Book Feature- Black Was the Ink
Michelle Coles is a young adult author and 2006 valedictorian of Howard University School of Law, who takes steps to ensure the young black community sees the oppression of the past and present. She wants the community to know about the dangers, so they can be their own change. Coles is a civil rights attorney, novelist, and mom. With her accomplishments in mind, she wants her legacy and the young community she hopes to inspire to be different than the legacy before them. Slavery and oppression tends to follow in some aspect no matter how far you move forward, and she wants to make sure her children, and other’s, are aware and know it when they see it.
Black Was the Ink by Michelle Coles follows a young, despondent, and depressed 16 year old teen boy throughout his coming-of-age in DC and his family’s farm in Mississippi.
This book signifies success when success seems too far out of reach, and it signifies the heroes that shaped black history month in the first place. It is a constant reminder that even when the state of the world seems grim, not all hope is lost when people take a stand to try and be the change they want to see in the grimness.
Malcolm gets a view out of his ancestor’s, Cedric Johnson’s, eyes from 1866. In doing so, he meets Black statesmen who fought for change. With meeting these unsuccessful men who sought to change the future, he has been showed the reality that even fighting sometimes leads to no change at all, and success seems even more out of reach than when you started. Malcolm’s faith continues to dwindle when he sees no point or value in his own future when he sees all the great men that still couldn’t call success fully theirs.
Malcolm has to make a choice, follow Cedric’s experiences and continue to strive for light, or give up and carry on doing nothing so defeat never has to hang over him.
Michelle Coles pushes bounds and beliefs with this book, striving to make people take their stance even if its small and seemingly unequivocal. Coles has continued to inspire and mold minds no matter the discrimination or prosecution they may have faced in the past or present. She strives to help young black people find their stance, power, and voice throughout any and all obstacles or odds.
Black history month continues to be an asset in how society came to be, and it will continue to shape others to make their own changes even when it seems hard to see any light at all.
Black Was the Ink is available at Binya, and this ghostly story of growing up and finding your place is definitely on our must read list of books during this Black History Month!
