o , miming? alson 20 181 930 ID 009 0411 V. AUTHOR' Jenkins, Hugh M.':And Others' TITLE Boston: An Urban Community.- Boston'sBlack Letters: From'Phillis Wheatleyto W. E. B. DuBois. Culture and Its Conflicts: Th4 Exampleof Nineteenth-century Boston. /he Emerging Immigrantsof Boston. Annotated Reading Lists. INSTITUTION . Boston Public Library, Mass. SP.ONS AGENCY National'Endowment fof the Humanities(NFAH), Washington, D.C.. -. PUB DATE 77 NOTE 72p.: For related documents, .set\IR 008 042-0416 . EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS ' Annotated Bibliographies: *BlackHistory: *Cultural Eftrichment: EducationalPrograms: Humanities Instruction: *Immigrants: *LocalHistory: Publid Libraries: Resmirce Guides:*Sacial History ABSTRACT . it The three annotated readinggideswere developed for courses offered at theBoston Public Library underthe National Endowment for the .HumanitiesLearning Library Program.,The permdtatiome in style-andcontent of black-Boston litmratuiearf exemplified, in this collection'of18 writings toserve as an inflex tcy 'the calturaland sociallife of the-Boston gommunity,both black and white. The 1tso3ections,in thesecond set are illustrative ofthe cultural triumphs of nineteenthcentury Boston and also of its failure,to sustaina healthy, unified.culture undeT the pressUreof social change in the latterpart,of-the century..The thirdlisting of 63 readings shows the impactof the immigrantson Bostonls exiSting institutionso'values, alnd patterns of14v.ing,' the mediaticn,of tention normative toa multiettinic society, and the expansionof the _ definition of Bostonlan: (PAA) fr- V , t , , ,.. , **************************************,***********************4444**** C. 11!pproductions supplied-by !DRSare the best that can be made * _ *, . from the original document. 4 1 (APARTMENT OF HEAL Tp EDUCATION WEL FARE( 4AT1ONAL INSTITU1E OF EOUCAIION (:1)1 IlAA1 n( 1 11.11% (11 I 64141 147) ptlt I(IIItt At 1 tt 1((1 iVI PI ROM 1.11.1,ON Olt ()/.0(AN / A It(1(4 01.41cON CiP A T ct \I All \ 01 VII W oPINI4IN\ re1 0I) N01 NI (I VIA141( 1Ili POI tA) I Ap 1.teitN) Na4 ,/kat I, 1,1 I f(11 AnUrban Community Bostoo's Black Lettets: ,.From Phillis Wheatley to W.E.B. DuBois An Annotated ReadingLIM Prepared by Hugh M. Jenkins with the assistance of the Boston Public 4% 1, Library,Staff The "Boston: An Urban Community" -to Program Is made possible by a grant from the,National thdowment for the Humanitias (NEN). The Boston Public Library c. is a NEN Learning cibrabi. Boston Public Library, 1977 141 . 2. FOREWORD The BostoR Public Library'ispleased to 'present a series of:Annotated reading guidesas a follow-up to the lectures in_its NEHLearning Library Program, "Boston:An Urban Community."co The Library's program has beendeveloped under the Cultural Institutions Programof the National Endowment for.the Humanities (NEH),a new national program whose purpose is to help libraries,museums and,other cultural institutionsbecome centers of formal humanities education for their.communities. An advisorr committee, composedof outstanding scho- lars.from academic-ihstitutions in theBoston area, assists i the selection of topics for the program's learningctivities and helps recruit the teaChers' for it. Sequences presented in theTrogramhave been:q "Bibles, Brahmins andBosses Leadership and the Boston Community" with Thomas O'Connor, Professor of'History, Boston College. l'ebru- ary 3 - April 7, 1975. "Bgston's Architecture: FromiirstTownhouse to New City Hall" with Gerald.Bernstein,' professor of Art History, Brandeis Univer- sity. February 8 - March 29, 1975.: "Family Life in Boston:From Colonial Times to the Present" with Nancy Cott,Professor of History; Yale'University. April 3 - May 22, 1975. 3 I "Shaping the BostpnLandscape: Drumlins and Puddingstone" withGeorge Lewis, PrOfessor of Geography, Boston University. April 8 May 27, 1975. "Revolutionary Boston: TheLeaders and the Issues, 1763-1789" with ,O.chardBushman, Professor of History, BostonUniversity, September 16- November 4,,1975. "Culture and It; Conflicts:The Example of 19th-Century Boston" wIth MartinGreen, Professor.of English, Tufts University. .September 18- November 6, 1975. "Boston's Artisans of the 18th Century"with 'Wendy Co er, Assistant CuAator,'American Decorat e Arts, Museum of Fine Arts. Novemr 13, 1975 - January 22, 1976: ' "Ilpston's Black Letters:From .Phillis Wheat- ley to W.E.B. DuBois" with WilliamRobinson,. Chairman of Black Studies, RhodeIsland Col- . lege. November 18, 1975- January 13, 196. ,\ s*. INTRODUCTION Dnrin-g the fall of 1975and on into the first month of 1976 Dr. William Robinson, Chairman ofthe Black Stu4es Progr, at RhOde Island College,pre- sented a sequence ofilectures on the bladk literary 'heritage of Bobton, Ifor the NEH Learning Library Pro- gram