Anderson@Large

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

When a Clarence Thomas, Candace Owens or Herschel Walker is in the news, Zora Neale Hurston’s quote, “All my skinfolk ain’t kinfolk,” comes to mind. Zora was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, she interviewed Cudjoe Lewis, the last known survivor of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Cudjoe was on the slave ship Clotilda which arrived in Mobile, Alabama in 1860. Zora's book, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” was published in 2018, 68 years after her death.

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space premieres on PBS this month.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE executive producer Cameo George said:

Zora Neale Hurston has long been considered a literary giant of the Harlem Renaissance, but her anthropological and ethnographic endeavors were equally important and impactful. Her research and writings helped establish the dialects and folklore of African American, Caribbean and African people throughout the American diaspora as components of a rich, distinct culture, anchoring the Black experience in the Americas.

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space premieres nationwide on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. The documentary will be available on PBS, PBS.org and PBS Video App. Check your local listing here.

The Roots of Jazz and Blues

Is American jazz black music? Is the Pope Catholic?

A 1959 documentary, Cry of Jazz, sparked controversy when one of the characters asserted that “jazz is merely the Negro’s cry of joy and suffering.” The character, Alex, explained that “the Negro was the only one with the necessary musical and human history to create jazz.”

In 1979, jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams drew a picture of the history of jazz for the slow learners.

The roots of the blues were planted in 1619 when Africans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia on a slave ship. Jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron observed:

America provided the atmosphere for the blues and the blues was born
The blues was born on the American wilderness
The blues was born on the beaches where the slave ships docked
Born on the slave man’s auction block

If your ancestors didn’t pick cotton from “cain't see in the morning till cain't see at night,” Benny Turner wants you to know who sang the blues first.

Black Wall Street and the Blues

June is Black Music Month. This June marks the 95th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. For two days (May 31-June1), white vigilantes massacred hundreds of black residents, looted and burned to the ground the most prosperous black community in the United States.

The riot took place in the Greenwood District, known as the Black Wall Street, the heart of which was bounded by Greenwood Avenue, and Archer and Pine streets. Tulsa natives, brothers Charlie, Ronnie and Robert Wilson’s band name pays tribute to one of the worst race riots in U.S. history.

Black Wall Street, a hotbed for jazz and blues, was a stop on the famed Chitlin’ Circuit. Bandleader Walter Barnes was one of the most colorful characters on “the stroll.”

In his book, The Chitlin’ Circuit: and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll, Preston Lauterbach writes:

The tour [Walter Barnes and his Royal Creolians] kicked off in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the week before Thanksgiving, where Barnes found “Black Wall Street” bustling. “Greenwood is the name of the colored district of Tulsa, and one can get anything here from a shoe shine up.” Barnes highlighted the stroll’s musicians, dance promoters, dance halls, and its dentists, barbers, pharmacies, cafes, cab companies, and lodgings, always stressing the up-to-date. “I stopped with my entire orchestra at the modern and exclusive Small Hotel” in Tulsa, “one of the best equipped in the country, having newest electrical fixtures, telephone in each room, bath in every room, and modernistic furniture.” The Kings of Swing played the Crystal Palace Ballroom, “the last word in beauty,” and hung around the Goodie Goodie Club, Cotton Club, and Del Rio. “There’s plenty niteries here.”

In 1940, Barnes was killed in a fire while performing at the Rhythm Club in Natchez, Mississippi. The tragedy was memorialized in tribute songs by blues musicians, including Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker.

The Truth about Sojourner Truth

On Saturday, I attended the Harlem Book Fair.

I’m a doer. I enjoy spending an afternoon listening to speakers who approach issues on which I focus, including voting rights, civil rights, black culture and community engagement, from the perspective of a scholar. Sometimes scholars drop some unexpected truth.

I can’t count the number of times I have invoked Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech before the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

There’s just one problem: Sojourner Truth never uttered those words. Nell I. Painter, author of Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, was one of the panelists on “Fashioning the Self: The Image in Black” (Painter is on the far left).

According to Painter, Sojourner Truth never said, “Ain’t I a woman.” She “said things that meant that,” but not those exact words. As for the Southern dialect, more fiction. Sojourner Truth was not a Southerner. She never traveled farther south than Washington, DC.

Sojourner Truth was born and raised in upstate New York. She grew up speaking Dutch as her first language. Truth be told, Sojourner likely spoke with a Dutch accent.

