Author Shomari Wills profiles 6 black Americans who, despite overt post slavery racism, made fortunes. Each lived with a powder keg of challenges toAuthor Shomari Wills profiles 6 black Americans who, despite overt post slavery racism, made fortunes. Each lived with a powder keg of challenges to not only their wealth, but also their lives.
While all those profiled faced emotional and legal hostility, the two men faced outsized violence for everyday actions, be they business decisions or the simple actions of others.
Mary Ellen Pleasant’s drive and determination took her to the California Gold Rush where she made a fortune lending money. She was able to fund and help plan John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. Hannah Elias, who invested the money she received as mistress to a wealthy (married and white) man, stands as testimony to “money doesn’t buy happiness” and how this adage is compounded when race is a factor. The other two women profiled rivaled each other in producing hair products for the black market.
None of the women faced the violence on the scale of that faced by the men. Robert Reed Church had to defend his business through race riots and had to prove himself again and again. OW Gurley lost the whole town he developed to arson in north Tulsa, OK.
Wills gives an update on the 6 people and their legacy.
The author, in his introduction says the bios are short because sources are limited. The subjects left few heirs to tell their stories. They did not write diaries or many letters. I hope more sources can be found somewhere. Perhaps there stories passed down from those that knew them or something about them, since each of those profiled is worthy of a full scale biography. Until more information can be found, this is an good introduction to this topic and these entrepreneurs. The book is appropriate for adults and young adults....more
The voice of this memoir fits all my impressions of Michelle Obama. I feel like I have actually spent some time with her.
As I expected, there wouldThe voice of this memoir fits all my impressions of Michelle Obama. I feel like I have actually spent some time with her.
As I expected, there would be no name dropping and no settled scores. Going high is natural to her which you come to understand as you meet her family and her response to the opportunities she was able to capture.
I had no idea how she met her husband. Now I know how he found the ideal mate. He realized it first. I loved the invitation: “Would you like to get some ice cream?”
The most interesting parts for me were the young Michelle observing her neighborhood and the world outside, the parts about her mother and examples of the impracticalities of living in the White House and raising children there.
The young Michelle took piano lessons from a relative with whom they shared a house. In her recital she learned that outside the neighborhood there were pianos that functioned well. She noticed the neighborhood changes (she does not use the phrase “white flight”) and when her classmates moved, how her school changed.
A stay at home mom, Marian Robinson managed a 700 foot household. She was a practical and sacrificing mother. Her life in the White House was well hidden. Her anonymity allowed her to be the only family member to safely assume the freedom to actually leave it which she did on a regular basis.
You have to plan ahead to stand on a White House balcony and, if you do, you can disrupt the vacations of hundreds of tourists. Having a garden or a night out with a husband requires professional consultations and supervision. The Obama's try to give Sasha and Malia as normal a life is possible. Having agents in shorts to blend in so the girls and their friends don’t feel watched (while they are being closely watched) seems to be a policy decision.
This is a peaceful positive read. It makes you yearn for the Obama years and hope that the next White House occupants will have the same appreciation of history, the concerns of every day Americans and the US place in the world....more
Quincy Troupe mourns the death of his friend Miles Davis. He relates some of their time together and what his music meant to him at different stagesQuincy Troupe mourns the death of his friend Miles Davis. He relates some of their time together and what his music meant to him at different stages of his life. While Troupe is a poet, this book is an elegy with more music interpretation than poetry.
Being from St. Louis, he first learned of Davis as a “local”. Davis played in the band of a first cousin, but Troupe first heard him on a juke box. The music was empowering. As a youth, it was something he could “get” that peers could not. He identified with its “cool”. Throughout his life, the music spoke to him. Knowing Miles, he appreciated how the music defined and represented his friend as an “unreconstructed” black man.
Miles is a difficult friend to have. He is always challenges and can erupt at any time. He can embarrass, for instance by dropping your friend from his band without notice. Troupe is in awe of him, not only the music he makes, but his persona.
Troupe tells how he wrote his friend's “autobiography”; how he reached for Miles’s voice and how Miles loved the result. There is information on the recordings and their cover art. You learn that Miles paints, likes expensive cars, was diabetic and lived in the present and future (avoiding any repeat of his work) but what really comes through is attitude.
