7902201

OTEY, RHEBA WASHINGTON AN INQUIRY INTO THE THEME OF ISOLATION IN ADOLESCENT LITERATURE ABOUT BLACK YOUTH: AN EXAMINATION OF ITS TREATMENT BY SELECTED WRITERS.

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, PH.D., 1978

Universit/ M icrdnlm s International 300 n . z e e b r o a d , a n n a r b o r , mi a s io b

0 1978

RHEBA WASHINGTON OTEY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED AN INQUIRY INTO THE THEI.ffi OP ISOLATION IN ADOLESCENT LITERATURE

ABOUT BLACK YOUTH: AN EXAMINATION OF

ITS TREATf-IENT BY SELECTED WRITERS

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial FuLfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By

Rheba W ashington O tey, B .A ., M.A.

*****

The Ohio State University

1978

Reading Committee: Approved By Dr. Frank Zidonis % À Dr. A.E.W. Maurer A dviser College of Education Dr. Robert Stull In memory of my beloved mother and father, Lottie Mae and E. Byron Washington, to those precious men, my husband, Robert, and son, James Edward, and to my dearest sister and brother-in-law, Mary Ellen and Herman Brown

11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The in d e b ted n ess I owe th e many perso n s named and unnamed who have helped me in the completion of this project can never be adequately expressed. I wish, however, to acknowledge my deepest gratitude to those who have borne with my frailities to make this moment p o s s ib le .

To Dr. Frank Zidonis, my major adviser, for the wise counsel, the unending patience, and the beautiful spirit he has consistently afforded throughout my doctoral studies.

To Dr. A. E. Wallace Maurer, member of my reading committee, for the deep sincerity, the rightness of judgment, and the warm humility he has always displayed during my long educational pursuit.

To Dr. Robert J. Stull, member of my reading committee, for the timely guidance, the intense interest, and the true dedication he has given through all my studies.

To Dr. Donald Bateman and Dr. William Nelson and Dr. Sheila Goff for graciously consenting to serve on my oral and final examination committees respectively.

To my husband Robert, for the times he chauffered, stepped over papers and books, waited up at night, searched for my reading glasses, and encouraged me to finish the task.

To my son James Edward, for the early morning calls, the constant encouragement and the deep belief that his mother would complete the program .

And finally, and only because there must be an end: To the Sisters of the Ohio Dominican College for being with me every step of the way.

And May God Ever B less For With God All Things Are Possible

i i i VITA

September 26, 1920...... Born - Xenia, Ohio

1938...... Central High School, Xenia, Ohio

19^2 ...... B.A., cumlaude, Wilberforce University, W ilberforce, Ohio

198k ...... L ib ra ry C e r tif ic a tio n Ohio Dominican College, Columbus, Ohio

19 8 9...... M.A., The Ohio State U niversity, Columbus, Ohio

1964- P r e s e n t ...... Librarian, The Columbus Public School System

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: English

English Education. Professor Frank Zidonis

English. Professor A.E.W. Maurer Professor Robert Stull

i v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

DEDICATION...... 11

ACKIIO^TLEDGEÎIEI'ITS...... I l l

VITA...... iv

C hapter

I . INTRODUCTION...... 1

Aim of the Study ...... U Significance of the Study for Teaching ...... 6 Methodology ...... 7 F ootnote s ...... 12

I I . AN OVERVIEW OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE...... 13

Theories of Racism ...... 22 Studies on Changing Racial A ttitudes ...... 33 Concept of Bibliotherapy ...... 36 Review of Literature ...... 39 The Isolated Black World ...... 60 F o o tn o te s ...... 71

I I I . ANALYSES OF SELECTED ADOLESCENT FICTION ABOUT BLACK YOUTH...... 76 F o o tn o te s ...... 211

IV. VIRGEIIA HAMILTON...... 215 F o o tn o te s ...... 225

V. ANALYSES OF SELECTED FICTION OF VIRGINIA HA.MILTON...... 226 F o o tn o te s ...... 255

V I. SUIIMARY...... 256 Page APPENDIXES

A. Bibliographies and Review Sources Consulted ...... 26k

B. Preliminary Title Selections ...... 266

C. Final Title Selections ...... 269

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 2J1

v i CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The value of literature for adolescents is now generally recognized as important in literary education. As D\7ight Burton reveals, the junior novel apparently "fulfills an important function in the literary education as well as in the personal development of the adolescents."^ Furthermore, a study by Stephen Dunning concludes that adolescents do seek answers to their problems through reading literature which reflects their o^m age group and culture. Thus they may. Burton believes, gain insight into social and intergroup relationships by reading about characters who are searching as they are searching (Burton, p. 59)-^

As part of both an adolescent group and the largest non-white segment in America, the black teen-ager has special recognized commitments, and more often than not the literature of the adolescent subgroup does not reflect non-white values and beliefs ^ toto.

For in the context of the black experience, black adolescents have a culture which embraces their own joys, fears and hopes.

H istorically black people have embraced a series of shared experiences which are significantly singular in the American experience, and it is safe to assume that blacks need adequate understanding of their customs and values on the part of other ethnic groups as do all groups who plaj’' a part in a nation's life. 2 When English educators assessed the role of literature for all adolescents in achieving cultural parity in the curriculum and in the teaching of the black experience, certain patterns began to emerge.

On the one hand, the surge for parity demonstrated the need for literature, by blacks about black adolescents, which would support the development of black positive self-images, self-concepts and social values. On the other hand, it soon became apparent that much of the available literature, then as now, presented the myth of the black world from a majority perspective. This is not to say that this perspective is irrelevant to teaching of the black experience. On the contrary, this approach is meaningful as an example of how the ethnic majority tends to perceive the black experience as but one ethnic experience among many. This viewpoint generally emphasizes the black as either successfully integrating into or co-existing within a pluralistic s o c ie ty .

In addition, it was not only evident that majority ivriters dominated the field and that the presence of the creative writing of black authors was minimal, but that some of the latter, largely concerned with articulating social protest themes, were consumed by a philosophy which emphasized that for black America, life represented a series of dehumanizing erosions. Black Americans, these authors posited, were colonized people, devoid of hope and embroiled in despair; hence self-realization, so central to attaining the good life, was a cruel myth to this powerless minority. Meanwhile,other black authors, writing from a majority perspective, emphasized dominant concepts and values which are unrepresentative of the black experience. 3 To be sure, literature written about blacks is important to the teaching of the black experience as a lived and shared exercise. But the ultimate literary value of that experience rests in the validity and integrity of its presentation which must perforce spring from the very well-springs of that experience, delineating the varied levels and rich complexities of the black consciousness, and effecting a fictional black, who is, in Ralph Ellison’s words, "that sensitively focused process of opposites, of good and evil, of instinct and intellect, of passion and spirituality, which great literary art has projected as the image of man"; for anything less is literary caricature.

I seriously question the adequacy of an;r curricular content with respect to adolescent literature which does not offer a useful understanding of the full range of the black experience.

The purpose of this stud^- is to suggest a remedy for this inadequacy where is exists. In this regard these assumptions concerning the present state of adolescent literature about blacks operate in this dissertation: (a) the juvenile fiction by white writers inadequately mirrors black life to the degree that these writers focus on the externals of the black condition solely, and fail to explain the "why" of the black world in the context of the historical and cultural determination framed by the dominant majority; (b) much of the literature by black authors about blacks is written either from a white perspective or for a white audience, stressing either a limiting or a nihilistic philosophy which I do not regard as viable revelations of the total black consciousness; (c) juvenile fiction 4 which portrays blacks co-existing within or integrating successfully

into a pluralistic society ignores the conditions of black

isolation and alienation which are historical. and sociological

realities; and (d) juvenile fiction which realistically portrays black life speaks fron an "in house" experience and has examined that

experience in the context of isolation and alienation which are

central to the black condition.

AH'! 07 TEE STUDY

In the past decade the demand for Black Studies has called for

a re-evaluation of the role of the English curriculum in the teaching of the black experience. And in this paper I suggest a corrective measure which would, hopefully, open the black and white experience to a more meaningful dimension in that I believe that curricular

content should include the kind of adolescent fiction about blacks which provides positive images for black youth who are searching for identity and for white youth who need "in house" understanding.

In the main the intent of the study is to analyze carefully

a point of view which induces identification with non-whites through "forced empatliy" — a method more directly defined in the metaphorical concept of "wearing the shoe" or "walking a mile in another's shoes." This method is effective, Villiam James notes,

since the reader, mentally participating in a meaningful situation, gains knowledge of the situation rather than about i t . Donnarae

I'lacCann and Gloria IToodard touch on this perspective as they write:

%en a book for children is created from this vantage point, it is likely to be aesthetically effective, as well as socially and psychologically authentic. Whether an author is black or white, if he doesn't have the perspective that places value on black identity, he cannot create a truly individualized characterization and the whole work suffers.3 Some authors, such as Julius Lester, John Steptoe and Virginia Hamilton^

have successfully demonstrated the artistry and awareness so aptly

defined by MacCann and Woodard. And one of the foremost of these

authors is Virginia Hamilton whose noteworthy efforts have won her

th e Wewbery A\rarà 1975» She has also to her credit a Wewbery Honor

Book (1971), three ALA Hotable Books (1967, 1968, 1971), The Ohioana

Literary Award (I 969), The Edgar Allen Poe Award (I 969), The Haney

Bloch Community School Awards Committee (1967), and a nomination

for the national Book Award (1972). Her works have been anthologized

and currently appear in paperback.

Some critics, such as Binnie Tate, feel that Hamilton's strengths are her clarity of vision and presentation. Assessing

Hamilton's approach, Tate writes that "Virginia Hamilton has written several superb pieces of literature about blacks with no attempt to present pseudo-integrated circumstances.” Continuing,

Tate notes that Hamilton's "books are straightforward and literary and present positive imagery for "in house" appreciation for the w h ite child.At bottom, Hamilton has effected fiction which transcends stereotypes and myths about the black world, presenting realistic and fully developed ethnic characters. Hence, I believe her works represent creative, youthful and necessary additions to the curriculum with regard to adolescent literature. SIGNIFICANCE OF TIIE STUDY FOR TEACHING

The educational system through its teaching authority and activity is important in defending and promoting the dignity and fundamental value of all its citizens, hence moving to eliminate intolerance and to provide freedom of information. Unfortunately, many educators have refused to make curricular changes to accommodate ethnic literature. Therefore, as Jean Alexander observes:

the exclusion of ethnic literature alone has created a 'culturally deprived' curriculum. Consequently, teachers who sincerely wish to incorporate Black literature into their lessons are inadequately prepared to implement the program. To prevent the substitution of one set of stereotypes for another, it is necessary for teachers to interpret intelligently the culture described in the literature, and to realize that black culture is transmitted through the group's myths and folklore.5

A major concern of this study centers on the dilemma of defining a minority or majority position since the concept of cultural isolation is now an exploded m^rth. Hamilton's perspective assuies the radical position that the American majority is a global minority; whites, who do not accept this condition, are, she believes, fleeing from reality. In her fiction, Hamilton expunges all degrees of whiteness as a standard of an absolute value in itself from her characterizations of black as blacks in their own world of worlds.

Furthermore, she expects all who enter this world to understand its nuances, folklore, imagery and deepest meaning by some strange and attractive osmosis. Her characters come across as inherently human and, as such, they are complex and enduring. She celebrates the theme of survival; anything else in her fiction is anti-clinatic.

Hamilton demonstrates explicitly that alienation and isolation, which play pervasive roles in the black experience and vhich are

overwhelmingly exploitât ive of the human sp irit, are nevertheless,

regarded as natural conditions of life for black Americans. And in

essence the latter view is at once the ultimate tragedy and triumph of black existence in America. The knowledge that our world is shrinking impinges upon our sensibilities daily. A world view of the human condition tells us that (a) this is a troubled universe, (b) people continue to remain isolated and locked in their several universes,

(c) a major problem of this era is "the color line," and (d) the twentieth century must look at these things whether it wants to or not.

In this context, Hamilton's message is clear and relevant: All

Americans are seen as through a glass darkly.

As a school librarian I am aware that adolescents are concerned with social problems which affect their lives and that they are aware that their several heritages are a part of these problems. The black experience as portrayed by Hamilton is "molded rather than presented" and offers a rich opportunity as an intercultural exercise. Hamilton's writings meet all the criteria for excellence in fiction for all adolescents. The junior novels of the other selected vnriters, dealing with the black experience, are generally less successful.

METHODOLOGY

I-ÿ concern in this study is with adolescent fiction from two perspectives: the "in house" approach of Virginia Hamilton whose new perspective contributes to exploding myths and whose craftsmanship has produced good books for all adolescents and the approach of the dominant view as demonstrated in selected fiction of Frank Bonham, 8 Natalie Savage Carlson, Ilila Colman, Jesse Jackson, Robert Llpsyte,

Florence Crannell Means, Hope Newell, and Dorothy Sterling.

The paper will attempt to present literary analyses of the

themes of isolation and alienation as portrayed in Zeely, The House

of Dies Drear, The Planet of Junior Brown, and M. C. Higgins, the

Great, hooks written by Hamilton exploring the black experience.

Hamilton's themes of isolation and alienation may be read on three levels. On one level her theme of isolation suggests the isolation of the spirit as a condition of the black experience and as a human universal. On another level the theme is defined in terms of a lack of individual freedom. But the deepest meaning is contained in the

suggestion that only a poverty of spirit would permit another human being to live in isolation because of an erroneous conception of what

constitutes a minority or majority position.

The works of the other representative authors which i;ill be

studied are : Durango Street, The Nitty G ritty, The Mystery of the Fat

Cat, Cool Cat and Hey, Big Spender by Frank Bonham; The Empty Schoolhouse by Natalie Savage Carlson; Classmates by Request by Ilila Colman;

Call Me Charley, Anchor Man, Charley Starts from Scratch and Tessie by Jessie Jackson; The Contender by Robert Lips;.rte; A Cap for Mary Ellis by Hope Newell ; S h u tte re d Windows by F lo ren ce C ran n ell Means and

Mary Jane by Doroth;/ Sterling.

The thematic emphasis in these books is centered on such issues as ghetto life, integration, segregation and racial prejudice. This study w ill attempt to analyze the growth of the characters' black consciousness in the context of the conditions of isolation and alienation. Some authors, such as Frank Bonham, eschewing

pseudo-integration, simply place their characters in a black setting which has strong affinities to the white reality of what is what and present blacks negatively. Elsewhere others, espousing integration,

firmly believe that they are delineating black consciousness and in fact, some authors, such as Dorothy Sterling do well in this area up to a point.

The general criteria for comparing the selections w ill be those recommended by Burton for judging fiction dealing with social problems.

They a re :

(1) Does the selection place the main stress on the timeless rather than the timely?. . .Timeless elements are human emotions and problems and characteristics though timely events and problems may have inspired many a timeless story.

(2) Is the reader given alternatives in emotions or ai'c his feelings rigidly channeled? Does the author malces us feel with the characters or only about them? When we feel with characters we become concerned with the "why'' rather than the "what" of human acts; we are concerned with the basis of motivation. Thus we are offered alternatives in feeling.

(3) IJhatever problem is dealt with, does the story represent the true art of the storyteller? The nature of the social problem in which the story centers, no matter how pressing it may be in contemporary society, has nothing to do with the worth of the selection of literature. The appeal of the original, well constructed story must be there. Social significance cannot compensate for the 10 absence of heroic or tragic or comic heroic and deeds and disciplined

structured and artistic use of language (Burton, pp. 92-95).

In addition, I will use the approach of Julius Lester vhose two

questions when reviewing a book about blacks are: (a) Does it

accurately present the black perspective? and (b) will it be relevant to black children?^

Chapter II will examine the historical implications of black-white relations and the attitudes of the larger society toward these relations as continuing forces in American life in the context of the black experience. A critical examination of the theories of racism will attempt to explain the relation of these theories to image building. A review of studies on modification of children's attitudes will be followed by a discussion of the concept of bibliotherapy and its role in changing attitudes. The review of literature about the black literary image is follo%red by a critical summary of the criteria proposed for literature about the black world. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the subject of the isolated black world and an examination of a literary point of view which provides entry into that world.

Chapter III will deal with the presentation and examination of selected adolescent title s concerning the black world, including a critical discussion of the method, approach, and style of the individual author and suggestions and recommendations for teachers, concerning each selection.

Chapter IV w ill present the biography of Virginia Hamilton with emphasis on her view of life as a writer who is totally involved in

her work and as an individual dedicated to her heritage. 11

Chapter V w ill deal with the works of Virginia Hamilton by critically examining the themes, method, approach and style of her a rt, with an assessment of the findings in terms of classroom application.

Chapter VI w ill present the simmary, findings, and recommendations of this study. FOOTNOTES

C hapter I

1. Literature Study in The High Schools, rev. ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1964), p. 61. Hereafter cited as Burton.

2. "A Definition of the Role of the Junior Novel Based on Analyses of Thirty Selected Novels," DISS., Florida State University, 1959.

3. "Introduction," The Black American in Books for Children, eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972), p. 5.

4. "In House and Out House: Authenticity and the Black Experience in Children’s Books," The Black American in Books for Children, eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972), p. 44.

5. "Black Literature for the 'Culturally Deprived’ Curriculum," English Journal, 54 (December, 1970), 1231.

6. Julius Lester and George Woods, "Black and White: An Exchange," The Black Perspective in Books for Children, eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972), p. 29.

12 CHAPTER I I

AH OVERVIEW OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE

The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil

Disorders concluded in I 968 that America vas "moving toward two

socieities, one black, one white—separate and unequal." ^ Some

sociologists, such as Billingsley and Holden, attest that this was

a misstatement, since America has "always had two separate and unequal societies" therefore the Commission conclusion represented

"both the past and the present, the sole element of forecast being that there was some danger that this would be intensified in the future." 3 Moreover, in face of the possibility predicted, the

Commission was criticized for its subsequent failure to offer a definition of or real solution to eradicating the real problem- - white racism—which the Commission said was responsible for the violence and decay "which had been accumulating" in the central cities since World War II (HA.CCD, p. 10), In all of this, however,

Billingsley noted, there was a major breakthrough; for "what was new was a recognition on the part of the white society that these two societies do exist, and a determination on the part of the black society that they should no longer exist" (BFW, p. 19). In addition,

Chesler comments, and even more dramatic, was the public admission that America was a racist society (Knowles and Prewitt, I 969) and

Schwartz and Disch, 1970).^ Inherent, also, in the context of the

IB 14 Commission's stated admissions and obvious ommissions vas the typical ambivalence and ambiguity which have historically marked race relations in America and s till reflect the American Dilemma observed by ’îyrdal thirty years ago.

And thus occurred two more landmarks in the odyssey of the

American blacks, who, in their search for their own group and personal identity, are seeking a shore, a lamp to guide them out of the stormy "shelter" of paternalism, oppression, and discrimination.

First, however, their lamp must be lit by the reason of existence.

They must discover who they are and why and how the circumstances of their ancestors having been, for the most part, slaves relates to their present status. For although their contemporary position is bound by the chains of a far different "slavery" than that of their ancestors, the seminal seat of their problem, as Billingsley notes, is that they were brought as captives to America (3FW, p. 48). In this mass movement, nearly 40 million blacks experienced "a social and psychological disruption" occasioned by being uprooted from

African backgrounds which were ancient, varied, complex and highly civilized and being settled in an alien world and thrust into a slavery which in America, some historians, such as Elkins, have pronounced more inhumane than any form of slavery practiced in the

Western hemisphere (BFW, p. 48).5

Tracing the effects of slavery on black-white relations in the

United States, Ashmore and Del Boca cite Van den Berghe's anthropo­ logical-historical analysis of these relations as one of interdependence in two movements : paternalism and competition.^ 15 They report that "in the paternalistic stage, blacks were enslaved and

exaggerated dominâte-subordinate interdependence existed. The image

of the blacks most congruent with this relationship was that of the

child (an Inferior form of adult human), a person who needed to be

enslaved because he couldn't take care of himself" (PAUIC, p. 7&).

The Van den Berghe model places black competition for economic

and political power after the Civil War, generating the first black

' aggressive images. But Ashmore and Del Boca believe that the many

slave revolts were the seminal seat of black-white competitive

relations, which after the Civil War increased on a legal basis with

the passage of the Civil Bights Act of 1866. The withdrawal of

federal troops from the South in 1877> permitted southerners to

develop a caste system based on black inferiority and white supremacy

which developed into a racial ethic. Subsequently, these relations

were diluted by legal and extra-legal activities such as the

enactment of Jim Crow laws, the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and

the rise of the sharecrop system. And what is important for some

understanding of present-day relations, in view of the contemporary

distance from slavery, is the condition of that competition, as

Ashmore and Del Boca point out :

While theoretically blacks and whites were in open competition . by 1890 whites had regained a clearly dominant position in practice. This state of competition is quite different from open competition and we feel that it should be seen as a distinctive stage in the history of black-white relations in the U.S. This state of defused competition allowed the paternalistic image of blacks to continue well into the middle of the present century (PAUIC, p. j 6 ) .

