A BLACK FIRST: The Blackness Continues....... Is a thought-provoking book about the existence of Black Lives, successes therein, and the questioning of that combination.
At the end of this book, author Peter E. Carter asks, "How do Black Lives Succeed?". As an immigrant, prominent educator, loved and loathed leader, and Black male, he is the epitome of that question. The answer, "By being exceptionally good at what you do" were the words of his mother he always carried with him.
As the title states, Mr. Carter continues his autobiographical journey, starting from his 2004 retirement to this day in 2021, where the conversations, challenges, and controversies feel like the experiences he shared in his first book, A Black First. An Interim Superintendent, Expert Witness, and Advocate for Children, his post-career service to education, gaining temporary access to some buildings and being denied entry to others in his work, provides readers a peek behind the curtain to learn what school leaders do to ensure all children have the resources to succeed.
Fans of the first book, educators struggling to understand the nuances of educating black children alone, and alongside white children, human beings trying to analyze child abuse, and those being the 'first' and the realities of not being 'next', will be inspired by this book, and that while life appears black and white, exceptional has no color.
