Black History Month: New Book "Love Stories from the Underground Railroad" Show What Real Love Is

It's Black History Month, and the Tiecheman Blog has to admit it's more than a little ashamed at its lack of cool columns or references to items of note about Black History thus far, celebrating the lives and contributions of my (as my students would say) "brothas from anotha mutha." I was reminded of this l when I read this week's column by Leonard Pitts.

In it, he points out a new book called Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from The Underground Railroad written by Betty DeRamus, a Detroit reporter.

The book recalls shocking stories of devotion of slave men and women whose devotion to each other during this time period is a lesson in what real love is. When a man is willing to remain a slave rather than leave his wife...that is the kind of devotion that makes the spirit soar.

Pitts writes:
Gives you pause and makes you wonder: how many of us could even begin to understand such a thing? Is understanding even possible when you have been raised on a cultural diet of ''pimps'' and ''hos'' and bling-bling values, when you inhabit an age where love never seems much deeper than sex?

It seems unlikely.

So the stories Betty DeRamus has unearthed resonate with me. They bear retelling and sharing with those among us who have forgotten, or else never knew, who we are, how we got over, and the things we did for love.