History and Memory in African-American Culture

Book Description

As Nathan Huggins once stated, altering American history to account fully for the nation's black voices would change the tone and meaning--the frame and the substance--of the entire story. Rather than a sort of Pilgrim's Progress tale of bold ascent and triumph, American history with the black parts told in full would be transmuted into an existential tragedy, closer, Huggins said, to Sartre's No Exit than to the vision of life in Bunyan. The relation between memory and history has received increasing attention both from historians and from literary critics. In this volume, a group of leading scholars has come together to examine the role of historical consciousness and imagination in African-American culture. The result is a complex picture of the dynamic ways in which African-American historical identity constantly invents and transmits itself in literature, art, oral documents, and performances. Each of the scholars represented has chosen a different "site of memory"--from a variety of historical and geographical points, and from different ideological, theoretical, and artistic perspectives. Yet the book is unified by a common concern with the construction of an emerging African-American cultural memory. The renowned group of contributors, including Hazel Carby, Werner Sollors, Veve Clark, Catherine Clinton, and Nellie McKay, among others, consists of participants of the five-year series of conferences at the DuBois Institute at Harvard University, from which this collection originated. Conducted under the leadership of Genevieve Fabre, Melvin Dixon, and the late Nathan Huggins, the conferences--and as a result, this book--represent something of a cultural moment themselves, and scholars and students of American and African-American literature and history will be richer as a result.

The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory

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Remembering the Civil Rights movement
From heroic icons to methods of display and memory

The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory

Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Discrimination & Racism | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0820328146

Product Description

The movement for civil rights in America peaked in the 1950s and 1960s; however, a closely related struggle, this time over the movement's legacy, has been heatedly engaged over the past two decades. How the civil rights movement is currently being remembered in American politics and culture--and why it matters--is the common theme of the thirteen essays in this unprecedented collection.

Memories of the movement are being created and maintained--in ways and for purposes we sometimes only vaguely perceive--through memorials, art exhibits, community celebrations, and even street names. At least fifteen civil rights movement museums have opened since 1990; Mississippi Burning, Four Little Girls, and The Long Walk Home only begin to suggest the range of film and television dramatizations of pivotal events; corporations increasingly employ movement images to sell fast food, telephones, and more; and groups from Christian conservatives to gay rights activists have claimed the civil rights mantle.

Contests over the movement's meaning are a crucial part of the continuing fight against racism and inequality. These writings look at how civil rights memories become established as fact through museum exhibits, street naming, and courtroom decisions; how our visual culture transmits the memory of the movement; how certain aspects of the movement have come to be ignored in its "official" narrative; and how other political struggles have appropriated the memory of the movement. Here is a book for anyone interested in how we collectively recall, claim, understand, and represent the past.

Customer Reviews:

Remembering the Civil Rights movement.......2007-01-10

I really enjoyed this book. I think that it is very important for us to recover what we've "forgotten" about the civil rights movement and how that impacts us today.

From heroic icons to methods of display and memory.......2006-07-05

Numerous books have been written on American Civil Rights history: The Civil Rights Movement In American History differs in its blend of overview of events and how the movement is currently being remembered in American politics and culture. This dual focus offers a wider-ranging survey than most, blending memories of the movement with surveys of how it's being remembered, through museums, exhibits, film, TV and more. From heroic icons to methods of display and memory, this holds important lessons on how we incorporate culture change as a whole.

The Words and Songs of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone: Sound Motion, Blues Spirit, and African Memory (Studies in African American History and Culture)

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The Words and Songs of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone: Sound Motion, Blues Spirit, and African Memory (Studies in African American History and Culture)
Melanie E. Bratcher
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0415980291

Book Description

This book explores the relationship between three African American women's dance-art-music sensibilities within the context of a Pan African aesthetic.

Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863-1913

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Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863-1913
Kathleen Ann Clark
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0807856223
Release Date: 2006-02-23

Book Description

The historical memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction has earned increasing attention from scholars. Only recently, however, have historians begun to explore African American efforts to interpret those events. With Defining Moments, Kathleen Clark shines new light on African American commemorative traditions in the South, where events such as Emancipation Day and Fourth of July ceremonies served as opportunities for African Americans to assert their own understandings of slavery, the Civil War, and Emancipation--efforts that were vital to the struggles to define, assert, and defend African American freedom and citizenship.