at.the Boston Public Library. Professor-Robin- son focused on Bosto rin paricular and New England in general and occas onally mentioned nationaland international conneci ions as welL Figures of pri-. mary interest were Phillis.Wheatley from t.he Colonial period, William Wells Brown of the nineteenthcen- tury, W.E.B. DuRois and William'ftanley Bralthwaite of the earlier twentieth century, anda number of .. modern novelists including Dorgthy West end l'ayant Rollins. The,goverriing assumption of thesequence was that.. the various periutations in style and- cop- tent of black Boston literature uld-be a usefUl index to the'cultural and social life of the Boston community, both white and black. The following read ing list is intended to intyoduce selected, works , which we'hôpe will stimulate interest in the subject and lead the'reader to further discoveries of 'his or her own.' 5 Arna Bontemps, ed. Five Black Lives. Middletown, ! Wesleyan Univeraity-Press, 1971. This is a.collectlon of ex.,slave narratives which span 150 years in time, feom 1729.to 1870, and some thousands of miles, in geographicalarea -from Africa to Connecticut. The autobioraphies include the lives of Venture Smith, Africa; James Mars, Connectiut; William Grimes, Virginia; G.W. Dffrey, Maryland; James L. Smith,irirginia. These Twratives are the records Of black Amer- icans suffering under the oppression of slavery until he was impelled to escape. Ny freedom is a privilege which nothing elsecan equal" is the central theme running through the narratives. William Stanley Braithwaite. The William Stanley Braithwaite Reader. Philip Butcher, ed. Ann Arbor, University of Miciligan Press, 1972. 1 Philip Butcher presents'a study of thecareer- and reputation of William Stanley Braithwaite, the astute black critic andotalented.lyric poet whose editotial work gave impetus, to the'New Poetry Movement*. The.nearly 100-page reader \ Consists of letters and samplings, ofverses re- presenting not only ethnic literature but also -Americen literature and areas of American civili- zation. The Reader projects the breadth .of.the author'stnlent and knowledge, his insistence upon the dignity of black Atherican6 when the idea was novel in America. Hfs poems, written 'ina traditional nineteenth-centur lyrieStyle have nothing to(do with the life of the black man at that time. \Braithwaite felt that rteciallithemes were too limitiong fdr the artist and that they tended more toward propoganda than towArd art. v UndoulNedly, hie was.the'mostinfluential black critic of gmericap literature. to. Benjamin G. Brawley, ed. Early Negro American Writers, Chapel Uill, University of North Carolina Press., 1935. An invaluable,anthology which Brawlex origin- ated in a desire to render more accessiblefor .the student or general readersome productions of black Ameridan uritings only.to be-foundin special collections. This collection.includes.* writings'of black Americans from Jupiter Hammon- who was born between 1720 and 1730 to approxi- mately the Civilyar time..Paul Lawrence Dunbar is not included in this anthology. The bio- graphical and criticalr-analmsis which introduces each selection is excellent. 'One of the best sources for both the general readers and students who wiih to acquaint themselves wit'h black wri- ters before the Civil War. (Paperback'edition available from Dover,) . The Negro in Literature and Art New YorK, Duffield & Co., 1918. (Also New York, Dodd arid Medd*.1934.) This book is devoted-to the achievement of blacks in the field of literature and ari. In sep0-até chapters,Professor Bravley givesinter- esting and welkNwritten sketches of Phillis' Wheatley,'Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Charles W. Ches- nut, W.E.B.,DuBois And-William Stanley Braith- watte. In the opinion of the author, the best known black orato'rs were Frederick Douglass-and Booker T. Washington....Other chapters in this work take up: the stage, painters; sculptors, music. There is an appendix devoted to ,black Americans in fictiop. Tholigh publihhed in 1918 this work'still remains ail excellent sodrce.. John Daniels. In Freedom's Tdrthplace. Boston, qicrughton Mifflin,,v1914. (Also reprint NewYork, Arno Press, 1969.) - An historicaland sociological study of blacks in a.Northern mmunity, this woik concentrates, notably on the hetto of Roxbury, Massachusetts. In,his ten chapters,-Daniela-s.tAidipsthe slave, the patriot and the pioneerfreeman: Otter themes deal 14th the black church; theleverage of the.ballot, economc achievement,and civil rights. -These are typiCal themes thatwill Apply to the studies of blacks inany community but the group of people_and conclusionreached are quite different from almost:any othercom- munity. W.E.B. DuBois. Dusk pf Dawn. New York, liarcourt Brace, 1940. (Also reprint