NEW Article: On The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Hello Deathling Darlings! 

How is February treating you? 

Don't worry, I won't bore you with MORE Patreon pledge talk, I just want to take a second to say a quick THANK YOU to all our Patrons old and new. You gave Sarah, Louise, and me LIFE in the form of DEATH this month. 

Anyway, back to the CONTENT. We have a new article on The Order website this week! 

In "Reckoning With Our History at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice," founding Order member Kelly Christian examines how the memorial, the first of its kind, creates a dialogue for acknowledging and honoring the legacy of enslaved Black people. 

And if that isn't enough, Sarah has compiled a reading list for you (everyone say, "Thank you Sarah!"). Here's a note from her: 

There are so many wonderful and important books and articles available, it was really hard to just pick a few! I tried to include a variety of subjects from history, to memoirs, to photography, and contemporary issues - so there should be something here that interests everyone, however that being said, this is important history we should all know. 

Books:

Passed On: African American Mourning Stories – Karla FC Holloway
Holloway demonstrates that ways of dying are just as much a part of black identity as ways of living.

The Blood of Emmett Till – Timothy B. Tyson
This book reexamines a pivotal event of the civil rights movement—the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till—“and demands that we do the one vital thing we aren’t often enough asked to do with history: learn from it.”

African American Historic Burial Grounds and Gravesites of New England – Glenn Knoblock
This volume covers the burial sites of African Americans–both enslaved and free–in each of the New England states, and uncovers how they came to their final resting places.

Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home – Sheri Booker
A darkly comic memoir about coming of age in a black funeral home in Baltimore.

To Serve the Living : Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death – Suzanne E. Smith
From antebellum slavery to the twenty-first century, African American funeral directors have orchestrated funerals or “homegoing” ceremonies with dignity and pageantry.

The Harlem Book of the Dead – James Van Der Zee
A poignant look at black history through Harlem death photography by the famous photographer James Van Der Zee.

Rejoice When You Die – Leo Touchet
Rejoice When You Die  documents the lively history of jazz funerals in the heyday of the late 1960s, when they were still an honor bestowed only on jazz musicians.

Articles:

Baltimore’s Mount Auburn Cemetery: Autonomously African and Free From White Control 

The Disappearance of a Distinctively Black Way to Mourn

Black Funeral Directors and the Black Lives Matter Movement

Not Just the Funeral: Queen Sugar Puts the African-American Burial Tradition On Full Display 

Real American Death Hero: Tyrone Muhammad