A 2026 Reading Challenge to Honor Black History Month

It’s one thing to make a mistake, misspelling a word or misquoting a date or material fact. Those errors can be corrected or noted for what it was, a mistake. It’s another thing to intentionally ‘soften’ or ‘roughen up’ facts that are to serve as historical references for heirs (or fans) to glean insight.

Now, just in general, and quoting one of my mother’s old adages, “the beat will go on.” Oh, man I used to get so annoyed when she said that one. “No mom! We are not moving on! This issue must be remedied.” But it took (my quote) “living and learning…” thanks mom, to understand why she refused to talk about her young life. Blotting things out and refusing to store them was her beat.

The point, or rather confession here… it was a long time before I could read books written by black Americans on topics of what they had to overcome. Gosh, I read one of those books, and never forgot it, about a little girl and her young brother, Lord Jesus, and what they went through. And this story was written back in the day when stories weren’t so glamped up. The narrative was written like every day, same ‘ole, and like my mother used to echo “…and so the beat goes on.”

Eventually I read ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou and the ‘Diary of Anne Frank’, and quite a bit of true crime before I got a handle on my reading habits, though still, I have a tough time reading (really) any book that does not have that ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ effect. I call it the redeeming factor. 

This is why the reading challenge I’ve come up with this year, to celebrate Black History Month, is likely to be a difficult task. Normally I close books not riding with my mood. But this year, instead of challenging myself to read a given number of books, I’ve decided to attempt reading and finishing, and writing my sincere thoughts on the following autobiographies/memoirs: Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington. Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Phases by Brandy. And Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones by Quincy Jones.

Fingers crossed and no cheating, I’m rooting for, in advance, all good reads! 

#BlackHistoryMonth #EducationisKey #ChallengeAccepted #StillWriting #HappyValentine #JustBlogged