And you say, "What's she got to grin?"

In the last blog entry, mention was made of port cities. This clip of Nina Simone singing "Pirate Jenny" builds on some of the ideas introduced concerning the presence of African Americans in such a space. The song originates from a German opera. Which specific lyrics in this song lend themselves to defining black life and black female life in the "New World" at a specific moment and across time? How do Simone's own beginnings in the South make this song an appropriate one for her?

where we are and "why we are here"

“"Mobile is a port city that has always been a polyglot society..."

- quote seen at the Mobile Museum of Art 

Over the Thanksgiving Break, my husband and I visited the Mobile Museum of Art. There, we saw a photography exhibition titled “Why We Are Here: Mobile and the Spirit of a Southern City.” The project, which runs through Jan. 6, unveils the obvious and not so obvious social connections between Gulf Coast residents as revealed by E.O. Wilson, the famous evolutionary biologist and Gulf Coast native, and Alex Harris, photographer and teacher. The exhibit includes a photograph of African American church-goers holding their hands in prayer, another of Hindu worshippers praying in a similar manner. Along with showing such similarities between different people, the show was a  reminder  of the degree to which the sea and port cities  figure into the history of African Americans. Even though Sidney Mintz tells us that  Santo Domingo had been a European colony for 120 years and sugar had been shipped from the Hispanic Caribbean for more than a century before the first African slaves were brought to Jamestown in 1619, using Jamestown as a stating point, what all can be learned about the sea, southern, economic and social history through the lives of African Americans, particularly those residing or working in port cities?

thinking in two very different ways

Exploring African Americans in cities requires thinking in two very different ways. First, we can think about what has been written, or what scholars like to call “the literature” (for example, in my last blog entry I briefly discussed some classic and/or outdated literature, but also a new writing). We can also think about the actual history, some of which ends up in the literature. Both ways are deeply personal for me as they help explain my family history. My earliest years were spent in Coconut Grove, a small community in Miami, Florida. Above are two family photos. When I was five, we moved out into the county. People in “the Grove” joked that we lived in “the Boondocks.” Back then, only sand dunes sat where the Dolphins and other teams now play in a big stadium. Historian Raymond Mohl tells us that local and regional civic and business leaders knew for decades that African Americans would be pushed into the northwest section of the county where I lived (though many of my Bahamaian relatives, as did many, stayed put in the city our forefathers helped build). Mohl’s work and that of other scholars, including Robert Self, help make clear the degree to which race, space and power are reliable prongs to the urban history story. But Miami, and Florida in general, were different from trends seen elsewhere. How can we critically think about this dynamic? Is it always a racial one? How does class, gender and ethnicity nuance what is learned?

how the conversation began

In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner told us the frontier defined American life. The frontier was that which made the United States democratic and aggressive in character. In 1933, Arthur Schlesinger Sr. argued that in order to understand the democratic character of the United States one needed to look to the country’s industrial beginnings, or the city. Schlesinger’s arguments made him a pioneer in urban history.

Between the years Turner and Schlesinger made their very different arguments – specifically in 1896 - W.E.B. Du Bois studied Philadelphia’s African American community. He attributed the poverty and social ills African Americans experienced in this city to hardened racial attitudes and the era of slavery, and in doing so, also became a pioneer in urban history. He was also a pioneer in making race and class key ideas in the study of city life. Why is it worthwhile to insert Du Bois into the discussions that Turner and Schlesinger introduce? What made it possible for him to see American life differently from the other scholars? Further, is it possible to reconcile these men’s ideas with Nikki Taylor’s more recent study on the experiences of African Americans in 19th century Cincinnati, which addresses America’s frontier, urban life, freedom and slavery?