The 10 Best Black Books of 2009 (Non-Fiction)

March 22, 2010

Thought Leaders

1. Sugar of the Crop: My Journey to Find the Children of Slaves

by Sana Butler

Who even knew that any children of slaves were still alive? A debt of gratitude is owed to Sana Butler for compiling this bittersweet collection of revealing interviews with the offspring of folks freed by the Emancipation Proclamation well over a century ago. What makes this book special is how seamlessly the author contrasts her aging subjects’ fading recollections with her own expectations of them and her intimate reflections about being black and female in present-day America.

Consider her account of meeting 99 year-old Walter Scott at the Sulphur Spring Baptist Church, which begins: “Mr. Scott was waiting for me in the fellowship hall, sitting at the end of a collapsible picnic table covered with a checkered red-and-white plastic cloth, surrounded by women in white usher uniforms carrying grits and scrambled eggs in black iron skillets. One hand rested on top of his walking cane, the other held a black Bible in his lap.”

It’s such well-crafted descriptions which elevated Sugar of the Crop to the top of the list. Thanks to Sana Butler, a bounty of priceless pearls of wisdom and whimsy have been preserved for posterity via this seminal contribution to the nation’s folklore.

Excerpt: 'The Death And Life Of The Great American School System' by Diane Ravitch

From Chapter 6: NCLB: Measure and Punish

My support for NCLB remained strong until November 30, 2006. I can pinpoint the date exactly because that was the day I realized that NCLB was a failure. I went to a conference at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. — a well-respected conservative think tank — to hear a dozen or so scholars present their analyses of NCLB's remedies. Organized by Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn Jr., the conference examined whether the major remedies prescribed by NCLB — especially choice and after-school tutoring — were effective. Was the "NCLB toolkit" working? Were the various sanctions prescribed by the law improving achievement? The various presentations that day demonstrated that state education departments were drowning in new bureaucratic requirements, procedures, and routines, and that none of the prescribed remedies was making a difference.