Black History Month Reading-FREE Ebooks

Today begins Black History Month in which we celebrate the achievements of Black Americans and take a sobering look at how far we have to go to achieve equality for people of color.

As a Floridian, I watch with horror as our governor tries to erase black history in Florida and marginalize people of color, banning books from classrooms so students can't learn about Rosa Parks Frederick Douglass, or Martin Luther King Jr., or read books by Toni Morrison. It's gut-wrenching and, together, we need to raise our voices in opposition.

Ironically, the only thing Governor DeSantis ever did for the black community was posthumously pardon the Groveland Four and he wouldn't have if it weren't politically advantageous at the time.

The Groveland Four were four young black men falsely convicted of a heinous crime in Jim Crow Florida in 1949. Their story is all too familiar but stands out because Thurgood Marshall chose to represent them in their appeal. Gilbert King told the story of this shameful chapter in Florida history in his Pulitzer Prize winning book: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America.

After reading this book in college for an assignment, my son Josh decided to help the families pursue posthumous pardons for the men and, after four years and many setbacks, he was successful.

If you would like to read about his quest for justice and become inspired to start your own, I'm giving away FREE EBOOKS of our book: "Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four" for the entire month of February. 

Blurb:

Discover the incredible four-year quest for justice for The Groveland Four, and learn how to pursue your own causes, whatever they may be.

Accidental Activist is a primer for positive action, and a journey through Florida's past as well as its future. Some of the things you will learn by reading this book:

    Everything takes more time than you think 

    Nothing ever goes according to plan

    Help can come from unexpected places

    Time is on your side

    Everyone is connected

    You can reach your tipping point for success and not even realize it

    Your goals can change along the way

    Flexibility is key

Let's get started, shall we?

Book link: https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Activist-Justice-Groveland-Four-ebook/dp/B07Z5TYNT7/ref=sr_1_15?crid=1ZL1Y6Z6J91R0&keywords=barbara+venkataraman&qid=1675270554&sprefix=%2Caps%2C221&sr=8-15

 

 

 

A Virtual Trip to Canada with Gingersnaps! :-)

Check out our interview on "Fika with Vicky"! Josh and I were on Canadian radio, we made a trip to Niagara Falls without having to get on a plane. We had so much fun with Vicky and she put together a wonderful YouTube of the interview with a slideshow. We even shared our recipe for Gingersnaps!

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjxAmBD1FrA&t=9s&fbclid=IwAR1gMN0Cu8pRsPn8krW9acs0H0t6kopP54F5AaWs2FzX29P1eysMQ_m6w_Y

GINGERSNAPS 

2 1/4 cups of flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup oil
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, Mix all ingredients with electric mixer except the 1/4 cup sugar. Roll dough into 1" balls and roll in sugar. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 2" apart and bake 8 - 10 minutes until tops are cracked.

Review by Audiofile Magazine :-)

Thanks to Audiofile Magazine for a great review of our memoir/primer for grassroots activism: Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four.

Check it out here:

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/175502/

If you want a free audiobook download code, let me know in the comment section. :-)

Groveland Four Memorial Dedication

Today in Groveland, Florida, a memorial will be dedicated to the Groveland Four, the four men tortured, murdered, and wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn't commit. This event would not be happening but for the tireless efforts of my son Josh Venkataraman, who spent 4 years working to obtain posthumous pardons for the men. 

Transcribed on the plaque: “In July 1949, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Ernest Thomas — known collectively as the ‘Groveland Four’ — were accused of crimes in Lake County,” the text begins. “Eyewitness accounts, records, and subsequent investigations revealed that these men were subjected to racially motivated oppression and were never given the opportunity to legitimately defend themselves in a court of law.”

To read about Josh's incredible journey, check out our new book--Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four. 

https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Activist-Justice-Groveland-Four-ebook/dp/B07Z5TYNT7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= 

Help correct a terrible injustice by signing a petition...

Check out this article by Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts and help correct this terrible injustice by signing the petition. Thank-you!!