I read the 2018 publication that ends with an interview of the author which repeats too many of the anecdotes of the book....more
Steve Phillips brings dose of realism to campaign demographics: the white vote is shrinking –and the white swing vote which both parties have spentSteve Phillips brings dose of realism to campaign demographics: the white vote is shrinking –and the white swing vote which both parties have spent millions of dollars courting is shrinking with it. In pursuit of this vote the Democrats are ignoring their best demographic: people of color and white progressives. One chapter on the why of this phenomena is called "Blinded by the White".
He describes in charts and numbers the impressive growth of the “brown” potential voting block. In this group he includes groups from Blacks to Asians, to Native Americans, to Latinos and more. He notes that this group along with white progressives now comprises 51% of the potential electorate and it grows every day as more people in these demographic groups turn 18.
Phillips notes that this group is not interested in what the Democrats have offered the swing voter. They haven't been inspired enough by what they've heard and have sat out the two most recent off year elections, thereby handing decisive victories to the Republicans. He gives the example of Kentucky's Senate candidate Alison Lundergan’s refusal to acknowledge that she voted for Barak Obama (although she served as a delegate for him). How many swing votes did this get her? How many voters in the ascendant demographic were turned off and stayed home?
Nate Silver recently wrote of this in a different way. He said that the assumption that Independent voters were politically neither right nor left is challenged by the size of Bernie Sanders vote among those who typically don't vote.
Phillips covers other issues such as the issues that appeal to these voters and the amount of money spent on TV ads when staff for voter registration is more critical.
This is recommended for those interested in politics and elections and highly recommended for Democratic campaign consultants and candidates. ...more
In this open letter to his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates tells of the influences in his life starting with violence in the family and the streets and endingIn this open letter to his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates tells of the influences in his life starting with violence in the family and the streets and ending in a gated community interviewing the mother of a fortunate son killed by a cop. The prose is imprecise, a stream of consciousness narrative. The importance of the book is its personal response to police violence.
Coates frames his thoughts in the physical. He speaks of the use and abuse of black bodies. How they were and continue to be dismissed and exploited. The essay sprawls but returns to Howard University which he calls his “Mecca” and to “Dreamers” a more elusive term. At times Dreamers are Blacks dreaming of being white, at times it is whites who think the “American dream” is equally accessible for all and at times it seems to refer to those living the dream without thought of its costs to others. The prose can be jarring for whites, since Coates’ term is “those who think they are white”.
The high points are the description of Howard University, the story of Prince Jones, the awareness of other worlds through family TV and the endearing way he tells his son of learning from his (son’s) mother.
The last page contains advice to his son which is an example of the misty nature of the prose. While it is clear what he thinks the people he calls “Dreamers” do, it is not clear what he thinks strugglers should do and why his son should “struggle”.
This may be the closest we can come to seeing African-American culture of Florida two generations away from slavery. Some may say that the book comesThis may be the closest we can come to seeing African-American culture of Florida two generations away from slavery. Some may say that the book comes from a woman’s point of view, but the story rings so true that it can hardly be called a slant or opinion.
Zora Neal Hurston’s knowledge of American folklore shines in this novel.
Janie, the protagonist, is a woman of endurance and high spirits. She does not let a bad marriage get her down and twice takes a chance on adventure. Husbands re-locate her to different Florida communities, each of which operates outside of the white world, interfacing only for employment, the legal system and in times of crisis, in this book, a hurricane. The whites are also present in the mixed race off- spring, like Janie, whose mothers are left to fend for themselves.
Through Janie you see how women, even those in comfortable situations, had to cope with the men who, through marriage, ran their lives. The culture permitted violence against women, sometimes merely for the man to make a point to others.
The story is mostly told through the dialog, of the characters. The characters’ speech, flowing in a thick dialect, is a pithy, idiomatic and direct; While it reflects little education it is imaginative and at times, poetic.. An educated narrator interprets, providing commentary and linkage
This book is on so many reading lists I imagine my literary friends have presumed I’ve already read it (once or twice). I started it a few times but found the dialect exhausting and put it aside. It recently came as a birthday gift from my sister, so it got my attention and I’m glad I stayed with it.
