Pellissippi Library

In 1933, Mrs. Ada Wright, an African-American resident of the state of Alabama, went on a six-month, 16-country speaking tour of Europe. The trip was sponsored by the International Labor Defense, an arm of the Communist Party. Mrs. Wright was touring the world to speak out about the case against nine black youths, now famously known as the Scottsboro Boys, accused of raping two white women on a train going from Chattanooga to Memphis. Mrs. Wright had a particular interest in this case because two of the boys were her sons.
Women have sometimes been called on in the history of the United States to step forward in protest of injustice. The story of Mrs. Wright, and of many other women who played a role in the history of the United States, can be found in Women and Social Movements, 1600-2000, Scholar's Edition, a database available to members of the Pellissippi State community for their research needs. Here is a link to the article: Mrs. Ada Wright -- Mother of Two of the Scottsboro Boys -- Just Returned from Europe -- Will Make her First Public Appearance in Harlem.
To learn more about the database and research women and U.S. History, please follow this link: Women and Social Movements (in the U.S. 1600-2000) .

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If you walk by the New Book Shelf, it's hard not to notice some of the book titles. The following three in particular are real neck craners.

In Are Women Human?, the author Catherine A MacKinnon asks if women were human would they be sold into sexual slavery worldwide, veiled, silenced, and imprisoned in homes; bred, and worked as menials for little or no pay; stoned for sex outside marriage or burned to death within it; mutilated genitally, impoverished economically, and mired in illiteracy--all as a matter of course and without effective recourse?

The Frailty Myth strikes a more hopeful and upbeat note, suggesting that the difference between men and women in physical strength is a matter of learning and training and that when men and women are matched in terms of size and level of training, the strength gap closes. Author Colette Dowling who in 1981 confronted women's fear of independence in The Cinderella Complex, questions that women must accept their physical inferiority and offers that true equality isn't possible until women learn how to stand up for themselves--physically.
And finally for some practical advice for any woman who wants to move ahead career-wise is Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office 101. by Executive Coach Lois P. Frankel, Phd. According to Frankel, women hold themselves back in the corporate world by such self-defeating behaviors as working too hard, decorating their offices like their living room, feeding others, asking permission, and smiling inappropriately.

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The Library's March 2008 Newsletter is now available. Featured this month is an article about ACLS Humanities e-Books. This is a collection of full text history and humanities books that include titles such as "The Death Penalty: an American History", " The medieval idea of marriage". Read the Library newsletter for more suggested titles . Pick up a copy at the Library's Reference Desk, Satellite Campus ERCs or follow this link to the newsletter:
March 2008 Newsletter

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