Josephine School House

JSMC Book Club

The Josephine School Community Museum Book Club was begun to promote literacy and cultural understanding. The subjects are timely and the discussions lively.

Our 2023 book selection is How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, a collection of essays by Clint Smith focusing on historical sites and landmarks connected to the transatlantic slave trade. Each session will cover two of the essays.

The first session will be in-person; future sessions may be a hybrid of in-person and virtual via Zoom. Please join us.




2023 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)

 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Non-Fiction “How the Word Is Passed”
by Clint Smith
“Monticello Plantation”
“The Whitney Plantation”
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
April 30, 2023
3:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
June “How the Word Is Passed”
“Angola Prison”
“Blandford Cemetery”
Sunday
June 25, 2023
3:00 PM
August “How the Word Is Passed”
“Galveston Island”
“New York City”
Sunday
August 27, 2023
3:00 PM
October “How the Word Is Passed”
“Goree Island”
New Orleans - Summary
Sunday
October 29, 2023
3:00 PM


 

2020 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)

 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Non-Fiction “Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County”
by Kristen Green
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
April 26
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
June Historical Fiction “The Nickel Boys”
by Colson Whitehead
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
June 14
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
August Non-Fiction “Collective Amnesia: American Apartheid” Gene Betit Sunday
August 9
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
October
Fiction
God Help the Child”
by Toni Morrison
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
October 11
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum


 

2019 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)

 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Non-fiction “Becoming”
by Michelle Obama
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
April 7
3:00 - 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
June Non-fiction “Barracoon:  The Story of the Last Black Cargo”
by Zora Neale Hurston
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
June 9
3:00 - 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
August Non-fiction “Freedom Writer: Virginia Foster Durr, Letters from the Civil Rights Years” Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
August 11
3:00 - 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
October
Non-fiction
Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationlist”
by Eli Saslow
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
October 13
3:00 - 5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum


 

2018 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)

 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Non-fiction “Where Do We Go From Here”
by
Martin Luther King, Jr
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
April 8
3:00 -5:00pm
Josephine School Community Museum
June Non-fiction “John Brown to James Brown”
by
Ed Maliskas
Ed Maliskas Sunday
June 10
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
August Non-fiction “I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street”
by
Matt Taibbi
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
August 12
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
October
Non-fiction
“We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy”
by
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Josephine School Community Museum\ Sunday
October 14
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum



2017 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)


 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Fiction “The Underground Railroad”
by
Colson Whitehead
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
April 9
3:00 -5:00pm
Josephine School Community Museum
June Non-fiction “Undocumented”
by
Dan-el Padilla Peralta
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
June 4
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
August Non-fiction “The Presidency in Black and White”
by
April Ryan
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
August 13
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
October
Non-fiction
“Hidden Figures”
by
Margot Lee Shetterly
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
October 8
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum


 

2016 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)


 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Non-fiction "Between the World and Me"

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
April 24
3:00 -5:00pm
Josephine School Community Museum
June Poetry,
Middle Grade

"Brown Girl Dreaming"

by Jacqueline Woodson

 
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
June 19
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
August
CANCELLED
Non-fiction "A Promise Fulfilled"

by Julia Jeter Cleckley
TBA Sunday
TBA
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
October
Non-fiction
"Just Mercy"

by Bryan Stevenson
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
October 9
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum

 


2015 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)


 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Non-fiction “Hidden in Plain View”

by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard
Nancy Thompson

Shenandoah Piecemakers
Sunday
April 19
3:00 -5:00pm
Josephine School Community Museum
June Historical Fiction “Aggy of Zion”

by Barbara Frank
 
Barbara Frank Sunday
June 14
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
August
 
Non-fiction “From Loudoun to Glory”

by Kevin Grigsby
Kevin Grigsby Sunday
August 23
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
October
Non-fiction
“History of Douglas School
Winchester, Virginia”


by Judy Humbert and
June Gaskins-Davis
Judy Humbert Sunday
October 18
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum

 


2014 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE


 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April   “Twelve Years a Slave”

by Solomon Northup
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
April 13
3:00 -5:00pm
Josephine School Community Museum
June   “First Class”
The Legacy of Dunbar,
America’s First Black Public High School”

by Alison Stewart
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
June 8
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
August
 
  “Who Asked You?” 

by Terry McMillian
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
August 10
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
October
 
“Faithful To The Task at Hand” 

by Ann Pruitt-Logan 
Josephine School Community Museum Sunday
October 12
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum




2013 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE
(downloadable PDF available here)

 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
April Non-Fiction Through Children’s Eyes: President Obama and the Future Generation.

By
Dr. Helen Bond et al.,(2012)
Helen Bond, and Bernadine Barr Sunday
April 21
3:00 -5:00pm
Josephine School Community Museum
June Poetry The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998
 
Helen Carr Sunday
June 9
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
August
CANCELLED
Historical The Sumner Story: Capturing Our History Preserving Our Legacy

by
Dr. Wilma Bonner et al.,
Wilma Bonner Sunday
August 18
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum
October
Biography
American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama

by Rachel L. Swarns
Helen Bond Sunday
October 20
3:00-5:00 pm
Josephine School Community Museum

 



2012 JSCM BOOK SCHEDULE

 

Month Genre Title/Author Facilitator Date Location
APRIL Non-Fiction Red Tails
An oral history of the Tuskegee Airmen

By John B. Holway
John Burns April 22
3:00-5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
June Short Stories I Got Somebody in Staunton

By William Henry Lewis
Helen Carr June 24
3:00-5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
August Non-Fiction The New Jim Crow
by Michelle Alexander


Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness
Dorothy Davis August 19
3:00-5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum
OctobeR Non-Fiction TBA Adeela Al-Khalili October 21
3:00-5:00 PM
Josephine School Community Museum