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Reviews
| The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters, by Bryan M. Jack. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2007. 178 pages. $34.95, cloth.
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| In The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters, Bryan M. Jack examines the migration of southern African Americans to Kansas during the post-Reconstruction period. During the spring and summer of 1879, southern blacks from Louisiana and Mississippi fled white supremacy, sex exploitation, and violence in hopes of securing economic, social, and political freedom. Labeled Exodusters, southern blacks viewed Kansas as a promised land, a "place that would protect their rights and provide them with economic opportunity" (p. 18). En route to their "promised land," African Americans had to make their way through St. Louis, a key stop in reaching their final destination. Jack outlines the experiences of blacks Exodusters once they landed in St. Louis and the significance of the city, which represented a barrier between a recent past of slavery and oppression, and a new life of freedom and autonomy. St. Louis' African American community supported the Exodusters' journey from St. Louis to Kansas. Jack argues that the efforts of St. Louis' black population represented a form of collective resistance against white oppression "as well a statement for freedom and self-direction." Their assistance also reflected the "understanding that if the Exodusters' right to freedom of movement was limited so would be the rights of all African Americans" (p. 159). |
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Black Exoduster's migration to Kansas was encouraged and aided by local African Americans leaders and activists. Jack notes that activists such as Civil War veteran Charlton Tandy understood that the "Exodus of 1879 was not just about a small group of penniless people migrating to a new place, but about Americans deciding for themselves what their future would be" (p. 92). In turn, long-time leaders like Tandy and Reverend Moses Dickson secured shelter, provided food and transportation costs for the Exodusters, and appealed to city, state, and federal officials for relief. Tandy also traveled to northern communities like Washington, D.C. to raise awareness about the conditions of the Exodusters and to raise relief money. From his efforts, Exodusters received relief contributions from prominent blacks such as Howard University Dean R. T. Greener, and various white and African Americans leaders from Boston, Philadelphia, and other northern communities. Jack also convincingly demonstrates the activism of St. Louis' black religious and social institutions. Community organizations like the St. Louis Provident Association and the Eighth Street Baptist Church provided food and lodging for southern migrants. Jack's assessment of local black institutions builds upon existing scholarship that examines the origins and importance of African American churches and self-help groups after the Civil War. |
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Another major feature within this study is the intra-racial strife between African American activists over the Exodus from the South. As St. Louis' African American community collective supported the Exodusters, they were criticized by leading race activists such as Frederick Douglass. Douglass, like some middle-class African American activists, opposed the Exodus. He argued that southern migration to northern communities placed blacks in direct competition with whites over jobs and complicated elite blacks' efforts to establish interracial cooperation with white leaders. Moreover, some race leaders, particularly middle-class, "worried that rural, uneducated Exodusters were a threat to the positive image of African Americans... (p. 160). These opinions not only reflected the growing debate amongst black leaders over southern migration, but also illustrated the black community's diverse views on the role of respectability within their lives. |
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The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters contributes to growing scholarship on southern black migration after the Reconstruction Era. Jack convincingly demonstrates the courageous actions of southern blacks and how their decision to leave the South symbolized a collective response to mounting race, gender, and class oppression and a collective decision to take control of their destiny. By examining St. Louis, Jack offers a complex and nuanced perspective of a less familiar community and an often forgotten group of black activists. According to Jack, "studying the role that the St. Louis African American community took in ensuring the Exodusters completed their journey gives us a prism through which to better understand race relations in St Louis, as well as African American's struggle to maintain their freedom in post-Reconstruction America" (p. 112). Combining African American studies and regional histories of the South and West, this study would best be used in upper division undergraduate and graduate level courses that focus on African Americans and the history of southern and western communities. |
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| Georgia Southern University |
LaShawn Harris |
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