Brown v. Board of Education - Bookshelf

Ebony, May, 2004

THIS month we recognize and celebrate the most significant decision about race in the 20th century, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on May 17, 1954, that the doctrine of "separate but equal" was unconstitutional. There are numerous celebrations of this historical event scheduled throughout the country as scholars and everyday people review the impact of the court decision. Charles J. Ogletree Jr., an eminent lawyer, civil rights scholar and Harvard Law School professor, confronts the decision in his new book, ALL DELIBERATE SPEED: Reflections On The First Half-Century Of Brown v. Board of Education (W.W. Norton & Company, $29.95). The book examines the profound effects of the ruling on his life and the lives of all Americans. Ogletree writes that despite the court's proclamation to dismantle segregation with "all deliberate speed," America still has not achieved the integrated society promised by the Brown decision.

In a sparkling anthology devoted to exploring the lives of African-American mothers, Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood (Doubleday, $24.95), edited by Cecelie S. Berry, brings together the perspectives of women of different ages, backgrounds and accomplishments. Marian Wright Edelman writes in the foreword: "The mothers writing in this anthology speak in a range of voices. They are joyful, stressed, grateful, ambivalent, determined, disappointed, and, in bad ways and good, overwhelmed. But over and over again ... we see mothers struggling with the push: striving to give their children their best and to make sure the world gives their children its best, hard as that fight may be."

Award-winning author Alice Walker's latest novel, Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart (Random House, $24.95), is the story of a woman's spiritual odyssey that becomes a search through time for self and an appointment with love. Her heroine, Kate Talkingtree, a woman slightly beyond midlife, leaves her lover and embarks on an excursion down the Colorado River and through the Amazon. One reviewer lauds Walker's extensive writing gifts and says with this book she "affirms her position as a matriarch of contemporary fiction."

Don't Play in the Sun (Doubleday, $23.95) by Marita Golden explores the politics of race and color in a uniquely personal memoir. As a young Black girl, Golden was torn between her parents' attitudes about race and color. Using the dualism that existed in her own home, she takes us through her life and describes how, even today, she is evaluated through the twin veils of race and color.

No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley (Hyperion, $22.95) by Rita Marley, written with Hettie Jones, is a no-nonsense memoir of life with her husband, reggae legend Bob Marley. She remained married to Marley until his death in 1981.

Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela (Crown, $23.95) by Hugh Maskela and D. Michael Cheers is a musical memoir written with honesty, wit and humility by the social activist who is also one of the world's most renowned musicians, it is a soundtrack for the South African freedom movement.

The Civil Rights Movement's impact on a new generation is chronicled in Children of the Movement (Lawrence Hill Books, an imprint of Chicago Review Press, $24.95), by journalist John Blake. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and this book explores the personal impact of the struggle for civil rights on the sons and daughters of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Stokely Carmichael, James Chaney, Elaine Brown, Viola Liuzzo and others.