Painter said that Sojourner Truth showed herself as a well-dressed, mannered matron, not as an angry black woman who flashed her breasts at a convention.

The panel discussion is available on C-SPAN2 Book TV.

Politics of Black Hair

I will be in New York City today. While in Brooklyn, I will get my hair done.

Yes, I know TMI.

Last weekend, I attended a panel discussion, “Good Hair Revisited: The Politics of Black Women’s Strands,” at the Celebration of Black Writing Festival.

The panelists included Dr. Akosua Ali-Sabree, founder of the International Locs Conference; Lori L. Tharps and Ayana D. Byrd, co-authors of “Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair”; and Yvette Smalls, the director of “Hair Stories.”

I will be hard-pressed to view a trip to the beauty shop as an opportunity to catch up on my reading -- or doze off under the dryer. Now, l have to think about the economic and political implications of my choice of hair salon.

For the last seven years, I have been going to Dominican salons because their prices are much lower than African American-owned salons. As important, I’m in and out in a fraction of the time.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on how African American stylists are facing stiff competition from Dominicans:

Armed with a blow dryer and brush, deft wrist action and shrewd promotional tactics, immigrants from the Dominican Republic are snipping away market share from African-American stylists whose mastery of black women’s hair ensured for generations that their customers wouldn’t, or couldn’t, leave them. Promises of seemingly healthier hair, swifter service and far lower prices are wooing away a growing number of black women.

Like a barber shop, a hair salon is more than a place to get one’s hair styled. They are institutions in the black community, where news, information and gossip are shared -- and politicians stump for votes.

Indeed in 2008, Barack Obama’s voter mobilization effort included a Beauty and Barber Shop program.

The loss of market share is worrisome. So, I will have to rethink my choices.

At the same time, African American stylists must re-imagine the beauty shop of the 21st century. Truth be told, buy black may not be enough to ensure their survival.

Death of a Giant

The nation has lost a visionary and a giant among men. Dr. John Hope Franklin died Wednesday at the age of 94.

A lifelong activist who spoke truth to power, President Bill Clinton awarded Dr. Franklin the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

President Barack Obama noted the passing of this history-maker:

Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people. Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to his loved ones, as our nation mourns his loss.

Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said:

For many African Americans our first introduction to black history was through Dr. Franklin’s book “From Slavery to Freedom.” In its pages we found an account of American history that affirmed the dignity of black people and the nobility of our struggle.

Dr. Franklin was not only a noted historian, but also living history himself. His accomplishments are as many as they are great. One of Dr. Franklin’s earliest and most important contributions was as a member of the team of scholars who worked with Thurgood Marshall to win the landmark school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education.

Today we greatly mourn Dr. Franklin’s passing and the loss of his wise counsel, but we will be forever grateful for his lasting contributions.

Dr. Franklin was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit to get reparations for the survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, during which his father's law office was burned down by a white mob.

Reggie Turner is producer and director of “Before They Die!,” the story of the survivors’ search for justice. Reggie wrote:

We who were blessed to stand in this giant’s shadow and to have felt his touch will continue to use his teachings, wisdom, warmth and strength to ensure that his efforts are forever appreciated. We will mourn but we will not be stopped.

I only knew Dr. Franklin through his work, but I did get a chance to meet him at a congressional hearing.

Harvard Law Prof. Charles Ogletree was blessed to have known Dr. Franklin. Tree was the lead counsel in the lawsuit:

This breaks my heart. This hurts in ways I never imagined. John Hope Franklin was a giant and we will miss him in unimaginable ways. He was our Tulsa race riots hero and helped us bring national attention to this issue.

I’m still stunned that our young people know so little about the struggle and progress that opened doors for me and them today. Our work is never done.

There will be a celebration of Dr. Franklin's life and of his late wife Aurelia Franklin on June 11 in Duke Chapel. In the meantime, the family has asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the:

Aurelia W. and John Hope Franklin Endowed Scholarship Fund at Fisk University
c/o Office of Institutional Advancement
1000 17th Street North
Nashville, TN 37208

Dr. Franklin will be missed. May he rest in peace.

Bubble Boy

Today marks the sixth anniversary of Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that foisted George W. Bush on America and the world.

It’s maddening that Bush, an accidental president, is determined to remain trapped inside a bubble of delusion and fear of admitting he made a colossal mistake in invading Iraq.

If President Bush continues to ignore the will of the American people that we get the hell out of the Iraq hellhole, it may take the threat of impeachment to pierce his bubble.