Black women's activism: reading African American women's historical romances

134 Pages·2004·0.51 MB·English

by  Rita B. Dandridge

A D V A N C E P R A I S E F O R
Black Women’s Activism
“It is both useful and pleasing that Rita B. Dandridge’s study of historical
romances honors a long-standing tradition in American literature of respecting
literature that combines utile and dulce. She combines factual contexts with
accessible readings of text that too many intellectuals have too quickly dismissed
as mere recreational reading. The result is that we joyfully learn more about
some of today’s best-selling and most popular African American writers while we
come to appreciate more clearly their innovative and radical interventions
regarding race, class, and gender stereotypes of our past and of our present.”
Frances Smith Foster, Charles Howard Candler Professor of English
and Women’s Studies, Emory University
“This text is a thoughtful, scholarly, and valuable genre study that addresses the
neglect of black women’s historical romances and the black activist’s role in this
genre. Rita B. Dandridge’s study offers new insights and exciting alternative
perspectives to scholars and students of African-American women’s literature.”
Freddy L. Thomas, Chair, Department of Languages and Literature,
Virginia State University
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Black
Women’s
Activism
Expanding and Exploding the Boundaries
Carlyle V. Thompson
General Editor
Vol. 5
PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Rita B. Dandridge
Black
Women’s
Activism
Reading African American
Women’s Historical Romances
PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dandridge, Rita B.
Black women’s activism : reading African American women’s historical
romances / Rita B. Dandridge.
p. cm. — (African-American literature and culture; v. 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. American fiction—African American authors—History and criticism.
2. Literature and history—United States—History—20th century. 3. Literature and
society—United States—History—20th century. 4. American fiction—Women
authors—History and criticism. 5. Historical fiction, American—
History and criticism. 6. African American women—Intellectual life. 7. African
American women in literature. 8. African Americans in literature. 9. Social
problems in literature. 10. Social action in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PS374.N4 D36 813.009’9287’08996073—dc21 2002156547
ISBN 0-8204-6734-0
ISSN 1528-3887
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available
on the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de/.
Cover design by Lisa Barfield
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.
© 2004 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
275 Seventh Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10001
www.peterlangusa.com
All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
Printed in the United States of America
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Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Introduction: Reading African American Women’s Historical Romances . .1
Chapter 1: Antebellum Activism: The Call to Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Chapter 2: Civil War Volunteerism: The Call to Reconstitute Family . . .37
Chapter 3: Postbellum Activism: The Call to Heal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Chapter 4: Post-Reconstruction Activism: The Call to Be
Educated and to Educate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Chapter 5: Early-Twentieth-Century Activism: Saving Land in Texas . . .79
Epilogue: From Reading Historical Romances to Expanding
the African American Literary Canon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
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I began work on this project soon after I attended a Umoja Festival in down-
town Portsmouth, Virginia, in the fall of 1997. It was at that festival that Anita
Richmond Bunkley’s Black Gold caught my eye. A collector of African
American women’s novels, I grabbed the last copy and handed the tent keep-
er a ten-dollar bill.
Three months passed before I found the time to read Black Gold;during
the winter break when the demands of university teaching and the urgency of
domesticity eased, I found the saga of Leela Wilder, an oil field owner, a page-
turner. The enthusiasm I experienced in reading this historical romance and
others published in the 1990s was soon challenged when I attempted to
locate critical commentaries about them. The present project grew out of a
need to introduce a group of recent narratives that I feel have as much valid-
ity as more well-known, critically examined works.
For making this project possible, I extend acknowledgments to colleagues
and friends.
I thank Shirley R. Steinberg and her husband Joe L. Kincheloe, who sug-
gested this project for Peter Lang Publishing at its “Getting Your Work
Published” Workshop, held at Norfolk State University in spring 2002.
Thanks go to Gwendolyn E. Osborne, reviewer for Romance Reader,
who facilitated my contacts with the writers and bought and sent me a copy
of Gay G. Gunn’s Nowhere to Run. Thanks, Gwen, for introducing me to a
writer I did not know existed.