Ballasts for the Mind

Book recommendations for your mind and soul. If you would for me to review your book please check out my Review Policy here: https://medium.com/ballasts-for-the-mind/introducing-ballasts-for-the-mind-b8bf893fbe28

Review: The Betrayal of the Negro by Rayford Logan

I first heard about this book when I read Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Gates mentioned that The Betrayal of the Negro and Du…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Mar 29

Review: The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright

Richard Wright’s books have a way of sticking with you long after you finish reading them. This was true for me when I read Native Son in…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Mar 13

Review: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius The Annotated Edition, translated by Robin Waterfield

I have read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius three times. I read the Gregory Hays translation published in 2002 twice and then I recently…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Mar 7

Review: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

In the January/February 2009 issue of The Atlantic, the writer Hua Hsu wrote an article titled “The End of White America?”. It was…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Feb 15

Review: The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written a great book on the history of the Black Church in America. This book covers the Black religious…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Feb 1

28 Days of Wisdom for Black History Month 2021

Below you will find one piece of wisdom for you to reflect on each day in the month of February from a notable person of African descent…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Jan 31

Review: The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina 1894–1901 by Helen Edmonds

“The years between 1891 and 1899 were fitful years in the history of North Carolina.” -Helen Edmonds

Raymond Williams, PhD

Dec 20, 2020

Review: Black Reconstruction in America by W. E. B. Du Bois

This summer I read Henry Louis Gates’s book Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow. It was really good…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Dec 6, 2020

Review: Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell by Alison M. Parker

Alison Parker has written a great new biography about Mary Church Terrell, the civil rights activist and suffragist whose works spanned…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Nov 22, 2020

Review: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Weatherford and Floyd Cooper

I first learned of the Tulsa Race Massacre from an excellent history teacher when I took African American history in high school. Recently…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Oct 25, 2020

Review: Talking Back to Purity Culture: Rediscovering Faithful Christian Sexuality by Rachel…

Rachel Joy Welcher has written a powerful new book about purity culture; what it is, what it did to a generation, and how to respond to it…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Oct 25, 2020

My Favorite Quotes and Books from the Last 3 Months

Do not be discouraged if the world does not accept your offering at first. Remember- success is word and thought put into action- GO…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Sep 30, 2020

Review: Robert E Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidu

Imagine finding out everything you learned growing up was a lie, that the historical figure that you revered as a god and even ranked them…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Sep 17, 2020

Review: Down Along With That Devil’s Bones by Connor O’Neill

Down Along With That Devil’s Bones: A Reckoning with Monuments, Memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy by Connor O’Neill is a book…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Sep 4, 2020

Review: Love Matters More: How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us from Loving Like Jesus by Jared Byas

In Love Matter More, Jared Byas argues that Christians need to do a better job when connecting with people we disagree with. He writes…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Aug 30, 2020

Review: Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by…

How does the Black American experience fit into the Bible? At first glance it may not seem like it does. American history has shown that…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Aug 25, 2020

Review: His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham

His Truth Is Marching On is, to my knowledge, the first book to be released since the passing of civil rights activist and Member of…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Aug 22, 2020

Review: Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics by Avidit Acharya, Matthew…

In Deep Roots, Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen make the argument that the contemporary political views of Southern Whites…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Aug 21, 2020

Review: Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood by Jill Watts

The actor Hattie McDaniel was a complicated figure. The daughter of slaves, McDaniel began her life tagging along with her mother learning…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Jul 29, 2020

Ballasts for the Mind Digest- July 19, 2020

I originally published this on my Tiny Letter newsletter on June 30, 2020. https://tinyletter.com/rtwilliams

Raymond Williams, PhD

Jul 19, 2020

Review: The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi by Richard Grant

Natchez, Mississippi is a very eccentric and quirky city in the southwest portion of the state. It has been described as being a little…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Jul 19, 2020

Review: Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. tells the story of the rise of white…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Jun 18, 2020

Review: See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur

Release Date: June 16, 2020 from One World

Raymond Williams, PhD

Jun 8, 2020

39 Books to Read in Order to Become A Better Antiracist

In these turbulent times it may be difficult to determine what to do during these repeated episodes of racial violence and police…

Raymond Williams, PhD

Jun 3, 2020

Highlights from a Book Discussion with Jill Watts on her new book The Black Cabinet

A month ago I reviewed a new book, The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt by…

Raymond Williams, PhD

May 25, 2020

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