Like many Black Americans, I happily made my way to the theater last week to see Sinners. It was SO GOOD! While this film is about vampires, Ryan Coogler crafted the vampire piece around a historically accurate portrayal of Mississippi in the 30s, and as someone who LOVES our history, I was squealing with excitement!

Discussions on threads and Tiktok made me think of books (fiction and non-fiction), movies and documentaries that informed my thoughts on some of the history we saw in Sinners. I am sharing some of those below and curious what books or stories did it remind you of?

• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, tells the story of twin sisters from Louisiana one who passes and the other who does not.

• The film notes that some of the characters are Black WWI Veterans. Here are some firsthand accounts from Black WWI Veterans and an article with additional details on their experience.

• One Drop by Bliss Broyard. After her father’s death, Bliss learns that her father was Black and passed for most of his adult life. She set out to understand her family’s history and explore how the “one drop rule” impacted her family story.

• Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor, these are children’s chapter books that I read as a kid. They follow the Logan family in 1930s Mississippi. It touches on a lot of the topics we see in the film, minus the vampires.

• Worse than Slavery by David Oshinsky, we see the chain gangs briefly as Delroy Lindo’s character tells the heartbreaking story. Worse than Slavery gives additional context about the chain gangs

• Somewhere South a PBS Documentary that highlights the history of Asian grocery store owners in Mississippi

• Documentary ReMaster: Devil at the Crossroads, the story of Robert Johnson the Blues singer from Mississippi who “sold his soul to the devil” to play guitar. If you are familiar with this story you will see the similarities between this and Sammie.

• Films like Imitation of Life (the original and remake) and also Pinky

  • No one seems to agree with me on this one, but this film reminds me of the Piano Lesson too. Lots of similar themes.

• Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, details the stories of African Americans heading north to cities like Chicago from Mississippi. There are also a few stories about what happens when they return like the twins did.

• The film also showed a tamale shop, here is a great oral history of how tamales became so popular in the Mississippi Delta