What’s On My Mind (and My Reading List) — June 2025
Marching on the Road to Freedom!
The time has come once again, not only for the summer but for my annual pilgrimage to the sites of the Civil Rights Movement. In mid-June, I’ll be reading a number of these books as I travel everywhere from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Memphis, Tennessee.
This list continues my exploration of African-American literature—a throughline of this year’s reading lists—as well as my exploration of the world of poetry. I particularly wanted to explore the history of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee through the perspective of its most prominent leaders. Among them are John Lewis (pictured above at the far right) and Stokley Carmichael, who would later go by the name Kwame Ture.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
SNCC: The New Abolitionists by Howard Zinn
Stokley Carmichael/Kwame Ture
Black Power: The Politics of Liberation by Kwame Ture & Charles V. Hamilton
Saying It Loud: 1966―The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement by Mark Whitaker
Stokely: A Life by Peniel E. Joseth
Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism by Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Ture)
John Lewis
His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by John Meacham
John Lewis: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations (The Last Interview Series)
Run by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, and Nate Powell
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis w/ Michael D’Orso
Poetry
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes edited by Arnold Rampersad
The Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 by Nikki Giovanni
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