These are 78 titled e-books that I have read on The Blackman’s Read Aloud Hour over the past 39 months. The purpose of my program is four-fold, first is to illuminate the issue of black illiteracy in that permeates in our communities, second is to use the read-aloud format to share the historical journey of Americans of African Descent, third is to hopefully encourage members of our community to begin reading as a tool to gain knowledge, and forth and most important develop communities of universally strategic readers.  These titles aren’t the only books I have shared on my social media read-aloud project. However, in my mind, they encompass the most important aspects of my project. For it is my belief that being able to read enables an individual to become historically fluent, thus that individual becomes a more able and competent citizen in our country.  There should be no reason why every person capable of being a strategic comprehending reader doesn’t attain the level of reading proficiency. 

1. The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass

2. The Portable Frederick Douglass

3. Down To The Crossroads

4. Be Free Or Die: Robert Smalls

5. Stokely: A Life

6. He Calls Me By Lightning: Caliph Washington

7. The Autobiography of Medgar Evers

8. Bartlett's Familiar Black Quotations

9.  Death of A King: Tavis Smiley

10. Silent Covenants: Brown v. Bd. Of Ed.

11. Writings From WEB DuBois

12. The Senator and the Sharecropper: Fannie Lou Hamer

14. Say It Loud

15. The Covenant With Black America: Tavis Smiley

16. They Say: Ida B. Wells

17. Never Caught: The Relentless Pursuit of Ona Judge By George/Martha Washington 

18. Lay This Body Down

19. A Knock At Midnight

20. Black History: History in an Hour

21. Say It Plain

22. Red Summer 

23. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community

24. Seeds of Revolution

25. Why We Can't-Wait

26. Living Black History

27. Breaking The Line

28. The Warmth of Other Sons

29. Souls Of Black Folks

30. Radio Free Dixie: Robert Franklin Williams
31. The Road To Freedom: Charles E. Cobb Jr.
32. Hope On A Tightrope: Cornel West
33. The Lost Eleven
34. Blood At The Root
35. Policing the Black Man: Angela Davis
36. Waiting ’Til The Midnight Hour: Penial E. Joseph
37. Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between The Lies: Dick Gregory
38. Selected Writings And Speeches Of Marcus Garvey
39. At The Hands Of Persons Unknown: Phillip Dray
40. The Port Chicago 50
41. The Radical King
42. The Age of Reconstruction
43. Slavery By Another Name
44. An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King
45. Barracoon
46. Black Fortunes
47. Black Titan
48. The Blood Of Emmitt Till
49. Cane
50. Capitol Men
51. The Hour of Peril
52. In The Shadow of Liberty
53. Now or Never
54. No Justice
55. The Original Black Elite
56. Redemption: The Last 30 Hours Of Martin Luther King Jr.
57. Reclaiming The Black Past
58. The Seminarian
59. Smoketown
60. A Spy In Canaan
61. Stamped From The Beginning
62. Truevine
63. Writing To Save A Life: The Louis Till File
64. The Road To Dawn
65. The New Negro
66. The Devil In The Grove
67. The Showdown
68. How To Be An Anti-Racist
69. The Debt
70. The Defender
71. The Hanging Bridge
72. Lay This Body Down
73. The Original Black Elite
74. Paul Robeson
75. War Before War
76. Riot and Remembrance
77. James and Jimmy Lee
78. Frederick Douglass

The illumination of the issue of adult and youth illiteracy in black communities is a difficult problem to accept first and conquer second.  Yet in order to recognize a problem, we must admit there is a problem.  Why did Ballou High School, in our nation’s capital admit to allowing its entire 2016-2017 graduating class to leave that school with abnormally high rates of illiteracy? How could school administrator be so caught up in showing gains that they would be willing to create those gains to the detriment of those young adults? How can those young graduates really expect to compete in today’s global economy?  Who really wants to admit after graduating from high school publicly or even privately that they have significant difficulties with literacy? In the case of illiteracy, that person must first admit to the deficiency if they ever really want to free themselves of anxiety that comes along with illiteracy?  So many of our black ancestors encountered and defeated the enemy of illiteracy. Yes, it is indeed an enemy, one that puts word darkness into one’s life. When a person struggling with illiteracy is confronted with word meaning, word recognition, word comprehension, and word understanding, the battle to meet that challenge is real. Our communities must have a handle on the skill of literacy. Now more than ever you cannot or will not be able to compete in a global world effectively without being able to read. All around you, the demand for being able to read is ever-present.  Technology has taken over many aspects of day to day living however the presumption of being able to read is still an essential element in one’s ability to be able to exist in this ever-changing world. No need to guess on what you think it says if you know exactly what it says.  

