The Color of Strength: Embracing the Passion of Our Culture

The Color of Strength is an anthology that is dedicated to showcasing the beauty of the Black culture. It is divided into three sections. The first section has short stories and folk tales. The last section has short autobiographies and essays. The overarching message in each of these stories is consistent with the theme of preservation of culture and providing for hope for future generations. An additional component of the message is that past is prologue for the future. If we are to present new ideas to protect our culture from this onslaught of negativity we must look to our past to find answers. The great historian, John Hope Franklin, taught us just how important our past was to the future. Each of our writers delivered that message in their entertaining and informative short stories. The essays and short autobiographies complement the short stories in the first section by supporting the messages delivered in fiction with real life experiences through a non-fiction genre. Their messages are also very clear and succinct. Black Americans regularly overcome obstacles and accomplish goals they have set for themselves all over this country. The old folks used to tell the young that they had to be twice as good to make it in this country. Theirs was a very basic message that you could never quit and no matter how difficult the road, through sheer will power and determination, you could make it. Our authors have passed that message on to our young readers through their words of encouragement, based on their own personal will to overcome and achieve. The saying we saved the best for last, might be appropriate when describing the third and final section of the anthology. There is a special quality found in the pages of Legacies of Courage. When you survey the names and titles included in this section you are instantly impressed. With short essays on Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, the Tuskegee Airmen, Nevil Shed and his teammates who won the 1966 National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball Championship, Ida B. Wells, Reverend Claude Black and Reverend James Sanders; each a hero in their own right, of whom we can be proud. Their deeds convince us that we all must embrace the passions of our culture, and that the future of our people will be determined by how well we incorporate what they did, as part of our being Black and American, which is an exceptional combination.