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A review by obsidian_blue
Dirt Don't Burn: A Black Community's Struggle for Educational Equality Under Segregation by Larry W. Roeder, Larry Roeder, Barry Harrelson
5.0
This took me a while to finish because honestly, with everything going on in this country right now, and the recent election, I just didn't want to read something that is still an ongoing issue in the Black community.
I met the authors at an event this last year and they were lovely to talk to and had some great artifacts on hand to discuss their book.
Overall, this is a great book that recounts the history of Black enslavement in Virginia all the way up through 1968. It's broken into separate parts of Virginian history which were: The Age of Enslavement; 1865-70 Resistance and Evolution; 1870-1901 From Hope to Jim Crow; 1902-20 Battling Health and Education Disparity; 1920s Progress through Darkness; 1930-50 A Twenty-Year Sprint; 1950-68 Change and Fear, and then finally a epilogue.
Some great facts that I did not know that I love reading about.
-George Washington was the only founding father that manumitted his enslaved people and provide for their education. [Yeah, I didn't know this. Most of my history courses in college and grad school showed the founding fathers were all kinds of mess and trash.]
-That by 1867, approximately 12.5 million Africans had started their journey to the Americas; fewer than 11 million survived. About 5 percent arrived in the British colonies of North America, often going directly to Virginia. [Seeing stats like that over and over again in this book threw me.]
I did know most of the things the author talked about, such as the whole deport Black people back to Africa movement which yeah, history repeats itself. And how the Quakers and the Freedman's Bureau in Loudoun started erecting schools for Black students. [Another aside, why are the Quakers always on the right side of history?]
Also, it would not shock some of you to know that many of the white supremacists of the day back then didn't want Black children educated and didn't want any Black people to have access to health care.
Honestly this was great and I really want to hug everyone who fought for a better day in Virginia for Black people. It makes me sad we are once again here.
I met the authors at an event this last year and they were lovely to talk to and had some great artifacts on hand to discuss their book.
Overall, this is a great book that recounts the history of Black enslavement in Virginia all the way up through 1968. It's broken into separate parts of Virginian history which were: The Age of Enslavement; 1865-70 Resistance and Evolution; 1870-1901 From Hope to Jim Crow; 1902-20 Battling Health and Education Disparity; 1920s Progress through Darkness; 1930-50 A Twenty-Year Sprint; 1950-68 Change and Fear, and then finally a epilogue.
Some great facts that I did not know that I love reading about.
-George Washington was the only founding father that manumitted his enslaved people and provide for their education. [Yeah, I didn't know this. Most of my history courses in college and grad school showed the founding fathers were all kinds of mess and trash.]
-That by 1867, approximately 12.5 million Africans had started their journey to the Americas; fewer than 11 million survived. About 5 percent arrived in the British colonies of North America, often going directly to Virginia. [Seeing stats like that over and over again in this book threw me.]
I did know most of the things the author talked about, such as the whole deport Black people back to Africa movement which yeah, history repeats itself. And how the Quakers and the Freedman's Bureau in Loudoun started erecting schools for Black students. [Another aside, why are the Quakers always on the right side of history?]
Also, it would not shock some of you to know that many of the white supremacists of the day back then didn't want Black children educated and didn't want any Black people to have access to health care.
Honestly this was great and I really want to hug everyone who fought for a better day in Virginia for Black people. It makes me sad we are once again here.