ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702140029
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
Prince Edward County's segregation battles
Reviewed by MARGARET GRAYSON
THEY CLOSED THEIR SCHOOLS. By Bob Smith.
This is a 1996 reprinting of a history of the closing of Prince Edward County's public schools from 1951 until 1964, when they were reopened by order of the U.S. Supreme Court. Profits from sales go to the Robert R. Moton project to preserve the old high school of that name and make it a civil rights museum and more - ``a place where efforts toward greater racial amity and mutual understanding in the community and elsewhere would be served.'' This is the very building in which, in 1951, ``African-American children had conducted their walkout protest to conditions in the `tar paper shacks' that were being used to handle the student overflow.''
The reprinting is for a good cause, but the book itself is worth a reread. It is history - objective and unbiased. Smith, a young newspaperman then, spent his weekends for almost five years in Farmville chronicling the desegregation struggle there. When Dr. C.G. Gordon Moss, a faculty member and chief academic officer at Longwood College, was asked his opinion of the book in 1965, he answered: ``During the course of Bob Smith's visits to Prince Edward County, I saw him frequently. ... I concluded he was primarily interested in the discovery of fact rather than trying to prove a preconceived thesis. For an outsider, talking with people as circumstances made possible, it's as full and as factually accurate an account as possible.''
An interview with a Roanoke music teacher who was a middle-schooler when the Danville schools closed and was later a charter member of Prince Edward Academy (and who was not in the same political camp, then or now, as the author), supported my feeling that Smith's book fairly and without prejudice recounts the events of those years.
The book's main interestaroundAfrican-American person , - black and white - who come to life on these pages. Of particular interest are the black students themselves, many of whom were placed in homes and schools far away by the American Friends Service, as well as the many others whose education ended when their schools were closed.
Copies of this book can be ordered from the Martha E. Forrester Council of Women, P.O. Box 699, Farmville, Va. 23901. Cost is $24.95 (hardback) or $9.95 (paperback) plus 4.5 percent tax. Include $2.50 per book for shipping and handling.
Margaret Grayson teaches Latin at North Cross School.
Pictorial history is a start for Roanoke
Reviewed by GEORGE KEGLEY
THE ROANOKE VALLEY'S AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE: A Pictorial History. By Reginald Shareef. Donning Co., $34.95.
With the publication of a pictorial history of the Roanoke Valley's black community, Reginald Shareef, an associate professor at Radford University, has taken a valuable first step toward closing a major gap in what we know about the past.
Black history is hard to find. Many black people have been so busy surviving that they haven't had time to leave clear records. Even after the end of slavery, many blacks have had little information on their family origins.
Shareef, a Roanoke native, has assembled a good, representative collection of 275 photographs of African-American life under the headings of education, medicine, legal profession, religious life, politics, government, business, institutions and social organizations. The 192-page book ends with a bibliography, which is short because so little has been written about the black community.
Would that Shareef's two-page introduction could be expanded into a full book-length treatment of the African-American story for the first valley settlement in the mid-18th century up to the end of the 20th century. His text is mainly descriptive of the pictures.
Shareef reminds that earlier valley histories have said little about blacks, and he charges that Raymond Barnes' big Roanoke history ``helped reinforce some of the worse stereotypes about American blacks.'' No argument there.
Research isn't easy, but much more can be done to tell what blacks have been doing in the valley. When did they arrive? How did they fare in slavery? Have black-white relations been good or bad? Has integration been successful? Are they better off economically today? Do they have job opportunities here?
The book tells of doctors, lawyers and educators, and it gives background information on such prominent blacks of the valley as civil rights lawyer Oliver Hill, Liberian ambassador and Manhattan Borough President Edward Dudley, singer William Dupree, George Lynch of the Los Angeles Lakers and William B. Robertson, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
The book was sponsored by Harrison Museum of African American Culture and First Union Bank.
Biography of Truth is lovingly told
Reviewed by LENI ASHMORE SORENSEN
SOJOURNER TRUTH: A Life, A Symbol. By Nell Irvin Painter. W.W. Norton, $28.
No African-American woman is so mysterious and yet so seemingly familiar as Sojourner Truth. We quote her question, ``And ar'n't I a woman?'' at the drop of a hat, and many of us readily recognize her calm black visage under the white cap in the famous mid-19th century photograph.
