1 comments about Lugenia Burns Hope: Black Southern Reformer (Brown Thrasher Books).

1. This is an excelent piece of litterature. It delves deep into the persecution of the african-american population during the Jim-Crow south. This is an excelent piece of litterature. Do not hestitate to purchase this fine book.

1 comments about Love Across the Color Line: The Letters of Alice Hanley to Channing Lewis.

1. While renovating an old house, a person found a lace stocking filled with love letters from a woman to a man. Also enclosed is a photo of a black woman. Instead of being correspondence between two blacks, it turns out that these letters were written by an Irish-American woman to her black male lover.
   
   History buffs and amateur genealogists should love this book. Outside of the interracial context, this book answers how do you find more information when you come upon a historical artifact. The answer is to look at old census documents, old maps, old magazines. Also, let people know what you found and see if someone may know helpful third parties. Just as modern techniques show that we leave our DNA everywhere, for approximately 150 years or so, Americans have left photographs and writings everywhere. Your reality can be found, even a century after the fact.
   
   The editor of this book said that the contributors knew this book must be a collaboration from the start. I actually think a historian with a background in women's history, African-American history, and local Massachusetts history could have written this book all by her- or himself.
   
   The extant letters were written by Alice to Channing; there is no existing two-way correspondence here. However, the book stated that when relationships fell apart, women often asked their paramours for their letters back. So while I thought that Channing may have kept these letters, it was actually Alice who did so. In that same vein, the book uncovers much more about Alice than Channing. In fact, it stands out that the chapter devoted to her is deep whereas the one devoted to him is scant. Still, you gotta work with whatcha got.
   
   This book is inspiring in that it proves such relationships did exist before Loving v. Virginia. However, that is where the inspiration ends. This relationship was riddled with abuse, jealousy, "gold digging," and misogyny. Just as Frederick Douglass wed a different white woman than the one to whom he wrote love letters, Channing never divorced his white wife to marry Alice. Patricia Hill Collins has soundly condemned the idea that this pairing is Root's "love's revolution." That stands out here. In fact, modern census figures show that couples co-habit interracially much more than they wed interracially.
   
   While this book does mention Smith College at several points, it never brings up that Northampton is now nicknamed "Lesbianville, USA" by its own residents. Greenwich Village was known for its tolerance toward interracial couples and gay couples. The authors here never state whether Northampton residents of that era would have been equally open-minded.
   
   This book does leave some questions unanswered. Alice was 32 when she wrote to Channing and 40 when she married another man. Did she pursue Channing because she didn't want to be an "old maid"? Channing was obviously literate, but the authors never suggest how he learned to read. They mention several times that the Civil War was a close memory for all involved. During the slavery era, it was illegal to teach blacks to read. This book never answers how Channing became one of the exceptions.
   
   Critics have complained that books don't bring up issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality enough. Well, this book juggles all of those balls. In fact, this book spells out ways that the interracial component of this duo may have been the smallest worry of the couple's concerns. Alice never brings up race in her letters, but the authors suggest that clearly race was a salient issue at this time. I am pleased that I found this book.

No comments about Recollections of My Slavery Days.

No comments about George Washington Williams: A Biography.

No comments about Speak Out In Thunder Tones: Letters And Other Writings By Black Northerners, 1787-1865.

2 comments about Black Cuban, Black American: A Memoir (Recovering the Us Hispanic Literary Heritage).

1. Peace,
   
   I bought this book because one upon a time, I lived in Florida and met an elderly (older than me) black Cuban man whom I became good friends with named Santos. Santos had told me about many of his first experiences that he had when he came to the U.S., which seem to coincide with the experience of the author (Evelio Grillo).
   
   One of the most memorable stories that Santos told me was how while waiting in the "refuge" camps some men wearing robes and on horses had come in carrying torches. At first glance, he told me that they thought that they thought it was a parade or something. It wasn't until one of the men on horseback hit one of the Cuban men that they realized that these men meant to do them harm. These men were the KKK and it was because of this experience, Santos told me that he got a glipmse of what African Americans had to undergo in order to live.
   
   So, this book reminds me of my old friend and the stories that he use to tell me, which made me appreciate the contributions made by early African Americans and other people of color, in order to make the U.S. a great country.



2. Black Cuban, Black American is the informative and engaging memoir of Evelio Grillo's life growing up in Ybor City (now part of Tampa, Florida). Evelio experienced the complexities and difficulties of life in a horse-and-buggy society demarcated by both racial and linguistic lines. Evelio goes on to reveal how he was absorbed into the African-American community as he grew to adulthood during the Great Depression. He then relates his experiences as a solider in an all-black unit serving in the China-Burma-India theater of operations during World War II. This lively, informative, superbly written and presented autobiography is enhanced with an eight-page photo insert.

No comments about Nineteenth Century Memphis Families of Color 1850 1900.

No comments about Muhammad Ali: Trickster in the Culture of Irony (Polity celebrities series).

3 comments about By the Grace of God.

1. The author writes well, and explains well in her writing. I could actually picture myself in numerouse places which she had explained. From The war time, to her weding day, to what she went through during her sisters death.



2. ...a truly excellent real-life story of tragedy and love.



3. The amazing things that the author went through throughout her life were very uplifting. I laughed and cried throughout. The author's experiences were vividly captured on the pages of the book. I was caught up in the horrific imagery of the war that was described, but also the beauty of her family relationships as well as her love for her country of birth. I recommed this book highly, but be prepared for an emotional roller coaster.

No comments about Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians (The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Black Music).