As Osofsky notes, "ethnic-racial antagonisms were always most intense

when they coincide with concrete situations—economic competition on 16 the docks in the l850's and l860's, residential succession in Harlem in the early twentieth century, the most recent fight over New York

City Civilian Review Board - but they were never absent from city l i f e . " 7

During the period 1905 to 195% significant changes occurred in the black world. The Niagara Movement, culminating into the NMCP later, was founded by N.E.B. DuBois in 1909. Booker T. Washington exhorted blacks to be thrifty, acquire money and property as the means to lift themselves out of the mire of discrimination; this was to be achieved, Washington said, by starting where they were—as manual laborers. The Urban League was established to help the waves of southern blacks who were migrating to northern urban centers. And the advent of the Great Migration, beginning in 191%, marks the rise of the ghetto as a new social organization in the black American experience. At this time, also, in their odyssey, blacks were subjected to continuing discrimination and lynching, as America, entering World War I to make the world safe for democracy, s till refused to observe the same democratic principles in its treatment of either the black doughboy or his civilian counterpart.

During the 1920's, the Harlem Renaissance, a movement dedicated to reclaiming and acknowledging Afro-American heritage, focused attention on the creative works of such authors as Langston Hughes,

Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, among others. This movement was also responsible for bringing to light the contribution African art forms had made to European art schools and disciplines. The Renaissance or the "New Negro Movement" also emphasized that if in fact there was a 17 "new" black then there had to be an old black; blacks therefore began to look back to their predecessors - to Africa.

The "New Negro Movement" was not, however, one which involved the masses; it was elitist in nature and a forerunner of the Negritude movement of Paris fostered by those three great African \rriters:

Aime C esaire o f M a rtin iq u e , Leon Damas o f French G uiana, and

Leopold Senghor, president of Senegal. What the Renaissance did accomplish, however, was the creation of a myth. For the philosophy called "Soul," identified as that force which enables black people to survive and endure in a hostile environment, proliferated outward into the black world and permeated the black consciousness as a r e a l i t y .

In th e 1920 's the black masses found a spokesman in Marcus Garvey, who spearheaded the first and largest organized effort to link the black American to Africa. Garve^r, flamboyant and colorful, proposed that blacks of the diaspora could aid in freeing the homeland by immigration and by establishing economic ties with Africans of the homeland with all Africans in the diaspora. Hence, Garvey exhorted, black Americans could find their own freedom. While Garvey was adulated by the masses, he was excoriated by the black elite ; for

Garvey celebrated blackness and separatism, tenets which were diametically opposed to the integration and assimilation thrusts of the black intellectual. Although the Garvey rise and fall occurred in seven years, he raised the consciousness of the black masses to a lasting awareness that black is viable. As Isaacs sees it, "The inner shame over blackness was by no means exorcised, but after

Garvey it was never again quite the same as it had been."® 18 Black rights and white discrimination were being successfully-

challenged in the courts by the NAACP. The great Depression was

widening to include blacks and nearly every tenth black was on the

relief rolls by 1935. Yet, overall, the period from 1929 - 19^1 was

an improvement. Blacks had, through the intervention of the NAACP,

gained rights in the areas of housing, in the courts, and in voting.

Furthermore, they abandoned the Republican party for the Democratic

banner after the elections of iP2h, 1928 and 1932, and the 1930's and

191+O's confirmed that the black vote did count. Gains were evidenced

in educational opportunities with the ruling of the Supreme Court that higher education could not be provided for blacîc students out

of state: a decision which the segregated South considered disastrous.

Beginning with the 1950's blacks became more aggressive in their

assault on the system of exclusion practiced by the larger society.

In that context, the 195% Supreme Court's decision that segregation

in the public schools was unconstitutional has had the greatest effect on a continuum for altered black-white relations. This decision led to a widespread belief that ^ facto segregation as well as ^ jure

segregation was illegally imposed upon black Americans, hence

affirming that in public life, blacks were first class citizens.

Tlie civil rights movement which brought an end to many ^ jure practices was mainly regional in its targets and did not create large public resistance as did the riots of 19<% and 19^T. As Ashmore and

Del Boca see it, the "rise to prominence of the term "black power," ushered in a stage of open black-white competition on a national 19 scale. The hlack demands for equal poirer and shared decision making were clear threats (either directly or indirectly) to a large number o f w h ite s" (PAUIÇ, p . 7 7 ).

Ashmore and Del Boca assert that the more distorted views of the black as lazy, ignorant, child-like, immoral, and dirty are now generally residual, but many whites retain their anti-black attitudes, and "there is intense resistance to black demands for a greater share of our nation's wealth" (PAUIC, p. 102). The authors explain these attitudes by citing the work of Ashmore and Butsch (1972) which found that although traditional black stereotypes decreased during the 1960's" a new belief - blacks are violent - was added" (PAUIC, p. 102). The open state of competition apparent in the 1970's "has produced in some whites the belief that blacks are powerful and threatening," generating an attitude the authors label perceived racial threat (PAUIC, p. 102).

A study by Groves and Boss! (1970) supports the fear-threat syndrome, as demonstrated by these statements from interviews with city policemen: "llegroes are draining away recourees through welfare payments," "Uegroes are taking over political power, Negroes are moving into areas that, until recently, were occupied by whites,"

"Negroes are socializing with whites" (PAUIC, p. 103).

Another concept which may explain white resistance is labeled symoblic racism and is generally practiced by middle-class whites.

As defined by Ashmore and Del Boca, s%/mbolic racism "is a combination of the generalized feeling that the social, economic, and political status quo should be maintained with the belief that blacks are 20 somehow responsible for threatening this status quo and, by implication, the whole American way of life - that is, blacks are seen as threatening values that are quite important to suburban whites"

(PAUIC, p. 1 06). The authors believe that this type of reaction is resultant "from the social insulation of whites, which predisposes them to abstract views of blacks, together with media-conveyed view of blacks as trying to destroy the 'American way of life '" (PA.UIC, p. 10?).

The attitudes and beliefs whites hold about black behavior is often garnered from parents, peer groups, school, and mass media.

Uhile there is nothing distinctive about these traditional avenues, what is unique in the racial situation in America is that given the psychological and social distance which historically marks black-white relations, some sources may remain on a secondary contact level continuum and physical contact may be at best transitory and ephemeral.

In addition the mass media and school texts have been responsible for much mis-information and conventional stereotyping of the black image.

The overemphasis of the media on the black in certain areas o f a t t a i n ­ ment, such as sports or entertainment, still represent boundaries of containment, and reach the point of saturation with minimal individual identity contracts. Whereas in previous times, all blacks were pictured in menial positions only, the general norms of acceptance of the larger society for black participation has been narrowed to specific images, albeit reflecting economic and social gains.

School textbooks, of course, have been contributory to false images through distortion of information. ITewby addresses himself to this by identifying these four categories which define works of blacks 21 in American history: (l) the "invisible" history, which takes no cognizance of the black presence, (2) the "sambo" history, in which he is considered racially inferior; (3) the "spook" history, in which he is given the back of the bus treatment - "a ghostly" figure ; and

(4) the ghetto history, in which he is treated as a separate entity and not as a part of a historical continuum.^ In textbooks, the past

African heritage is still largely ignored or at best is contained in spartan commentary in contrast to the full treatment afforded

European history-

In addition, since blacks do not receive fair representation in the media, Ashmore, and Del Boca suggest that this two-fold invisibility, connecting the present and past, may be contributory to white racial p re ju d ic e .

F irst, this media and textbook "black-out" keeps whites unaware of black culture thus supporting what Jones. (1972) terms 'cultural racism': — the individual and institutional expression of the superiority of one race's cultural heritage over another race. Second, invisibility in the past and present allows the development of assumed belief incongruence, which contributes to the rejection of out-groups. Third, invisibility gives whites psychological distance from blacks, and there is suggestive evidence from laboratory studies t:.at psychological distance maizes it easier for one person to aggress against another. Finally, lack of knowledge about blacks and their past makes them 'strange,' end there may be some psychological rejection of strangeness per se (PAUIC, p . 9 8 ).

This, then, is the full significance of Ellison's invisible man to the white psyche, and American black-white relations have more or less followed this course for over three hundred years. 22

Theories of Racism

The entire spectrum of black-vhite relations is so complex and so involved with the variables of economics, politics, and societal considerations that simple equations and answers cannot be commanded.

Racial prejudice and its active expression, racial discrimination, however defined, have been continued marks of these relations as manifest in American life . Paternalism which imposes permanent childhood upon blacks, pre-supposes that blacks are innately inferior and that whites are superior. According to Holden, the latter attitude is an expression of "racial prejudice or contemptuous assertion of

’natural' ('biologically inherited') superiority with or without its reflection in the policies and operations of institutions"

(Holden, p. 7)» Recently, the term institutional racism has been utilized by Hamilton and Carmichael (19^9) and Knowles and Prewitt

(19^9), among others, to describe the effects of combining white superiority ideology with the power of the institutions "to implement that ideology in social operations" (CSTR, p. 22). Holden explains how institutional racism discriminates systematically by noting that :

’institutional racism is what we would measure...by observing the extent of which a wide variety of social roles ("voter," "priest," "husband," "TV repairman," "policeman," "lodge brother," "customer," "luncheon companion," "ditch digger," "trade unionist," and the like) should regularly be predictable on the basis of race' (Holden, p. 21).

This kind of restriction is based on racial models and Holden suggests that is has all the ramifications of unofficial apartheid and, until recently, was the dominant rule (Holden, pp. 2U-25). This policy is one of exclusion from particular roles by minorities in both 23 the private and public sector, specifically at the decision and policy-making levels (Holden, p. 25).

Holden found that those institutions which purport to facilitate integration are more prone to be those which follow lines that mitigate against inclusion of minorities in decision-making roles.

For example, he reveals, although the United Auto Workers union of Detroit is highly verbal in its commitment to an integrated union, after black affiliation, it was fifteen years before a black was placed on its executive board. To be sure, Holden observed, philanthropic foundations do provide funds for studies aimed at reducing the inequalities between the races, but seldom has this option been applied to foundation positions at the top level (Holden, pp. 22-23). The position generally taken by management in these instances is that there are no qualified blacks.

These illustrations serve to underscore the continuing dominate group control prevalent in black-white relations and may act as a springboard to a discussion of the major theories of racism as proposed by social science. The formulation which measures the degree that a theory of racism locates the cause of prejudice in the victim or the larger society is called "victin-system control," and Chesler cites Ryan who identifies the term in this way:

The new ideology attributes defect and inadequacy to the malignant nature of poverty, injustice, slum life, and racial difficulties. The stigma that marks the victim ... is an acquired stigma, a stigma of social rather than genetic origin. But the stigma, the defect, the fatal difference-though derived in the past from environmental forces-is located within the victim, inside his skin...It is a brilliant ideology for Justifying a perverse form of social action designed to change, not society, as one might expect, but rather society's victim. (CSTR, p . 2 5 ). 24 The victim-blarae type of theory presupposses that there is something deficient in minority lifestyles due to discrimination and racial injustice. In view of this, the adjustments which are made to accomodate these conditions result in cultural deprivation and disadvantages. These theories have been utilized in studies by

Reiseman (19^2) and Passow ( 1963), among others, on the learning disabilities of the ghetto child. The culturally deprived theory has also fallen into disrepute and has been vigorously rejected by blacks who have made it abundantly clear that they, as any ethnic group, have a culture; they prefer the term disadvantaged, but in the context of exclusion from the rewards system of the larger society.

Chesler cites Stein (1971) who "suggests that sociogenic theories contribute a great deal to the reinforcement of racial and social class stereotypes by preparing educators to expect and accept inadequacy from classes of students" (CSTR, p. 28). Banks, too, has this to say:

A teacher who accepts the deprivation theories and believes that his students have 'irreversible cognitive deficits' will be motivated to do little to structure the kind of learning environment needed by his pupils, especially those who emanated from a culture which differs from his oim and who he perceives as 'lacking culture.' If teachers are to help black and other culturally different children to think more highly of themselves, they must understand that there are many ways of living and being, and that whether a cultural trait is functional or dysfunctional is determined by the social setting and situation.

Kenneth Clark, also, has persistently advocated that teacher expectancy was a balancing factor in education to the children.

Condemning the cultural deprived theories which perpetuate distorted images of black children as "anti-intellectual" and "culturally deprived,"

Clark writes that : 25 ...when The North discovered its racism, it tended to provide justifications for it...In the academic community, it began to be clear in the IgGO's that apparently sophisticated and compassionate theories used to expls^in slow Negro students performance might be tainted with racist condescension. Some of the theories of "cultural deprivation, " "the disadvantaged,"" and the like, popular in education circles and high governmental spheres until recently and in fact still prevalent, were backed for the most part by inconclusive and fragmentary research and much speculation. The eagerness with which such theories were greeted was itself a subtly racist symptom.

One of the most famous or infamous investigations based on the

victim-blame type of theory was conducted by Koynihan on the pathology

of the black family. It has now been recognized as the classic example of the tendency of the larger society to interpret the black its own way—a way more suited, as TenHouten observes, to social mythology than to scholarly research .B riefly stated Moynihan found that lower class black families found it difficult to observe the normative patterns for the larger society because of the exclusion factor. He failed, however, to translate this factor into those salient points which mitigate

against achieving mainstream standards under these conditions, but

concluded that the lower class family was in the process of decay with the implication that this process was because black families were matriarchal and therefore lacked stability and were thus inadequately prepared to deal with society at large. The furor created by this report was massive. Billingsley criticized Moynihan’s methodology by

noting that his analysis ignored "two very important aspects of the

Negro experience; social class and social caste"; the former,

Billingsley observed, w ill contain more lower income blacks than whites who occupy more middle and high upper income ranks; the latter represents the barriers of exclusion faced by blacks who have 26 limited access to the reward system of the larger society. Any hlack-white comparison which did not consider these factors could only produce the distortions which Moynihan concluded irere scientifically correct (BFV^A, pp. 200-201). At bottom, however, Billingsley felt that if the American scholar had not teen guilty of ignoring the study of black family life, such distorted perspectives would have been impossible. What the report did reveal was that the black world offered a valuable source of information on family life in America, deserving serious and honest scholarship (BFWA, p. 2 l l ).^3

The more recent studies of the urban riots are other forms of those theories which center on minority life. Chesler notes that studies by Berkoid.tz ( 1968); Gurr, (I 968) concluded that black rage at white aggression prompted the riots. The findings concluded that there were no conspiracies but that black aggressive reactions vrere

"impulsive." These reports indicated that although social and economic conditions were causative, a study of personalities of the rioters suggested that they were rebelling against these conditions, that, at bottom, blacks were refusing to accommodate the exclusion policies of the larger society (CSTR, p. 30).

Scholarship maintains that the main thrust of the theories which examine black life is to evoke sympathy and understanding for the problems facing blacks. In turn, it was reasoned, the dominant society would be more prone to accept different behavior patterns and possibly tolerance would lead to curtailment of further injustices and intolerance directed toward the minority group. Another, and more important function, seems to be an identification of deviant 27 minority "behavior for the purposes of correcting this behavior to promote successful functioning in the dominant culture. Banks, among others, rejects this trend in scholarship, by noting that, "since the pathologies in the black community merely mirror the problems of the larger white society, our greatest research need is to illuminate the origin and nature of white racism, which is the root cause of our major social problems and the black child's low self concept"

(Banks, RPBS-C, p. 29. Italics the author's).

î'ÿrdal, in his study of the American racial problems, concluded that the dilemma of the majority was a moral issue, proceeding from the treatment of the black in direct opposition to the American

Creed. But it was, I^dral said, an erroneous premise to study the black and his peculiarities...for

as he proceeded in his studies of the Ilegro problem, it became increasingly evident that little , if anything, could be scientifically explained in terms of the pecularities of the llegroes themselves...It is thus the white majority group that naturally determines the Negro's 'place.' And our attempts to reach scientific explanations of why the Negroes are what they are and why they live as they do have regularly led to determinants on the white side of the racial life. In the practical and political struggles of affecting changes, their views and attitudes of white Americans are like;rise strategic. The Negro's entire life and, consequently, also his opinions on the Negro problem are, in the main, to be considered as secondary reactions to more primary pressures from the side of the dominant white majority.

The approach of these theories as to the why of racism see it as real and continuing but do not consider it a necessary or structural feature of the larger American society and culture (CSTH, p. 31).

This approach is directed to the study of that segment of society which has little control over its environment ; therefore, it does not 28 focus on viable alternatives linked to modification of the control system. Personal characteristic vhich accrued from these studies indicate negative images of blacks : poor, lazy, immoral, impulsive, rebellious, nonconforming; and inherent in this context is the premise that if blacks would conform, then racism would disappear. The victims are blamed, through scholarship, for the forces which control them.

The study of prejudiced personality as related to racism has been th e so u rce o f v a rio u s th e o rie s which in c lu d e th e A llp o rt and ICramer thesis that personal prejudices are manifestations of a larger and more complex belief system (19^6) and the Adorno authoritarian and ethnocentric personality (1950). Chesler lists the following statements supportive of the Adorno concept :

1. Prejudice is often the result of early socialization practices that scar the development of a healthy personality—especially authoritarian, inconsistent, neglectful, or rejecting child- rearing practices.

2. Prejudice can be related to a variety of forms of mental illness or poor adjustment patterns.

3. Prejudice is often held toward not just one group but a variety of outgroups or minority groups thus legitimizing the ethnocentrism label.

U. Prejudice or ethnocentrism is integrated into the personality and affects a variety of cognitive understandings about the world, a variety of affective orientations and consequent value judgements (CSTR, pp. 31-32).

One of the familiar forms of activity of the prejudiced personality is that of scapegoating which transfers aggressions and frustrations to a selected objectionable and relatively non-retaliatory target such as a minority group (Allport, 19^8; Berkowitz, 1962). In addition, prejudice toward blacks has been studied in terms of fear promoted by the lack of melanin in the pigmentation whose absence marks whites as a world 29 minority. This theory, developed by Welsing (19T0), also premises that

fear of biological extinction is the basis for white dominance over

dark or colored peoples and accounts for white predeliction to make

these people feel inferior and economically dependent (CSTR, p. 32).

In a larger and more contained sense social groups and preferences

are generally dictated by societal norms of segregation, which may,

according to some authorities, be causative in creating anti-black

attitudes. This form of aggression is occasioned by racial segregation which erects physical barriers against communication and encourages

social tensions and hostility, lessening the possibilities of

correcting distorted perceptions of racial groups. Conversely, the opposite holds. Studies by Deutsch and Collins (1951), Williams

(1964) and Ford (1974) conclude that whites who had high contact with

"equal status minority group members" displayed the least prejudice

(CSTR, p . 36). As a study by Taueber and Taueber indicates, segregated housing patterns were imposed "regardless of relative economic status of the white and ilegro residents" (CSTR, p. 36). Warren (1970) observed that "not only do white suburbs reflect racial segregation, but the existence of perceptual distance that is super-imposed in the lack of face to face contact" reinforces the illusion of invisibility

(CSTR, p. 37)' These studies and others suggest that the very system of segregated social relations keeps equal status contacts between members of different racial groups to a minimum, thus maintaining anti-minority patterns of behavior (CSTR, p. 36).

A newer approach focuses on the normal operations of our institutions that are laid on top of patterns of historic injustices (CSTR, p. 42). 30 In other words, once a pattern of aggression is set, it often continues without either conscious effort or intent. The wide dissemination and acceptance of negative images about blacks is one example of this phenomenon labeled "earned reputation" by Daniels and

Jacobsen (CSTR, p. U1+). Moreover, Rosenthal and Jacobsen conclude that patterns of anti-black sentiments flourish when the self-fulfilling prophecy of expectancy and the forces of "the earned reputation" coalesce. In view of this, whites may discriminate against minorities without being aware of their actions. As Chesler reveals, this form of racism is deeply embedded in the American institutional and societal system (CSTR, p . U5).

There are several explanations of racism which place its origins in the nature of capitalism as an economic and social determinant, centering on competition and status. The aggression takes the form of white reactions to black competition for good jobs or when the labor market is tight. Willhelm's suggestion that cultural patterns of discrimination were also at work was corroborated by Glenn who felt that white competition in the labor market and striving for social status were self-serving and that whites may be adhering "to a racial ideology shaped by the interests of earlier generations of whites"

(G lenn, I 966) (CSTR, p.

Another popular theory is the one involving the manipulatory actions of corporate capitalism which plays off lower income group against another to insure a captive and manageable labor market.

Cox describes the exploitation in these words: 31 Racial prejudice...is a social attitude propagated among the public by an exploiting class for the purpose of stigmatizing some group as inferior so that the exploitation of either the group itself or its resources or both may be Justified (CSTR, p. 49).

Furthermore, Cox argues, white iforkers, though exploited, do enjoy more m aterial gain and are made to feel more compensated in comparison to the black worker. In this manner, Cox believes, capitalism can effectively prevent the poor worker from becoming organized, utilizing them also as buffers to organized labor. Willhelm, however, feels that exploitation has occurred, but that racial prejudice as an historical fact must also be considered in the process; white workers must share some of the blame along with the corporate structure

( CSTR, p . 50). This view of capitalism as anti-black is widely held and is most often the basis for the study of racism as embedded in

American economic policy.

