The Los Angeles Sentinel introduces “Off The Shelf,” a new column for intriguing political, social and entertaining literature and need to know novels published within the Black utopia of literature
Discover or rediscover Black History with historian, Julian Maxwell ‘In The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia’
Julian Maxwell Hayter, a historian and assistant professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond examines over thirty years of local and national politics and explores the political transformation of a city that played a critical role in the historic oppression of African Americans. “In The Dream Is Lost” In 1971 reflects the civil rights activist Curtis Holt Sr. walked into a federal office in Richmond, Virginia, and filed a lawsuit against the city under the authority of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. According to Holt, the White leaders of Richmond had purposefully diluted the power of the city’s Black voters by annexing primarily White and affluent portions of Chesterfield County. Holt charged that this vote dilution had cost him a seat on the city council. Although the U.S. Supreme Court eventually upheld the annexation, it demanded the implementation of an electoral system that allowed African Americans to vote within almost exclusively Black districts. This racial redistricting led to the election of a black-majority council and the appointment of a nationally-renowned civil rights lawyer as mayor of Richmond. Holt’s lawsuit, which had a profound impact on the political power dynamic of Virginia’s capital, was part of a much larger voting rights revolution that changed the landscape of representative democracy in America. Hayter demonstrates how middle-class African Americans, like Holt, used politics to empower their communities and how localized urban politics helped influence national voting rights policies during the civil rights movement. He goes further than most civil rights historians, however, outlining how Richmond’s Black majority council struggled to meet the challenges of economic issues beyond the sphere of politics.
Dubbed a modern-day Harriett Tubman: From prison to recovery, social advocate and author Susan Burton leads former incarcerated women to a better future in her memoir
An unsung hero, Susan Burton is a formerly incarcerated woman who understands the challenges people, especially women face when leaving prison. Her memoir, “Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women” addresses women incarcerated and living a life of freedom. Burton spent nearly two decades cycling through systems of incarceration, she was unable to find work, housing or addiction-recovery treatment. In spite of those obstacles, she mercifully gained freedom and sobriety in 1997 and made it her life’s work to help other women who walk in her shoes. She lives out her testimony, recalling a prison guard telling her ‘You’ll be back’ and I came back. I came back and led women up out of that place,” said Burton. Burton houses and supports formerly incarcerated women for successful community re-entry, family reunification and individual healing. “I know that what I do rescues people, and allows them to have an analysis of what’s happening in their lives and breaks them free of the criminal justice system,” states Burton. “I do the work because it needs to be done, so I picked up the banner to help women escape the prison system,” said Ms. Burton who spent two decades in and out of prison. “My intent for writing about my life is to elevate the conversation about the mass incarceration of women,” said Ms. Burton. “I want to increase opportunity and create solutions.” She has helped more than 1,000 women out of the system.
