@umbrarchist that is an excellent question for the forum? the ten must have's mandatories... lot of books to sift through, that is a challenge. One thing is for certain, some big names have to be off that list in all earnest. The literary heritage of the black populace in the usa is quite grand, to just have ten books.. that is a challenge.
What would be 10 books that the Black literati could agree on?
@Pioneer1 you just dictated what the exoduster movement was all about. but why did they fail? yes, whites burned/isolated/harmed/poisoned many, potentially all, of their towns. But what was the problem with other blacks?
well... The black colleges, Booker t washington, mostly financed by white churches, knew the distant locations for the exodusters, who had to go west to start fresh, was too far for the connection to white churches, especially in congregation.
The talented tenth, web dubois, were anti seperatists, they wanted a complete positive integration
Garveyites were supportive, many exodusters were garveyites, the idea of a black city in a state in the usa, isn't the exact garveyite goal, but it has enough black empowerments and para isolationism that it gelled.
Frederick Douglass, the most vocal black leader at the time, was vehemently against the exodusters. It isn't that he hated black empowerment but truly believed in the composite nation future of the usa, a myriad of peoples , like highly multicolored marble. The peoples are not the same but are so tightly bound to each other they are one, and the separatism of the exodusters was in opposition to that.
Like what you say, the exoduster movement wasn't anti usa, or even at its heart anti white, but it was black empowerment/safety/flexibility within the usa aside the enemy white populace in the usa.
So the exoduster movement has been dead for over one hundred years and the modern black populace , circa 2025 , unlike in the late 1800s, is highly urbanized so... what you call for is functional, but that is a task.
I argue for what it is worth focusing on black towns or counties in the usa with a populace 75% and above which is black and growing one/a set/or long term them all them from the black urban populaces or black populaces that live in white cities or counties.
white man says, three cities over 100,000 people have a populace that is over seventy five percent black.
Detroit, wayne county[which is majority white] , michigan state which is majority white
Jackson , hinds county[ which is majority black], mississippi state which is majority white
South Fulton, fulcton county [ which is half black], georgia state which is majority white
Now how many counties are majority black, over fifty percent black in the usa, by white man's account
Mississippi 25 - and yes white man list hinds as one
Georgia 22
Alabama has 11
South Carolina 9
Virginia 9
North Carolina 8
Louisiana 7
arkansas 6
US virgin islands 3 - 100% of the counties of the us virgin islands, the only state/territory with 100% black counties
Tennessee 2
Puerto rico 1
maryland 3
florida 1
So based on citiies over 100,000 in the usa plus comparing states with the most black counties. Start in Jackson Mississippi and include all the other black counties. or try the virgin islands
Population matters, trust me, black people try to sell strategy, I don't care how much money or how attune you are, if you don't have the numbers, sooner or later the majority will hurt you. So go Pioneer! We all believe in you.
I think for AfroAmericans a certain amount of SEPARATION from the White community and other non-FBA communities for that matter is not only healthy for us but will lead to much greater prosperity for OUR community in the future.
@Troy It is interesting, the black neighborhoods in nyc/la or other white cities were broken up by more positive integration but I argue, said action exposed what separates a black neighborhood in a white city from a black populace in a black city. A Black Neighborhood in a white city, like harlem, has a huge problem, that it can't evade. It isn't the majority. when I look at the history of harlem, it is clear to me that in an elected system you need the votes, you do. The white orthodox jewish neighborhoods problem in new york city with the schools is that , once one of their own started that court case, the money + influence is simply not enough. And their schools are getting penalized. Their money is making it not as hard as if harlem when black had such terrible grades. And the proof is, Guiliani + Bloomberg pushed charter schools in harlem, with a lot of black help, even though the average grading of black children in harlem was average to better. It wasn't negative like the white orthodox jewish students who by state run test assessments had over 90% failure. Troy can you imagine what black elected officials would say if any black populace in nyc had over 90% failure on state run test? Like David Dinkins tenure with crime, Black students in NYC have been falsely criminalized as failing dangerously, when the truth is, they kept up with the average. The problem is, it wasn't 100% or 0% and too many black people keep wanting that in all things for black folk. But, post vent, the white jewish community had to accept school closings and a state monitor, even though they didn't want to. And that is because you need the votes.
Note, Detroit in the 1950s/1960s/1970s, with the Black Flight, was majority white, a white city. Detroit became majority Black, a Black city, in the 1980s after the collapse of the usa auto industry and the collapse of detroit as the auto capitol. The Black sin is, while whites were leaving detroit en masse,Motown, the weatlhiest black owned firm, from Detroit, chose to leave Detroit while it was still majority white, for a white city.
however, in desperation to integrate we effectively destroyed many black communities as the professionals and working middle class abandoned “separate” black neighborhoods in favor of white ones. This has been bad too.