This week’s Nonfiction November topic is topic is to identify the books that have made us rethink everything. Check out the link party hosted by Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction.

“Why didn’t I learn this in school?” That’s a frequent comment in the meetings of the Community for Understanding and Hope Book Group. We specialize in books about race in America and other topics that help us understand the structures and systems that marginalize populations.

Here are two things we wished we learned about in school and the books that helped us understand them now.

Race Massacres

We learned about slavery in school, but we didn’t learn about the violent white mobs that attacked black communities decades later. Here are two (of many) race massacres that should be covered in history classes:

• Never Been a Time: The 1917 Race Riot that Sparked the Civil Rights Movement by Harper Barnes tells the story of the race massacre in East St. Louis that happened only a thirty-minute drive away from where our book club meets.
• Fire in Beulah by Rilla Askew is a novel about the very real Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, one of the largest acts of mass racial violence in the post-slavery era.

The Great Migration

It’s impossible to understand why Americans live in the places we live without knowing this piece of history, covering the impacts of racism in both the south and the north.

• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of the mass movement out of the south by millions of black people through the lens of three particular people.
• Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James Loewen answers a question that I never thought to ask: why did these highly skilled agriculture workers from the south migrate to cities? In short, it’s because they were pushed out of small towns with violent words and actions. The longer answer is a fascinating look at American history.