In honor of Black History Month, Parks Library has continued the tradition to place a collection of books about and written by African American men and women.

Some of the books include “The Crunk Feminist Collection, Fannie Lou Hamer: The Life of a Civil Rights Icon,” and “Herstories: Leading with the Lessons of the Lives of Black Women Activists.”

These books show different perspectives and stories of the people that came before us. It is fascinating to see how far communities of color, like the African American community, have come and how much further they are to go.

The “Crunk Feminist Collections” is written by Brittney C. Cooper and edited by Susana M. Morris and Robin M. Boylorn. Cooper is an assistant professor at Rutgers University and has also provided her work in the New York Times, the Washington Post and many others. Morris is an associate professor of English at Auburn University and Boylorn is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama.

These three black professors first started a blog where they spoke on how race and gender politics intersect with pop culture and current events.

Like many people of color in our present day, these three women felt their daily jobs lacked the real and relevant conversations that their collections consist of. Their essays collection include “Sex and Power in the Black Church,” discuss how “Clair Huxtable is Dead” and touch on “Dating with a Doctorate (She Got a Big Ego)?”

Cooper, Morris and Boylorn describe themselves as “critical homegirls” as they take on a life where they are stuck between loving hip hop and ratchet culture but also hate patriarchy, misogyny and sexism.

Earnest N. Bracey is the author of “Fannie Lou Hamer: The Life of a Civil Rights Icon.” His book is about Fannie Lou Hamer, one of Mississippi’s prominent civil rights activists. Hamer is known for her speech-making in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She fought her entire life to expand freedom and basic rights to African Americans in the United States.

It is important for books and essays to be published on contributions made by those in the past. It has lead to people being more aware and acknowledge those who had created change. This book continues the history of Hamer as many people like myself had not been exposed to her story.

This book serves as a reason in which Black History Month is important to our everyday lives. It allows us to become more educated on people and topics that sadly are not touched upon during most of our educations.

Another book Parks put on their stand is “Herstories: Leading with the Lessons of the Lives of Black Women Activists.” Written by Judy A. Alston and Patrice A. McClellan, these women wrote the novel to show explore representation within the historically underrepresented black women leaders.

From women including Septima Clark, who was an educator and Civil Rights activist and is referred to as the “Grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement” and Shirley Chisholm, who in 1968 became the first black woman elected to United State Congress and in 1972 was the first black candidate for a major American political party. The novel discusses women who embodied the history, politics and educational aspirations of African Americans.

This book honors the accomplishments leading African American women accomplished.

it is important to keep texts like this one in order to continue to educate ourselves to know the people who made change in the past so people now can continue to make further change.

As our history consists of voices that were white and male, these books and essays and others that Parks Library exposed has brought forth knowledge to our campus. For this reason we honor people of color past and present in order to remember and continue shaping history.