[CALIBK12] Richie's Picks: AIN'T NOTHING BUT A MAN: MY QUEST TO FIND THE REAL JOHN HENRY

[BudNotBuddy at aol.com]

Richie's Picks: AIN'T NOTHING BUT A MAN: MY  QUEST TO FIND THE REAL JOHN 
HENRY by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc  Aronson, National Geographic, January 
2008, 64p. ISBN:  978-1-4263-0000-4
 
"One way for local whites to take the strut out of a black  man's step was to 
put him in prison...Southerners who had just lost a war  managed to convince 
courts to put hundreds of black men in prison, including  black soldiers." -- 
from AIN'T NOTHING BUT A MAN
 
"But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and  fathers at will 
and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen  hate-filled 
policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters;  when you 
see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering  in an 
airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you  
suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to  explain 
to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement  park 
that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in  her  
eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and  see 
ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky,  and 
see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious  
bitterness toward white people...then you will understand why we find it  
difficult to wait." 
-- the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from "Letter  from Birmingham 
Jail" 
 
Over the past 24 hours, I've been watching television news  shows marking the 
fortieth anniversary of the assassination of MLK.   I've seen in-depth 
features that examine the known facts  and present snippets of conversations with 
those who  were there at the time of the tragic events of 1968  Memphis.  
 
What is the real truth concerning the FBI's, the Mafia's,  or the Klan's role 
in the assassination of Reverend King?  Will  there one day be new evidence 
unearthed when someone leaves  behind a deathbed confession?  Will someone's 
private papers reveal  unimagined and startling revelations?  Might one of 
today's adolescents  grow up to employ the Freedom of Information Act in a way that 
 significantly enlightens us about events from the days of my own  childhood?
 
History is a mystery, a swirling jigsaw  puzzle, which is repeatedly being 
reworked and reinterpreted.  Anyone  who has done research -- whether a simple 
Google search or a rigorous extended  process employing database searches, 
examinations of primary source materials,  and interviews -- will readily 
appreciate the detective work of  Professor Scott Reynolds Nelson, author of AIN'T 
NOTHING BUT A MAN: MY QUEST TO  FIND THE REAL JOHN HENRY.
 
"Studying history may seem to be about filling up with  knowledge -- like a 
car pulling into a gas station.  Once you have a full  tank, you are done.  But 
it is just the opposite.  The more you know  about the past, the more 
questions you ask.  Once you have a handle on what  others have found, you can see 
the gaps, the spaces, the places that have not  been covered.  This is exactly 
what happened to me, for even before I ever  thought about John Henry, I 
discovered that some 40,000 men, the largest  railroad workforce in the South, were 
hardly mentioned in the history  books.  Why?  I set out to learn more about 
those men.  That was  the big mystery I was trying to solve."
 
Professor Nelson eventually set his sights on  also determining whether a 
real man amongst those 40,000 inspired  the many generations of songs and stories 
about John Henry, the guy  who supposedly outdid a steam drill with the 
hammer in his hand and then  died.  And in recounting a research process spanning 
many  years -- a process of exploration, investigation, and interpretation --  
along with revealing the fruits of that quest, Professor  Nelson illustrates 
how our knowledge of history is the result of  historians working long and hard 
to ferret out and make sense  of clues about events from years ago.  We learn 
from him that luck and  inspiration, as well as determination, can play a 
role in what the  world comes to know about the truth of the past.
 
"If I was right, and the song was talking about the Virginia  Penitentiary, 
why was John Henry in prison?  Why would he have been buried  in the sand?  And 
how did that connect to the C&O and steam drills and  a contest of man 
against machine?  Every question I asked led to more  questions."
 
Through his work to shed light  on these mysteries, Professor Nelson 
uncovered details of railroad  construction and maintenance, historical tunnel 
excavation techniques, the  development of and purpose for work songs, and even the 
possible genesis of the  term "rock and roll."  
 
In tracking down information on Nineteenth Century railroad  workers and an 
imprisoned black man named John Henry -- a  man who had been rented out by a 
warden during Reconstruction as  part of a work crew -- Professor Nelson has 
provided readers an exceptional and  fascinating look at how historians create 
the written record of the past.   

Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator,  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
BudNotBuddy at aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
Caldecott  '09






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