"Four Hundred Souls"

“The history of Black America has been almost spiritual. Striving to survive the death that is racism. Living through death like spirits. Forging a soulful history. A history full of souls. A soul for each year of history. Four Hundred Souls.” -Ibram X. Kendi

As we begin the month of March, it is understood that the significance of Black history will resonate beyond the month of February. Ibram Kendi and Keisha Blain’s new release, Four Hundred Souls, will assist us in remembering that Black History is significant 365 days of the year.

“The true story of America begins here, in 1619. This is our story. We must not flinch.”, states Nikole Hannah-Jones concluding the first excerpt. And, the concluding excerpt provides hopeful words from editor, Keisha B. Blain. With realism and optimism, Blain states that, “the task ahead is not an easy one. But we can help chart out our path that leads us all to a better future”. Four Hundred Souls takes you on a journey of America from Black voices, experiences and truth from 1619, to the present.

With a compilation of contributions from 90 authors, this new release is comprehensive and insightful telling the stories that aren’t told in traditional text illustrating American History. And, I have to say it! Where was this when we were school age?! While I was grateful to have access to the work of historians that shared the truth of American history in the library, navigating the rows of bookselves as well as countless views of microfilm and VHS tapes was no small task. To remember the hours spent on school lectures, class texts, and homework assignments silent in my knowing of what was untold, mis-stated and re-imagined in traditional or classic text to repress power. I must call it what it was, torture. Torture that is normalized through experiences in school where the U.S. forefathers were glorified and the experiences of African-Americans were ignored. It would have been nice to flash this single text in front of the eyes of my high school U.S. History teacher, whom was somehow qualified to teach however couldn’t ever pronounce my name (Note to self: a story that would require its own blog post). In this single text, offered like a gift from editors, Kendi and Blain, “is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present” (Four Hundred Souls).