Book Review: How the Word is Passed

 

 

 

 

 

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, by Clint Smith

Little, Brown and Company
June 2021

Reviewed by Carolyn Webb

I first heard Clint Smith being interviewed by Terry Gross on “Fresh Air” (Fresh Air, NPR, June 1, 2021).   His new book, “How the Word is Passed”, had just been published. His easy manner of speaking belied the seriousness of his topic – how Americans teach, talk about, and even sometimes celebrate our history of slavery.

 

 

Smith visited many of the iconic places of slavery – Jefferson’s Monticello, The Whitney Plantation, Angola Prison, Galveston Island,

Goree Island, the Blanford (confederate) Cemetery, and New York City. As he tours these places, you feel you are along on the tour with him, listening to the tour guides, seeing the places, hearing the words of the confederate celebrators. He asks hard questions, even when he is the only Black person there. He sometimes returns a second time to talk to the tour guides and directors again, to walk the grounds again. His thoughtful writing makes this a fast, but not easy, read. It is a book I’m going to read again, to take it all in again. I want to remember it.

In the Epilogue, he interviews his grandparents. The first sentence is: “My Grandfather’s Grandfather was Enslaved.”  It is stunning to think of how close in time that is to the present.

Smith is also a poet, and his book of poetry, Counting Descent, is a collection of 61 poems, many of which had me holding my breath to the end. It is published by Write Bloody Publishing, 2016. He was awarded the 2014 National Poetry Slam championship. He is also a writer for the Atlantic Monthly.

Here are some links to interviews and reviews of Smith’s book, including a NYT review, NPR article, and