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article36702204.html

Here's the petition link: https://www.change.org/p/exonerate-the-groveland-four

The power of a book!

Speaking of the awesomeness of books (we were speaking about that, weren’t we?), my son Josh is a student at UF in Gainesville, FL and really isn’t much of a reader (much to my dismay), but he was required to read a book for his history class which had a profound effect on him. 

The book was the Pulitzer-Prize winning“Devil in the Grove” by Gilbert King which dealt with a horrible racist event in Florida from 1949. Four black men were falsely accused of raping a 17 year old white woman. They didn't even know each other, had alibis and there was no evidence of a rape but within 24 hours, a posse of 1,000 men led by the Sheriff hunted down one of the men and killed him. The others were brutally tortured to make them confess, although two of them refused. In a rigged trial, they were sentenced to death & the 16 year old, Charles Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison. The KKK came in and burned down black homes and businesses; the National Guard came in to control the KKK. Thurgood Marshall came down to represent them, one of his early cases. He lost, but won a retrial after appealing to the Supreme Court. After the retrial was granted, the sheriff transported the 2 prisoners, Shepherd and Irvin, drove down a dirt rode and shot them both, claiming they tried to escape. One of them played dead and lived to tell the story. Nothing ever happened to the sheriff. The 16 year old eventually got out of prison as did the wounded man, Walter Irvin, although he didn’t live long after that.

Josh was very disturbed by this book and one day, while driving back to school, he passed the sign for Groveland. He said it was like a punch in the gut—suddenly, it was a real place with real people who had been terribly mistreated. He called me and said he wanted to help exonerate the men since he knew their families had been trying to do that for decades. He thought about making a documentary (he is a film & TV production major), but decided to start a petition. He contacted the author through e-mail and the author was very nice, but said they had tried a petition before & it wasn’t successful. Then Josh tracked down Charles Greenlee’s daughter Carol in Tennessee and introduced himself and said he wanted to help. She was uncertain at first, but he convinced her. He started a petition on change.org last March and it only garnered 200 signatures. Then Josh contacted Leonard Pitts, a nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald, and convinced him to read the book. After that, Pitts interviewed Josh and Carol by phone and wrote a great article. The petition took off and, since then, there have been a dozen articles in various papers and magazines and Josh and Carol have appeared on radio shows, although they still hadn’t met. Today, the petition has 8,330 signatures and many powerful comments by the signers. https://www.change.org/p/exonerate-the-groveland-four  

Josh has been in regular contact with the author, Gilbert King and many other family members of the Groveland Four have reached out to him. Josh had to go to NY for a job fair and met up with Gilbert King there. They made a plan for Gilbert to come speak at UF for Black History Month by partnering with the Levin School of Law and the history dept. 

Then, a big surprise happened, the mayor of Groveland, Florida announced that he would publicly apologize to the families! After 69 years, this was so huge! They invited the families, as well as Gilbert King and Josh to Groveland last Tuesday and in front of 100 people and lots of press, the mayor gave his heartfelt apology to the families. It was incredible!! http://www.clickorlando.com/news/historic-apology-made-to-groveland-four

Two days, later, Gilbert King spoke at UF about his book and the Jim Crow South and then there was a panel made up of two of the family members, Gilbert King, and Josh. It was so emotional to hear the family speak about what they went through. (And Josh met Carol Greenlee finally!). And then an even bigger surprise came during the question and answer session. A blond man in his 30’s stood up and said that his great-uncle WAS the devil in the grove, his great-uncle was Sheriff Willis McCall and that he had come today to apologize to the families and then he started crying and the whole room gasped and started sniffling and crying, even the moderator. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever been through. My husband and I were so glad we drove up for that. http://www.alligator.org/news/local/article_4063ae96-d6c2-11e5-b06d-bb9b6cb08225.html

The hope for exoneration has grown stronger and the fight goes on, but I thought you would appreciate learning about the power of a book.