Book Description

The publication of DNA test results showing that Thomas Jefferson was probably the father of his slave Sally Hemings's children has sparked a broad but often superficial debate. The editors of this volume have assembled some of the most distinguished American historians, including three Pulitzer Prize winners, and other experts on Jefferson, his times, race, and slavery. Their essays reflect the deeper questions the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson has raised about American history and national culture.

The DNA tests would not have been conducted had there not already been strong historical evidence for the possibility of a relationship. As historians from Winthrop D. Jordan to Annette Gordon-Reed have argued, much more is at stake in this liaison than the mere question of paternity: historians must ask themselves if they are prepared to accept the full implications of our complicated racial history, a history powerfully shaped by the institution of slavery and by sex across the color line.

How, for example, does it change our understanding of American history to place Thomas Jefferson in his social context as a plantation owner who fathered white and black families both? What happens when we shift our focus from Jefferson and his white family to Sally Hemings and her children? How do we understand interracial sexual relationships in the early republic and in our own time? Can a renewed exploration of the contradiction between Jefferson's life as a slaveholder and his libertarian views yield a clearer understanding of the great political principles he articulated so eloquently and that Americans cherish? Are there moral or political lessons to be learned from the lives of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings and the way that historians and the public have attempted to explain their liaison?

Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture promises an open-ended discussion on the living legacy of slavery and race relations in our national culture.

Customer Reviews:

Black oral histories.......2006-07-10

Black oral family histories were painstakingly recollected and passed down from generation to generation.The only possessions black families were allowed to possess were their memories- powerful and precious they were,and accurate as well.It is a tragedy that the descendants of Sally Hemmings are criticized for bringing forth what they already knew to be truth.To quibble over the fact that Jefferson's brother carried similar DNA misses this book's point entirely-Hemming's children had been told who their father was.Her descendants knew!The DNA evidence confirmed it.The central message of this book is not about the biological evidence,however.It is about the psychological and cultural issues that cause us to react in extreme ways(anger, fear, disbelief)to complex racial issues, particulary those regarding sexuality.In this respect the book is outstanding.It causes each of us to examine our personal and cultural viewpoints from both black and white perspectives. Americans of all races will benefit from reading this book.

Let us Bury Thomas Jefferson with Unsubstantiated, Unproven Writing .......2005-10-22

I was present at this open house discussion that this book is based upon because as Assistant to Dr. E. A. Foster, I had requested to be present and was invited by Professor Peter Onuf, one of the authors of this book. Upon arrival I was denied a seat on the panel and told to seat myself in the audience and if I wished to say anything that the "open mike" at the end of the discussion was my conduit. I was immediately opposing this august panel's findings as it applied to the actual DNA findings. In my opinion it was a seemingly overwhelming desire to have the prevailing combined force that DNA had proven Thomas Jefferson guilty of fathering slave children. This book conveys this image for the reader. Many, many statements in this book are absolutely inaccurate and have not been proven by DNA.

The very first page has a Jefferson-Hemings Family Tree that is outrageous in that it portrays Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings as being the parents of Madison and Eston Hemings (absolutely unproven). A note states that Eston Hemings is "almost" certain the son of Thomas Jefferson. Are these "authorities" educators or soothsayers?) The notes further state that descendants of Madison Hemings were not tested. This is true, HOWEVER, after deep research I found a deceased son of Madison and suggested to Dr. Foster, the Hemings, Dr. Daniel Jordan, Monticello President, and others that the DNA of William Hemings be tested adainst the Jefferson DNA and also against Eston Hemings DNA. ALL have refused to move forward to test this valuable science......WHY?

Later they suggest that some sort of long term relationship existed between Jefferson and Hemings. How can this otherwise learned group make such an obvious incorrect assertation? This shows their lack of details of the long running controversy. The long believed, by some for obvious reasons , theory that Jefferson fathered Tom (Hemings) Woodson was completely obliteraterd by the DNA test......No Jefferson/Woodson match, thus James Callender was proven a liar. Not only that, it was almost 6 years after Sally returned to Monticello that she had a first recorded child, Harriet I.

