To learn about a culture, read their great writers. They can express for us we can't always ourselves.
To learn about a culture, read their great writers. They can express for us we can't always ourselves. Here are some suggestions from encarta.msn.com for Black history month or any time.

1. "The Marrow of Tradition," by Charles Chestnutt. Explores the repercussions of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case of 1896 that established "separate but equal" as the law of the land.

2. "The Autobiography of an ex-Colored Man," by James Weldon Johnson, outstanding fiction about a Black artist who passes as white.

3. "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston, considered the first Black feminist writer.

4. "Native Son," by Richard Wright, "still has the capacity to shock today," says the review.

5. "Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison, a landmark of American literature. His first book, it remained on the bestseller list for 16 weeks and won the National Book Award for Fiction.

6. "Mumbo Jumbo," by Ishmael Reed, called "an idiosyncratic celebration of multiculturism," it takes a lot of swings at Western culture.

7. "Dahlgren," by Samuel Delaney, is one of the best-selling science fiction books of all time. It's "a sprawling exploration of gender, art, race, identity and much more," says the reviewer.

8. "The Color of Purple," by Alice Walker, a winner of the Pulitzer Price for fiction and the American Book Award.

9. "Beloved," by Toni Morrison, ; best seller and winner of the Pulitzer prize for fiction.

10. "Devil in a Blue Dress," by William Mosley, a mystery in the classic tradition, mixes "the hard-boiled poetry of Raymond Chandler with the racial realism of Richard Wright to explosive effect," says the Barnes and Noble review.

Source: encarta.msn.com.

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