Books That Speak to the African-American Experience

It has been said that we can never know how another person sees the world until we walk a mile in their shoes. But books have a way to providing that perspective.

As our country and our culture once more grapples with racial tension and the troubled history of our mutual past, books may be one of the keys to bringing us together.

The Yellow House by Sarah Broom

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Proud: My Fight For an Unlikely American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad

Joshua: A Brooklyn Tale by Andrew Kane

It may be simplistic to say that reading the books listed above or any book will help to solve our issues. However, I believe that by at least beginning to understand another’s perspective, the doors to communication, understanding, and diversity may truly start to open.

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The Yellow House Book Review

A house is more than the materials that were used to build the home. It is a place of comfort, love and a shelter from the storms that life can bring.

Sarah Broom is the youngest child of a large African-American family from New Orleans. Her new memoir, The Yellow House, is the story of her family and the house that they resided in from 1961 until 2005 when it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Her parents, Simon and Ivory Mae Broom, each had several children of their own from previous marriages when they married. Sarah is child number twelve. After her father’s death when she was an infant, her mother was determined to keep her home and her family together. As an adult, Sarah moved away from her home city, but it kept calling her back, even after her childhood home was no more.

I loved this book. In telling her family’s story and the story of the house that she grew up in, the author speaks to all of us. It is a story of a family, a story of a home and a story of a city.

I also appreciated that the reader is introduced to a part of New Orleans that most of us only knew because of the hurricane. When we visit a city, the natural inclination is to go to the standard tourist spots. We don’t think of visiting the neighborhoods that are not listed in the tourism books or the fliers found in the hotels.

I recommend it.