An assumption is made that if Jefferson wasn't guilty then some other white man on the plantation was and the Carr brothers are mentioned. This again provides evidence of the very limited knowledge that the authors have of the DNA subject. Thomas Jefferson inherited a mullato named Sandy from his father, Peter. It is not too far removed to see that this man, possibly having Jefferson DNA and sandy or reddish hair, could have fathered "yellow people", as referenced by story tellers. These male offspring, having the Jefferson DNA and physical traits, could have fathered Eston Hemings the ONLY Hemings tested. The original Dr. Foster plan was to "prove or disprove" the Carr brothers implication in this slave parentage. Because Dr. Foster had not given Nature Journal the valuable family genealogy that I had given him, when there was no Carr match with any other of those tested, THEN Nature Journal in the absence of being aware of any other Jefferson, "assumed" and wrote a false and definitive headline that it was Jefferson, yes, just "SOME" Jefferson....but not necessarily Thomas.

It is stated that Jan Lewis, one of the authors, "analyzed" that Jefferson was evading the truth by not denying the rumors. Jefferson DID write his Secretary of the Treasury, Levi Lincoln and Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith that he did admit to seeing a married lady friend when he was young and unmarried BUT that was the only rumor about him that he would admit to and denied the others. Jan lewis is also very anilitical in stating that the white Jeffersons told lies in that they said the Carr brothers implicated themselves as fathers, however DNA told otherwise. It must be remembered that ONLY ONE of Sally's children's DNA was tested. Since the Hemings refuse to test William Hemings (son of Madison), how are we to know that Madison is not one of those referenced by the Carr brothers or one of the others. Annette Gordon-Reed says that Jefferson must be the doting father, described by daughter, Martha, and not the indifferent one described by his son(what proof), Madison. I have no faith at all in what Madison is supposed to have said in the Pike Co., Ohio article. Who could believe that tale about Dolley Madison being present at Monticello when he was born on January 19, 1805. She was acting as Mr. Jefferson's Hostess and her husband, James Madison was Secretary of State. Are we to believe that she suddenly announces to these two that she has heard that a male slave is to be born at Monticello and she must be present to name him for her husband, James Madison. Never mind that predicting the sex of a child is a fairly late feat. Leaving both men in Washington she heads out in the cold, muddy and frozen roads over rivers and creeks and uphill to Monticello. Never mind also that Monticello was closed and under constuction most of the time when Jefferson was away. The Madison Papers indicate that the Madisons NEVER visited Virginia during the winter from Washington. This book places much glory upon this Pike Co., Ohio article written by Samuel Wetmore, from an abolitionist family.

As for Annette Gordon-Reed......she now states in later versions of her book that DNA does not prove that Jefferson fathered the descendanmt of Eston Hemings. She was also taken to task by the blue ribbon panel of 13 senior scholars known as the Scholars Commission ([...]),for taking and rearranging words and complete meaning of a letter from Ellen Randolph Coolidge (Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter), to a family member.

This book cites Dr. Foster's statement that the DNA evidence "neither definitely excludes nor solely impliocates" Jefferson in the paternity of Sally Hemings' children. He has stated this in e-mails to me, in Nature Journal (January 7, 1999), the New York Times article of early 1999 and in other publications. Then HOW and WHY do non-DNA literate "authorities" come rushing forward to assume that since Jefferson owned slaves he "MUST" now to have been found to share Jefferson DNA with a slave descendant. DNA does not honor given names. There are many too many other citations that try to prove anything to substantiate their claims. If the group of contributors to this book wish to do something constructive let them pursue the DNA of another male Hemings, William, and also read what the Scholars Commission Report says. Why don't they challenge those from "the other side of research" to a nationally broadcast debate? So far none of them have come forward for this.

I recommend reading this book to at least learn how a group of people can sway the minds of some people by ignoring the research of the other side. Let us hear BOTH sides of any question.

May I please ask readers to order the new book, "Jefferson Vindicated" with a forward by the distinguished past Director of Monticello. Ordering information may be secured from the cited web pages.

I recognized most of the well recognized names on this panel and knew they were authorities on the slavery issue. Other than Dr. Eugene Foster, none of them knew any of the "nuts and bolts" of the DNA Study that I had participated in advising Dr. Foster in family genealogy and history and securing sources for DNA study.

