October is Black history month but how will you celebrate?

How will you celebrate Black history month 2021?

I did by writing a new book available on 7th september 2021. Available on amazon.

It is actually a history book. This why i wrote it. I would love every school in the country to have a copy. a primary school. Read all about it.

For 31 days last October, which is celebrated annually as Black History Month, Sally Penni uploaded the stories of influential black figures to her Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

With postings on everyone from Marcus Rashford to 16th century royal trumpeter John Blanke, Sally's self-started project garnered much attention from friends and colleagues. And when people began asking her when her book was due out, Sally knew what she had to do.

Sally, who has previously published a number of legal works, as well as a picture book with a diversity theme, didn't need asking twice and set to work producing an accessible black history tome for primary-aged children, which came to be titled Where Are You From?

The fully illustrated work, which she has self-published, features 31 black figures from history, one for each day of October. It is aimed at all children and explains why black history is everyone's history.

The faces staring out from its 48 pages range from household names - Kamala Harris and Lewis Hamilton - to the not so well known, including I. Stephanie Boyce, the current president of the Law Society and Jamaica-born Sislin Fay Allen, the first black woman police constable in the UK, who died this year aged 82.

Most of the people included in the book have a connection to the UK, and figures from the world of law are particularly well represented, reflecting Sally's legal background. These include Jamaican barrister and magistrate Ena Collymore-Woodstock, John Anthony Roberts, the first QC of African origin, and Dame Linda Dobbs DBE who was born in Sierra Leone and became the UK's first black high court judge.

Not all the figures included in the book are black. Sally - who lives in Manchester - cites the plucky white female workers in the mills of nearby Rochdale, who steadfastly refused to handle slave grown cotton in the mid-19th century, amongst her own personal heroes.

Sally said: "The idea behind the book is that parents can use it to expand on what their children learn in school during Black History Month, reading about one historical figure each night of October. The book also gives schools a helping hand with widening the scope of their teaching. I have three children, aged from 7-11, and their lessons never seem to have moved on beyond introductions to Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks, year after year. Whilst both are important figures, I want my children and others to have a better understanding of what black people have contributed to society here in the UK. And I want all children to realise that racism and prejudice are not just historical features of America's and South Africa's pasts. I hope the book will be a catalyst to talking about how racism still plays a significant part in black people's experiences of living in the UK today."

Sally makes no apology that her book does not have a happy ending.

"I can't give children a 'happily ever after' postscript," she said, "as we are not there yet. Racism cannot be consigned to the history books, as we have seen from overt racism suffered recently by England football players Rashford, Sancho, and Saka.”

The final chapter of the book gives young people simple, practical advice on how to be an anti-racist ally.

"My book leaves young readers with the thought that it is not enough not to be racist. I am looking to this generation to demonstrate that they are actively anti-racist," she said.

Where Are You From? is written by SJ Penni and illustrated by Julian D Penni.

It will be available on Amazon from the autumn 7th Septemember for Primary schoo children.

Profit from the book sales to Black curriculum And ACLT