One of the most popular theories sees blacks as domestic colonials. Proponents of this theory, such as Allen, O'Dell, and

Blauner, among others, believe that American colonialism differs from the system as practiced by the European powers in Africa. The difference is that Ajfrican colonialism was imposed upon the native population by a minority and was practiced in the homeland. This situation, Allen w rites, gave the native population more control and the minority im perialist was less able to eradicate African culture or to dominate completely. 15 Allen, however, sees the American system as a variety of African colonialism and cites O'Dell who writes that "in defining the colonial problem it is the role of the institutional mechanisms of colonial domination which are decisive. 32

Territory is merely the stage upon which these historically developed

mechanisms of super-exploitation are organized into a system of

oppression" (Allen, p. 8 - Italics the author's).

The colonial theories generally follow one of these lines:

(a) forced entry or conquest, (h) economic exploitation, (c)

political control, (d) cultural alteration and control, and (e)

self-justifying ideology (CSTH, p. 52).

Allen defines colonialism "as more than simply a system

of political oppression and economic exploitation, it also fosters the breakup of native culture" (All en^ p. 13). Africans, as

American slaves, were subjected to the process of deculturalization and

forced to accept the myths and language of the dominant group, "in

short, blacks were the victims of a pervasive cultural imperalism"

(Allen, p. 13). Allen believes that blacks are now going through a period of neocolonialism since blacks, while getting a greater share of rewards of the larger society, are still controlled economically by the dominant group. American neocolonialism is being "formulated by

American's corporate elite - the major o m s r s, managers, and erectors, of the giant corporation, banks, and foundations which increasingly dominate the economy and society as a whole-because they believe that the urban revolts pose a serious threat to economic and social stability" (Allen, p. 17)• Aiding and abetting the corporate structure, Allen observes, are members of the black middle class who opted for control of the black communities as their re:7ard.

According to Allen "while it is true that blacks have been granted formal political ea.uality, the prospect-barring any radical changes-d:hat black America w ill continue to be a semi-colony of white America, 33 although the colonial relationship will take a new form" (Allen, p. 20).

Another facet of the colonial theory is that it perpetuates the image of black inferiority since the colonial power must justify separate and unequal in a country which rests on democratic principles.

"Blacks are not ready for full participation;" "They are moving too fast ;" "Blacks themselves do not want to mix with whites, they would rather be with their own kind," are justifications for continued dominance and have gained wide acceptance. And it is significant that

Chesler concludes that "the argument that p olitical, economic, and cultural controls operate together in maintaining colonial oppression indicates how deeply racism is embedded in the entire system of

American society" (CSTR, p. 56).

Studies on Changing Racial Attitudes

Traditionally, the school has been considered a powerful agent for social change, with the assumption that knowledge and information would decrease prejudice. While there is considerable literature on changing the ethnic attitudes of adults, there is a noticeable dearth of research on children in this area. School systems do conduct many research projects, however, as Banks observes, these studies are often flawed by imperfect methodology, inadequate controls and exposition of activities. Despite these lim itations. Banks continues, research does

"indicate that teaching materials and methods can affect youngsters' racial feelings and predispositions" (Banks, RPBS-C, p. 19. Italics the author's). Banks cites Schlorf (1930) who found that a special civic course, implemented to promote tolerance for blacks, was indeed 34 successful (Banks, RPBS-C, p. 19). Conversely, MacNeil found that white high school students demonstrated more prejudice after they were given information about blacks and according to Hayes and Conklin,

(1953) eighth grade students did not respond affirmatively to studies in prejudice.

In studies utilizing motion pictures, students developed negative attitudes after seeing the distorted images of blacks in The Birth of a Nation (1933) (Banks, PP3S-C, p. 19). But studies by Kraus (I 96O) and Elrod ( 1968) using motion pictures about prejudice with white high school students showed no changes in their attitudes.

In 1952, Trager and Yarrow conducted a study on how teaching materials may alter or modify children's racial attitudes. This important research documented that while etlmocentric m aterials tended to promote negative racial attitudes, the more democratic materials fostered positive racial attitudes. In summar%/ the authors report that:

The changes achieved in the experiment demonstrate that democratic attitudes and prejudiced attitudes can be taught to young children. The experiment contributes to the understanding of some of the important conditions which are conducive to learning attitudes. Furthermore, it is apparent that children can learn prejudices not only from the large environment but from the content of the curriculum and its values. If democratic attitudes are to be learned they must be specifically taught and experienced (Banks, RPBS-C, p. 20).

Conclusions sim ilar to those found by Trager and Yarrow, were supported by studies conducted by Johnson ( 1966), Georgoff and

Jo n e s, ( 19Ô7) and Leslie, Leslie and Penfield (1972), all of which centered on the effects of studying black history and heritage upon the children's attitudes (Banks, RPBS-C, p. 20; ACC, pp. 221-222). 35 The Johnson study, which was conducted on black children, indicated a

change in the boys' attitudes, but no significant changes in the attitudes

of the girls:

The Freedom School...seemed to have some effect on the boys in the areas of self-attitudes, equality of ITegroes and whites, attitudes toward Negroes, and attitudes toward civil rights. That is, they became more confident in themselves, more convinced that Negroes and whites are equal, more positive toward Negroes, and more m ilitant toward civil rights (Banl:s, RPBS-C, p. 20).

In their experiment, Georgoff and Jones exposed nineteen fourth

grade classes to a semester of black history. The data collected from

the (l) sociometric test, which required students to give three

preferences in the sit, play, and study with categories, and ( 2 )

self-concept, showed minimal changes in attitudes. A third category;

assessing the luiowledge acquired about black history, was positive.

The seven control groups which did not study black history showed less

knowledge of the subject (ACC, p. 221-222).

Another interesting and important study was conducted by Litcher

and Johnson on "the effects of multiethnic readers upon the racial

attitudes of white elementary students" (Banks, RPBS-C, p. 20).

The experimental students were second graders with lim ited contact with blacks in a Ilidwest school. % ile the experimental group used multiethnic readers, the control group was given ethno-centric readers.

In addition, all teachers in the experiment were asked not to draw

attention to racial and ethnic differences through group or individual discussions. The results of their study indicated that children who were exposed to the multiethnic readers demonstrated more positive racial attitudes than did the control group. The experimenters 36 concluded that "the evidence is clear. Through the use of a

multiethnic reader, white children developed markedly more favorable

attitudes toward llegroes" (Banks, RPBS-C, pp. 20-21).

Leslie, Leslie and Penfield found that there was a decrease in

prejudice in a group of six grade white middle-class Mormon students

after their curriculum had been changed to include African history,

profiles on famous black Americans, and a unit on the barriers faced

by blacks (ACC, p. 222). In addition, interpersonal contact with

black children was effected by the experimental group. The control

group was assigned social studies which were ethnocentric and the

experimental group was given units on a contemporary issue. In this

experiment multiple pre and post tests were conducted, and one of the

flaws of this study was that those students who showed no change were

d ro p p ed .

The Concept of Bibliotherauy

Traditionally, literature has been a way to tell what people

are thinking at a particular time and place. It has been hoped that an improved climate for black Americans would be reflected

in contemporary literature which would, in turn, serve as a model for better racial understanding. On balance, since the m id-fifties. the overall literary image of black in adolescent literature has shown an improvement over the blatant racist's stereotypes and caricatures of the early 1900's which persisted into the mid-19^ 0 's .

In 19 d 7 Rollins was able to irrite that since World War II, there was a "new era" in race relations because of "a growing consciousness that the Ilegro must be fully integrated into American life and that the 37 surest way to such integration was to understand him and to accept him as fellow human teing with all the privileges and responsibilities that such acceptance entails.

Continuing, Rollins confirms her perspective of literature as an agent of change, "One of the most useful methods of helping children to understand this change in American society was to make available to them suitable books dealing with the Negro in this new light"

(VJHT, p. x). In 1963, Balcer, in an annotated bibliography, stated that the books were intended to..."give an unbiased, accurate, well-rounded picture of Negro life in all part of the world.

The main thrust of such pioneers as Rollins and Balcer to demand literature which portrayed the black world realistically is based on the theory that books do have the power to change one's perception of the world. And although, as Russell and Shrode reveal, there has been limited experential evidence to support this claim, the concept of bibliotherapy has found firm acceptance by many educators and librariansAs Jesse Perry explains:

Books can play a unique role in fostering better human relationships among all people, especially if those books selected genuinely and realistically reflect the multi- cu].tural and multi-ethnic composition of that society... A human relations program centered upon literary experience has the potential for clarifying moral imperatives and expanding social consciousness as readers explore the problems of racism, poverty and cultural isolation.20

Formally, bibliotherapy is defined as "the use of selected reading materials as therapeutic adjuvants in medicine and psychiatry."-^

However, Newton points out that "for teachers and other educators bibliotherapy is simply the directed reading of books to be used in modifying the attitudes and behavior of children and youth" (Newton, p . 226 ). Brown cited the work of Newton, Carlsen.and Taba in the use 38 of multiethnic trade hooks in the school situation to illustrate the diversities of cultural developmental tasks, noting that "these writers pointed out that while growing up is a universal experience, it is also an individual experience shaped hy cultural orientation of the learner". 22 There are several studies on assessing reader response to a literary work, including the work of Squire (19^9) and Purves (I 968).

In the Squire study a method of analyzing reader reaction was devised hy recording the responses of fifty-two ninth and tenth grade students to four short stories. These responses were analyzed hy utilizing seven categories: literary judgements, interpersonal responses, self- involvment, prescriptive judgements, narrational responses, and miscellaneous. Squire reported that interpersonal responses was the most active category and that there was a strong positive relationship between the nunher of responses indicating judgement and the number of responses indicating self-involvement. ^3

Cooper summarized the study of Purves ( 1968) which was detailed, international in scope, and included responses of students, critics, and teachers. As a result of the research, Purves grouped one-hundred- twenty-four elements into four categories: engagement-involvement, perception, interpretation and evaluation. Each category was then divided into subheadings. The study was published hy NOTE as Element of Writing About a Literar^r Work : A Study of Response to Literature. 2h

Lohan, stressing the need for diversity in literary selection states that:

Literature can give a balanced perspective. Through literature we test life by sharing experiences with many individuals, we feel sympathy for persons quite different from ourselves and find more opportunities for choosing among different emotional responses and courses of action than life itself can offer. In 39 doing this we comprehend the needs of personalities quite different from our own. By evaluating different modes of conduct we deepen and extend our consciousness of the multiple vision of life.25

Hence it is recognized that though the data are insufficient the

view that literature can change one’s perception of the world is

widely held.

Review of Literature

Writing in Social Education, Banl:s noted that although literature

"can help develop racial understanding and tolerance..[it] may also

reinforce stereotypes and misconceptions.”^^ And, as numerous studies

indicate, American literature has systematically supported and

championed a negative image of the blach American. As part of that literature, adolescent fiction, now as in the past, shares in that heritage. Sterling reveals that as early as 1872 black Americans were protesting their image in print as demonstrated by the following

excerpt from the New National Era, published by Frederick Douglass:

Reader, were you ever a colored boy?...Have you ever studied Smith's Geography with that very i:orst t^/pc of Negro, presented in painful contrast to the most perfect of the Caucasian on the opposite page? Have the words 'superior to all others' referring to the latter, ever stuck in your throat while flashes of heat shot all over your body, and defiant pride made you 'go down' while some other boy, no more ambitious but less sensitive 'went up? ' Have you ever tasted the sweef. revenge of sticking pins into the eyes of the soul driver in the picture of a cotton field at the head of the lesson on Georgia? No! then you don't Imow what a jolly experience belongs to nine-tenths of the colored men in this land of liberty.27

The description of Africans in Smith's Geography to which the article refers was a sign of the times. American whites asserted that Africans

"are generally idolaters or pagans and show little signs of 40

intelligence.. .Western Africa is inhabited chiefly by various tribes

of Negroes vho go almost naked, lead barbarous life and are an

ignorant warlike race" (Sterling, , p. 8l8). In 1805, Sterling writes, Nathaniel Wright exposed school children to this version of native cannibalism: "They kill and eat their first born children and their friends who die are eaten by their relatives...There is a market for which human flesh is sold. They esteem it a luxury and it is said that a hundred prisoners...are daily killed for the king's table" (Sterling, VB\TP., p . 8l 8). Moreover, Sterling said, Jedediah Morse, the father of American geography, added his weighty view of the picture of the debased Africans who. he stated,

"were a very degraded and superstitious race. They believe in witchcraft and offer sacrifices to devils" (Sterling, \-B\-JP., p. 8l 8).

Concluding, Sterling irrites that "from these books - all published in New England and New York, not the South - black school children learned that their ancestors were ignorant, stupid barbarous people who worshipped idols and ate human flesh, while the whites were

'superior to all others'" (Sterling, kSWR, p. 8l3).

The conception of black character, as Frederickson carefully delineates, was an integral part of the black's destiny . ^8 in th e

North, until the late iSkO's the term "degraded" was the most frequent and popular view of the free black, for whom the general population felt that colonization was the only solution; and in the South, justification for slavery took the form of limning the black as naturally biologically inferior, as Colfax irrites : "The Negroes, whether physically or morally considered, are so inferior as to 41

resemble the brute creation as nearly as they do the vhite species

...No alteration of their present social condition vould be productive

of the least benefit to them, inasmuch as no change of their nature

can be expected to result there from" (Frederickson, p. 50).

Frederickson concludes by noting that though Colfax's theory would be

expanded and explained and attacked, his thesis would be fully accepted

in the South.

Beginning with the mid-nineteenth century, however, a new image

of the black began to emerge in the literature of that time, due in

part to the force of the abolitionists and the revulsion for the harsh

national expansionism, which hardly seemed justifiable as "manifest

destiny" to some Americans. As Frederickson notes, some Americans

were beginning to think that "if this was the way Caucasians behaved -

then it was possible that something was wrong with the race. Tlie

idealized Negro was a convenient symbol to point up the deficiencies,

not so much perhaps as the white race itself as of the racial self-

image it seemed in danger of accepting" (Frederickson, BIT-ri, p. 108).

The works of Charles Sumner, perhaps, sjar-obolizes the meaning of black character for that era; "Tlie African is not cruel, vindictive,

or harsh, but gentle, forgiving and kind" (Frederickson, Bllf', p. 109).

This characterization was perfectly and popularly personified in the main protagonist of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s great antislavery novel.

Uncle Tom's Cabin :rhich was the classic expression of the racial theory purposing that blacks were naturally docile, childlike, and patient (Frederickson, 3IUF, p. IIO). The image of the docile, patient and long suffering black continued to prevail with the addition 42 that docility and inferiority were happily and naturally mated. Of

course, there was the other side of black nature which Negrophobia

translated into "brute. And in this, it was the mulatto who was most

vilified, vividly "balancing the docile, naturally sweet-natured

full-"blood "black characterization. Cut of all this conglomeration, there arose a new paternalism which was reflected in the w itings of

George Cable, Thomas Nelson Page, Thomas Dixon, and Joel Chandler

Harris. Dixon was vociferous in his attacks on black sexuality

and w ill be remembered as the author of The Clansman, the basis for the motion picture. The Birth of A Nation. And Harris' stories, told through the consciousness of Uncle Remus, an old plantation-like retainer, exemplified the new racial arrangement which would enter the twentieth century as the southern way of life.

And in the first two decades of this century, racist's views of black Americans were freely purveyed across the nation in all media institutions. At that time this trend was reinforced by certain intellectual movements and American expansionism. On the one hand,

Puritanism has long suggested that the fruits of the Promised Land were for God's chosen people, and that God's elect would be rewarded according to His will in direct proportion to one's moral conduct.

If whites were successful, they must be morally correct. Those who were on the bottom, as the black, must be sinful and immoral and therefore could not share in the nei' convenant. Social Darwinism reinforced Puritanism in its h;/pothesis of evolution even among men that some men are superior in ability to others. On the other hand, the America adventure into imperialism which brought eight million 43 dark people under American rule raised serious doubts as to their ability to rule themselves, hence promoting the white man's burden syndrome, which Sterling assails as still inherent in the contemporary white liberal's insistence that "papa knows best" (Sterling, \J3\J3., p. 821).

Criticizing early portraits of the black experience by white authors in the ipoO's, Millender notes that "at that time in our country's history, it was accepted that the Negro lived little better than in his plantation days, that he wanted nothing, and looked like nothing that resembled other humans of the da;,'’."^^ Citing black-white segregated existence as a principal factor, Millender writes that

"so separate were the races in the early 1900's that few whites knew that many Negroes lived in much the same way they themselves lived...Books did not mirror this kind of life, the life that really was, but revealed instead another alien existence" (Millender, p. 1^571 )•

Implicit in Millender's premise is that if whites but knew the reality of the black world; that is, that blacks as well as whites, are in all stages of development, then these kinds of distorted black images would not prevail. But the basic premise, it would be safe to assume, is that here, as elsewhere revealed in the literature reviewed, there is a failure to understand that the persistant drive of the white population is not to know about the black as defined by the black.

The imposition of white identification forms the basis of white domination. And what the blacks have been demonstrating since the first slaves refused to be slaves was that they would not accept a white definition of themselves.

But clearly, the thrust of the news media as well as books in the early 1900's, as Millender reveals, was to perpetuate the image of the 44 stereotyped black. I-îillender cites the August 1903 issue of

Scribner's Magazine by noting that :

On page ll+2 of that issue, a 'representative' illustration of negroes is shovn. Apparently the reader was to think that these Negroes were on their way to the Fair. Nothing in the story revealed this. Each other illustration, previously shown with it's appropriate caption, portrayed the text of the story; yet the grotesque illustration of the Negroes had nothing to do with the story, nor was the picture caption included in this story on "The Country Fair." The three horrible, apish-looking black creatures did have a small boy with then who looked normal. The picture caption was: "Dey's sonfin' goin' on" (Millender, p. 4571).

Continuing, the author accuses the news media of authorizing the stereotype image of the blacks "as a caricature or joke, as afraid, lazy, docile and unambitious, with the result that ''the books which followed merely mirrored this concept" (Millender, pp. 4571-4572).

An article in Harper's Weekly, in 1903 aptly summarizes her point.

Purportedly, the sentiments expressed are based on the experience of authorities on blacks and the black problems. This expert,

Alfred H. Stone, first disposes of the issue of miscegination, by declaring that mulattoes were not blacks and could achieve because of their white blood. Making the happy distinction between the mulatto and the 'true Negro,' Stone identified the latter as one who "is contented and happy in disposition...docile- unambitious. . .with but few wants and those easily satisified"

(Millender, p. 4572). Another article from Harper's rationalizes the inequality of the black position in regard to enfranchisement ; acco rd in g to Dr. Lyman A bbot,

Equality does not mean that all men, black and white, are to be as governors, as state executives, as sheriffs, as members of a legislature, or as voters. We are reminded that a boy of sixteen years of age is equal before the law with a man o f s ix tj’’; but th e boy cannot v o te and th e man can (Millender, p. 4572). 45 This portrait of the black as an eternal child, the author notes^

still exists in the minds of many whites. And while juvenile books

about black life , Millender observes, "were written by white authors

who were supposed to know the Negro, they were based on a superficial

knowledge of some blacks these authors had ’played' with or 'grew up' with in the South" (Millender, p. 4572). A review of Millender's

sampler lis t of books recommended as realistically presenting black

life includes King Tom and the Runaways (Pendleton, I 890) ; D id d ie ,

Dumps, and Tot, or Plantation Child Life (P;/rnelle, 1930); Arminta

and Jerome Anthony (Evans, 1932-1935); and Junior, a Colored Boy of

Charleston (Lattinore, 1938) which are fully discussed in Broderick's

study.With the exception of Arminta, these books were condemned as presenting negative and false images of black life. For example, the plantation stories of Pyrnell limn slaves as being happy with their lot. Moreover, the author states that "she did not linow whether

slavery was right or wrong" and that "the master was in no way to blame

for owning slaves" (IBCF, pp. 32-33), Pendleton has the slave. Ton, run away; each time he is "rescued" from a fate worse than slavery.

Wnen Tom becomes free after the war, he makes "terms with 'mas'

Tommy and [begins] life under the new regime...where he remains,

having long ago become his employer's right-hand man" (iBCF, p. 40).

In Junior a Colored Boy of Charleston, the life of the free born black is portrayed. The children, Rosalie and Junior, want to use their talents for singing and dancing, which, of course, are considered

natural, to earn money performing in the streets of Charleston for

northern visitors. They are unable to do so, but Junior does %fin A6 a singing contest. As Broderick states, all the good things vhich

come to th e R obinsons, come from v h it e s , hence "showing b la c k s in a

continual subordinate position” (IBCF, p. l40, p. l 6s ) .

