c.2026, Harper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $24.99\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 256 pages<\/p>\n
By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/p>\n
The Truth Contributor<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You gotta start somewhere.<\/p>\n
First, you crawled, then you toddled before you ran, which is exactly how most things are. There\u2019s a foundation from which to spring, a base from which to jump, and you need to figure out how to best proceed so you can succeed. You gotta start somewhere, and in the new book I\u2019ll Make Me a World<\/em> by Jarvis R. Givens, <\/strong>it started with racism.<\/p>\n James McCune Smith was just 14 years old the day New York passed its Emancipation Act. Smith had been born into slavery but was officially freed that July 4 of 1827. He later wrote about the celebration. He never forgot it.<\/p>\n Neither did those who learned of their freedom in Texas on June 19, 1865, or William Cooper Nell, who is credited with the first Crispus Attucks Day. And yet, these were early parts of the\u00a0 foundation of Black History Month.<\/p>\n In February 1926, public school teacher Carter G. Woodson, in conjunction with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in Washington D.C., established the first Negro History Week. Givens says that it was an entirely political move, meant to call Americans\u2019 attention to black life and culture. Black newspapers picked up the story, and spread it around the country to Black readers and Black churches. By 1935, the Negro History Week was celebrated widely in Black schools and communities.<\/p>\n In the fall of 1975, esteemed members of the renamed Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History gathered in Atlanta to celebrate Woodson\u2019s birthday and to change things up. With America\u2019s bicentennial coming the following summer and considering all that had happened since Negro History Week was founded, it seemed that a Black History Month<\/em> was appropriate. The members asked the White House for a proclamation, but President Ford could only send a customary \u201cpresidential message\u201d because he didn\u2019t have congressional support. Ford\u2019s letter, says Givens, did not acknowledge historical suffering.<\/p>\n It was not until 1986 that President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation for Black History Month.<\/p>\n Black History, says author Jarvis R. Givens, is much more than what has been written. So is I\u2019ll Make Me a World<\/em>, in that it\u2019s considerably more than what its subtitle seems to offer.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not necessarily a good thing.<\/p>\n Packed with a timeline that runs longer than a century on both sides, Givens includes so much Black history here that it becomes overwhelming at times. Readers are taken back to the 19th<\/sup> century quite often and, as such, it generally takes a while to wind back to the 100 year window that you\u2019re expecting. That might not be a bad feature but strictly speaking, this book is an abundance of history but not as much Black History Month history<\/em> as it promises. More of the latter, slightly less of the former, would have made this book stellar.<\/p>\n As it is, though, it\u2019s a worthwhile read, informative, and eye-opening, but just know what you\u2019re getting.\u00a0 Do that, find I\u2019ll Make Me a World<\/em>, and get started.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" c.2026, Harper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $24.99\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 256 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor You gotta start somewhere. First, you crawled, then you toddled before you ran, which is exactly how most things are. There\u2019s a foundation from which to spring, a base from which to jump, and you need to figure out how to best proceed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-18573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18575,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions\/18575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=18573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}