Fishers, Indiana Library Actually purchases a "Black" book!

Chapter 3 in my ongoing exchanges with the Hamilton East Fishers, Indiana Library.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Fishers Library actually expended someone's funds to purchase the book "Soaring on the Wings of A Dream" by Ed Dwight the first black astronaut.  Normally when I do a search request  and see that the library does not have a book by a black author or on a topic related to black people, the library has resulted to getting the book for me via interlibrary loan rather than going out and buying the book for their holdings.  I am currently reading  "Before the Mayflower" by Lerone Bennett, Jr. courtesy of a loan from Grace College to the Hamilton East library.  The college and theological seminar is located in Winona Lake, Indiana.  I admit I had no idea the college existed prior to receiving the book.

Once I saw the library had purchased Ed Dwight's book, I did wonder why Hamilton East could not have purchased "Before The Mayflower".  I am halfway through Bennett's book and it is very educational regarding the experience of black people in this country from the early days of the 1600s on forward.  So why would Hamilton East want to deprive the citizens of Hamilton County of such knowledge?  Well it might be because some of the information in the book does not present European Americans in a very positive manner. For example, I never heard of  the Fort Pillow massacre where Confederate troops slaughtered black troops who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee during the Civil War.  I don't think there would be much celebration of the Confederate flag if stories such as what happened at Fort Pillow were part of the history told in the American educational system.  Well, I take that back.  There might be more celebrating!

So congratulations to the Hamilton East Library for doing your part to keep purity of actions as the false landscape of European American history.  I am enjoying Bennett's book and am thankful that Grace College had the courage to purchase the book for it's holdings and was willing to loan it to the resource rich Hamilton East library.

As I come across more titles and topics by minority authors, I will be nominating the books for purchase by the Hamilton East library.  European Americans need to be given the opportunity to learn the truth about racial issues in this country.  Keeping such books away from white Americans only maintains the status quo of ignorance towards other races and their experiences in these United States of America.