Feb Book Club Discussion: A Black Women’s History of the US

[ufcasey]

Let's discuss this month's book club pick -A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross.


Feel free to answer any/all/none of these questions. Also feel free to just discuss your impressions about the book!



1. The first history in the book is that of Isabel de Olvera, a woman of African descent who arrived of her own volition in the United States in the early sixteenth century. What shifts in your comprehension of the history of Black women in America are introduced by Isabel’s narrative, which predates chattel slavery?

2. Throughout the text, Dr. Berry and Dr. Gross pose questions about the realities and interiorities of the lives of Black women despite a recognition of the fact that their definitive answers are unknowable. Do you think it is valuable for the historians to pose impossible questions?

3. What is the importance of recounting histories like that of Fenda Lawrence, a free African trader and enslaver who profited from slavery in the New World? Why isFenda’s story included in a book that otherwise focuses on those who rebel against the station of Black women in America?

4. How does the story of Frances Thompson, who faced sexual violence, public ridicule, and state incarceration for her gender identity, complicate conventional histories of Black womanhood in America?

5. Discuss the history of incarceration as it relates to Black women in the United States. Which of these histories surprised you given your current cultural context, and why? What is the importance of including so many histories that touch on the conditions of prisons and penitentiaries?

6. One of the most overlooked components of the history of Black women is that of the leaps and bounds they have made and continue to make in advancing civil rights for Black people as community organizers, union strikers, and elected state officials. What figures in this book did you find compelling in their political work, either operating from within or from wholly outside and against the US government?

7. What is revealed about the forces that drive historical production in the relative prevalence of the Rosa Parks story when compared to the stories of the many other women who committed identical radical acts? What is achieved in the authors’ attention to these other women?

[ufcasey]

So I feel bad about this, but I quit reading this when I was only on chapter two of the book. I just found myself reading the same paragraphs over and over again and just not absorbing it. I think I have been spoiled by other non-fiction history books (usually centered around WWII) that are able to really give a lot of detail and first person insight that makes you feel like you are reading a fictional novel, only everything in the book actually happened. Unfortunately of course that kind of detail is not available about the earliest Black women in America, because all the historical documents from that time usually don't even mention the names of Black women, no less any great detail about their lives. So I just felt like the paragraphs were filled with a lot of questions with almost no answers, and I went into this book hoping to have more answers given to me. Which is a ridiculous reason to stop reading it so early on when the later chapters probably gave that detail I was looking for since those years were better documented.

[mrspez07]

ufcasey
I struggled with the first few chapters of the book, there was a lot of hypothetical,(obviously had to be), and repetitive wording, but that made it feel less interesting. I ended up going to the audio book after chapter 1, and I think that helped.
I kept telling DH that this would make a great textbook/reading book for a college course. I think doing a deeper dive and discussion into each section would be very beneficial.
I think it was a very well-thought out and carefully constructed summation of eras and topics, but at times I could have used a deeper story of events or people, and at other times a broader social discussion about the why’s of a social shift or statistic.

I may do an ETA after I think through my thoughts a bit more.

[aurora]

I found that I liked the later chapters more as they were able to delve a little deeper into specific people. I was interested to learn more about the women who played major roles in the Montgomery bus boycott before Rosa Parks, and also the women campaigning for their rights in the ~1970s and how they interacted with the Black Panther movement (some from within, some from outside it).

I thought that the book did a great job highlighting intersectionality - that many facets of these black women's lives were just to their lived experiences - without really using that term.

I am better at reading histories focusing on fewer individuals more deeply (I tend to want to get to know my book characters well), so I would have enjoyed more elaboration on some of the women mentioned, but I can also imagine why the authors chose not to write the massive tome that would require.

[aurora]

Feb 24, 2021 10:45:23 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Let's discuss this month's book club pick -A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross.


...
7. What is revealed about the forces that drive historical production in the relative prevalence of the Rosa Parks story when compared to the stories of the many other women who committed identical radical acts? What is achieved in the authors’ attention to these other women?

I knew in an abstract sense that Rosa Parks was not the first or only person to refuse to give up her seat on a bus, but it was interesting reading how civil rights orgs (I think they specified the ACLU on this one?) were being very strategic about who they wanted to be the face of the movement in terms of greatest chance of success. In other words, the more traditionally "upstanding" the individual, the further they thought they could take the case without it devolving into personal attacks. Still, it was interesting to read more about that process and the other women working towards it.

[dontlook]

I really enjoyed this book. The beginning was a little slow but I didn’t mind because it was so much more hopeful than a lot of other books. I loved being able to imagine my ancestors not as coming by boat but coming on their own free will as explorers.

DD has been asking about our lineage a lot and I was able to read a few of these passages to help her understand why I can’t answer her questions.

I’ll come back to this post and try to answer some of the questions.

[aurora]

dontlook, I agree with your comment about the hopeful tone. I especially liked the parts where Berry and Gross talked about the artistic and creative endeavors undertaken by the women they featured. It really helped emphasize their 3-dimensionality, which is something a lot of history books don't do as well.

I think this would be a great book to be assigned in school.

[ufcasey]

OK I'm going to go back to this book and give it another try.

I will say I was very surprised by Isabel de Olvera being a free Black woman in America before slavery really began in earnest. And yet even then she had to prove she was a free person, with affidavits from others, in order to safeguard her freedom. And then she went on that crazy long expedition! What I wouldn't give to have a diary of hers somehow exist and be found so we could find out more about her life and thoughts.

I was completely unaware that any Black people were free in America until slavery started to be abolished or unless an enslaver somehow granted the enslaved their freedom. I can't imagine the bravery involved in risking my life to travel to another country during that time period, while also risking my freedom because in that country will be assumptions based on my skin color that I am not a free person, and while also being a woman who is also at risk for being assaulted. Like I said, I really wish we knew more about Isabel!

[dontlook]

I could easily see how this book wouldn’t be for everyone. It posed more questions than it answered and that can be hard. The ambiguity gave me hope. I loved hearing the stories of the people that fought back, fought for their freedom (even mailing themselves to freedom), figured out a way to make it even if that meant participating in the slave system themselves.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I only made it through 25%. This book seriously brought back feelings of being a top student at a top school district who was competitive with my GPA, and in my Junior year being put in AP US history, and having to drop when I couldn't force myself to read and retain the material in a meaningful way. There was no honors history option, so I dropped down to regular academic US history (and also European history senior year) and missed out on the chance to have the weighted AP grade. I LOVED to read then just as much as I do now, but reading history just doesn't work for me unfortunately. I know this probably sounds obnoxious, and as a privileged white woman whose biggest concern when learning history used to be that not taking AP meant I ended up #7 in my class instead of competing for one of the top spots, that guilt is what made me attempt the book in the first place.
Honestly, I probably would have forced myself to read more of it at least if it hadn't been due back to the library with people waiting, and if I also hadn't had other books I REALLY wanted to read also due soon.