History of the African American Read-In Chain

The African American Read-In Chain is an invisible link of readers across the country reading aloud works by African American authors including poems, short stories, essays, monologues, or excerpts from novels. During the Read-In, people of all ethnic groups read works by African American writers at the same time on the same day in communities across the nation.

In 1990, the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English sponsored the first African American Read-In Chain. The next year the entire NCTE organization endorsed and joined the sponsorship of this event. The goal of the Read-In Chain is to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. The event is endorsed by the International Reading Association and is celebrated nationally and internationally during the first week of February.

Preparing for the African American Read-In Chain at Elgin

We decided that the Elgin Community College library would sponsor the African American Read-In Chain as the first activity to celebrate Black History Month at the college. Our first announcement and call for participation went out on college email the previous October. Faculty from the Writing Center and employees from other areas of the college expressed interest on behalf of themselves and their students. In January, we submitted press releases to local newspapers, sent letters to our school districts' principals and administrators and to the heads of government and human relations commissions in our college district's towns and cities. We alerted other libraries in our library district and placed posters and fliers in nearby bookstores. We sent more campus email to invite people to come, to sign up to read something, and to bring their classes to the event. We invited student clubs and organizations on campus as well as the student government members. We offered assistance to anyone who needed suggestions about material to read. We ordered refreshments and two huge cakes, prepared displays, posters, bibliographies of books for all ages by Black writers, and bookmarks. Some faculty offered extra credit to their students who chose to read aloud. We started a sign-up sheet of readers and works, allowing 10 to 20 minutes per reader.

The Event

The first Elgin Community College African American Read-In Chain took place on February 4, 2002 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and again between 5 and 7 p.m. in the ECC library. Readers from throughout the ECC community brought works by Black authors to read for others to hear and enjoy. Some readers introduced their readings, discussed what the works mean to them and shared information about the author. Readers and audience included college faculty, staff, administrators and students as well as members of the community who had read about the event in the newspapers or had seen posters in the community. There were nearly 30 readers during the day and 4 or 5 entire classes in attendance along with the walk-in audience. By the time we were ready to start the evening session, word had spread among the students about the event and the majority of evening readers were students, most of whom chose to read multiple times, almost in round-robin fashion. They encouraged one another and kept reading aloud for 2 hours, passing books of poetry and essays to one another and finding things to read on the spot. At the end of the evening, after many people we introduced to many writers and after the last meatballs and cake were finished, the students asked if we could do this every day!

This was a wonderful event to begin Black History Month celebrations at Elgin Community College. The local newspapers printed great stories about the Read-In Chain that featured our students as well as college employees. We are looking forward to our Second Annual African American Read-In Chain on February 3, 2003.

Our Thanks and More Information

Our thanks go to the library director, Judith A. Sessions, and the library staff of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio who brought this activity to our attention. Their website shows pictures of their 2002 African American Read-In Chain.

There is more information about this event and the sponsoring organizations at the website of Dr. Jerrie L. C. Scott of the University of Memphis and at the website of the National Council of teachers of English

GRETL KRAMER and LINDA MCEWAN
Elgin Community College Library, Elgin, IL