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Reviews
African American Women Confront the West, 1600–2000
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Edited by Quintard Taylor and Shirley Ann Wilson Moore
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University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2003. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 400 pages. $34.95 cloth.
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Reviewed by Roger D. Hardaway
Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva
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| African Americans in the American West have been the object of much scholarly inquiry in the past few years. Among the most prolific historians writing on the topic is Quintard Taylor. This is his fourth book on black westerners. Shirley Ann Wilson Moore previously contributed a significant study of African Americans in California. Both Taylor and Moore have concentrated on the twentieth-century African American frontier, however. This anthology expands their focus by encompassing the years 1600 to 2000. The historical record for the majority of that time period is sketchy, so the book mainly covers the past two centuries, with five articles that primarily look at the nineteenth century and ten that address the twentieth. |
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The volume's essays are divided between treatments of specific subjects and biographies of dynamic individuals. To portray the nineteenth century, the editors chose works on the desegregation of streetcars, efforts to obtain adequately funded public schools for African American students, and the involvement of black women in churches and other social institutions. Biographical studies include those of civil rights advocate Mary Ellen Pleasant; Jane Elizabeth Manning James, the best-known Mormon of her race and gender; and newspaper editor and political activist Susie Revels Cayton. |
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During the twentieth century, thousands of African Americans migrated westward in search of economic advancement. This trend increased dramatically during the early 1940s, when the federal government funded many war industries in the West. Studies focused on the twentieth century address job discrimination faced by African Americans, the role of women in transplanting black culture to the West, and female leadership in the anti-establishment Black Panther Party and other organizations that advocated social and racial integration (especially the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Biographies of twentieth-century women include educator Ruth Flowers; attorney Beatrice Morrow Cannady; civil rights organizers Lulu White, Lucinda Todd, and Clara Luper; and actresses Fredi Washington and Dorothy Dandridge. Obviously, this volume offers a diverse array of insights into western African American women. |
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The contributors to this excellent compilation range from well-known, seasoned historians to those who are just beginning their careers. All but two are women, and many — including both men — are African Americans. The racial and gender makeup of the authors underscores the fact that the study of western American history is not limited to the efforts of Caucasian men. |
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An additional positive aspect of the book is that its eighteen primary articles — including the editors' introduction and a survey of the literature available for additional study of the topic — are original works not previously published. Interspersed among the essays are fourteen snippets — diary entries, letters, and excerpts from published works — that add a nice flavor to the book. These vignettes allow the editors to touch briefly upon matters that are important but do not merit entire articles. Examples include a homesteader's first impression of the all-black town of Nicodemus, Kansas, and a letter written by a California shipyard worker to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II to protest her exclusion from the local union because of her race. |
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The volume is further enhanced by nine photographs and one drawing. Additional photos of women prominently mentioned in the text should have been included. The footnotes that accompany each essay, the editors' bibliographical listing, and the index are all useful. One distraction is that while some articles are totally free of typographical errors, others are replete with them. This indicates that the editors left proofreading up to the individual authors. A final, close reading of the entire manuscript by the editors undoubtedly would have corrected several of these mistakes. |
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