Bookshelf

Temperance Flowerdew 

I by Denise Heinze I 

Women aren’t often the heroes of history, but NCCU alumna Denise Heinze, ’84, has put two of them at the center of action for her new novel, “The Brief and True Report of Temperance Flowerdew.” 

The story follows a real-life settler of the Jamestown Colony who ventured across the Atlantic with a hired companion, Lily. The pair arrived in 1609 just in time to face a harsh winter period nicknamed the “starving time.”  

The Flowerdew report details the hardships they faced as the colony struggled to survive, but also how the experience benefitted some settlers, including Flowerdew, who later married two Virginia governors.  

Heinze is a former literature professor and a doctoral graduate of Duke University. She earned her master’s at NCCU. 

The book was published by Blackstone Publishing in September 2020. 

John Hervey Wheeler Durham Businessman 

I by Brandon Winford I 

The important role played by African American-owned businesses during the Civil Rights era is explored in a new book by NCCU alumnus Brandon Winford, Ph.D., ’05, ’07. 

“John Hervey Wheeler, Black Banking, and the Economic Struggle for Civil Rights” examines the life of a man born in 1908 who became president of Mechanics and Farmers Bank in Durham and, later, a member of President John F. Kennedy’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. 

Winford’s historical records research included NCCU’s collection of papers donated to the university by Wheeler’s wife. 

“The book argues that if we are to fully understand how central economics was to the civil rights movement, we must consider black business,” Winford said. 

Winford is an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee.

Personalized Principal Leadership Practices 

I by Dionne McLaughlin I 

"Personalized Principal Leadership Practices: Eight Strategies for Leading Equitable, High Achieving Schools" is a practical guide for working with underachieving students of color by NCCU Assistant Professor Dionne McLaughlin. 

McLaughlin’s book, published in June 2020, analyzes strategies used by principals of schools with 80% or more Black and Latinx students whose population overall achieved grade-level or better scores on standardized English and math tests. 

The book explains how to personalize data using student academic stories, developing principal-directed equity learning goals, and strategies for building trusting relationships with families of color, among other topics. 

McLaughlin is a British-born Jamaican educator and an experienced bilingual principal and teacher.