Hurston, who was unappreciated in her time, through this book alone, has made a great contribution to American literature. The dialect, which I previously felt exhausting, was the star of the book. It allowed the characters to reveal themselves through their authentic voices. This peek into a world that no longer exists is a rare literary treasure....more
I read the Schomburg Library edition which includes a Forward by Louis Henry Gates, a note on behalf of the Schomburg Library, an Introduction byI read the Schomburg Library edition which includes a Forward by Louis Henry Gates, a note on behalf of the Schomburg Library, an Introduction by James Olney and an Appendix of letters by Mary Todd Lincoln. Elizabeth Keckley's voice shines through all these more famous and more learned people.
Keckley's writing is brought down by the extra material. One of the introductory essays (by a scholar who writes of the importance of the work) says that her description of the day her father was sent away (the same day he returned to her life) is like (or is) fiction.
I wish there were more of Keckley's 19th century prose. Not only is her beautiful narrative sandwiched in between the writing of others, she brings it down by incorporating letters and news accounts of lesser style/value.
Keckley's story of her youth is compelling, but here it is short and understated. Born a slave and despite difficult odds, she purchased her own freedom. She ran a successful business catering to the wives of the powerful... for instance, both Verina Davis and Mary Todd Lincoln. All of this is breezed through in favor of the description of her friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln.
The best parts of the episodes from her childhood, the dialog of the Lincoln's and Mary Lincoln's views of cabinet members. The detail on Lincoln's attempt to sell her clothing could be the subject of another short book or essay, but here it dominates.
It would be wonderful if there were more of Keckley's life experience. I'd like to know more about the process of starting her business, how she designed the clothing, purchased the materials and recruited and trained the assistants. How did she raise her son while having the raise the children of others? There is a brief mention of the complexity of this, since he is the result of a rape. I'd also like to know more about how she became literate, and how her father before her acquired this skill. She did a lot of traveling, I'd like to know how she did this and what she saw.
For what Elizabeth Keckley writes, this book is 4-5 stars. It is watered down by the words of others and her own reluctance to tell her story. Perhaps she or her publisher felt that the people wanted to know more about Mary Lincoln than about her. Maybe the publisher required inclusion of the letters of Mary Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. If this is the case, this short sightedness has deprived this generation of a significant biographical record. ...more
This is a history of Mount Vernon following the death of George Washington. Because it is a story of the everyday life on and operation of the estate,This is a history of Mount Vernon following the death of George Washington. Because it is a story of the everyday life on and operation of the estate, it is a story of 200 years of African American history. There is a parallel history here too, about the pioneer days of the historic preservation movement.
Early visitors to Mount Vernon believed what they wanted to believe. Knowing Washington's will had freed his slaves (upon the death of Martha, who released them early) one could ignore reality and presume that those who labored in the field and encountered visitors were free. For 60 years it bubbles into public consciousness only every now and then that they are not.
In the first part of the book, Sarah is in the background as we learn about Washington's heirs, Martha's dower slaves, crops, the buying, selling and renting of people, and the precursors of the tourist trade yet to come. Sarah becomes the central vehicle for the story in the later half of the book. Sarah is a perfect vehicle for this history because her life illustrates her times.
Augustine Washington assumed control of this estate at age 21. From his mother, he received Sarah's mother Hannah, and noted her additions to his assets when she bore children. In 1844 he hired Hannah out to a cousin for $24 for the year. She returned from this forced labor pregnant and delivered a mulatto child. She named her Sarah with her grandfather's last name, Parker. Later, when Mount Vernon was sold to a preservation society, which in part preserved it from the ravages of the Civil War, Sarah was also sold. In freedom she returned to her home, Mount Vernon, and became an employee of the new society.
The saga of Sarah's family, a metaphor for the contemporaneous sagas of thousands of African Americans, is told against the growth of Mount Vernon as a national shrine and tourist destination. While Mount Vernon is buffered, it cannot help but be effected by the secessionist fervor, the civil war, the war's unsettling aftermath, Jim Crow, and World Wars I and II. Scott Casper takes the reader through all this, up to today's nascent awareness of the role of African Americans in history. On p. 219 there is a eloquent piece on Sarah who we know she was and who she may have been.