In a letter to the editor of the Dial in 1916, George Greever

wrote that although he had had no previous contact with blacks during his northern childhood, since living in Virginia he had heard numerous

discussions about the black by southern college men. According to this

source, he wrote, the black "is light-hearted, irresponsible, careless; he lives in the present, like a child or a beast, he does not aim high

or persist, he is fond of big words and gay colors, he wants to

strut, to display himself, rather than to be...."^^

This stereotype was repeated ten years later by John H. nelson in The Negro Character in American Literature : White Americans from their exposure to blacks "have themselves received much - something, no doubt from his carefree, irresponsible temper, his irrespressible good humor and musical talent, his unconscious philosophy that the present moment is the all important moment.. .."32

Seven years later Sterling Brown undertook the weighty task of exposing this stereotype which passed for black character, noting that "the Negro has met with as great injustice in American literature as he has in American life." Brown's list of seven stereotypes included:

(l) The Contented Slave, (2) The Wretched Freeman, (3) The Comic Negro,

(It-) The Brute Negro, (5) The Tragic Mulatto, ( 6) The Local Color Negro,

and (T) The Exotic Prim itive.33 Through his efforts, a major step was taken to bring literary criticism to bear on how the black was

characterized - in truth or in stereotype - in American literature. 47

As Millender has noted, the nevs media has a long history of black underrepresentation and distorted image relief. Clark recognizes specific stages through which the minority image has been developed:

The complete absence of references to a group in the media; the epithet stage that is, the good-for-nothing black; the drunken Irish, the cow-like Polish, the Shylock Jew; and assignment of specific roles such as rookie cops, assistant dectives and other good guy roles,

Clark believes that blacks are now in the latter stage of media development with the last stage as one of r e s p e c t . Colle reported that any recognition of the black in the 1930's and 19^:0 's was ”a distinctively negative stereotype, and, that the post-War presenta­ tions in the late 'UOs and '50s could be assessed b;r nonrepresentations

— the 'invisible' black a condition which was apparent well into th e 1960's". (Greenberg & Mazingo, p. 332).

The National Advisory Commission took the industry to task for being contributory to the low self-esteem in which blacks were held as well as for the formidable image of blacks as being predominantly welfare recipients, criminals, and all that a powerful majority could thrust upon a minority in a majority dominated climate. In the words of the Commission, the news media failed to "report adequately;’ on race relations and ghetto problems and to b rin g more Negroes in to journalism " (NCCAD,P- 382). More specifically, the Commission felt that the communications media hs,d failed to communicate the degradation, misery and hopelessness of living in the ghetto, "but had effectively banned the black to non-representation, and had acted as though blacks ware not a part of the greater whole," stating that: 48 if vhat the white American reads in the newspapers or sees on television conditions has expectations of what is ordinary and normal in the larger society, he will neither understand nor accept the black American. By failing to portray the Negro as a matter of routine in the context of the total society, the news media have...contributed to the black-white schism in this c o u n try (rjArCD, p . 3 8 3 ).

Since 1939 Rollins has sought to upgrade the quality of books depicting black life and in 19^1 established guidelines for satisfact­ ory books about blacks. The first edition of Ve Build Together,

Rollins notes in the 19^7 third edition, "was intended to fill the need often expressed by teachers, librarians, and parents for a list of really good books for children and young people that would present

Negroes as human beings and not as stereotypes" ('^TBT, p. ix).

Commenting on the difficulty encountered at that time in book selection, Rollins says that "the work of the Committee preparing the first edition was arduous indeed, for few stories could be found that offered a true picture of Negroes in contemporary life — books that Negro children could enjoy without self-consciousness, books which they could identify with satisfactorily, books white children could read and so learn what Negro people and families were like"

(TOT, p . i x ) .

In her massive studj'’ of the black image in children’s literature,

Morris found that with few exceptions, blacks prior to 1900 and up u n t i l th e 1920 's, were linked in (l) the plantation tradition, and

(2) the comic relief. Her study aimed at comparing actual black advances with the depiction of black life in contemporary literature, found that realistic portrayads of the black experience were not in evidence until the mid- 19^ 0 's, and that despite the agitation of 49 th e 1950 civil rights movement, these two stereotypes still persisted in children's literature. Morris concluded that the black image in print was not concomitant with the improved condition of the black in contemporary life .35

In his investigations, Deane revealed that until the 19^0's references to the black as "nigger," "coon," and "darky" in children's series such as the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, Tom Swift, and the

Hardy Boys, were so casual as to suggest that "they were taken for granted by -vrriters and r e a d e r s . "3^ Moreover, Deane observes, blacks

"appear as subservient to whites [and] are also presented as lazy, ignorant, good-natured, cowardly; they are consistently patronised"

(Deane, p. 120). By and large, Deane points out, the series black was not "allowed to develop as a real character, a real person; instead he is revealed always as a century-old cliche" (Deane, p. 122).

A 1975 study by Stark found that offensive stereotypes still eluded the many revisions which The Bobbsey Tvrins have undergone since 1950.37 in the original series, the man and wife servant team of Sam and Dinah love the two sets of twins, Bert and Ilan and Flossie and Freddie, and speak in heavy dialect, as did all the black characters who are shown as easy-going and good- natured. Of course, Dinah bosses the easy-going Sam, the henpecked husband. As the editions were revised. Stark notes, the dialect was gradually improved as was Sam's position. Dinah, too, got a "new look," she was called "the jolly looking colored woman wrho helps

Mrs. Bobbsey with the housework" (Stark, p. 5). She, however, is still as superstitious as she wras in the older editions, fearing 50 ghosts and refusing to ride in a helicopter. Studying the revisions,

Stark concluded that "despite the excision of the more blatant stereotypes, Dinah and Sam are still essentially stereotypical characters, still subtle variations on the Sambo theme, they remain loyal and contented servants whose superstitious natures, emotionalism and physical traits provide the main comic ingredients of the series"

(stark, p. 6).

The Bobbsey Twins series was started in 1904 by Ed'vrard Stratemeyer, who also began The Hardy Boys, The Rover Boys and The Haney Drew series. The books appeared under si:cty pseudonyms and were sometimes ghosted. After his death, the Stratemeyer Syndicate was operated by his daughters, one of whom became Carolim Keens, author of the Haney

Drew series. At present, the five member staff, including an ex-news­ paper man, Andrew Svenson, turn out more than one thousand-two hundred of these still racially offensive books. Elsewhere, Stark writes that

the Stratemeyer books were heavily seasoned w'ith offensive stereotypes - mainly of blacks, but of some other groups as well. In the many re-written or revised editions of the early books, dialect speech has been dropped and the grosser stereotypes eliminated often by eliminating the black characters altogether. But to the extent that those blatant stereotypes reside somewhere deep in the consciousness of millions of living Americans who were children at the height of the "Hover Boys" and "Tom Swift's" popularity, Alexander Pop [the Rover Boys' black conic figure] and Eradicate Sampson [the Tom Swift black Sambo figure]. . .are alive and well" (stark, p. 5).

Eandlan, in a study of children's reading interests, noted similar stereotypings, complaining that there were numerous black characters as "servants or underlings, jovial and happy or cowardly and snively."^® She recommended that there was a need for jwrenile books with major black characters to fill the gap between adult novels 51 such as Strange Fruit or ITative Son which irere, in her opinion, too serious and startling for the adolescent (Small, p. 69).

In contrast to the majority findings. Freer noted in a 1948 investigation that since 1940 to 1945, the "familiar Ilegro character who is too meek, too lazy, too poor, too dirty, too ignorant, too superstitious, too eager to he content with the 'left overs' which society has to offer," was disappearing in juvenile fiction.39 Recent literature, she asserted, characterized blacks in positive stereotype or -vrfiat Clark calls the "living refutation of the stereotype," that is, "ambitious, educated, serious-minded, healthy, normal happy individual, who has opportunity to share in the activities which society experiences, is taking his place"(Preer, p. 68O). Larrick, investigating The All White World of Children's Books, also found some evidence "of the 'counter culture stereotype' - the Ilegro who is always good, generous, and smiling in the face of difficulties. The nine-year- old hero of Roosevelt Grady is one of these.

Another interesting study was conducted by David Cast who examined children's literature written about American minorities published between 1955 and 19^2 to ascertain (l) What are the characteristics of, and concepts about present-day American, Indians, Chinese, Japanese,

Negroes, and Spanish in contemporary children's fiction? (2) VJhat are the identifiable stereotypes imputed to minority Americans in the literature? ( 3) How does treatment of minority Americans in contem­ porary children's fictional literature compare with that in related studies of adult magazine and school-instructional materials? He found that contemporary Juvenile fiction generally depicts blacks as 52

(l) assuming dominant middle class traits related to cleanliness, kindness, intelligence, ambition, hard vork, and success. (2) Hew

stereotypes involving dominant group virtues are shoim as evenly

distributed as to lower and middle class status ; (3) wide range of occupations, including white collar jobs and professions; (4) seeking h i^ education; (5) as living in integrated neighborhoods; (?) as brown or light-skinned with Nordic features and hair texture

(Gast, pp. 15^ -15 8). Gast concluded that "traditional non-complimentary

stereotypes have largely disappeared from the literature (Gast, p . 15k ).

McCann and Woodard, how ever, d is a g re e -vrith C a s t's c o n c lu sio n , asserting that "the study overlooked numerous forms of insidious racism ..[and] did not attempt to show the simultaneous presence of complimentary stereotypes and racist attitudes in a majority of books.

Of those books which appear on Cast's lis t, negative images of blacks appear in Call Me Charley and A Cap for Mary E llis, which are subjects of this study.

Glancy, in her study of selected adolescent fiction written from

1951 th ro u g h 1963, found (l) some characteristics of the negative stereotype of the Negro was found in fifty percent or more of the children's fiction portraying Negroes, (2) diminishing trends for the negative characteristics of lowest status and extremely poor.

Confederate and border state settings, ante bellum period, being called

’Auntie' or ’Uncle', having slaves depicted as contented, and the presence of multi minor characteristics. The three contrary trends were for Civil War Periods, homes designated as cabins, and personality stereotypes. (3) Decreasing trends for multiple characteristics for 53

socio-economic, skin color, language, and degree of integration and

(U) the positive stereotype shoved increased trends on the characteristics of standard English, Union state settings, suburban communities and contemporary periods.^3

In her nov famous expose of racism in children's books, Larrick accused not only the reading public, but the publishing vorld of accepting and perpetuating racial stereotypes:

In th e 1920 's the Saturday Evening Post vas building circulation on the Irvin S. Cobb stories of Jeff, the comic menial. Tventy years later, the Post vas still doing the same stories by Octavius Eoy Cohen and Glenn Allan, vho vrote of negroes vho ridiculed themselves and their race (AW.-JC3, p . I 6 0).

She notes that "perhaps the same public opinion vhich applauded this kind of adult fiction in the forties ras responsible also for the 19^6

Caldecott Hedal avard to The Booster Crovs: A Book of American Bip/mes and Jingles ..." Larrick further observes that apparently the librarians vho selected this book as "the most distinguished American Picture Book for children published in the United States" in 19^5 vere not bothered by four pages shoving Ilegro children irith great buniony feet, coal black skin and bulging eyes (in the distance, a dilapidated cabin vith a black, gun-toting, barefoot adult)" (AIA-JCB, p. 160) . By c o n tr a s t, she reveals, "the vhite children are nothing less than cherubic, vith dainty little bare feet or veil-made shoes" (AI'PaUB , p. 16 0 ). It took eighteen years to have this grotesque picture removed, Larrick observed, vith th e 196k edition containing only vhite children.

And, in 19^3, Anderson conducted a survey of English curriculum offerings in representative schools on a national basis.Her fin d in g s 54 indicate that only ethnocentric literature was taught in thirty percent of the secondary schools. Catholic schools offered all titles on the public school list, except Our Town. Titles on the public school list were MacBeth, Julius Caesar, Silas Marner, Our Town, Great Expectations,

Hamlet, Bed Badge of Courage, A Tale of Two C ities, and The Scarlet

Letter. Thirty percent of the Catholic schools offered all titles on the above list as well as Pride and Prejudice, and The Merchant of Venice.

All title s listed were taught in the independent schools, except Our Town and with the addition of Huckleberry Finn, The Odyessy Oedious the King,

Romeo and Juliet and Return of the Native. Anderson concluded her report by noting that since only the Return of the Native and Huckleberry Finn had relevance to black life , "one would suspect. . .that a Negro student might have difficulty understanding the relevance of the other works to his life ."^5

Six years later. Sterling was to charge that "for almost two centuries American schools have been teaching racism to white young­ sters and self-hate to blacks" (TOW?., p. 8l7). Explaining, she scores the ethnocentrism found in secondary English textbooks, revealing that of the thirty-eight English anthologies she examined, all were published prior to 195^; and contained no black literature.

In addition, her further findings were as meager:

The other eleven carried one on James Blands' Carry Me Back to Old V irginia, two excerpts from biographies of George Washington Carver; two accounts of black athletes, one sketch of Harriet Tubman and one of Count Basic, and a story about a Negro cowboy. One book integrated its pages with exactly two sentences of Negro achievements. Another included a single poem — a religious theme...Ginn's American Literature.. .did include an essay by Baldwin as well as a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. However, neither the essay nor the poem dealt with a Negro 55 theme, nor vas there anything in the text ahout the author's race. The only contenporary Ilegro w riter was ÆLex Ealey, represented by a short piece on Sir Francis Dral:e, of all people, in one book, and a description of a black Olympic runner in another. Ealey wasn't identified either, possibly because he is best known as the co-author of "alcolm X's autobiography (T-TBiVR, pp. 8I 8- 819).

Such textbooks. Sterling concluded, were not relevant to blacks

since there were no substantial references to the black world. "The young in our classrooms today have lived through confrontations in

Birmingham, Selma, Watts, Newark, D etroit, Washington. Surely we can

find reading matter for then that gives a more honest picture of

'Your Fellow American,' 'Our heritage,' ' People Have Problems,'"

Sterling w rites (l-TBWR, pp. 818- 820).

Essentially, Dodds agrees with Sterling and Larrick in her criticism of books about blacks. According to Dodds,

Junior novels tend to be optimistic. "Tliey usually relate specific incidents that high school students are likely to meet, like discrimination in athletics, or student activités. Since they describe specific instances of discrimination rather than the cumulative psychological effects of prejudice, junior novels frequently have a happy e n d i n g . Dodds also reveals that these novels express the counter-culture stereotype and are often written by white authors and do not adequately picture ghetto life. Black junior novels, following the general trend of this genre, Dodds feels, support middle class values

(Dodds, p. 69). Larrick found a parallel to Dodds' conclusion, by stating that the books for blacks, touching on "school integration, neighborhood desegration, and non-violent demonstrations.. . [are] so gentle as to be unreal. There are no cattle prods, no bombings, no reprisals. The white heroine who befriends a Negro in high schoool enjoys the support of at leasu one si'mpathetic parent or an admiring boy friend" (AWWÇ3, p. I 6U). 56 While the period from 1955 to 19^T is considered the zenith for hooks on the black condition as linned by Claude Brown in Manchild in the Promised Land, and by Ilalcolm X in his autobiography, and Samny

Davis in Yes, 2 Can, adolescent fictional literature about blacks was limited. As Larrick reveals, for the three years she researched the subject, four-fifths of one percent of published juveniles were about blacks. Of these, Larrick writes, "most are mediocre or worse. More than one-third have received unfavorable reviews or been ignored by the major reviewing media" (AWWCB, p. 159). Sterling, writing in

The Soul of Learning, questions whether or not "there are enough books

— and enough good books — that present honestly the ITegro experience..." concluding that the forty-two books she found even if doubled or tripled in number was "certainly not a flood.More specifically, Sterling revealed that in 19&T only fourteen books on black Americans were being published that year and that from 19^0 through 19^6, out of an estimated twelve thousand children's books issued, only one percent were about blacks (SOL, p. 171).

Assessing the books published in the 1960's about blacks,

Millender states that there were significantly more books, but more were about black than by blacks. Her criticism of the stories were that they were similar to those of the 19e0's, "but this time the treatment of the IJegro was a little more realistic (Millender, p . h3l6). While the seamy, sordid side of black life seemed to be more acceptable, Millender calls for the exploration of other portrayals of the black world (Millender, p. ^576). She also observed that there was s till a dearth of books "about the average 57 Negro family or group of youth who do much the same things as others of like backgrounds and aspirations" (Millender, p. %576), a conclusion similar to her findings on the early 1900 literary portraiture of blacks,

Thompson and Woodard, however, feel that books which present middle-class black portraits are not relevant to the ghetto black.

The authors call for books which reflect "no peculiarly black perspective" but secure "reader identification...through the central figure's intimate knowledge of the black subculture."^®

An example, the authors note, is found in the characterization of

Stevie (Stevie, by John Steptoe) whose language is informal and idiomatic, his loosely structured family life, his sophistication and independence" (BPBC, p. 23).

The "white-out" of books has diminished, but one of the major problem s has b een , as M ille n d e r, Tliompson and Woodward n o te , th a t books about blacks are often written by whites who think that they know blacks. Fiction written from this perspective often reflects white values and goals, and portrays blacks with white faces.

This is not to say, the authors posit, that whites cannot write effectively about the black experience. Writers who combine

"black consciousness and creativity"...w ill produce "good books about black children" (BPBC, p. l6). Conversely, "when the writer lacks these credentials, the result is too often a kind of verbal m inistrel show—whites in blackface—rather than the expression of a real or imagined experience derived from wearing the shoe"

(BPBC, p . Id ). 58

The quest for realistic juvenile fiction vhich adequately portrays the black experience may best be summarized by reviewing; the criteria, some of vhich was presented in the review literature. As noted, Rollins and Baker were forerunners in formulating guidelines for improving the black literary image. Rollins' main thrust in the

19^1 pamphlet concerned guidelines for books which would develop democratic attitudes in young readers. She proposed that an acceptable book must present black life realistically, depict the black's human characteristics, indicate equality between the races, provide insight into the people portrayed, and must be geared toward a black-white youth audience. In addition, Rollins listed general criteria for illustrations, language, and theme. The two important criticism s which Rollins emphasized concerned white authors who presented only black characters as menials, clowns, or lower class and black authors who too realistically portrayed the sensational and hopelessness of the black condition (VfBT, I, p. pp. 1+-10, pp. 12-17).

Baker published the first of her bibliographies in 19^9» revising entries in 1959, 19&3 and 1971 (The Black Experience in Children's

Books). The guidelines she suggested were general and stressed illustrations, language, themes and attitudes, which would insure an unbiased view of black life in books for children ( BMILC, pp. 5-23).

Glancy objected to Baker's criteria as too general and subjective, questioning "wiiat maizes an illustration of a Ilegro attractive and what makes it a stereotype?" (Glancy, p. 36). She felt that objective evaluation for illustrations would be difficult. And, in my opinion, Glancy's criticism is sound up to a point. One must keep 59 in mind, however, that blacks, as well as whites, are in all stages of development and clearly this point of objectivity can be utilized in selecting representative illustrations.

Millender, as did Rollins and Handlan, objected to books which overwhelmingly portrayed the sensational in black life. She wanted more books with other themes; specifically about the average black family, written by black authors, which would be suitable for young readers (Millender, p. k57ô).

In listing criteria for children's books for an IIAACP bibliography,

Alexander was concerned with their utilization in an all-white, all-black or integrated classroom situation. Books which failed to meet these criteria were not accepted. Alexander noted that books which contained racial slurs or presented an unrelieved view of the harshness of black life, specially those with a ghetto theme, were unsuitable, citing

Bonham's Dogtown novels, which appear in this study, as examples

(Alexander, pp. 59-62).

The Children's Literature Review Board of the Wisconsin

Department of Public Instruction states that four elements should be examined to insure that a black perspective is assumed in writing books for the black child; blacks should never be stigmatized; authors should be careful not to put black characters in old stereotypical roles or roles defined by current subtle dominate anti-black attitudes, the author should explain the "why" and "how" of black discrimination and poverty and authors should be aware of the negative or positive response to a book which portrays the black.^9 The point of reference for Thompson and Woodward is that the author should speal: from a black perspective, 60 tJiiich, of course, recognizes blackness as viable. And while they agree with Millender that portraits of the degradation of black ghetto life

are harmful, they also postulate that there is a need for books about the black subculture "which assures the ghetto child that he, too, is visible — that he is important enough to be reflected in that literature which has always been made to seem too cultural to admit him" (BPBC, p . 2 3 ).

Hence while there are areas of agreement, no guidelines have been suggested that books about the black world, if they realistically portray the black experience, should take into consideration the condition of isolation, which is an integral part of that world. In my view, this is an important criteria, which too long has been neglected by critics of black literature for children and is the focus of this stu d y .

The Isolated Black Morld

Black Americans, with roots deeply embedded in American history, are not only the oldest American minority, but represent the one minority most subjected to crucial exceptions to the American Creed.

And on balance, one of the most obvious and consistent exception has been the spatial and psychological segregation of the black world instituted by the dominant majority. Spealeing to this issue, Cox asserts that "explicit segregation is the foundation of all racial discrimination and exploitative practices of whites":

In fact, segregation is here absolutely necessary to maintain white ruling class dominance. The colored zones, belts, and camps are fundamental restrictions upon the colored people. To restrict the letter's freedom of physical movement, the sine qua non of normal life under capitalism, v/hat segregation really amounts to is a sort of perennial imprisonment of the colored people b;f the w hites.50 61 In the above sense, Davis and Donaldson believe that segregation

is "not only spatial, but includes all conventions and social ritual

designed to enforce social isolation and social distance, and those racial traditions not specifically or directly spatial are supported by and in turn support spatial segregation p r a c t i c e . "51 For example, in the South, blacks and whites could exist side by side as long as the blacks knew "their place.” The regional demand for segregated facilities in public life, both in the North and in the South, were visible reminders of black inferiorty and white superiority. In the

North, the open competition between blacks and whites led to the imposition of residental segregation, for, as Van den Derghe ( 19CT) reports, "to the extent [that] ...social distance diminishes.. .physical segregation is introduced as a second line of defense for the preservation of the dominant group's position' (BUS, p. 109).

