PERSPECTIVE: Black writers from Cuba, the United States explore book bans

HAVANA, Cuba – Three years after the end of the U.S. Civil War and the Constitutional amendments that freed Black people, made them citizens, and gave the men voting rights, these new citizens advocated for an end to slavery in Cuba.In 1868, a petition was offered to then-President-elect Ulysses Grant, but the 18th commander in chief did not accept it. Slavery continued at America’s Caribbean island neighbor for 18 more years until 1886.Now, almost 150 years later, Black writers and scholars from both countries are fresh off of a gathering in Havana to explore the banning of books and where both countries stand in terms of racism.“Book banning of African Americans is colonialism and reductivism, persistent racism and subjugation,” Marta Bonet, president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, said at the five-day symposium.“We are here with great purpose,” said DeWayne Wickham, leader of the 25-member U.S. delegation. “We are under siege in the United States,” added Wickham, an emeritus dean at HBCU Morgan State University, Baltimore.“We’re here because we have a friend, and a connection that is 150-years-old.”“Banning Black Books, Silencing Black Voices: America’s Apartheid,” took place at the Casa de las Americas, a cultural center in...