WE’RE ZOOMING WITH THE DAWG ON THURSDAY!  HOPE YOU CAN JOIN ME AND KELLY JANES AS WE FOCUS ON CHILD FIND ISSUES.  FREE FOR ALL LOYAL DAILY DAWG SUBSCRIBERS.

I’ve got three books to recommend to you on this day when we honor the great American leader, Martin Luther King.  First, there is The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. This book tells the story of the Great Migration of African-Americans from the rural south to the cities of the north and west in the decades following World War I.  The book focuses on three people, one of whom moved from Mississippi to the South Side of Chicago, not far from where I grew up.   

My second recommendation is On Juneteenth by Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed.  Dr. Gordon-Reed, now a Harvard professor, tells what it was like to be the first African-American student in the Conroe ISD. This would be an excellent book study for a school faculty group, or as an assignment to students. On Juneteenth, is an easy read that will touch your heart and provoke some serious thinking.  It’s an honest look at our recent history. 

The latest book I read touching on race relations is How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith. It’s about how we remember and memorialize our country’s checkered past. 

We can’t ever fulfill Dr. King’s dream without taking a searching and fearless moral inventory of our past as a country.  These three books all facilitate that process.  It’s not about shaming today’s citizens for what happened in the past. But shame on us if we are not willing to examine past events and reflect on how they reverberate today.

DAWG BONE: LET’S KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE.

Got a question or comment for the Dawg?  Let me hear from you at jwalsh@wabsa.com. 

Tomorrow: Toolbox Tuesday!!