[NorthMountain]

The first books they read should have black authors.

Well that right there is a bigger problem than not reading at all. Reading racist crap is worse than remaining ignorant.

[Verginius Rufus]

My mother's favorite book when she was little was Little Black Sambo. I don't know if the author was black.

The Roman poet Terence, who was from Africa, said, "I am a human being. I consider nothing human to be alien to me." That's a better attitude. Why not learn and appreciate anything of value from anywhere on earth? Why restrict yourself to one-seventh (perhaps) of the human race? When it comes to reading books worth reading, probably a lot less than one-seventh are by black authors, considering that most of Africa was illiterate until recently and it was only about 1900 or so that the literacy rate among black Americans got up to 50%.