David and Donaldson agree with Van den Berghe's findings by noting that "white reactions to the presence of Blacks have depended largely on the spatial content in which the interaction occurred. White

Americans have seemingly needed to have either superior social or spatial positioning in relations to Blacks" (BUS, p. 110). The roots of segregation are indeed difficult to determine; however, segregation, in some form, has been a part of the black American experience and has followed the pattern of either ^ jure or legal segregation or ^ facto by social discrimination based on habit and custom. The separate but equal doctorine legalized in I 896 was the means of enforcing the massive segregation of blacks. The North’s answer, as Van den Berghe and others demonstrate, to southern black migration, was the erection 62 of the physical harriers of the black enclaves or ghettoes. Clark describes this new kind of social organization in this way:

Ghettoes are the consequence of the imposition of external power and institutionalization of powerlessness, in this respect they are in fact social, political, education, and above all - economic colonies. Those confined within the ghetto walls are subject peoples. They are victims of the greed, cruelty, insensitivity, guilt and fear of their m a s te rs . . .

The community can best be described in terms of the analogy of a powerless colony. Its political leadership is divided and all but one or two of its political leaders are short­ sighted and dependent upon the larger political power structure. Its social agencies are financially precarious and dependent upon sources of support outside the community. Its churches are isolated or dependent. Its economy is dominated by small businesses which are largely owned by absentee owners, and its tenements and other real property are also owned by absentee landlords.

Under a system of centralization, Harlem's schools are controlled by forces outside the community. Programs and policies are supervised and determined by individuals who do not live in the community....52

It is now generally accepted that the black ghetto may be either urban or suburban; the relocation of blacks under recent urban renewal projects has extended the segregation patterns to "the edge of the ghetto" (Clark, 1962); the black middle-class occupancy of suburbia, where minimal, does not constitute an integrated community and wtere in the majority, becomes an enclave. Billingsley notes that the factors causing black concentration in enclaves include "preference, poverty and prejudice, but chief among these is prejudice" ( BT'.JA, p . 9 3 ).

Concluding, Billingsley points out that "the confinement of ITegroes to the ghetto is not an isolated phenomenon, for it is both a result and key index to a general pattern of social exclusion of Ilegroes from the mainstream of American life" (BF%, p. 93). 63 Holden agrees with Davis and Donaldson, among others, that the barriers between black and white are not only physical, but are

"present in individual behavior and in all kinds of institutions from the corporation to the medical society to the church" (Holden, p. 2).

That the black community is treated as a separate entity has been well-documented, and a study by Baron may serve as an excellent example here. Baron in his investigation of the manner in which anti-black biases vere interwoven into the corporate and public structure and economic markets of Chicago, found that there was indeed a pattern of exclusion which set the black market apart from the majority market.

In the area of supply and demand, blacks vere treated as secondary sources, vith a separate black market from vhich they could do all kinds of buying, inclusive of housing and loans. The dual system,

Baron w rites, extended to the area of employment also. Since deliberate controls produce higher costs, blacks vere forced to pay more for all kinds of goods and services, but vith less to pay for them. In all of this, then, blacks irere victimized twice: once as occupants of the lover status position of all have not's and again as blacks subjected to racial biases.

As Baron points out, this victimization also extended to the public sector in the matter of public institutions such as police, schools, welfare, politics, among others. There was nothing illegal,

Baron states, about the procedures and standards, except that the service for blacks was always inferior to that afforded the whites.

And, on balance, Baron concluded, these subinstitutions were like webs and worked together and subsisted by mutually supporting one another. 6A

The author's conclusions were that these separate entities nov had a life of their own and vere the result of exclusion patterns “beginning

■with the first great nigration of southern blacks to northern urban centers.53

The consequences of exclusion are vaxied. In a study conducted by Otey (l°T3) on the folleLore of inner city youths, definite patterns evol'ved, substantiating a black culture. For vhen a group is excluded from participating in normative patterns of a larger society, this group develops substitutes patterns. Otey found that enclave residents and black pride tend to promote particular innovations, collectivism and ritualism , and to accentuate cultural differences: for group pride is supported in the central-city. Since there iras interaction betveen the enclave and the larger culture, there vas no rigid isolation from the majority socio-cultural patterns. From an analysis of the thirty-nine collected items of folklore, vhich included game rhymes, legend, parody, rhirmes and superstitions, Otey concluded that the informants' play, since it is a reflection of the socio-cultural system in irhicli it occurred, reflected bifurcation: the informants' play and games tended to be bicultural and eclectic.

Furthermore, the informants' foll-iore exhibited patterns of a group subculture as members of both a general and specific youth group. 5^^

As Holden explains i t , barriers promote the establishment of separate 'nationhood':

If 'frontiers,' physical or otherwise, persist for a long time, the people contained within them w ill evolve rules for their own association and also for interpreting the behavior of the 'aliens.' In anthropological terms, they w ill develop some common culture. Since culture is learned and transmitted in cohorts, it also follows that when 65 different cohorts are rigidly separated (as any 'average' set of black youngsters and any 'average' set of vhite youngsters are), cultural difference develops and is reinforced over time. In the black-vhite case, this vas, and is the natural command of segregation. ..(Holden, pp. 1-2).

Although different cultures are developed, Holden w rites, there is

an "exchange and overlap" between them:

Thus some part of the black population has an ajmmst entirely white culture and a good deal of the black culture has pentrated into the vhite system. Nonetheless, the differences are important, as one may observe by comparing black entertainers on television, black clergjnaen, the styles of 'grass-roots' activities, or black political organization against their white counterparts. One must indeed note that the difference between 'standard' black and 'standard' white is at least as great as the difference beti/een Italo-American and Anglo-Protestant, or betveon citizens of Irish and North European descent (Holden, p. 2).

Though there are barriers to black entry into the mainstream, Holden points out, "there has never been a time vhen...the black population cheerfully accepted its fate" (Holden, p. 8). But the achievement of black goals has been problematic.

And there has consistently been an ambivalence in the black community on the ideologies of integration and separatism. As Epps puts it, some of the difficulty vith the issue of integration rests in the meaning of the term. In his view, there are three 'types,' which he delineates "in terms of the willingness of Black Americans to interact with whites in intimate day-to-day patterns of living and their willingness to protest against racial injustice."55 Epps list the folloT-mng: (l) accommodationist, as the traditional Uncle Tom, accepts vhite middle-class values, refuses to fight racial prejudice, accepts the dominant group identification of his social reality; and acts accordingly. (2) the assimilationist believes in the American 66 Creed, in the capitalistic system of free enterprise and competition

and consistently affirms that aJ.l that blacks require is equal

opportunity; racial barriers, then, would fall and blacks would have

free access into the larger society. The assim iliationist prefers to

think of himself as a white with a black face. Believing that European

culture is superior to non-European, he exalts his American heritage

over his African background, and shares with the dominant group the

image of black culture and behavior as inferior. (3) The cultural

p l u r a l i s t has come in to h is o\m due to the fact that (l) anthropologists

and social scientists have largely exploded the m^.’ths of racial

inferiority and superiority (2) immigration la%'s have been less

restrictive, along with assimilation of second and third generation

of immigrant children, and (3) media institutions have made America more uniform therefore ethnic differences are less visible. Moreover, the black cultural pluralist has much in common with his white minority

counterpart, in tenets, at least. Contrary to the assim ilationist, the cultural pluralist does not desire assimilation, but argues for tolerance of etlmic diversity, national origin among others. The cultural pluralist wants his share of the American economic market, is somewhat absorbed in many respects into the dominant way of life, such as willingness to have dominant group contact with respect to jobs, housing, and education, but prefers black life styles and has a great pride in his African beginnings. The pluralist believes in building power bases in the black community through group action, a power which is diametrically opposed to the stance of the accommodationists sind the assim ilationists who are generally individualistically motivated. 67 There is, however, one tenet which is mutually held by the

assimilationist and the pluralist : each are opposed to violence as a means to an end. The pluraliste, such as Reverend Jesse Jackson of

Operation PUSH — believe in black pride, black capitalism and unity, and endeavor to create a black 'nation' through accepted methods of protest (Epps, pp. 62-71).

The black nationalist, however, has decided not to assault the walls of white society again. One of the basic reasons for this stance is that, as social scientists and economists have pointed out, the nationalists hold that anti-black attitudes are so deeply interwoven into the very fabric of American life that black integration is impossible under the present system. As it now stands, the nationalists feel that the entire American structure would have to be dismantled and re-formed, and that there is no Hercules strong and wise enough to accomplish this augean task. But in the rhetoric of black po’-'er, one senses, as Blake points out, ''the hope of reform in America with attention given to reform of values as well as behavior. As such, it strikes more deeply at the basis of the problems separating blacks and w hites."5^

In the context of the tenets of the separatist and the integrationist, a study of American society reveals that there is the problem of the racial assertiveness of the whites and the problems of residual black dependency and loss of black identity. And both the pluralist and the separatist address themselves to these issues. The prime target of an awakened black consciousness is securing self-determination for the black community, concommitant with a call for accountability to blacks by those in power. The absence of 6R community control and lack of land base engendered a feeling among

blacks that they vere mere puppets and pavTis vith no identity and no value. During the mid-I960's this negative concept vas challenged and the movement vhich brought about a change in the direction of black leadership from integration tendencies to separatism, vas also responsible for the re-avakening of black pride and unity. As Epps states "all the nationally recognized civil rights organizations....opted for integration and actively -.rorked to achieve this end during the

1960's. Eovever, once the most m ilitant groups accepted the Black

Pover ideology in 1966 and became advocates of racial separatism, the other civil rights organisations found it necessary to come to grips vith the question of Black identity" (Epps, p. 68).

The search for identity, then, is seen as nhe common demoninator linking these ideologies. The resurgence of pride in blackness and in black accomplishments is very similar to the appeal of the Harlem

Renaissance vrith one important difference. The effects of the Harlem movement never filtered doim to the masses; the recent rene-v/al of black consciousness embraces not only the black intellectual and his middle-class counterpart, but the black masses also. All kinds of black aesthetics, such as black is beautiful, vc-aring natural hair styles and African style clothing, have sprung from this re-aval-iening of the black consciousness.

Related to these developments is the call for black studies and curricula in secondary schools. One of the thrusts of these studies is service oriented. As noted, many educators, such as Nancy Arnez, James

Banks, and Barbara Dodds, have championed the use of literature to 69 transform the attitudes of white youth in the direction of greater racial tolerance and to promote positive self-images among black youth.

Related to this direction and groirth, is the factor of accessibility and use of appropriate materials. In view of these important principles in education, the role of realistic literature for adolescents about black life is vital in the secondary literature curriculum. In the past, literature about the black tended to equate the black experience with that of other immigrants ; this analogy is, of course, false.

Black-white integration is not completely viable because of the exclusion barriers and co-existence seems hardly feasible where there is a vast discrepancy between the theory and the practice. Other points of view in black literature expressed social protest, beginning and ending with the premise that the black was hurnan. Some literature, written from the majority point of view, presented the black experience in what was interpreted as the milieu of the black experience.

Recently, literature by and about blacks has invited reader involvement through the perspective of the personae. Literary works of this quality illuminates an experience in lieu of simply providing an emotional or intellectual exercise. The effectiveness of this point of view lies in the impact of the immediacy of the experience. It is through this kind of perspective that one may enter the black world without first having to think about the barriers which in real life prohibit entry. For literature written from the perspective of wearing the shoe permits not only the author to write with authenticity, but when the reader is so engaged then the experience is a lived one.

One of those authors who utilises this perspective to present authentic 70 portrai'‘als of the black world, in the context of alienation and isolation, is Virginia Hamilton, who also demonstrates a literary ability. The purposes of the study are to analyze her approach to the condition of black isolation and that of selected writers in adolescent fiction about black youth. FOOTNOTES

C hapter I I

1. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (New York; Bantam, 1968), p. 10. Hereafter cited as NACCD.

2. Alfred Billingsley, Black Families in White America (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969), p. 193. Hereafter cited as BFH.

3. Matthew Holden, The White Man’s Burden (New York: Chandler Publishing Company, 1973), p. 1. Hereafter cited as Holden.

4. Mark Chesler, "Contemporary Sociological Theories of Racism," Toward the Elimination of Racism, ed. Phyllis A. Katz (New York: Pergamon Press, Inc., 1976), p. 7. Hereafter cited as CSTR.

5. Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery : A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), pp. 49-52, pp. 81-82.

6. Richard D. Ashmore and France K. Del Boca, "Psychological Approaches to Understanding Intergroup Conflicts," Towards an Elimination of Racism, ed. Phyllis A. Katz (New York: Pergamon Press, 1976), p. 5. Hereafter cited as PAUIC.

7. Gilbert Osofsky, "The Enduring Ghetto," Black Liberation Politics: A Reader, ed. Edward Greer (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1971), p. 16.

8. Harold Isaacs, rpt. in Charles E. Silberman, Crisis in Black and White (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 137.

9. I[dus]A. Newby, "Historians and Negroes," Journal of Negro History, 54 (Jan. 1969), 35.

10. James A. Banks, "Racial Prejudices and the Black Self-Concept," Black Self-Concept ; Implications for Education and Social Science, eds. James A. Banks and Jean Dresden Grambs (New York: McGraw- H ill Book Company, 1972), p. 28. Hereafter cited as Banks, RPBSC.

71 11. Kenneth B. Clark, "Fifteen Years of Deliberate Speed," Saturday Review, 20 December 1969, p. 60, rpt. in James E. Banks et al. Black Self-Concept (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972)

12. Warren Ten Houten, "The Black Family: Myth and Reality," Psychiatry, 33 (May 1970), 171.

13. A recent study by Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom: 1750-1925(New York: Pantheon Press, 1976): Refutes the Moynihan theory that slavery "broke the w ill of black people." Gutman's massive investigation indicates that there was a closely knit pattern of domestic life which flourished despite the horrors of slavery. On balance, how­ ever, Gutman's theory must be examined more closely before complete acceptance of it.

14. Gunnar Myrdal, ^ American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (New York: Harper Torchbqoks,. 1962), p .Ix x iii.

15. Robert L. Allen, "Introduction," Black Awakening in Capitalist America, An Analytic History (Garden City: Anchor Books, 1970), p. 8. Hereafter cited as Allen.

16. Phyllis A. Katz, "Attitude Change in Children: Can the Twig Be Straightened?" Towards the Elimination of Racism, ed. Phyllis A. Katz (New York: Pergamon Press Inc., 1976), p. 221. Hereafter cited as ACC.

17. Charlemae Rollins, We Build Together, 3rd ed. (Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English 1967), p. x. Hereafter cited as WBT with proper edition.

18. Augusta Baker, Books About Negro Life for Children (New York: The New York Public Library, 1963), pp. 5-33. Hereafter cited as BANLC.

19. David H. Russell and Caroline Shrodes, "Contributions of Research in Bibliotherapy to the Language Arts Program II," Teaching Reading for Human Values in High School, comp. James Duggins (Columbus: Charles E. M errill Publishing Company, 19 ), pp. 210-217.

20. Virginia Reid, ed. Reading Ladders to Human Relations, 5th ed. (Washington: American Council on Education, 1972), pp. 1-2. Herafter cited as RL.

21. Eunice S. Newton, "Bibliotherapy in the Development of Minority Group Self-Concept," Teaching Reading for Human Values in High School, comp. James Duggins (Columbus: Charles E. M errill Pub­ lishing Company), p. 226. Hereafter cited as Newton. 72 22. Estelle Woodland Brown, "Emerging Concepts of Social Develop­ mental Tasks of the Young Black Adolescent in Ten Selected Black Junior Novels" DISS. Temple University, 1975, p. 19. Hereafter cited as Brown.

23. Nathan Blount, "Research in Teaching Literature, Language, and Composition," Second Handbook of Research on Teaching; A Project of the American Educational Research Association, ed. Robert M.W. Travers (Chicago, Rand McNally & Company, 1973), p. 1077.

24. Allan Purves, "Elements of Writing About a Literary Work. A Study of Response to Literature," rpt. in Charles Cooper, Measuring Growth in Appreciation of Literature (Newark: International Reading Association, 1972), pp. 13 14.

25. Walter Loban, "Literature and the Examined Life," English Journal, 59 (Nov. 1970), 89.

26. James A. Banks, "Developing Racial Tolerance with Literature on the Black Inner-City," Social Education, 34 (May 1970), 549. Hereafter cited as Banks, DRT.

27. Dorothy Sterling, "What's Black and White and Read All Over?" English Journal, 58 (Sept. 1969), 817. Hereafter cited as S terling, WBWR.

28. George M. Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817-1914 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1971), p. xii. Hereafter cited as BIWM.

29. Dharathula M.Millender, "Through a Glass Darkly," Library Journal, 92, no. 22 (December 15, 1967), 4571. Hereafter cited as M ille n d e r.

30. Dorothy M. Broderick, Image of the Black in Children's Fiction. (New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1973), pp. 39-41, 134-135, 149-150; pp. 1, 2, 13, 28, 32-34, 116-118; pp. 3, 76, 144; pp. 7, 84, 134, 140, 163, Hereafter cited as IBCF.

31. "Correspondence," The Dial, June 8, 1916, p. 531.

32. The Negro Character in American Literature (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1926), pp. 14-15.

33. "The Negro Character as Seen By White Authors," Journal of Negro Education, 33(April 1933), 180.

34. Bradley S. Greenberg and Sherrie L. Mazingo, "Racial Issues in Mass Media Institutions," Towards the Elimination of Racism, ed. Phyllis A. Katz (New York: Pergamon Press, Inc., 1976), p. 321. Hereafter cited as Greenberg and Mazingo.

73 35. Effie Lee Morris, "A Mid-Century Survey of the Presentation of the American Negro in Literature for Children Published in the United States Between 1900 and 1950, (Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1956), pp. 103-111.

36. Paul C. Deane, "The Persistence of Uncle Tom: An Examination of the Image of the Negro in Children’s Fiction Series," The Black American in Books fo r C h ild re n , e d s . Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972), pp. 120-121. Hereafter cited as Deane.

37. Mary Kay Stark, "Bert and Nan and Flossie and Fred: The Bobbsey Twins Roll On," Interracial Books for Children Bulletin 6, no. 1, (1975), p. 5. Hereafter cited as Stark.

38. Bertha Handlan, A Comparison of the Characteristics of Certain Adolescent Readers and The Qualities of the Books They Read, DISS., University of Minneapolis, 1945, rtp. in Robert Small, J r., "An Analysis and Evaluation of Widely Read Junior Novels With Major Negro Characteris," DISS., University of Virginia, 1970, p. 69.

39. Bette Banner Freer, "Guidance in Democratic Living Through Juvenile Fiction," Wilson Library Bulletin, 22 (May 1948), 680.

40. Nancy Larrick, "The All-White World of Children’s Books," The Black American in Books for Children Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard, eds. (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972), p. 160. Hereafter cited as AWWCB.

41. David K. Gast, "Characteristics and Concepts of Minority Americans in Contemporary Children's Fictional Literature," DISS., Arizona State University, 1965, p. 5.

42. Editor’s Footnote; David Gast, "The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius for Multi-Ethnic Children’s Literature," The Black American in Books for Children eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972), p. 169.

43. Barbara Jean Glancy, "The Changing Characteristics of the American Negro in the Children’s Fiction of 1951 through 1963," Unpublished Master’s Degree, The Ohio State University, 1964, pp. 102-103.

44. Scarvia B. Anderson, "Between the Grimms and the Group, Literature in American High Schools," rpt. in Robert Denby, Negro Literature for Secondary English and Humanities Courses; An NCTE/ERIC report, English Journal, 58 (May 1969), 767-768.

74 45. Anderson, p. 768.

46. Barbara Dodds, Negro Literature for High School Students (Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English, 1968), p. 69.

47. Dorothy Sterling, "The Soul of Learning," English Journal, 57 (February 1968), 167, 171. Hereafter cited as SOL.

48. Judith Thompson and Gloria Woodard, "Black Perspective in Books for Children," The Black American in Books for Children, eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scare­ crow Press, Inc., 1972), p. 23. Hereafter cited as BPBC.

49. Bulletin, Children's Literature Review Board of Department of Public Instruction, 1972, rpt. in Janet Smith, "Negative Representations of Family Life in Picture Books Portraying Black Children," EMC Occasional Paper, College of Education, The Ohio State University, March, 1976.

50. Oliver S. Cox, Caste, Class, and Race (New York: Modem Reader, 1948) rpt. in George Davis and 0. Fred Donaldson, Blacks in the United States: A Geographic Perspective (Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Company, 1948), p. 1^3.

51. George A. Davis and 0. Fred Donaldson, Blacks in the United States : A Geographic Perspective (Boston: Houghton M ifflin Company, 1975), p. 109. Hereafter cited as BUS.

52. Kenneth Clark, The Dark Ghetto (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), p. 11. Youth in the Ghetto (New York: Haryou, 1964), pp. i0-ll;79-80.