Herbert Barger
Jefferson Family Historian
Assistant to Dr. E.A. Foster

A compilation of critical essays.......2000-06-03

The problem with books about history is that they are almost always an interpretation: the author's. At best the author is willing to share the conflicting evidence with his reader, at worst the author omits it and pretends it doesn't even exist. But even the most faithful author can't put everything in a book so a selection has to be made. That's why the critical reader ends up reading a lot of books about the same subject. To be able to grasp most of the material, evidence and theories that are circulating. That way he/she is able to form his/her own opinion about an issue. But if the issue is Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings the reader will likely end up digging through tons of material and will still be very confused and very indecisive. Until recently one of the only books on the topic worth reading was Anette Gordon-Reed's "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming: An American Controversy". Because of it's painstakingly revealing of the mistakes, omissions and lies that previous writers had committed and for it's refusal to take a final stand.

This book however was written after the 1999 DNA tests that revealed that Thomas Jefferson very likely fathered Sally's last child Eston. And that he didn't father Thomas C. Woodson. But one has to keep in mind that the recent testing still don't prove Jefferson's paternity exclusively. Another male relative from the Jefferson line could have fathered Sally's last child, since they share the same Y chromosome. The book offers a number of refreshing essays written by scholars. Each one of them looks at the relationship from his/her own field. Trying to describe and explain what this new evidence means to themselves and their previous writings and views on TJ. Sometimes describing how they fell into the trap that so many historians fell into when dealing with TJ. They also try to describe the way the American mind thought about TJ and how this new evidence will influence peoples views and opinions.

Book Description

A telling memoir by an exciting new voice, Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl explores journalist Kitty Oliver's coming of age as she makes the crossing from an all-black to a predominantly white world. Born and raised in an all-black area of Jacksonville, Florida, Oliver was one of the first African American freshmen to enter the University of Florida. Though she chronicles the strains of her transition from Jim Crow to desegregation, this book is much more than a memoir of the turbulent sixties. It is an upbeat journal of self-discovery in the aftermath of that decade, a look at one woman's coming to terms with living an integrated life in America.

With humor, poignancy, and lyrical language (reminiscent at times of another Florida writer, Zora Neale Hurston), Oliver shares her passage from the “old world” to the new—an immigrant's journey indicative of the American experience. Blending past and present, she searches for roots from the Gullah or “Geechee” culture of South Carolina to the urban streets of northern Florida to the multicultural mix of South Florida's diverse ethnic cultures, serving up family stories with large helpings of southern “folktalk,” food, and music along the way.

As Oliver grapples with generational clashes, cross-racial relationships, intra-racial divisions, and redefining herself in an increasingly diverse society, we are prompted to do the same—to examine our own journeys to see just how far we have come.

Customer Reviews:

The truth.......2002-10-23

For those of us who "came of age" during the time Kitty Oliver remembers so poignantly, her story is a great affirmation of our hopes and fears. In both Race and Change in Hollywood, and Multicolored Memories, Kitty writes down what some people knew and no one else cared about. The reviewer for Publisher's Weekly may dismiss the feelings of black reader's who grew up in the 60's, but Kitty Oliver doesn't.

A Big Wow For This Heartfelt Journey To Find Home.......2002-10-16

I hoped MULTICOLORED MEMORIES OF A BLACK SOUTHERN GIRL would continue past its 173 pages. I just finished the book, and I want more. Kitty Oliver's journey from a small Florida town to her travels around the world feel very real. "When a trip is over for me, however, I enjoy observing the way life falls back into place. The toothbrush slides into the cup waiting empty on the sink."
Kitty's honest account of her childhood, her family, her personal encounters with integration and her journey to find "home" resonate with each description and heartfelt memory. I'm a fan of her writing and look forward to more, soon!

Review of Kitty Oliver's Book.......2002-09-27

Kitty Oliver has taken a changing time in our country's history and shaped it into a time of growth, understanding and exploration of herself and the multifaceted world around her. Her writing makes you sigh out loud as she takes you with her through colorful, sometimes sad, sometimes funny memories of her life. A compilation of essays, this wonderful book easily moves from one tale to the next as Ms. Oliver admirably exposes her pain and joy for the world to see. Ms. Oliver's skill as a writer is, without question, astounding. With such a poetic style to her writing, this book will bring one last sigh to your lips as you close the book at its end, only wishing for more.

THE FIRST.......2002-05-28

Picture yourself in a SUV roving through out the countryside. You take in the view of the countryside but are in such a hurry to reach your destination to the point of not appreciating what you've seen. Kitty Oliver's autobiography is very similar to the above experience. She takes you through the roads, streets, detours and valleys of her life never stopping to give you a full appreciation of this native Floridian.

