View a discussion with the author hosted by NMAAHC.
Author Michelle Coles is available for virtual classroom visits. Read more about the book in a teachers’ guide.
A dynamic look at how the past can inform the future. Malcolm’s anger over the plight of Black Americans will resonate with many readers and open the minds of others. Meticulous details and a leisurely pace lead to a realistic but uplifting conclusion. This engaging and timely novel, showcasing atrocities and highlighting joyous moments, will likewise transport its readers. As he understands the parallels with his present, Malcolm realizes how to enact change to save his family’s farm. Malcolm witnesses the strides made by formerly enslaved people and how they were undone by determined to preserve inequalities, as well as meeting prominent Black political figures of the time. Through Cedric’s words, Malcolm is transported back in time to the Reconstruction era - not just that, during these episodes, he actually becomes Cedric. Malcolm doesn’t fully understand the significance of this until he finds an old diary written by a certain Cedric Johnson. Shortly after arriving, he discovers that what land remains is in jeopardy of being stolen by the state to expand the highway, a repeat of an earlier injustice that privileged land belonging to white people. Malcolm has been sent to his family’s farm in Natchez, Mississippi, for the summer following a traumatic interaction with the police in his hometown of Washington, D.C. In Black Was the Ink, the Reconstruction era comes alive for a 16-year-old boy with the help of his ancestor.
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