53. Harold M. Baron, "The Web of Urban Racism," Institutional Racism in America, eds. Louis L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt (Engle­ wood: Prentice-Hall, 1969), pp. 134-176.

54. Rheba Otey, Children's and Teenage Folklore (Columbus: The Ohio State University Folklore Archives, Denartr.ent of English,197?), pp.1-4.

55. Edgar Epps, "The Integrationists," Through Different Eyes: Black and White Perspectives on American Race Relations, eds. Peter I Rose, Stanley Rothman and William J. Wilson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 63.

56. J. Herman Blake, "Black N ationalists," Through Different Eyes: Black and White Perspectives on American Race Relations, eds. Peter I. Rose, Stanley Rothman and William J. Wilson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 82.

75 CHAPTER I I I

AITALYSES OF SELECTED ADOLESCENT FICTION ABOUT BLACK YOUTH

Introduction

Turner argues that "if ve are truly concerned vith using literature for the humanitarian purpose of helping students understand the values of others \re must be cautious about the quality and the dimensions of the sample selection.Furtherm ore, Dieterich cites

Bond who points out that a sound literature program focusing on the black experience involves the presentation of "the positive sociology in which the image of the Black man is not d isto rted .T h is chapter w ill explore the black experience as presented from the point of view of both black and white writers from three perspectives. F irst, since the sociology of integration, or separatism or culture pluralism is central to the fact of black isolation, books selected are examined according to the thematic emphasis as they relate to the view of black life as malcing one's way in the larger society, as surviving in the ghetto or as a combination of these life styles. Second, the author's style will be discussed in relation to the ability to involve the reader in the thesis presented. And clearly, the latter is central to thesis of isolation. For as Louise Rosenblatt irrites, "The vicarious participation in different ways of life may have a ...broadly social liberating influence" and literature is one way of life .3 This view,

I believe, is essential to understanding the importance of the author's ability to involve the reader in books about black life since, as we

76 77 have demonstrated, the movement of the vhite majority is away from an understanding of the black psyche and the majority role in the latter's creation. Third, an assessment of the literary merit of the vork acco rd in g t o IhriLght B urton as p re v io u s ly s ta te d (B u rto n , pp. 9 2 -9 5 ).

Two decades ago Burton observed that "junior fiction dealing with

Negro-white relations has been sparse" (Burton, p. 96). Unfortunately, this observation still holds true as Virginia Hamilton reports that less than one percent of the books for juveniles that are published today are about the black experience.^ Nevertheless, many educators and authors have suggested titles about black life that are suitable for classroom study. Bodds, for exariple, proposed that titles about blacks be utilized for senior high school under thematic units.

I-Iany of her entries, such as Classmates by He quest, A Cap f ^ kary

E llis, ilar^r Jane and Durango Street appear in this stud]/. Her suggested categories were: "Uho Does Your Thinking For You?'

"Loyalties;" "Know Thyself;" "Civil Rights" and "Careers."

(Dodds, pp. 124-128). Banks suggested that books such as Durango

Street, used in conjunction with a discussion of the why of the ghetto, could help "culturally sheltered" children develop positive attitudes toward persons who are different from themselves racially and culturally" (Banks, DRT, p. 551, p. 549). Dorothy Sterling, the author of Mary Jane, which appears on many lists, suggests the following title s for classroom study: The Contender and The House of Dies Drear which are in this study (Sterling, UBjffi, p. 827).

A number of the titles reviewed in this paper are also listed in Reading Ladders for Human Relations, 5th edition 1972, edited by 78 Virginia Reid for the American Council on Education. According to

Jesse Perry the purpose of the guide is "to foster an understanding

of the social and psychological, economic, and cultural factors that are inherent in a pluralistic society and to create an

awareness that these differences must he recognized and accepted

if there is to he a real extension of the democratic process"

(RL, p. 2). Continuing, Perry pinpoints the problems as they appear to him hy noting that "because racism and religious bigotry are two of the most important social issues young readers have to face in the 70's, it is imperative that students have the opportunity to openly and freely discuss, the expert guidance, all the ramifications of these pertinent social problems" (RL, p. 3).

A title may have multiple listings, but is annotated only under the theme deemed most relevant a method pertinent to this study

since the aims of the guide include suggesting books which contribute to developing positive self images, to living with others, to appreciating different cultures and to coping i-rith change. Those titles listed which appear in this study are: A Cap for 2lary Ellis

(Rewell), Classmates by Request (Colman), The Contender (Lipsyte),

Durango Street (Bonham), The Empty Schoolhouse (Carlson), 2-Iary

Jane (Sterling), Llystery of the Eat Cat (Bonham) and The Bitty Gritty

(Bonham).

One of the purposes of this paper is to examine recommended reading guide annotations for accuracy in recommending a title as either realistically or superfically presenting the black experience.

Titles for this study were selected from five or more standard review 79 sources. Special honors and awards such as the Ilewhery Medal and

ALA Notable Book awards, were carefully noted. All title s appear in Books in Print, 1976. And this is, I feel, important, for, critical judgement aside, if a book is in print, there is a demand.

The picture of an age, colored by literary and social conventions rather than realities, fails to define the violent nature of black-white relations that have been historically documented. % at has occurred has been simply that a mass of information has accumulated over the years through the study of the black, but that there has been comparatively little known about how blacks conduct their lives.

Whites have accepted certain things about blacks and their lives and have not been willing to have their minds changed. Through the years they have accumulated data that have fortified their beliefs, especially negative images of black Americans. As the foregoing study demonstrated blacks were considered "lower" animals, sub-human and therefore deemed incapable of feelings and thus were not given even the most rudimentary consideration. In searching for reasons for misconceptions and prejudices, it should be emphasized that white self-identity depends upon its images of the black American; that is, the black must play certain roles to reinforce the inner reality which the majority person has concretized as his oto identity. Role changing by the black requires a breaking doim and re-grouping of the majority sense of what is what, hence the great resistance on the part of the mainstream society participant to face reality; that the black man is a man as any other man. 80

One of the most important factors in perpetuating racial misunderstanding seems to be physical appearance. It is unfortunate that being thought attractive, by whatever standards, is frequently more than half the battle in gaining acceptance regardless of inner worth. To what extent prejudices against blacks have become a part and parcel of popular thinking is best demonstrated by the way their name is used. In several languages, including English, black is a contemptuous word. As Ossie Davis points out, "The English language is my enemy. It teaches black children sixty ways to hate themselves and white children sixty ways to aid and abet them in the crime."

Examining Eoget's Thesaurus of the English Language, Davis cited one hundred twenty synonyms for blackness such as "baneful,"

"becloud," "begrime," "blot," "blotch," "deadly," "dingy," "dirty,"

"dismal," "forbidding," "foreboding," "foul," "frotming,"

"malignant," "murlcy," "obscure," "sinster," "slight," "smug,"

"soot," "sully," "threatening," "unclean," "unwashed," and "wicked."

Also listed were one hundred thirty-four synon;/ms for the term white for which the symbol was predominantly favorable as illustrated by

"bright," "chaste," "clean," "cleaness," "fair," "genuine,"

"immaculateness," "innocent," "Just," "purity," and "straight­ forw ardness , "5 81

Emphasizing Davis' position, a Saturday Review of Literature

editorial states that language

...has much to do with the philosophical and political conditioning of a society as geography or clim ate... People in Western cultures do not realize the extent to which their racial attitudes have been conditioned since early childhood by the power of words to ennoble, condemn, augment or detract, glorify or demean. Negative language infects the subsconscious of most Western people from the time they first learn to speak. Prejudice is not merely imparted or superimposed. It is metabolized in the bloodstream of society. iJhat is needed is not so much a change in language as an awareness of the poi.-er of izords to condition attitudes. If we can at least recognize the underpinnings of prejudice, we may be in a position to deal w ith th e e f f e c t s . C

And Interracial Books for Children cited the following amusing, but

deadly play on "black" and "white" as an example of the negative connotation of black and positive image of white:

Some may blackly accuse him of trying to blacken the English language to give it a black eye by writing such black words. They may denirrate him by accusing him of being black-hearted. of having a black outlook on life, of being blackguard which irould certainly be a blackmark against him. Some may black-brow him and hope that a black cat crosses in front of him because of this black deed. He may become a black sheep, who w ill be blackballed by being placed on a blacklist in an attempt to blackmail him to retract his words. But attempts to blackjack him w ill have a Chinaman's chance of success, for he is not a "yellowbellied" "Indian-giver" of words, who w ill "whitewash" a black lie . He challenges the purity and innocence (white) of the English language. He doesn't see things in black and white terms, for he is a white man if there ever was one. However, it would be a black day when he would not "call a soade a spade," even though some w ill suggest a -rhite man calling the English language racist is like "the pot calling the kettle black." Wiile many may be niggardly in their support, others will be honest and decent — and to them he says, that's very white of y o u . 7 82 Podair contends that racial prejudice is intensified by a language vhich continually presents negative images of black people.

I-tore importantly, Podair argues, these images are difficult to overcome and warrant careful scrutiny by social scientists in regard to race relations.® Since language is literature, what can the study of black literature do for us, then? Clearly, as any literature can, it can entertain and divert us. It can take us out of ourselves; it can provide knowledge and deepen understanding about the events, people and cause and effect relationships of the past and present if it is about the truth of a situation not truth as man unaided sees it but truth as it is eternally and universally understood.

From the foregoing study, it is apparent that literature about blacks has been overwhelmingly negative, trritten largely from a white perspective or from a black perspective which, in the case of Richard

Wright, "began from the premise that what whites thought of blacks was more important than what blacks thought of themselves. Thus, Bigger

Thomas was presented as an almost subhuman man that Wright designed to shock whites into ending the circumstances which produced such a creature. Wright's plan was derived from the "culturally deprived" strategy described in the preceding chapter. Proponents of this theory authored negative images of blacks, perpetuating the m-.'th that blacks were victims of self-hatred and an inability to cope or be re-formed instead of being victims of the exclusionary institutions and methods of mainstream society.

Juvenile literature about the black experience written prior to th e 1970's generally reflects the strategy of blacks in conflict and 83 is, therefore, in ny view,inadequate, more from a realistic and

self-defeating view, than from a literary standpoint. Several studies,

such as that conducted by Robert Small, Jr., have established that

some junior fiction with major black characters has literary merit.

Utilizing the Dunning and P ettit guidelines for acceptable junior

novels. Small examined thirty titles for literary quality in eight

categories; definition, unity, theme, plot, characterization, dialogue,

setting and style. His conclusion was that "if a genre can be judged

. by the best works within it, then the junior novel with major Ilegro

characters can be said to possess a very high degree of literary

excellence."^0 Small qualifies his conclusion, however, by noting that

"it seems clear that, in general, junior novels with major Hegro

characters vary greatly in their literary worth" (Small, p. 206).

Those titles rated average or better than average in literary excellence

in the Small study and which appear in the present paper are: Tlie

Contender, Shuttered Windows and Durango S treet.

E stelle Brown conducted a study concerned with junior novels from

other than literary considerations. Her research, centered on whether

or not black junior novels did reflect black adolescent development

tasks, found that selected juvenile fiction about black youth did

reflect black life styles. Her study contained these four titles in

the present paper: The Contender and Durango Street which were

considered high-realistic samples ; Tessie and Classmates by Request

were rated low -realistic samples (Brown, p. 75)* 84 As social history, literature reflects our changing tastes,

styles, and ideas. To our amusenent, it shovs us how we loved and laughed; to our chagrin and sometimes horror, it shows us the myths we "believed; for our edification, it shows us our past accomplishments

and even potential for the future ; it is an influential art. %at happens, then, when all the gods and heroes are white? IThen one is dominated by a majority group concept of world vision? A sense of isolation must pervade the very essence of those beings so exposed.

Introduction

The Charley Moss Series and Tessie by Jesse Jackson Integration was the main thrust of the black community until the sixties. As art mirrors life, those titles which purported to depict black life emphasized making it in the white world.

Predictably, then, dominant values were considered the models and hence desirable. Such a perspective only underscored the absolute loneliness of the spirit which pervaded the thinking of the time.

For example, in the books written by Jesse Jackson, such as Call I':e

Charley (19^5) Anchor Man (l9-!-7), Charley Starts From Scratch (1958) and Tessie (1968), one is struck by the celebration of the lack of individual freedom, the very hallmark of the democratic principle.

The personae, Charley Moss and Tessie Doras, are frozen in their worlds; their spirits do not soar, they sink. Jackson handles the theme of integration from the viewpoint that "the hope of the [black] lies in some white people, provided the [black] is willing to mal:e the best of himself under the existing conditions" (Burton, p. 96). In

Call I'e Charley. Charley Moss in his nearly "integrated" world prompts three questions to test its validity. %at are the basic values 85 Charley's mother stresses? IThat values did Charley "bring to his

present world? And what are the values of that world as they relate to

Charley and his future? The answers to these questions, and their

implications for classroom teachers, w ill he explored as the paper goes

forward. Jackson's first novel. Call t!e Charley, received six

favorable reviews; it is both in paperback and hardcover and "has had

over a million read ers.T y p ical of the critical comment is the

Booklist review: "A sincere and unpretentious storj"" of a ITegro author

. . .dealing with the race problem with the same honest and directness

as the Tunis books. So typical in its characters, setting, and

prejudices that readers will at once see its significance to them.

Book Review Digest puts it this way: "To Arlington Heights came a

colored boy. This is the story of his ups and downs, his friendship

with Tom Hamilton, his problems in the local school and his adventures

in living among some who were intelligently friendly and some who were

not."^3 Moreover, as Ruby Lanier w rites, "In 19^5 Call Me Charley was a

breaktlirough in children's literature. In books published before this time Negroes and whites lived separate lives, the black man was 'in his

place'" (Profile, p. 31). Explaining the title , Jackson notes that :

a very small advance was asked for in using the title . Call 1.6 Charley, for this was in 194$, nine years before the Broim. decision. Prior to this time most blacks were lost like peas in a pod under such titles as George, Sambo, Coon, Nigger...So with this Call Me Charley it was my aim to single out one black boy, to have him fight for at least ths respect of being called Charley Moss (Profile, CMC, p. 333).

The world of Charley Moss presumably depicts the world of the

black during the time when the black objective was active participation

in mainstream society. But contrary to the Book Review Digest review. the setting is not typical; during the forties there were not many 86 white communities which opened their doors to blacks. Of course, twelve-year-old Charley Moss is the only black youth in the suburb of Arlington Heights because Charley's parents are live-in domestics;

Mrs. Moss cooks and Mr. Moss chauffers for the Doctor Cunningham family. As Book Review Digest points out, Charley does have his ups and downs with peers, his parents and his teachers (3RD, p. 355).

And clearly some of the events depicted are those which would normally happen to the average teenager. But Charley, by any account is atypical, as will be revealed as his story unfolds.

Jackson wrote three novels which detail the world of Charley Moss from the time he is transplanted from the ghetto of Blackberry Patch to white Arlington Heights as the only black in an all-white setting, in junior high school (Call Me Charley), through high school and graduation with other blacks in an all-white setting (Anchor Man) and as he works on a summer job on the IJew Jersey boardwalk after graduation (Charley Starts From Scratch). There is a six-year span in the stories, covering Charley's life from age twelve to eighteen. The class setting in the first two novels is white, middle class and suburban. In the concluding novel, Charley Starts From

Scratch, the setting is black-white and urban and suburban.

In the first novel we are introduced to the personae, some of whom are carried over into concluding stories. Charley Moss, his parents, Ed and Mabel Moss; Dr. and Mrs. Cunningham; Tom Hamilton,

Charley's first white friend; Hannah, the Hamilton maid; George Heed, the racial bigot and his parents; Mr. Winter, Arlington Heights 87 Junior High School principal; Miss Barnes and Miss King, Charley's

•teachers. In Anchor Man, Jackson replaces the Reeds with Mike Harm;

Charley gains two friends in Red Collins, a student, and Steve, the

coach, at Arlington Heights High School. In addition, we meet Clarence

Duke and Woody Clay, two black youths from the Blackberry Patch;

Arlington Heights High School principal, Mr. Fleming, also knoim as

G2; J u l i a Ann Brown, Charley's girlfriend; Jim the oraer, of Jim's

Hangout, popular spot for .Arlington youths. In the last novel,

Charley Starts From Scratch, Red, Mike and Tom are re-introduced. And,

of course, new characters are added: Mr. Illegal, Charley's first

employer; T.Y. Bailey, Charley's first black friend; King Moe Shalanslij'-,

Charley's second employer; Mr. Sprigs, the Soda Palace manager and

Butch O'Rourke and Specs, the white bigot and liberal southerner,

respectively, who work with Charley.

Charley Moss' world, the author states, was quite like that of

his own. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jackson lived in an all-white neighbor­

hood, until the 1913 Scioto River flood; after that he and his parents

moved to east Columbus into what is now Poindexter Village on the near

eastside of Columbus. Leaving the Patch, the family moved near

"where the wealthiest people in town lived," writes Jackson (Profile,

CMC, p. 33^). After graduation, he attended Ohio State University

School of Journalism, and engaged in such sports as running track,

which is featured in the Moss stories, high jumping, and boxing. He

has worked at a variety of professions, including newspaper writing

for two Columbus based black newspapers, worlcing as a probation officer

and postal clerk and reviewing teclinical books. At present, he is the 88 w riter-in-residence, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina.

Call Me Charley, started while Jackson worked at the Columous Post Office, was a commissioned book and reflects, as noted, the author's own experiences. TJhat one must assess, then, is the intent of the author in presenting his world and how the theme of isolation is handled in the three stories as a framework of reference for social integration.

Call Me Charley

Charley Moss is accepted, the author asserts, into the social fabric of Arlington Heights. He has tliree white pals, has become a member of the exclusive Tigers Club, the open sesame to social life for Arlington Heights youths, has proven that all blacks are not alike, and that he is diametrically opposed to the tenets of black Clarence

Duke whose dislike of whites stems from the experience his boxer brother had with a dishonest manager. At times Charley's family life is somewhat strained because his father opposes his son's Arlington

Heights life style.

Mr. Moss is, Dorothy Broderick feels, "a chronic complainer, dissatisfied with his life, but unable to help his son aspire to a b e t t e r oneOne feels, however, that Mr. Moss' opposition is based on his experience and a sense that Charley's life in the white suburbs is not preparing him for the reality of black exclusion from the larger society. Mabel Moss encourages Charley to accept whatever opportunities are available and to put his best foot forward. Broderick considers

Mrs. Moss "intelligent and dedicated"; it is she who constantly keeps

Charley's dream of getting an education and becoming an engineer afloat (IBCF, p. 90). But in doing so, Charley's mother becomes obsessed

"with the conventions of acceptability," Thompson and Woodard note

(BPBC, p . 2 2): 89 You'll have to keep out of trouble. It ain't like you vere one of the other boys...And vatch your manners, boy. Good manners go a long vay to help a colored boy get along in this world....You got to keep trying - you got to work harder than anybody else.15

And as Thompson and Woodard w rite, "All these platitudes are realized by Charley (with the help of his friend's white liberal parents), and one more exceptional Negro has been accepted by the white world" (BPBC, p. 1?). Charley, of course, perceives himself as the only black youth in the community; he realizes that his is a unique situation and that he is at its center. But how does

Jackson square Charley's sense of isolation with the conditions of acculturation and assimilation which are promoted in the stories? He does not; and in the final analysis this dual emphasis results in a complexity which is not solved.

Our hero is sjnnbolic as an anchor man in a dual sense, in reality as an anchor man for the Arlington Heights High track team and as a representative black from the Blackberry Patch. Although Jackson was familiar with the kind of world that a Charley lioss inhabits, he is unable finaJ.ly to communicate that world successfully. It has the ring of reality in Charley's relationships with his white peers, but upon close examination these relationships do not come across as authentic. Tom Hamilton, the white liberal ; Bed Collins, the class clown; Mike Hamm and George Beed, the stereotyped bigots; seem quite familiar. And to take the long view of Charley it would appear that he is the model of behavior; in truth, he always puts his best foot forward. He does not have marked undesirable traits as do Duke,

George, Mike and even to some extent, Tom Hamilton. He is the model ghetto dweller transformed into an acceptable black. 90 He can exist in the world outside the inner city; he has been

accepted, Jackson insists, by mainstream society, typified by Arlington

Heights citizens; he has paid his respect to the values of that world.

But in doing so, what has happened to the values which he brought with him as a ghetto dweller? Charley had some very sensible values as a ghetto youth trying to exist in a hostile environment. Though he still has those values, the author does not say this. As a member of

Arlington Heights, Charley no longer seems to recognize any value in the

Blackberry Patch; his best suit, which has been re-cut from one of

Dr. Cunningham's old ones, is sjTibolic of the force which has transformed him from a skinny little paper boy we meet in the opening chapter of

Call Me Charley to the confidant member of white society in

Charley Starts From Scratch. Charley has assumed another personality, not his own entirely, but a new one which presumably, w ill help him make his way. His sojourn in the summer of his youth becomes almost idyllic and romantic instead of realistic and true. The psychological effects of his confrontation with racial bigotry, underscoring the discrepancies between the theory and the practice of the vlmerican ideal are only whispered; and in the end, one must assume that Charley wants to leave his blackness beliind.