But what do most of us really know of this icon, this black woman who represents the struggle against slavery and the struggle for women's rights? Not much. In fact, we tend to know far less about Sojourner Truth than we know about other icons of the anti-slavery age.
Luckily, we now have Nell Irvin Painter's groundbreaking ``Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol.'' In this wonderful book we read the story of the woman who, enslaved and illiterate, wrested a life for herself from the unrelenting power of her master and a society in which she had few rights. Painter takes the reader through the evolution of the slave Isabella into the impressive figure of Sojourner Truth: freed woman, evangelist, preacher, singer of great power and speaker to white anti-slavery and suffragist audiences. The story is told in loving detail, full of interesting historical asides that reveal aspects of the American scene that Truth moved through on her travels.
A skilled historian and storyteller, Painter combines passion and intelligence with rigorous research. She writes beautifully, and we get a feel for her own quest to understand Sojourner as she takes us on the same paths of exploration.
Leni Ashmore Sorensen is a graduate student at the College of William and Mary.
History celebrates the epic of black Americans
Reviewed by MARY ANN JOHNSON
AMERICA IS ME: 170 Fresh Questions and Answers on Black American History. By Kennell Jackson. HarperCollins. $27.50.
Kennell Jackson was born in Farmville and is currently associate professor of history at Stanford University. This, his first book, is an intriguing approach to black history. It is divided into chronologically ordered chapters, but the subject matter is treated as answers to questions rather than rote history. The result is historical information presented in a readable format that can be read to benefit in either long or short segments.
In his introduction, Jackson notes the enduring quality of blacks (his term of choice, for sound reasons) throughout American history; in 22 years they will have been here for 400 years. Only after he began research did Jackson himself realize the true scope of black American history. He was amazed at ``how vast the Black past was'' and at how much emerged as he explored places, discovered records, and collected oral and written narratives. Uncovering this past required various approaches, and the depth of the book reflects the depth of this historical epic.
Answers are factual and anecdotal and cover a vast array of topics, many familiar and some innovative. A sampling: the mixed reaction of blacks to Harriet Tubman'sBeecher Stowe's ``Uncle Tom's Cabin''; the remarkable expansion of literacy among blacks in the late 1800s; their role in the development of the American West; black leaders in education, music, literature, politics, science and sports; what the present holds and what the future may be.
And what will the end of the century mean for black Americans; for all of us? Given the careful research and clear reasoning of Jackson's book, it is encouraging to read that, in his view, ``historical optimism is in order.''
Mary Ann Johnson is book page editor.
Chronology of King's life is a valuable work
Reviewed by PEGGY DAVIS
MY DREAM OF MARTIN LUTHER KING. By Faith Ringgold. Crown. $17.
It is difficult to realize that it has been almost 30 years since the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Faith Ringgold, in the belief that ``Every good thing starts with a dream,'' has used the familiar dream theme to write and illustrate a chronology of King's life.
All the well-known and history-making events are included, and Ringgold ends the book with a listing of the key events by date. For those born after 1968, this is an especially important work.
Peggy Davis lives in Fincastle and writes a variety of reviews for this page.
BOOKS IN BRIEF
Reviewed by SUSAN TRENT
KOFI AND HIS MAGIC. By Maya Angelou. Clarkson Potter Publishers. $17.
``Kofi and His Magic,'' the second of Maya Angelou's children's books with lavish illustrations by Margaret Courtney-Clarke, presents an entertaining, educational and informative cultural journey through the African country of Ghana. The text celebrates Ghana's long history of artistic skills through gorgeous photographs of Kente cloth that Kofi and his friends weave and serves as a reminder to children to use their imaginations and creative skills to the maximum.
SISTER SISTER. By Eric Jerome Dickey. Dutton. $22.
Eric Jerome Dickey's lively debut novel, ``Sister Sister,'' explores the lives and relationships of three active black women in California. He chronicles their search for happiness, individuality and mates. His past experience as a stand-up comedian is reflected in the characterizations of these modern women who have senses of humor and definite opinions about their lives and destinies. Highly influenced by Terry McMillan's ``Waiting to Exhale,'' ``Sister, Sister'' is an excellent novel for snowy days.
Susan Trent lives in Roanoke.
LENGTH: Long : 188 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. The Hunton Life Saving Crew, circa 1950s. (headshots)by CNB2. Jackson. 3. Maya Angelou.