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| White women’s experience
is often substituted for all women’s experience, although it is
only a part of the whole category of women, says an IUB professor of
Afro-American studies. Women of color
are not viewed in universal terms. Black women deal with ‘interlocking
oppressions,’ unlike white women who tend to view their oppression
almost exclusively in
terms of gender.
This Hinesville, Ga., woman (above) was living in an old Army camp in April 1941 after losing her sharecrop during the Depression. Jack Delano
| It is Memorial Day. Two black
women kneel to place an American flag at a loved one’s grave–a son
or father, maybe a husband. The ladies are surrounded by solemn rows
of elegantly simple, white headstones that stand for ultimate honor,
bravery and sacrifice. It is 1943, and the grave is just one of
thousands confined to the "black section" of Arlington
National Cemetery.
Appearing in a new book published by the Indiana University Press–The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women from Colonial America to the Present–this photo is remarkable to Audrey Thomas McCluskey, associate professor of Afro-American studies at IU Bloomington. Among the classes she teaches is "Black Women in the African Diaspora," a survey course that covers both history and contemporary issues. "The photograph of black women tending the graves of decorated black soldiers says so much about injustice," said McCluskey. "But it also says that black people’s belief in the ideals that America stood for and in their own humanity–the nobility of their sacrifice for a nation that denied them equal citizenship–are not fully appreciated." And until recently, neither was the history of black women. "White women’s experience is often substituted for all women’s experience, although it is only a part of the whole category of women," said McCluskey. "Black women and other women of color are not viewed in universal terms. Yet black women deal with the interlocking oppression of race, sex and class, unlike white women, most of whom view their oppression almost exclusively in terms of gender." For example, another photograph from The Face of Our Past that McCluskey finds telling is that of a Howard University student taken in 1934. The student’s beauty is a marked contrast to the noose she wears around her neck to protest the omission of lynching from the agenda of a national conference on crime. Until 1923, lynchings of blacks were not illegal in some states. In fact, in the early 1900s, photographs of lynchings were made into postcards. Living with such common disregard for one’s humanity surely would mark the collective conscience of black women uniquely. Or look at sexual violence. While all women live with its threat to some degree today, the fear of such has stalked black women since the beginning of slavery in the United States. Raping black women held as slaves wasn’t perceived as violence, nor was it illegal–rape was considered an issue of entitlement. McCluskey believes that creating and teaching the history of black women can begin to dispel myths still with us today. "There are certain controlling images of black women in our society that linger, notably the ‘mammy’ figure and the ‘Jezebel.’ They just keep being re-invented and passed along to new generations as the complete truth about black women," McCluskey said. "The character Nell Carter played in the television series Gimme a Break is an example of the ‘mammy’–the black woman passionately devoted to her white employers, even over her own family. The ‘Jezebel’ image serves to counteract the historical fact of rape and exploitation by white men," she said. "A recent example of that myth perpetuated is the television mini-series Sally Hemings: An American Scandal. Although Sally is only 14 years old and a slave owned by Thomas Jefferson, devoid of free will, she is depicted as the sexual aggressor in their relationship." Black women historically tend to be the moral compass and social focus of their families–caring for the children, tending to the home, nursing the needy, organizing churches and shoring up efforts at social reform–much as white women are in their own. But at least until the mid-20th century, their sameness went unrecognized, if not unaccepted. McCluskey is drawn to a photo in The Face of Our Past depicting this separatism. Taken early in the 1900s, it shows a sizable group of black women holding a sign which says, "Head-Quarters for Colored Women Voters." "The photo of black suffragettes subverts the notion that the struggle for women’s suffrage was a white women’s movement," she said. "Black women were involved in every aspect of the movement, often forming their own clubs because white women’s clubs did not welcome them." And neither did white schools. In the antebellum South, it was against the law to educate slaves for fear of rebellion. After emancipation, education became even more strongly associated with the opportunity for a better life, especially for daughters, who might somehow use it to escape the sexual abuse domestic work often presented. Now, jump nearly 100 years ahead to 1957. During this year, the attempted enrollment of nine black students in a white high school in Arkansas was stopped by a governor who called out the National Guard to block their entry. Elizabeth Eckford–one of the nine, the one captured in a photo taken by Will Counts, IU emeritus professor of journalism at IUB–recalled hearing shouts of "Lynch her! Lynch her!" as she approached the school’s entrance. Both Eckford’s recollection and Counts’ photo appear in The Face of Our Past. As McCluskey earlier contended, the collective experience of neither white nor black women can be viewed as universal. Even as late as 1957, when education for young white women was accessible, young black women would risk their lives for it. This irony also is mirrored in the working lives of black and white women. After all, they were brought to this country to work as slaves. What must black women have thought when modern feminism demanded the right to join the work force? "The work experience of black women is particularly important," said McCluskey. "Black women’s history can be measured, in part, by their work. In some ways, it separates black women from white women, since black women often worked for white women. Black women were judged as non-feminine because the work they did was different from what was used to define the middle-class ideal of womanhood." Whether working to survive, learning for a better life, caring for the family or fighting for what is just, The Face of Our Past portrays ordinary black women living life. So does McCluskey. "As a scholar and a teacher, it is not my purpose to glorify black women, but it is my goal to enlighten people about their experiences." Go to these sites for stories related to The Face of Our Past:
'Examining a most remarkable life'
Go to this IU Press Web site to explore other recent books about African-American studies:
Go to this Home Pages archival site to read more about IU’s Will Counts and his photographs of Little Rock, Ark., school desegregationist Elizabeth Eckford:
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