Arlington Heights, Ohio is a typical prosperous upper-middle class white northern suburb. And is probably patterned after Upper

Arlington, Ohio, an affluent, predominantly white Protestant suburb of

Columbus, Ohio. The well-paved streets are lined with "large colonial houses" surrounded by lovely lawns and trees. In Arlington, Charley, points out to Hannah, "We can see the grass and trees like you 91 never could in the B ottom s.A rlington also boasts a new swimming pool,

a spacious park, clean white store fronts and a new block - long

stone school building "w ith...light, airy rooms, gymnasium and swimming

pools and...rows of shiny metal lockers and...spotless cafeteria.

All the accouterments of the good life as identified by an upper

middle class life style are inherent in Arlington. In this affluent

community dwell those who operate the machinery which runs America:

the professionals such as Dr. Cunningham, Mr. Hamilton and t-Ir. Reed.

In contrast to this picture of power and influence, the portrait

of the Blackberry Patch is grimly humorless. Life across the tracks

is briefly sketched as one of survival. The author implies that there are no values worth discussing; there is only trouble in the

Bottoms. The art of dodging the railroad detectives in order to steal

coal from the tracks is typical of life in the ghetto where homeless

families "sleep in old cars in the used car lots" (M, p. 20). The

ghetto tenements and the old dilapidated school which burned down

are testimonies that the ghetto is a good place not to live. The grim reality of what life is for the ghetto dweller underscores what life is for blacks who have no access to the mainstream society reward system or who cannot re-form to fit the system's normative behavioral patterns. There is, however, no explanation for the "why" of the ghetto. What we are told is that twelve-year-old Charle;r Moss leaves the ghetto and with the help of his mother and in spite of his father's warnings not to get uppity - this is, not to adopt the values and aspirations of the white world - moves into mainstream society; or so Jackson writes. 92 But does Charley really move into that society, and if he does, how is he integrated into a society which does not admit "blacks? As

Broderick points out, "the question of integrating a neighborhood is ignored in favor of stressing the problem of school desegregation"

(IBCF, p. 1^5). Continuing, Broderick notes that the Mosses are live- in domestics and social segregation in housing never becomes an issue; moreover she observes, "It has always been more acceptable to have black servants living in a neighborhood than black professionals who want to buy a house. The former are 'in their place' while the later are 'uppity'"' (IBCF, p. ihU).

Charley Moss is atypical, although he is limned as representative of the mainstream black of that period in the black experience. He is isolated in a world which is realistic to whites, but surreal to

Charley, at bottom. In Arlington Heights, Charley is not, racist

George tells him, one uf the "real guys" who really live in the neighborhood. Sensing that George may be correct, liberal Ton, too, tells Charley, "you're a funny guy, Charley, always acting" (CMC, p. 17).

The Mosses may be identified as transients; they live in a white neighborhood as useful servants, though social pariahs, nevertheless, when Charley insists that "I live in the neighborhood and I'm going to try to belong to the Tigers," he is attempting to resist the efforts of the larger society, as represented by bigot George, to lim it his world (Cl:c, p. 58). Charley also moves to protect his identity and to demand respect with his response to George Reed's taunting "Sambo" in their first confrontation while Charley is on his paper route. Charley immediately tells Tom and George, "My name is 93 Charles. Charles Moss” (CI-IC, p. 6). Of this decision, Jackson reveals that "Charley had a game plan and the game plan began with recognize me as an individual and then we w ill go on from there and

I 'll try to get into the boys' club and try to win admission to the swimming pool and try to get into the school play" (Profile, p. 333).

Later Charley draws a parallel between his situation and calling Tom's dog. Rag, by George's name:

I don't like the way George calls me Sambo...I don't like to be called out of n y name...the names you get called are mostly nice names, how you take Sambo. You never got called Sambo, did you? Supposin' I called Rag [the dog] and used George's name? Rag wouldn't like it.../fell, most of the felloirs heard when the teacher called on me today in school. George didn't forget so soon. And he already knew what to call me (CMC, pp. 40-Ll).

Tom is, of course, the liberal who is insensitive to Charley's point of view, concluding that Charley is being "touchy." George is the bigot who has not learned to modify his behavior, whose rhetoric equates blacks with "nigger" and "Sambo" and whose family has moved to Arlington because they would be safe from "niggers,

Jews and dagos" (CMC, p. 59). George was certain that Charley was not a real member of the community since only Americans could live there; neither niggers nor Jews nor dagos were included in this category (CMC, p. 59). Liberal Tom, of course, cannot equate this idea with what was being taught in school about equal access; however, his questioning along these lines is merely surface; Tom does not sense that Charley's coming portends change as does George, who m o v e s quicldLy to shut Charley out of "our neighborhood": 94

George looked at the newsboy who was returning to their side of the street. One minute passed. The second hand crawled to the better part of another minute. The paper boy dropped his sack and stood watching Tom. He rolled a paper and twisted it securely. George was breathing deeply. He measured the boy cooly. The newsboy was almost as teill as George, but he was thin. His legs were spindly and his head seemed large for his thin neck. "Move on Sambo," George said and turned to Tom. "lÿ name is Charles," the boy repeated. "Sometimes I ’m called Charley. Nobody calls me Sambo and g e ts away w ith i t . " He dropped th e paper he was rolling and moved closer to George. George ST-ning back with the stick— "Me don’t allow niggers around h e re do we, Tom?" George s a id . Tom reached down to Rag and patted the dog's head. Charley lowered his eyes and his lips moved as if he were going to say something and had changed his mind... the screen door opened as Charley lifted his bag to his shoulder. Hannah came out. "George Reed! George Reed, you tai:e that kind of talk across the street where it belongs. Mrs. Hamilton don't have none of that trashy talk over here" (CMC, p. 8-p).

Jackson characterizes George as a most unlikeable boy: "He,"

Broderick writes, "is pampered, a victim of his partants' prejudice,

and his parents are shown as not really class people: a little too loud, and little too pushy" (IBCF, p. iCj). Hannah’s appearance, of

course, is more than deus ex machina; her admonition reinforces the

fam iliar myth which has long been exploded: that "quality" imite people are not racists; that "trashy" whites are the real culprits in the racial mess. It takes the intervention of Dr. Cunningham to enroll Charley in Arlington Junior High, even though the principal,

I'h". Winter, was presumably quality, "he hemmed and hawed and said

[Charley] couldn't go to...school because [he] didn't really live in

Arlington Heights" (CMC, p. 21). Relating the incident to Ton, Charley details the schooling his mother gave him: 95

Charley, ...didn’t you see how red Mr. Winter got in the face when I told him you were going to school th e re ? I s a id "ITo, m 'am ." She s a id , "VJhat you got eyes in your head for? ^fhy that white man acted like he'd been hit by a rattlesnake when I told him. Anyway, Charley you’re the only colored child in that school. And Mr. Winter didn’t want you. Charley, I want you to behave yourself and don’t pick any fights. ’Course if you have to take up for yourself, I want you to stand up like a man. You understand? ...Charley, you see how quiclzly Doc Cunningham got Hr. Winter to let you in? He just made a little phone call and you were in." And I said: "Sure was funny Mom." She said: "Funny n o th in g ." ...H is mother...said: "You know Charley, a word from a white man travels around the world while a colored man is just trying to get somebody to listen to him..." Charley started to go but his mother called him back. "Look here, Charley,'' she said, and her eyes had been bright and large. "Don't you le t Doc Cunningham doiai. ’Cause if you do I swear I ’ll simtch you in the name of the Lord until you can't sit dowrni to eat" (CMC, pp. 22-23).

Of course, when Jackson has a black character enunciate white power that i%'-bh becomes fact. And Charley is fully enlightened as to the exact extent of that power. His mother, he informs Tom is a praying person; she was praying silently while in the principal’s office, but to no avail, although Mr. Winter "looked awful funny"

(CMC, p. 21). Charley tells Tom that when he and his mother return to Dr. Cunningham's, "Doc asked Mom ;rhy she hadn't le ft me at school, and Mom told him and he just laughed and went to the telephone and called Mr. Winter" (CMC, p. 21). The entire book does not contain a single incident wherein Charley is rescued or saved by his own efforts or by those of another black character. His world is completely and, are told, satisfactorily ruled by the white elite of Arlington Heights. 96

After Jackson gets Charley enrolled, he faces the isolation of "being the only black in an all white school; he must prove himself both

academically and socially.

But, as Broderick notes, although Tom and George do, Charley never engages "in physical combat...when the white boys at school want to initiate Charley into their club, the fear of physical violence mal:es

Charley run. It is not that Charley is a physical coward, but he knows there is a difference between fighting the boys in his old neighborhood who belong to his own race and in fighting the white boys" (I3CB, p. 16 7).

Although George keeps taunting Charley that he is yellow, Charley feels that Tom should understand that he isn 't. But Ton doesn't and only sees that Charley is afraid of George. %en Charley refuses to let

Tom see the le tte r which I-ir. Winter gave Charley to take home, Tom concludes that Charley was "the scardest guy [he'd] ever seen"

(ClIC, p . 50). I-Ir W inter's letter contained the ultimatum that Charley must prove himself in three months or return to the school in the

Bottoms; Miss King, his homeroom teacher, te lls him that he w ill be assigned another seat according to what his future grades w ill be ; when he learns that his seat at the rear of the room is only temporary, his spirits rise.

In the meantime, Charley passes the school initiation and doesn't get a part in the school play. He and Tom win the Arlington Swimming

Pool contest, despite George's efforts to destroy their model swimming pool entry. But Tom's edification concerning racial prejudice is at hand. For when he and Charley are given s^ri-mming passes as prizes, the pool manager takes Charley's pass and gives him ten dollars, saying 97

"Sorry, boy, but here i s what th e p a s s i s worth. ¥e don’t allow

Negroes to siri.ni here. Sambo" (CMC, p. 1 3 9 ) . To make things even more

d ifficu lt, Tom finds that Charley cannot sirim and almost drowns when

they stop to swim in the quarry. Tom tells Charley that he is

through with him:

"if you had said you couldn't swim it wouldn't have been so bad. But no, you don't open your mouth. It's just lik e the school play. You won't tall: to Miss King, to te ll her you want a part in the play. You wouldn't te ll the manager at the swimming pool that you wanted to stay. ITo, you're scared...I don't want anything to do with you...I've tried to give you an even break and what do you do for me?" Tom repeated. "Ifliy, you go and try to get yourself droimed so everybody would blame me for taking you into that quarry. I'm through, Charley. I don't want to have anything to do with you." (CMC, p. 146-147).

Relating the incident to his mother, Charley decides he w ill not go back to school; the tried and true formula of hard work and fair play, the major tlirust of the Protestant Ethic-American

Creed, has not worked for him: "I made good grades and I studied hard for the school play and I won that prize, but they don't want me. I won't go back" (CMC, p. 149). Learning about the contretemps from Hannah, Mrs. Hamilton tal:es Tom to task:

As Hannah said, Charley has been hurt, again and again, in a way 3>-ou know nothing about. When j^ou are treated unfairly’’ just because your skin looks different from other boys,, and when you feel that your not wanted, you learn to keep your mouth shut. ( CMC, p . 153).

Tom's remonstration that Charley's greatest fault is that he w ill not speak for him self elicits this eye-opening advice from his mother: 98

Some people don't like colored people and don't want to give them a chance. And that's where their friends have to stand up for then. I know it wouldn't have done Charley one bit of good to speak up to the manager. But I certainly think you might have said a word for him or some of the other boys. You should have been ashamed not to (CMC, p. 1$4).

Tom's suggested role of actively seeking to redress social wrongs

has a parallel in Mrs. Hamilton's action when she attends PTA and

manages to get Charley a part in the school play; Lirs. Reed, who wants

Mrs. Hamilton's approval, surrenders. The book closes with an

enlightened Ton and Charley united and Mrs. Moss giving her son the

advice that "as long as you work hard and try to go right...you w ill

always find some good people like Dr. Cunningham or Tom and his folks

marching along with you in the right path. And fellows like George

may come along, too, sooner or later" (CMC, p. 133). And the first

Charley î-toss story ends on the note, that competent, faceless blacks

w ill overcome.

One of the problems of the book is that we are never told that

racism is a cultural conditioning and that it is unnatural. Charley

must face the problems of racism without being told why he must face

them; instead the supposition is that these difficulties are part and

parcel of his lot and that little or nothing can be done to change the

situation. As Shelton Root, Jr. notes, however, Jackson's "handling of the situation was by far the most honest of the few novels on the

subject which were available to children at the time."17 Of course,

the content is replete with cliches and old stereotypes concerning both blacks and whites, which unfortunately are all to evident

in Anchor I Ian the sequel to Call Me Charley. 99

Anchor Man

Jackson moves fu ll circle in Anchor Man in that he completes the major portion of Charley Moss' life in Arlington Heights. Although this hook received mixed reviews it appears on many suggested reading lists, such as Build Together and Heading Ladders in Human Relations.

It is available in paperback and hardcover and it deserves our attention.

Anchor Man is not a great book but it expresses some form of wishful thinking concerning the American dream and the black experience; for in a sense, the work is somewhat fantasy-filled especially from the standpoint of its 19^7 publishing date. Booklist gives this review:

Charley M oss...is now an accepted member of the student body at Arlington High, on the track team, and a member o f th e S tudent C ouncil. ''Then, as th e result of a fire, the students of the Hegro school are brought to A rlin g to n — among them a boy embittered against all whites — a tense situation develops. With loyalty to both his race and his white friends, Charley is in the center of the conflict. The relations between the ITegroes and Charley are presented tri.th honest realism, but the s to ry somehow la c k s v i t a l i t y and th e s o lu tio n i s unsatisfactory (3L, Uk, Jan. 1, ipkS, 175).

By noting that the solution is unsatisfactory, Booklist senses that something is amiss in Jackson's thesis. Several steps had to be taken to accomplish Charley's integration. First, the ghetto is again stripped of all value. Second, the author places all value in a middle class life style; third, he compares Charley's new life and vision with that of the ghetto youths who have had minimal contact with the larger world ; and fourth, the author's view of the world is from the small end of the telescope: he knows that all is not well in Anchor Man\ but he is compelled to write what theoretically 100 should happen in Everytcwn, U.S.A., if America is truly the melting pot, a theory which was not questioned until the IpSO's.

The Kirkus Review labels the work "an uninspired race problem book," concluding that "although an unusual angle is offered, it doesn't build up to much feeling of reality..."^® Book Review Digest feels that the theme "is the understanding between Negro and white children in

Arlington High. Charley.. .happy and accepted as the only Negro in a white high school, helps to solve the problems which arise with an influx of Negro students from another part of town" ( BRD, 19^7, p . 33).

The purpose for writing Anchor Man can perhaps b e drawn from the author's position on Charley's status i n Arlington; as B ook Review notes, he is "happy and accepted" and "had become nearly as much a part of Arlington as Tom" (All, p . 7 ) . Moreover, he w ill not neglect his work for Dr. Cunningham, thus jeopardizing his father's position: "As long as dad keeps his j o b , " he t e l l s T om , " I s ta y i n Arlington, see?

If he gets fired we'd have to move back to the Blackberry Patch.

No more Arlington High. No more track for me" (Alâ, p. 9).

While watching the old Blackberry Patch school burn, Charley compares it unfavorably with the modern one in Arlington and muses how fortunate he was "to go to Arlington High" (AM, p. 21). With the advent of the black students, displaced from their school by fire,

Charley faces other challenges. Mike, it seems, sees Charley as sort of something special at Arlington High as the only colored boy so far. Earning high grades, being on the track team, and a member of Student Council - "all that gave [him] a pretty nice position"

(AI-I, p. SU). "Anytray," Tom te lls Charley, "Mike thinks you're 101

afraid that things night change for you if there are more colored

kids in Arlington" (All, p. 3^). Thus the author poses the question of

whether or not Charley can measure up to Arlington standards in the

face of black competition represented by the new students. Also in

question is how Arlington citizens w ill react to a black influx:

Mr. Kaxm and Principal Fleming have already voiced their disapproval,

but were out-maneuvered by Rev. Collins, Red's father. As a lone black

youth Charley thinks that ^Arlington "isn't a hard place to get along

in" and that he has had both academic and social contacts with his

friends; Patch students, he concludes, should be exposed to the same

opportunities he has enjoyed (^ , p. 36).

And one of Charley's old Patch friends, anti-white Clarence Dul-;e,

does get a breal;; for Arlington coach, Steve, sees "in Duke the key to victories" (AM, p. 39). Duke maizes the team, but he needs help in re-forming since his hatred of whites stems from his belief that his brother would "have been a great b o x e r ...if a white man hadn't ruined him" (AM, p. 106). Liberal Tom concludes that there is hope: "Maybe, Steve and Arlington w ill do Duke a lo t of good"

(Ail, p. U3 ). B u t is is through Dulie that resentment toward the presence of other blacks in Arlington finally surfaces. TRnile at

Jim 's, Duke accidentally knocks over a tray of dishes. The exchange between Duke, Charley and Jim is significant:

''You don't belong here anyhow." "I've got just as much right as anybody else to be here," Duke said, his voice rising. ''Maybe -..-3 can fix things, Jim," Charley cut in, "if we chip in and pay for the damage." "I don't want any pay," Jim said slowly. "Aill I want is for this boy to get out of here and never come back." "I'm not going to leave until I've been served!" Duke shouted. "You get out of here!" Jim shouted back. "I've 102

had enough of you! all you colored kids clear out of my place. I'm not serving any of you." "But, Jim," Charley said. "You can't do this to us I" "Oh, you can stay, Charley," Jim replied. "You're okay with me. But the other colored kids better get out now" (All, p. 51-52).

No need to question whether or not Arlington could sustain the advent of more blacks, especially ghetto dirallers, without reactionary rhetoric. Jim's anger was clearly symbolic of white resentment and resistance to larger numbers of blacks. Of course, in retaliation,

Charley and his friends walk out. 'Our hero cautions Duke not to throw a brick through the door, saying that D u r:a has "caused enough trouble for one night" (^ , p. 52). Duke thinks the judgment unfair telling Charley that "he's been living in Arlington so long he's forgotten how it is in the Blackberry Patch" and that he had turned

"against his own people" p. 53). Charley, Dul:e concludes, had forgotten his blackness ; that is , he has lost his identity as a black person. That Charley is isolated from the psychological impact of the Blackberry Patch is best illustrated in his pleasure that the ghetto students are impressed with the new modem Arlington school; he is unairare that their reaction only heightened the symbolic meaning of their former old dilapidated school as a mark of oppression.

But Jackson fails to explain why Charley had not understood the plight of the Blackberr^r Patch students in relation to their position in Arlington. Obviously, Charley wanted them to be accepted on the same terms which he is now enjoys. Dut he had the protection of white benefactors; his acceptance had not been instantaneous.

Charley should have been aware of the contretemps; but he follows 103 the pattern of isolated individualism which is a tenet of the integraticnist. And it is Red Collins who partially pinpoints the problem: "... Duke made a mess alright — so Jim might have has some reason for asking him out. But...why all the other kids from the Patch? They weren't causing any trouble." Tom, however, reveals that tossing Duke out was an exception:

" ...if Jim would kick all of us out, each time one of us upset a tray, nobody in Arlington would be eating in his place anymore"

(All, p. 5^). To be sure, "Charley felt lonely and disheartened" by the confrontation with Dulie, but believes that "Duke didn't understand him, didn't tr]r to" (^ , p. 5^). Finding a parallel in Duke's angry:

"You aren't one of us" to his father's admonition that "right or wrong, you just stick to your own color," Charley, the isolated individualistic integraticnist, cannot comprehend the call for black unity. As an intogrationist he understands his mother's comment that

"color is only skin deep, you have to find out what is right and what is wrong — then stick to the right" (^ , p. 55), but with Jim's display of discrimination and injustice he begins to question her advice, as he rightly should; for color is more than skin deep.

Significantly, however, he rejects Duke and all the impoveris'nment that the ghetto represents.

A successful student picketing of Jim 's, however, doesn't change

Duke's opinion about Arlington's hospitality as Charley presses him to let bygones be bygones and accept the free treat offer in reconcilation:

"I ain't going to let no white man insult me and then try to soft-soap me with a handout. If he put me out once h e'll do it again and I 104

ain't never going to give him that chance" (All» p. 63). And Dulie

.-envï^np» himself in the isolation of the rejected. Later, he is

charged vith taking the Chugalug, an old car "belonging to Red, Mike,

Tom and Charley; he'd been breaking practice and using it as a cab

to earn money to buy a suit such as Charley wore. All the boys, except

Mike, agree not to prosecute him and Student Council gives him a

two-week suspension. Later, running as anchor man, he brings honors

to Arlington High. Mike Eanm, jealous of the attention afforded Duke,

picks a quarrel with him, but Mr. Fleming blames Dul-:e, who quits the

team stating that "I see how it is here. I'm good enough to run m;/

legs off in your relay, but I'm just another bum when it comes to

getting an even break" (All, p. 98).

Steve, attempting to reason with Duke, judges that since Fleming

"gave him a bum decision...[he] should get back in there determined to

fight so clean and hard there just can't be any more bum decisions"

(am, p . 1 0 5). But Duke cannot be persuaded that racial injustices w ill

disappear that quickly: "And after we beat Lakewood.. .what then?"