This is a short book, but its ideas will stay with you a long time. ...more
Annette Gordon-Reed transcends the old debates and focuses on the Hemings family how they lived and how they might have felt about their situation.
HerAnnette Gordon-Reed transcends the old debates and focuses on the Hemings family how they lived and how they might have felt about their situation.
Her research shows slavery as an even more peculiar institution than previously portrayed. Monticello appears to be an economic commune with 3 castes. One caste is born to rule, another to work the fields, and middle caste lives a precarious life between the two.
The Hemings family served as Jefferson's silent and hidden support system throughout his productive and retirement years. They profited little from his success and fell more deeply with his failures than their biological brothers and sisters who had the legal claims to not only Jefferson's but their grandfather's properties. This book provides a discussion of these and similar issues and their ramifications in the lives of individuals.
The family life presented in this work has implications not only for history, but also for the fields of sociology, family dynamics, psychology and organizational behavior. It was undoubtedly common for male heads of plantations in the US and abroad to have children with their enslaved females. While you can find research on slave homes, clothing, diets and other circumstances, to my knowledge there is little work on the sociology of the "master's" children. How were they raised? How did they cope with and relate to their overseeing relatives? How did the many like Sally and her children feel to be the unacknowledged spouse(equivalent) and children of the famous man who declared all men created equal?
(Fidel Castro is a more modern day product of a similar system, how much did resentment of his life vs. those in the "big house" fuel his political views?)
The Hemings of Sally's generation respectfully kept the secret, and Jefferson's white progeny protected it, so we know little of the relations of half sisters, brothers, parents, aunts and uncles. Hemings and her family, not Jefferson, were descended from the wealthy John Wayles whose estate came to Jefferson through marriage. Instead of receiving benefits from their father's wealth, their lot in life was to serve his other family.
While at times wordy, Gordon-Reed makes the case for the Hemings Family. Of Sally we have only clues. She was young and had lost her own powerful father at a young age. She was alone in Paris with the kindly, grieving widower of her half sister, in a real life this man would be her brother in law. Of Jefferson, grieving for his wife in Paris, his comments on a painting of Sarah bringing Hagar to Abraham stays with you. In later life I cannot imagine how Sally looked at her Hemings relatives, knowing that their fate (and hers) hung on Jefferson's good will and health. Similarly, I cannot imagine Jefferson looking at his own children (who resembled him) by Sally (who may have resembled his deceased wife) thinking that his famous words were a far away goal and not a reality.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the topic and hope to see more research in this area. ...more
At times I felt I was prying by turning the pages as Beatrice Berry tells the story of her life. She shows, through her feelings, and those laterAt times I felt I was prying by turning the pages as Beatrice Berry tells the story of her life. She shows, through her feelings, and those later expressed by her mother, how poverty and the attitudes it engenders breeds abuse.
Ms. Berry's mother, like many other single mothers was looking for love and Beatrice gives us a sketch of how this played out. She also gives us a sketch of how education lifted her from the poverty and its resulting abuse. When her mother quit drinking and was able to reflect on her life, a dialog was possible. The dialog led to a more realistic assessment of her life and the forces, both black and white that shaped it.
She becomes aware that John Hunn, the man she thought was the owner of her family, was an abolitionist with whom her family worked both agriculturally and on the Underground Railroad. This inspired research, new thinking and a new attitude.
This book is helpful because of its honesty. While it is sketchy, the sketch is enough, like the stranger on the airplane who by sharing their life enriches yours.
This is an interesting story of a turn of the century, bi-racial, clandestine marriage. The work shows significant research, but after 300 pages bothThis is an interesting story of a turn of the century, bi-racial, clandestine marriage. The work shows significant research, but after 300 pages both Clarence and Ada Copeland King remain a mystery.
King's public life is well documented and dizzying. He criss-crosses the country and the globe, dines with presidents, buys valuable art, discovers glaciers and maps California, writes a book....
