From Emerson to King: Democracy, Race, and the Politics of Protest

268 Pages·1997·15.835 MB·English

by  Anita Haya Patterson

From
Emerson
to King
W. E. B. DU BOIS INSTITUTE
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Series Editor
The Open Sore of a Continent
A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis
Wole Soyinka
From Emerson to King
Democracy, Race, and the Politics of Protest
Anita Haya Patterson
From
Emerson
to King
Democracy,
Race, and
the Politics
of Protest
Anita Haya Patterson
New York Oxford • Oxford University Press 1997
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1997 by Anita Haya Patterson
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Caraloging-in-Publication Data
Patterson, Anita Haya.
From Emerson to King : democracy, race, and the politics of
protest / by Anita Haya Patterson.
p. cm.—(W. E. B. Dubois Institute)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-0-19-510915-5
1. Afro-Americans—Intellectual life. 2. Emerson, Ralph Waldo,
1803-1882—Influence. 3. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882—Political
and social views. 4. United States—Race relations. 5. Democracy—
United States. 6. Afro-Americans—Civil rights. I. Title.
II. Series: W. E. B. Debois Institute (Series)
E185.86P29 1997
3O5-8'oo973—-dc21 96-38150
CIP
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Orlando
Thus was a world sought for and found,
Out of the Unknown sought for and found.
—E. M. Roach, "Discovery"
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Acknowledgments
A number of people have been important in the writing of this book. I am
indebted to Sacvan Bercovitch, Elaine Scarry, Stanley Cavell, Barbara Johnson,
Werner Sollors, and Larry Buell for their constructive criticism of the Ph.D. dis-
sertation on which the book is based. Preston Williams, Bob Gooding-Williams,
and Henry Louis Gates generously offered comments that helped me to improve
the work.
Time for research and writing was made possible in part by a Charlotte
W. Newcombe fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, as well as
a year at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at
Chicago. Earlier versions of sections in the introduction and in chapters 7
and 8 appeared in The Massachusetts Review and Salmagundi.
I am grateful to my parents, Arthur and Tomiko, for being there for me
over the years. Finally, for his love and guidance in the art of living, I thank
my husband Orlando.
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Contents
INTRODUCTION
Reconciling Race and Rights 3
PART I OWNERSHIP
ONE
Defining the Public: Representative Men 11
TWO
Property and the Body in Nature 24
THREE
The Poetics of Contradiction: Religious and
Political Emblems in "The American Scholar" 50
PART II POLITICAL OBLIGATION
FOUR
"Self-Reliance": The Ethical Demand for Reform 81
FIVE
Locating the Limits of Consent in "Friendship" 99