound insights . . .”
            Michael Sheldon, Baltimore Sun