Ada, born a slave, leaves Georgia for NYC, learns to read, meets a man with blue eyes who claims to be black, becomes his common law wife and bears him 5 children. She accepts that he has no family and that as a Pullman porter, steelworker or clerk, he is supporting her, the children and their servants in what seems to be a pretty good style.
Clarence's personality is said to be totally magnetic. John Hay, no stranger to magnetic personalities, underwrites his life and beyond. Where does the money go? At one point it is said that Hay has given him the equivalent of $1 million. This seems to be an extraordinary act of friendship.
The book is very wordy. There are long paragraphs about the changing race categories in the Census, what "slumming" was, descriptions of Ada's lawyers etc. I would have preferred more text devoted to the marriage, family, and other personal relationships.
What did Clarence and Ada have in common? What was their attraction? How often and how long was he really with her in their home? It is hinted that he was not always "true" to her in his travels. Maybe he did not attend the masked ball... or other big events in her life. Do we know? Why the abrupt move to Toronto? Clarence has extraordinary bonds with his friends... they last beyond his grave. Like the marriage, there is no context for understanding these unusual relationships.
How did Clarence relate to his children? Given their future lives he doesn't seem to impart his sense of adventure or outdoor life to them. Did this aspect of him disappear at "home"? Did he encourage them to go to college? How did Ada find out about his professional life and social background? What was her reaction?
There are a few quotes from Clarence's letters but they seem stilted and more part of the genre of the time than deeply felt. The part about the trial implies that a lot of their personal life was put on record. Longer quotes from these letters and more text from the trial would have helped depict these personalities.
This is an information-packed book fully covering this short but influential life. I believe this will stand as the definitive work on Malcolm X for aThis is an information-packed book fully covering this short but influential life. I believe this will stand as the definitive work on Malcolm X for a long time to come. For a book that documents as well as tells the story, Manning Marable does an excellent job of holding the reader's interest throughout.
Malcolm's family, the Little's, lost its house in a likely arson (for which his father was accused of starting for insurance money, when he had no insurance), lost its husband/father in a likely murder and then its mother to a mental institution. These were only a few of many setbacks before Malcolm's teenage years. With this background it is not surprising that he turned to crime. Manning takes the reader through this stressful childhood, to prison where he studied and converted to Islam as interpreted by the Nation of Islam, through the religious and political activities that followed his release, his travels and break from NOI, and eventually his assassination.
So many things were striking about this life. First was the role of the father. Malcolm, essentially, followed his father's footsteps in his religious devotion (if not the same faith) and activism (if not the same advocacy). His later relationship to Elijah Mohammed was similar to that of a son, a bond very hard to break. Next, was the amount of violence within the NOI organization and its cult like characteristics. Also notable was the amount of undercover work at the federal and local level that was devoted to Malcolm. (I doubt that J. Edgar Hoover knew or cared how much he'd be assisting historians.)
Marable does an excellent job in laying out the doctrinal differences in the Nation of Islam and Islam as practiced elsewhere in the world and Malcolm's growing awareness of them and his painful separation from NOI. Marable has good descriptions of Malcolm's tours and the recognition Malcolm received in the highest levels of Islamic countries. I would presume the hardest chapters to write were those on assassination and its aftermath. Undoubtedly a lot of sifting and thought went into bringing together the many different impressions of how it happened, who did what and which of the many unanswered questions to pursue.
This is an excellent work and clearly shows the years of careful research that went into it. ...more
This book begins with an introduction by Annette Gordon-Reed, who documented the Hemings Family of Monticello in The Hemingses of Monticello: AnThis book begins with an introduction by Annette Gordon-Reed, who documented the Hemings Family of Monticello in The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. As author Elizabeth Dowling Taylor unfolds the Jennings-Madison story you see Presidents Jefferson and Madison had a lot more in common than statecraft. Both thought, wrote and spoke extensively and loftily on the rights of man... and both... despite their high rhetoric maintained enslaved populations.