So today I am doing a 38-month update on the progress of The Blackman Read Aloud Hour. Imagine the amount of non-fiction literature that has been exposed by just one black man reading aloud?  The knowledge of the black man’s contribution to the magnificent history of these United States. Now multiply that by 100 men, 1000 men, 10,0000 men committed to eliminating illiteracy by the simple act of reading aloud. I have aligned black history with black literacy in a strategy to expand one and minimize the other.  So continue to join me from Sunday to Friday between the hours of 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM for the social media Facebook Live sessions of The Blackman Read Aloud Hour because this is one Blackman who refuses to believe that all black person shouldn’t be able to read and read aloud daily. I know that my program merits financial support. So please assist me in expanding its reach.

In 1975 a little known peanut farmer Governor from Georgia named Jimmy Carter was nowhere in the national Polls and in 1991 a little known Governor from the inconsequential state of Arkansas, Bill Clinton was nowhere in the National Polls both men were elected President the following year. This year an unknown businessman Andrew Yang is slowly climbing in the National Polls he’s now #4 behind Biden, Warren, and Sanders. With a plan to make significant economic moves towards a national guaranteed income is it possible that Andrew Yang could be the kingmaker, or should I say the missing candidate who moves from unknown to highly sought after in this upcoming 2020 presidential election? I don’t know if Yang can or does replicate the performances of Carter, or Clinton but I know Andrew Yang's statistical election numbers, as well as Andrew Yang's name recognition, is climbing somewhat like the speed of a jet fighter. This candidacy of a businessman whose campaign is entirely centered on real solutions is something that cannot be ignored right by the Democratic frontrunners for long.

He recently drew an audience in Iowa home of the first political tussle of more than 12,000 interested Iowan citizens. One thing that excites me personally about Andrew Yang is that he isn't from that slate batch of lifelong politicians. Andrew Yang is a futurist focused like a laser beam on critical issues that are sure to make problems for our nation in the coming decades. First and foremost of those issues is going to be the certainty of job losses due to technological advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. By 2030, more than 33% of working Americans will lose their jobs as a result of these technological advances. It's becoming clearer than ever that the growth of AI and robotics will eliminate a vast number of jobs. There is simply nothing that will stop this train of progress.

That is why Andrew Yang's first priority is the establishment of a guaranteed basic income to every American over the age of 18 is essential. I personally think that the age requirement should drop to 16 for urban residents to ensure more students attend and graduate from secondary schools. However, this GBI is going to be essential to fill the gaps that will occur because of job loss and it will also create an incentive for creativity or creative time for Americans to become more engaged thinkers. I really do feel that what Andrew Yang is selling Americans should be more invested in buying.

The second priority is Universal Healthcare For All. This nation is simply too sick and it needs to totally revamp the healthcare system. Obamacare was simply the beginning of the revamp not the end. It has proven to be good and some areas but not comprehensive enough in others. The reality is this a revamp system that allows medical professionals to not be motivated to overtest, overprescribe, provide unnecessary surgical procedures has caused America's healthcare to run off the financial rails. The system is failing and only a complete revamping of the failed healthcare system can put the healthcare on the correct tracks for the very first time in this nation's history.

The final key component of Andrew Yang's model of a New America is the effective utilization of human-centered capitalism. We must begin to create and understand that human capital is vitally more important than created dollar capital. The current system of capitalism isn't rewarding the many but it is rewarding enormously the few. That system of economic disparity is an equation that is doomed for failure. It is simply unsustainable as more and more workers get displaced because of technological advances. We all on shipmates on the nation's fleet and that fleet will either sink or float on our abilities to utilize every aspect of available human-centered capitalism. Andrew Yang is a new thinker. This nation needs new thinkers with fresh ideas. Ideas that press the threshold of new horizons. John F. Kennedy spoke in 1961 of a  New Frontier. He spoke of Americans asking not what the government can do for them but what Americans can do for the government or the nation. Well, that historic speech was close to 60 years now. So much has changed in our nation, so much has also failed to change. What Andrew Yang is speaking about isn't a New Frontier it is nation confronted with technological advances so far ahead of the system we live in that those advances threaten our very being. I think Andrew Yang's speech will center on how we as a nation can adapt to those advances and build a more perfect union for once, and for all.