THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406240474
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BENJAMIN D. BERRY
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Medium
A Memoir
{REST} HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.
Alfred A. Knopf. 216 pp. $22.
\ \ IN COLORED PEOPLE, Henry Louis Gates Jr. describes the world that existed behind the wall of separation created by ``Jim Crow'' laws and customs of segregation, a world in which black people lived out their lives quite apart from whites. One could even say that much of that life was lived without any consideration of the white world beyond the wall.
The book is a collection of stories and tales in which Gates resurrects people, places and events from his childhood and gives them new life. In a letter to his children that serves as the preface, Gates says that he has ``. . . tried to evoke a colored world of the fifties, a Negro world of the early sixties, and the advent of a black world of the later sixties. . . ,'' from the point of view of the boy and adolescent he was.
For the most part Gates accomplishes his goal with grace and wit. He is a good storyteller; these tales should be read aloud to receive their full effect.
Gates re-creates the small mill town in West Virginia where he was reared and where almost everyone either worked at the mill or served those who did. It was a segregated town in which the black world appeared self-contained.
People who have not experienced this world - whites and younger blacks - will find the pictures Gates paints somewhat different from the analyses of social scientists, many civil rights leaders and apologists for the ``southern way of life.'' These are not stories of a pathological replica of white America, or of fatherless children growing up in a matriarchy. On the contrary, this is a world in which there is much love - from Gates' grandmother, his parents, uncles and friends - and strong men.
Some of these characters could have been drawn from my own childhood: the men at the barber shop; the schoolteachers who were almost too demanding; the first love, long gone but not forgotten. The book resonates with my experiences and with the experiences of many readers.
The ``colored'' world and the white world were constantly interacting in many ways. Yet, when a white person entered the black world in a manner that was unexpected and unscheduled, it caused problems. Some whites were expected to be there: the mailman, the insurance man, etc. Of others, Gates says, ``Our space was violated when one of them showed up.''
One question that bothered me was why, in this post-Black Power time when African-Americans are once again asserting pride of heritage, Gates would make use of the long-despised designation ``colored.'' His response is, I think, the central value of this book. In the word ``colored,'' Gates hears the sounds and recalls the sights, the aromas and the people of the past - the ``village'' in which he lived.
In using that term he also raises an important question for all black Americans: Did we, in that ``glorious black awakening of the late sixties and early seventies,'' lose our sense of humor? Yes, we did. I recall that my black students in the '60s and '70s were unable to laugh at themselves as my father and his friends had done at the barber shop. Such laughter was, Gates suggests, excluded by ``enlightened politics.''
The ``colored'' world of Gates' and my childhoods was a world of racial discrimination, it's true, and no amount of nostalgia can or should remove the pain of that fact. I am still angry about Emmett Till. Yet, it was our world, and the sights, sounds, smells and characters were ours. For the most part, we were safe in it. Gates recaptures that world, if only for a few moments. It would be well for those who have not experienced that world - whites and black children, especially black children - to come to know it. It is a major part of the heritage and history of our people and of this nation. by CNB