The first half of the book (Chapters 1 - 4, divided from the second half by pictures) covers the nature of slavery in the households of James Madison in his Montpelier plantation, the White House and the temporary presidential quarters following the burning of the Capitol by the British in 1814. The second half covers the widowhood of Dolley Madison, the Pearl incident which included a 15 year old slave from her household, the death of Dolley Madison's son (the President's step-son), Daniel Webster and finally, two chapters exclusively on Paul Jennings and his progeny. The Appendix is an excerpt from a book Jennings wrote on his time with President Madison.
While there are very few pages on the White House (contrary to what you expect from the title), the book gives the perspective of Paul Jennings as representative of those who served in formal environments, there and elsewhere, where rarified talk of rights and liberty filled the air. Author Taylor poses ideas on how such conversations were most likely understood by the servers who had no liberty.
James Madison's will had rhetoric about his slaves consenting to their next master and some talk of freedom. Dolley Madison ignored this and postured that she would only sell slaves to friends and family (which she similarly did not honor). Dolley's son who eventually inherited what had not been sold of the Madison slaves, promised freedom plus $200 each upon his death... but his slaves had been already pledged as collateral on his debts. With the help of Daniel Webster, Paul Jennings bought his freedom. In short, the Madison family, despite its rhetoric did not free one slave.
While the drudge of life was taken care of, slave holders in remote locations with a large proportion of enslaved people had deep fears of revolt. The Madisons lived with an uneasy defensive posture towards notables such as Harriet Martineau, Edward Coles, Daniel Webster and General Lafayette who held higher moral ground.
I had a review copy and I hope the final will have an index. There is a good genealogy chart of the Jennings family. ...more
It's not the whole story, it essentially ends 2005/6, but for those years it may be as close to the story as might ever be possible. The authorIt's not the whole story, it essentially ends 2005/6, but for those years it may be as close to the story as might ever be possible. The author creates a good chronology of the family, Michael's individual rise to fame and Micheal's personal life. The author sustains your interest over 700 pages.
It appears to be a thrice published book. A 1991 bio seems to have been updated to capitalize on the Chandler litigation and then again on Jackson's death when about 50 pages were added. Despite the obvious marketing positioning, the book is not sensational or exploitave. There is a lot of good reporting.
The direct quotations and some of the background make one wonder how this writer (who seems to have known the Jackson family since they moved to LA) got his info.
Very few personal narratives develop a theme with such skill. As Barack Obama describes them, we come to understand his parents & grandparentsVery few personal narratives develop a theme with such skill. As Barack Obama describes them, we come to understand his parents & grandparents better than they might have ever understood themselves.
When most kids might be shell shocked from a move to Indonesia, he watches and learns. All around Hawaii he sees the clues to who he is in part. He spots the racial dynamics of Punahoe and the simple goodness of his grandparents. A brief visit from his father creates only stress. When he sees "Black Orpheus" and his mother's enthusiasm for it, he puts it together and with poetry tells how he feels he, and many others, come into this world.
If anyone wonders how "organizers" spend their days, the Chicago part of the saga describes the work, the volunteers, typical meetings, the organizer culture, etc. He cuts right through the myths and shows on how the sociology of color creates neighborhoods/living situations that create hard choices for the people caught up in them. He zeros in on how the brutal past created a psychology that stuns and immobilizes.
The "dreams/father" theme recurs throughout. He gives the reader glimpses as he gets them, so the reader becomes as curious as Obama. In Kenya he sees and learns things he could never have envisioned from the US. The narrative of the Kenyan grandmother is stunning, as are the words on his grandfather's work ID card. After all the revelations, his summary of what he had seen is again terse and on target: the important history had been discarded, and the wrong history, dysfunctional in the "new" Kenya, perpetuated.
This book is amazing on many levels. I envision it will wend its way to reading lists and pieces of it will be discussed in political science, sociology and psychology as well as literature classes. ...more
Frank's "Bush on the Couch" was much better, but Obama, as Frank says, is essentially mentally healthy. Frank sees the major issue for Obama is theFrank's "Bush on the Couch" was much better, but Obama, as Frank says, is essentially mentally healthy. Frank sees the major issue for Obama is the abandonment by his birth father, later his step-father, and then sort of his mother who sent him to live with his grandparents at age 10, while she stayed in Indonesia. ...more
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