As the first generation of Black students to integrate the University of Florida in Gainesville (1965)Oliver certainly has a story to tell. It is one of turbulent times and great transitions as she leaves the segregated community of her youth and enters into a whole new chapter in her life. Oliver shows us her fears, drive and hope that she has for the future that was denied her elders. Now it is up to her to make a difference.

Kitty tells of her quest in finding her roots from the exploration of her Geechee background to her attempts to become a bridge to her estranged father's family. You meet up with a varied mix of people in her community (train workers, cooks, teachers,etc) who held things together even in their limited world. She also dispels the myth of the united Black community during segregation. You meet with Black people who are class conscious, want to keep the status quo and are insanely concerned about skin color. Her Jacksonville home reveals a diversity of Blacks who have their own opinions and mores that are not necessarily what one would want them to have.

Such a coming of age story has great potential but Oliver lets us down. She takes us on an excursion of her stream of consciousness as we roam from one subject to another. Her thoughts appear disconnected and you do get confused as to how she gets into school in one moment and then is married in the next without anything in between. She rarely talks about her own family except to mention her biracial adopted daughter and son. What about her husband and the lives they shared together? Was it unable to survive in an integrated world?

Oliver goes on and on about multi-culturalism as if she just discovered it. You get a sense that she doesn't fully appreciate who she is and at times you wonder how much she has assimilated (her word) in the white culture.

Despite those flaws her work is an enjoyable read of one reminiscing about those FIRSTS who broke the racial barriers and ushered in a new era. Her story is one that should be read, reflected upon and appreciated for its one particular viewpoint of a time gone bye.

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Women and the Historical Enterprise in America: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Memory, 1880-1945 (Gender and American Culture)
Julie Des Jardins
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | 19th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States

Relations of Rescue: The Search for Female Moral Authority in the American West, 1874-1939

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ASIN: 0807854751
Release Date: 2002-12-08

Book Description

In Women and the Historical Enterprise in America, Julie Des Jardins explores American women's participation in the practice of history from the late nineteenth century through the end of World War II, a period in which history became professionalized as an increasingly masculine field of scientific inquiry. Des Jardins reveals how women nevertheless transformed the profession during these years in their roles as writers, preservationists, educators, government workers, archivists, and social activists.

Des Jardins explores the work of a wide variety of women historians, both professional and amateur, popular and scholarly, conservative and radical, white and nonwhite. Although their ability to earn professional credentials and gain research acess to official documents was limited by their gender (and often by their race), these historians addressed important new questions and represented social groups traditionally omitted from the historical record, such as workers, African Americans, Native Americans, and religious minorities. Assessing the historical contributions of Mary Beard, Zora Neale Hurston, Angie Debo, Mari Sandoz, Lucy Salmon, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Porter, Nellie Neilson, and many others, Des Jardins argues that women working within the broadest confines of the historical enterprise collectively brought the new perspectives of social and cultural history to the study of a multifaceted American past. In the process, they not only developed the field of women's history but also influenced the creation of our national memory in the twentieth century.

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AMERICANS FROM AFRICA Old Memories, New Moods (Volume 1)

Manufacturer: Atherton Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000EO5TZI

Product Description

This book offers the reader the opportunity to see - and indeed, to participate in - the continuing debates of the extent of African influence on American Negro life, so that by intellectual involvement in what are probably the most crucial areas of discussion he will come to understand the complex character of life for black Americans. Volume 1 of 2 volume set.

Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender, and Memory in the Third Reich (Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany)

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Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender, and Memory in the Third Reich (Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany)
Tina Marie Campt
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0472113607

Book Description

It's hard to imagine an issue or image more riveting than Black Germans during the Third Reich. Yet accounts of their lives are virtually nonexistent, despite the fact that they lived through a regime dedicated to racial purity.

Tina Campt's Other Germans tells the story of this largely forgotten group of individuals, with important distinctions from other accounts. Most strikingly, Campt centers her arguments on race, rather than anti-semitism. She also provides oral history as background for her study, interviewing two Black Germans for the book.

In the end, the author comes face to face with an inevitable question: Is there a relationship between the history of Black Germans and those of other black communities?

The answers to Campt's questions make Other Germans essential reading in the emerging study of what it meant to be black and German in the context of a society that looked at anyone with non-German blood as racially impure at best.

Tina Campt is Associate Professor of Women's Studies at Duke University.

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