Biography+and+Autobiography

=This page is for reading recommendations. Please add a review when you find a great biography or autobiography "read."=


 * PHINEAS GAGE: A GRUESOME BUT TRUE STORY ABOUT BRAIN SCIENCE** by John Fleischman - Phineas was a railroad worker. In 1848, an accident occurred during an explosion and a steel rod was driven up through Phineas's skull, separating the normally connected right and left hemispheres of his brain. He never even lost consciousness. When the doctor came, he was sitting in a chair on someone's front porch. But his personality was changed forever. His case was very important for scientist to learn how the brain functions. It was fascinating.


 * W. E. B. DU BOIS: A TWENTIETH CENTURY LIFE** by Tonya Bolden - Du Bois lived a very long life from 1868-1963. He was a very outspoken African American for his time and was an intellectual who strove for equality between the races. You learn though, that he also had some very human flaws. Eventually, Du Bois moved to Ghana in Africa, rather than stay in America. It was good to know that even back then folks like Du Boise were paving the way for racial equality, even if it didn't come in their life times.


 * LEON'S STORY** by Leon Walter Tillage - Leon grew up in a poor family in the segregated south, specifically in North Carolina. His parents and their friends didn't want to make waves, so they tried to stay out of the way of white people. Leon witnessed much injustice toward African Americans like himself. He saw drunken white boys deliberately run over his parents with their car, and a white man almost set dogs after Leon himself. He and his friends decided they were not going to take mistreatment anymore, so they marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights. He is now a custodian at a middle school, where he is asked to tell his life story each year. This book grew out of those talks. I highly recommend this book!