Black History Month & Campbell's Your Blues Ain't Like Mine

 As Black History Month wraps up, we have this article from yesterday's Politico: "Obama hosts Black History Month reception:"

President Obama is hosting a Black History Month reception at the White House on Wednesday, an official told POLITICO. The president planned to speak at the afternoon event. Attendees included Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Phylicia Rashad, Stevie Wonder, Hank Aaron and Magic Johnson, the official said. The reception after Obama attended the midday unveiling of a statue of civil rights leader Rosa Parks at the Capitol.

Best novel involving African-American history? I think many people would choose something by Toni Morrison or Alice Walker, but I could never get into their writing styles. Instead, I would recommend the under-appreciated Bebe Moore Campbell and her novel Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, which is loosely based on the Emmett Till murder:

The supreme court ruling on desegregation blew winds of change in Hopewell, Mississippi where the classes--monied, poor whites, and blacks--knew their places. When a 15-year-old African-American unknowingly crosses the accepted line, he is brutally murdered by a poor white, setting in motion a series of events that leave no one in the town untouched. Powerful in emotion (from understated to explosive), propelled by unstoppable forces, the book is compelling reading. It exposes family, race, and class divisions in America from the 1950s to the present...