It's Black History Month again

I haven't started my reading yet, as I am finishing up some reading related to dementia, but I have books on the way.
I am writing now because of a question that was asked on Twitter for recommendations on a Black History Month reading list. That is a question I take seriously. I did end up making a few recommendations.
Most of them came from the lists I had assembled for previous months. I can think of books that would be good that I read for different reasons, or before I started doing this. Still, I believe that doing this every year has made a difference for me.
I also noticed a trend in which books felt most important to me.
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas A BlackmonAt the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance - A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, Danielle L, McGuireBefore the Mayflower: A History of Black America (2007 edition), Lerone Bennett Jr.
Mainly it's that they are things that are not commonly known.
Blackmon's book is important for everyone who thinks that slavery has been over since 1865, and so there are no excuses for the families who haven't caught up financially since then. There are other factors in that, which Ta-Nehisi Coates covers in "The Case for Reparations", which could also be excellent reading for this month:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
On this particular continuation of slavery there is an article by the author that I have seen being passed around as well. I haven't read it yet, but it would be a good introduction, and then the book is still there if you want to read more:
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/souths-shocking-hidden-history-thousands-blacks-forced-slavery-until-ww2
When people object to the existence of a separate history month (often disingenuously), saying it should be taught and integrated all year long, Bennett has the book for you. He not only goes over what was going on with black Americans, from colonial days on, but also the impact on all of society, which was important. You understand the United States better after reading it.
All of that is important, but one of the most important things is that it shows people doing things who are often forgotten. We read about black abolitionists and journalists before we even think of abolition happening. So often we only remember what the white people did, and what was done in a certain period; that's an incomplete picture with gaping holes.
That is a huge part of why McGuire's book is so important. It is much easier to remember the male faces of the Civil Rights Movement, but so much of the organizing and research came from women, and it was going on before it started being televised.
When we erase the work of any group - whether intentional or not - it can perpetuate the notion that only some people can contribute. If enough people accept that it becomes easy for the marginalized individuals to believe it's true. Don't believe it.
Even with Harriet Tubman, whom we remember as a black woman, we frequently forget that she had disabilities: first seizures and sleeping disorders from a head injury, and then arm and shoulder problems from an attack by the conductor and passengers on a train. Her first injury happened because she was a slave, and her second because she was black. There are reminders in knowing that, but also in seeing how much she accomplished anyway.
I could recommend other books too, but those might be the most important ones for right now.
And, since I was thinking about it, here's the full list since I've been doing this.
2010Time On The Cross, Robert William Fogel and Stanley EngermanThe Slave Community, John W BlassingameBeloved, Toni MorrisonI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
2011Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Tony MartinThe Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex HaleyRalph Bunche: An American Life, Brian UrquhartAnd the Walls Came Tumbling Down, Ralph Abernathy
2012The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca SklootBad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, James H JonesKing Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Adam HothschildAnatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong, Raymond BonnerThe Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, Wes MooreBlack Like Me, John Griffin Howard
2013Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey, Ana Maria SpagnaMirror to America, John Hope FranklinSelected Poems of Langston HughesSlavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas A BlackmonFor colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake ShangeThe American Experience: The Abolitionists (video)The House I Live In (video)
2014The Quest of the Silver Fleece, W. E. B. Du BoisBlack Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves, Art T BurtonStrange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, Jane Mayer and Jill AbramsonTo Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells, Linda O McMurrayCountee Cullen: Collected Poems, Major Jackson editorThe Harlem Hellfighters, Max Brooks and Caanan WhiteSpies of Mississippi, directed by Dawn Porter (video)Black Indians: An American Story, directed by Chip Richie (video)
2015At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance - A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, Danielle L, McGuireTheir Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale HurstonBlack Panther: The Complete Collection, Christopher Priest and othersThe Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton, 1965-2010, Lucille CliftonBreaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory, Gregory R NokesBefore the Mayflower: A History of Black America (2007 edition), Lerone Bennett Jr.