Black Ink: The Power of Reading and Writing

Guest: Stephanie Stokes Oliver, Author, Editor, “Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power and Pleasure of Reading and Writing” Throughout American history, black people are the only group of people to have been forbidden by law to learn to read. An enslaved person caught reading, in certain states, could be put to death. So, learning to read and write became an act of resistance for enslaved people. And, in many ways, it has remained so for African Americans.  That theme runs through the new book, “Black Ink,” which is a compilation of essays and excerpts by 25 black writers spanning two and a half centuries. They include Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Colson Whitehead.