The Need to Know
Posted on February 19, 2026
I sometimes wonder if Black History Month is deliberately our shortest month (February), as if to shorten yet another moment for unveiling and sharing the truth.
Whatever. I’ve been blessed with two events this month, both public and in-person in Ann Arbor. The first, at Schuler’s Books, drew some 60 or more people. Seating and books both ran out. The questions and statements were rich, and continued on email afterward.
Many in the audience shared what they’d learned (or not) about racism while growing up in the civil rights era and later. I was struck by how much people remembered and regretted the lies we were given as kids, the communal silence, even in the North. Another reminder of how necessary it is to share what we know and don’t know, to go back to our own histories and try to untangle the myths.
A recurrent question asked of me was: How did you feel when you discovered the worst about your ancestors?
Then and now, my answer persists and changes and evolves.
And what are your answers?
At Schuler’s Books, February, with fellow speaker and dear friend John Woodford.