Everyone is familiar with the traditional Christmas stories that will be shared during this holiday. Ah, but there are other Christmas stories which put a unique twist on Christmas from an African-American perspective. Collected for the first time in one source are Christmas stories told by African-Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The stories they share and their backgrounds are diverse. You have authors who were journalists, actors, educators, activists and radicals. Many of them were born into slavery and all of them suffered through the sickness of racism. Most of them were the leaders of their day such as Ida B. Wells and T. Thomas Fortune.
How are these stories different from other Christmas tales? All of the stories were serialized in Black periodicals and newspapers.They address social and economic inequities (for all people) in their society . A persistent theme of the uplift of the race by those who have the resources is a continual thread throughout the book. You will also find some amusing tales that will give you a great belly laugh! Christmas is the background but our authors stress the need for social and economic uplift with compassion for the poor.
The book gives us a brief biography of the writer, a synopsis of the story and reviews the historical context. I liked the brief introduction but felt some of the information took away from the stories themselves. Such a treasury is a must to have under the Christmas tree, a gift for Kwanzaa and as a present throughout the year. Bettye Collier-Thomas has rescued a genre of fiction long forgotten in the Black literary tradition.
