Women in Black History

November 30, 2015
Newcomer Jackson uses a Christian lens and empathic storytelling to introduce 14 notable African-American women: Phillis Wheatley, Harriet Tubman, Mahalia Jackson, Althea Gibson, and more. Despite the lack of sourcing for quotations and other details about the women, Jackson works to set straight misinterpreted events in history, such as including two versions of an 1851 speech given by Sojourner Truth—the more accurate one published in a newspaper that shows Truth’s clear command of language, versus one published years later written in a ungrammatical Southern dialect. The religious component of the text is light, with Jackson focusing on how the tenets of Christianity—specifically, the women’s refusal to allow hatred to consume them, despite their mistreatment—informed their lives. Ages 9–12.