THE BLACK BOOK, A REVIEW

​It's as if a museum has been embedded within the pages of this book.
Everything you see are the images of primary sources, no AI.  Come to your own conclusions based on original material.  
​
When I was first introduced to this book I got goosepimples.  It was crystal clear that it was a treasure.  It was like my great great great grandparents handed this sacred archive down to me. ​

Here are some of the items included:

"1781 - Los Angeles was founded by "a strange mixture of Indians and Negroes."

"Our  Father which art in Heaven,
White man owe me 'leven an pay
  me seven
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be
   done
If I hadn't took that, I wouldn't get
  none."

Patent drawings of the Pencil Sharpener by J. L. Love, Nov. 23, 1897.
Patent drawings of an Elevator by A. Miles, Oct. 11, 1887.
Patent drawings for Lawn Sprinkler by J. H. Smith, May 4, 1897.

Picture of wedding shoes and dancing slippers, made by the enslaved

Full color advertisement of "Sunlight Soap" picturing a Black child with white laced dress and bonnet sitting on the floor smiling with red eyes and lips.  The caption reads, "So Clean and White"

Original piano composition of James Bland as sung by all the "Ethiopian Serenaders"

a recipe with rose and lavender oil "to control a court"

photographs from The  Emperor Jones (1933) movie starring Paul Robeson, and An early Paramount comedy, Gasoline Gus (1921) starring Ethel Waters and Fredi Washington in Mamba's Daughter"

a dance scene in the "Harlem Madness" number from MGM's They Learned About Women (1930)

"photograph of  Thomas Jefferson's slave"

and on and on...
​
To enter this literary time machine, simply choose any random page and become completely drawn in for hours.  Each time you pick it up, you'll find more to explore.  This book first came out in 1974.  To now have Google and Youtube-ability with the news items and rare photographs you will surely become spellbound with culturally relevant raw materials to observe and analyze.

NOT SO FUN FACT:  I have 2 editions of this book.   The first one had an introduction by Bill Cosby in the 1974 edition.  After all of the media attention that came from his SA allegations, the introduction was  pulled and eventually replaced with one by the editor, Toni Morrison. Prior to this Morrison's name wasn't listed in the book credits likely because she was working for the publisher, Random House.  The 35th special hardcover edition came out in 2009 and Morrison wrote the foreword. I learned about her being the editor of this book in the documentary, "The Pieces I Am" based on her life.  AfriWare Books, Gifts & Cultural Events participated in providing Morrison's books when the documentary premiered in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019.

This is a book that could easily come with a guarantee of approval of its content.  It is what it is..

If interested, you know where you can find them (see comments below).  Thank you for reading this post.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

As always, I appreciate that you have read through this blog post.  I hope that you’ve become curious to find out more about "The Black Book."  Do your own research.  We ask that you consider purchasing your books from our Black owned business, Afriware Books, Co.  If there is a title you’d like to purchase that is not mentioned here, or could not be found on the website, feel free to email us at:  [email protected]