Mike laughs at me and G2 says: 'Well we're glad to be rid of that colored boy.' ITo, I ain't going to do it. Charley puts up with that

sort of pushing around but not me. I still live in the Blackberry

Patch, I know the score, even if Charley has forgotten" (^ , p. 105-106),

Duke rejects the assimilation stance as pursued by Charley and opts for the ghetto. Steve immediately condemns his decision, using classic victim-blame type of reasoning:

Duke is headed for a lot of trouble and the Blackberry Patch got him started in that direction...There are a • lot more Dukes in the Blackberry Patch....We've got to get their heads out of the ground, so they can see what's on the level around them (Ail, p. 107). 105

Surely, Steve says, vith Charley the paradigm, the model black

who has made it in the white world as an example, nothing short of

negative forces could prompt Duke to return to the Patch. Also Steve

concludes, if a chance at the Arlington life style was repudiated

by fellows such as Duke, it was because "you have to start before

they get as old as Duke" otherwise they are "lost in the Patch for good"

( Al'I, p . 1 0 7 ). Charley is blamed by lîr. Fleming for a hoax perpetrated

b y Red and is rebuffed again by Duke who calls him a "white folks nigger."

Telling these woes to his mother, our hero is given his first

lesson in black pride, tîrs. Moss shows him the Free Paper which

made his great grandfather a free man for him serving in the Yar

o f IS 1 2 . Her views are gradualist, though:

"But mind you son, that was only the first step to freedom. We've come a long way since then and for every step forward we've had to fight. Many times I've looked at these papers and then I've looked at you and said to m^'self, We're coming along. Us colored people are coming along. It's slow and hard but we're coming along... Having Free Papers in 1823...is like going to high school and college in 19^7" (AM, pp. 127-129).

Mrs. Moss is characterized as a poor hard-working mother who wants her son to succeed in a world she knows is hostile to blacks ; she only views the word from that perspective and her voice is as one who cries in the wilderness. In Call Me Charley she socializes her son for life in Arlington by instructing him not to be aggressive and self-assertive. Dut he is ingesting aggression and self-assertion in his Arlington life style. At the same time she instructs him to stand up like a man "if he has to take up" for himself. At bottom, her attitud.e is historically that of the black who opts for 106

"passivity as a survival technique," but one which Poussaint and

Atkinson charge is now "fading and being replaced with a drive to undo powerlessness, helplessness and dependency under American racism ."19

Essentially, Mrs. Moss is the older black assim ilationist who assumes that education is the way to achieve upward mobility; a false and sim plistic judgement, for then, as now, "the system provides no assurances that once [blacks] obtain the proper education for a job, they will in fact be allowed to get that job." Mrs. Moss is permitted to expound briefly on her ancestor's feat of obtaining his freedom; but the why of his lack of freedom is ignored. She believes that obtaining

Free Papers in 1323 and earning educational degrees in 19^7 are fruits of the promised land for blacks. The formula of waiting four generations for equal access is approved and is a move to allay the fears of those whites irho feel that blacks are moving too fast. Mabel

Moss' position is another aspect of the m;,’th of time which Martin

Luther King strongly censured as the answer to social problems, stating t h a t :

...I can see no I'ay to break loose from the old order and into a new order without standing up and resisting the unjust dogma of the old order... we must get rid of...the m;m:h of tine advanced by those wdio say that you must wait on time; if you must wait and be patient, 'time "vn.ll work the situation out.' Time itself becomes and ally of the primitive forces of irrational emotionalism and social stagnation and so we must get rid of the myth of time.20

Of course, Charley, as anchor man, beats out rival Laliewood;

Red admits he is the author of the hoax for which our hero is accused and Duke in an unconvincing turnabout sees the light: "Mell” he tells

Woody, " I guess Charley has beat the Blackberry Patch. How he's got 107

a chance and what have we got to look forward to in the Patch?

Nothing hut smoke and railroad tracks and poolrooms" (^ , p. 1 U2 ).

Woody, however, has decided on the strength of Charley's victory,

to "put all the miles [he] can between him and the Patch" (AJ-I, p. IH2 ).

And Charley becomes the beacon for his future hopes: "...When I saw

Charley finish the race today...I was thinking that he wasn]t beating the other runners...why he was beating M ike...yes, you, too,

Duke, and everything else that was against him. And boy, it's been tough" (AM, p. lh2).

But there is more to the story than meets the eye: at each

step that Jackson takes to immerse Charley into the larger society,

Charley asks himself, "Is it all worth it?" We are never told what

Charley has in mind when he wonders if it is all worth it. So

Jackson has been subtler in this work than in Call Me Charley. The book would not be understood in all its ramifications to an audience of the late forties, but would be better understood in the light of today's civil rights advances and appeal to black pride and beginnings.

Clarence Duke, although cast as a flawed individual, is outspoken; which is more nearly true of the black youths of the ipSO's than of the lake's.

And clearly, Dulce spoke truer than he knew when he says of Charley that "he's got his head in the ground like an ostrich. One of these days he's going to pull it out and h e'll be back in the Blackberry

Patch with the rest of us" (AI-I, p. lOo) ; for the Blackberry Patch, symbolic of the ghetto, is wherever the black resides, be it in the inner city or suburbs. Charley's mother continues to instruct her son, harping less on conformities,’ she supports gradual assimilation and 108 therefore, would never he found manning the barricades. Mr. Moss, of

course, continues to wear the mask. And strangely enough, as the story wears on, Charley loses steam; "It's slow and it's hard. Mom, and

sometimes it doesn't make sense" but being a superblack, is tough,

as Woody observes (AM, p.129).

What, then, is the final assessment of Anchor Man as a realistic portrayal of the black experience in regards to isolation? Obviously, there are lim its beyond which Charley cannot move. For bigot Mike Hamm easily enunciates the following litany to segregated existence.

Charley's friends think that he is the best track man; Mikes does not deny that Charley is talented, but the fact that his color causes trouble outweighs his value to the team, in Mike's view:

Remember th e tr o u b le we had in g e ttin g a h o te l last season when we went to the meet in Cincinnati? All because Charely was colored...How about that time we couldn't find a place to eat in Richmond because of Charley?...How about the time the athletic dance was held at Xavier and the committee didn't know what to do about Charley and his girl? Made us all feel sort of tied down, didn't it?... {m, pp. 11-12).

Implicit in Mike's observation is the understanding that in

Arlington Charley has been accepted, but outside its protective walls,

Charley is a black subjected to segregation. In viewing these lim itations, Mike, the tj’pical bigot, says that "it's not that I have anything against Charley. I'm just trying to be realistic....

This is no time for sentiment" (^ , p. 12). There is no explanation why C harley i s t r e a t e d d if f e r e n tly o r why he has th e s e problem s because of his color. Instead we are told that the coach circumvented segregated facilities "by taking a double room and eating in a colored 109

restaurant and that Charley got mad ahout not "being able to find a

white place to eat" jPll, p . 1 1 ).

Charley Starts From Scratch

In Charley Starts from Scratch, the third book in the series,

our hero has graduated from high school and "has decided to get away

from people I know so I can see if I can make it alone."21 Of this book

Jackson confesses that it was "the most difficult one to write because

he had to treat two major problems — the social separation of blacks

and whites and fair employment practices" (Profile, p. 33).

However this may be, Spencer G. Shaw does not pinpoint the

author's emphasis but glosses over these critical areas by writing that Charley, "venturing into an adult world without family and

friends,.. .encounters heartaches and failures, but...overcomes all, proving his ability as a possible Olympic tracluaan."^^ Seeking

employment after graduation, Charley found that being a track hero,

former member of the Student Council, belonging to the Tigers, and an honor roll student did not change biases toward blacks either in

Arlington or in the larger society. Both his school pals were able to find good summer emplo^mient, but for Charley it would seem that his father's dire warning not to get uppity was bearing fruit: the only job Charley could get was at Tolliver's Riding Stables doing manual labor. But Charley relates t u a t the o:mer "said something that hit [him] in the face like cold water" (CSFS, p. G). '.That Tolliver had said was: "Oh, yes, you're Dr. Cunningham's boy" when Charie;'- presented himself to work. "ITo sir, Ts^r father's Zd I Toss," Charley replied, but in this exchange, Charley felt that "l!r. Tolliver opened his eyes 110 about his true position in Arlington "(CSFS, p. 7). Charley is aware that race relations outside the school environment are controlled by very subtle lim its and rules which are curiously and meticulously

observed by blacks and whites alike. These lim its are often ludicrous

and contradictory, but are indicative of the social climate and distance the majority requires to maintain identity.

Certain activities involving dating, dancing, taking girls for rides in the Chugalug have posed problems for the three friends. ITow in addition, Tom fails to get him a job on the surveying team, our hero obtains a job he does not want, the atliletic scholarhsip Steve proposed for him was abolished by the legislature, and there is no invitation to an important social event forthcoming from Tom. Tolliver, said Charley, opened his eyes as to the relationship he has with Tom and Red: "I can see how things have been going with me and Tom and Red since we finished school. I guess they've been trying to te ll me for a long time to find fr ie n d s in my own ra c e " ( CSFS, p . 7 ) .

Charley finds the prospect of working at Tolliver's intolerable, informing his parents that he prefers working on a tourist liner out of

Philadelphia. Ed Moss, vexed that Charley repudiates what he calls honest labor - he had gotten the job at Tolliver's - voices his disapproval: "It's like I said when we moved here and Charley started running around with Ton and Red - I said then no good would come of it"

(CSFS, p. 9). And although his friends attempt to persuade him differently, dangling the chance to practice for the upcoming and eventually wearing the American shield, Charley reminds then, prophetically, that he "can't live in Arlington always" as they Ill apparently can, therefore he "must find out if [he] could make it strictly on [his] o t o" (CSFS, p. 23). Thus the tenderfoot embarks on . his initiation to test whether or not the skills and experience he has acquired in Arlington have prepared him for life in the white world.

After a series of misadventures, he arrives in Philadelphia and a dock strikes prevents him from working on a liner. Striking out for the boardwalk and Atlantic City, Charley meets his first black friend,

T. Y. Bailey, a free lance artist and chair-pusher. Bailey, Charley finds, is a victim of family disorganization: his story includes a father who abandoned his motherless family, a stay at an orphanage, brushes with truant officers and many missed meals. To be sure,

Bailey's view of Charley's Arlington life is one of awe, but he is also certain that life has not prepared our hero for the pitfalls of the larger world; Charley, Bailey concludes, cannot cope. TThile Bailey encourages C harley to malie good, our hero g e ts a job th rough I!oe

Shalansky, the salt water taffy king, at one the his Soda Palaces.

But in spite of the oiraer's personal request to hire Charley, !!r. Sprigs, the manager, bluntly refuses ; Charley persists and Sprigs tells him:

"I'm going to give you the facts, man to man." The "facts" are discernibly familiar as Sprigs confides that "there is nothing personal in my attitude toward you or any other fine colored boys, but that its customary to hire only white boys for certain work, because some whites haven't had the chance to meet and know colored boys and that customers would rather be served by white boys" (CSFS, p. 57). These appeals all fail and Sprigs desperately points out to Charley that he couldn't learn the coded terms for the menu items. It wasn't that Charley wasn't 112

intelligent; he just could not cope. Sprigs dismissed our hero with

the advice that he should return "next summer when he had mastered the

code" (CSFS, p. 59)» The argument cones to a triumphant close for

Charley when he remembers Dr. Cunningham's advice not to le t any man

make a person quit without a fight to the finish; he doesn't and

Charley gets the job.

As another first black and on probation, Charely confronts Butch,

a white bigoted co-worker, who works our hero over, and Specs, the

southern liberal who befriends him at work and helps with track practice.

Butch and Specs, of course, are opposites in their view of black-white relations. Butch is no suprise to Charley, but Specs is a different matter. Charley, the author writes, is just as remiss in his knowledge of the white southerners as many whites are of blacks; there is good in a l l ra c e s .

Bailey, the die-hard black, is apprehensive of Specs' intentions and resents his interest in training Charley for the upcoming 01;.Tnpic trials in Philadelphia. Charley loses his job through an accident, but is fired just after his probation period is over; Bailey gives our hero the I-told-you-so about Specs: "You lost your job just the way I thought it would happen. I don't mean to rub it in, but I noticed Specs stayed away from you last night when you were having it the hardest"

(CSFS, p. 107). In a predictable story-line. Specs attends the Oljrmpic trials with Charley, proving his friendship; Butch, proving his malice, reports to the meet officials that Charley was not an amateur; Bailey is impressed by Specs' loyalty, and in the end Butch clears Charley, who wins the race with the image of white Tom Hamilton spurring him 113

on. Charley, seeing the symbolic scratch line which athletes must not

touch or cross before the race, thought that "he had been starting from

scratch ever since he left home. Beyond this scratch line lay victory,

he had to win. He could prove irhether he was to be his own man —

whether he belonged in Arlington or the Blackberry Patch" (CSFS, p. 1^8).

It is unfortunate, indeed, that Charley felt compelled to make the

former the symbol of victory and the latter one of defeat ; but it was

a sign of the times; the integrationist really held that the majority values were superior to those of the black life style. All ends

happily as Charley gets his Job back and Bailey, too, comes in for his share of the American dream by getting a position as a staff artist on a white magazine.

Obviously, the author has had several misgivings about what he proposes in the story. VThat kind of apology does he make for the citizens of Arlington in regard to Charley's lack of employment possibilities? I-7hat kind of conduct does his mother expect from

Charley in regard to his former friends? vJhat kind of help did he get from Dr. Cunningham concerning a summer job? We assume that Tom and

Red speak for Arlington citizens when they logically reason that everything that happened to Charley concerning his employment has been pure chance; nothing was deliberate, i-trs. Moss expects Charley to understand that once out of school his relationship with Tom and Red • w ill change; she offers no explanation concerning the i;hy of the situation; Charley must rely on osmosis for his knowledge.

Of course, it is inevitable that Charely is impelled to leave

Arlington venturing forth as the greenhorn or Country Boy, which is 114

Specs' name for him and one vhich he accepts ■without rebuttal. It was through Dr. Cunninghan that the Mosses were in Arlington; it was through the Doctor's intervention that Charley was enrolled in school and in the end it was Dr. Cunningham who sent Charley away. V/hat, then, can be concluded from the book as a portrait of the black experience? It has a realistic ring in that Charley's plight in

Arlington has become crucial; he cannot remain in the suburb as a black youth who has risen above "his station." He cannot venture forth in search of an identity since purportedlz/" he ]cnows who he is: he is Ed Moss's son ;he is called Charley Moss.

Therefore, Charley's quest is not for identity, but for the utilitarian goal of employment. The question of whether or not the re-making of a ghetto youth has been successful lies in whether Charley can start from scratch. Charley Moss' low profile versus segregated life is really the crux of the problem with Jackson's thematic emphasis that Charley is integrated into the mainstream. Of course, he is not, for integration is not functional, and when the last hurrah is sounded

Charley is still starting from scratch. Any success our hero attains,

Jackson w ites, w ill be because he adhered to white values, a common focus of children's literature concerning black Americans held until the late 196G's and early 1970's. Jackson undercuts his thesis to total acceptability: Charley cannot plan a future in Arlington unless he discards the middle-class life style he has adopted. Arlington cannot accomodate an adult black male in the role of a middle-class

American; there is no place in the community for a black male with the qualifications Charley already possess, much less those he plans to 115 accrue by going to college. An alternative for remaining in Arlington would require taking a menial labor position and depending upon those in power to aid him. He wants to be an engineer and even though

^Ir. Hamilton in Call Me Charley, defended his career choice in opposition to George Reed's negative reaction. Ton could not get him a job with the surveying team. All indications are that Charley as an engineer could not return home; as the professional black he would pose a problem to the status quo of the affluent community.

VJhy was a series of black youth growing up launched at this time?

America was peppered with post war racial strife after 19^5; de facto segregation had become the rule of the northern cities ; the restrictive housing covenant was not to be overturned by the Supreme Court until

19^8, but even then had little impact since private parties were willing to agree to exclude blacks from moving into white residential areas. Of President Roosevelt's four freedoms, only the freedom to worship was enjoyed by black Americans. World War II had pointed up the vast discrepancy between the American creed and its implementation in regard to American blacks. The typical attitude is reflected by

George Schuyler who wrote that "so far as the colored peoples of the earth are concerned, it is a toss-up between democracies and the dictatorships....What is there to choose between the rule of the British in Africa and the rule of the Germans in Austria?The war, of course, was causing a revolution in American race relations, and blacks were challenging the status quo. And, Ryrdal predicted, the war would cause the American black to reassess his position. The post war goals for blacks included political and economic equality and the end to 116 de Jure segregation. Under President Roosevelt, Executive Order 8302

established the Fair Enploynent Practice Committee, prohibiting racial

and religious discrimination in war and government industries and government training programs. Beginning in I 9U5, segregation was attacked by the IIAACP in the courts. And President Truman's Commission on Civil Rights, December 19^6, reported that in the year 19^7 lynching remained the most serious threat to the civil rights of Americans; in

19^6 six persons had been lynched in the United States; all wore black.

And in 19^7 the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) tested the U.S.

Supreme Court decision outlaimng segregation on interstate buses by organizing, with Fellowship of Reconciliation, the first freedom ride.

Reflecting these changes, there is a progressive improvement in racial language in the books from the blatant "Sambo" and "nigger" in Call Me Charley to the frequent use of the term "colored" in

Anchor Man, Charley Starts From Scratch and Tessie. The change in tone is clearly a result of the drive of the new aggressive black who, with the advent of Uorld Uar II, began to assault the walls of white superiority and denial aided by world opinion of America's racial problems. And in answer to an American way of life which erected barriers to prohibit black entry into the mainstream, the racially troubled summers of 19^5 and 19o6 evoked images of blacks wiio were refusing to play the game of being studied and re-formed.

T e ssie

Uhen Jackson wrote his first book about a black g irl, Tessie

Do^ms, Harlem, Uatts, Detroit and Uetrark had been heated by black revolutionary rhetoric and activism. It is unlikely that Tessie was offered as a portrait of an alternate lifestyle, but perhaps in the 117

hopes that some blacks vould identify vith the old black vievpoint

that integration vas viably functional. Fourteen-year-old Tessie Dovns

from Harlem, desiring to be an actress, vins the first black scholarship to an exclusive private school vhich has an excellent drama program and

finds herself at cross purposes having to gain acceptance at school and to shov her old friends that she had not changed. Doris Innis in

Library Journal charges that "the author handles this basic conflict in such confused and unconvincing vays that the end product is almost a hymn to the rather prevalent notion, more challenged nov than ever before, that most negroes vant one thing out of life: to be vhite and middle class" (U , 93, Oct. - Dec., I 968, 169).

Another source, the Horn Book, gives an enthusiastic "hurrah for

TessieI Hurrah for the author vho created a Ilegro heroine memorable as a person and not a stereotyped symbol of her race....A s Tessie reaches out for nev experiences, exploring her capabilities, defining her goals, she moves vith increasing confidence through her black and white world" (H3, hk, Aug. I 968, i+30). ^nd Zena Sutherland of

S aturday Review concluded t h a t T e ssie p e rs e v e re d , "kno'vri.ng t h a t th e pioneer has the hardest role, and she found it possible to mal:e new friends at Hobbe and not to lose those in Harlem.MacCann and

Woodward rate the book as revealing "a slightly greater sense of

'black consciousness' by Tessie and her friends...w hile the idea of integration through the acceptance of individual exemplary Ilegroes is shown as an older-generation vie;moint" (BP3C, p. 19). Tessie's parents, as well as some of her Harlem friends, are divided as to the wisdom of Tessie's decision to accept the scholarship. But Tessie,

Jackson w rites, triumphs, bridging the gap between two worlds. 118

The hook nay he divided into three movements. The first section details the deciding factors governing Tessie's movement avay from

Harlem; the second section considers her introduction to the exclusive

Hohhe environment, her reactions to that environment, the reactions her presence evokes and residual reactions of her old friends; the third section concludes the social drama ostensibly tying Tessie's future hoth to Hohhe and Harlem. The story is unsatisfactory as a realistic delineation of the black experience on many levels; it denies that blackness is viable and ignores the many problems arising from being black other than those based on biological differences between blacks and whites- Writing of books such as Tessie and Call

Me C h arley , Thompson and Woodward p o in t out t h a t

in the climate of prejudice, blacks do_have to try, harder and to be, better in order to be accepted in schools, jobs and neighborhoods. However, by revealing the situation and only obscuring both the real solution and the real feelings of blacks ahout these conditions, the various systems of institutionalized discriminations are made to appear inevitable (3P3C, p. 17).

Tessie, just as Charley, is the only black in an exclusive school setting; just as Charley, she has the support of one parent in her effort to change her educational pattern. She is, just as Charley, a superior student. She, too, is faced with one white bigot. Unlike

Charley, who has limited contact with his former Blackberry Patch friends, Tessie returns daily to the ghetto. The setting is therefore urban black and upper middle class white, exposure to two isolated existences. And as in the Charley Moss series, the author fails to consider in depth, the effects of these existences on the personae.

True, Tessie's mother, echoing Mr. Moss, asserts that the two 119 existences v ill be confusing; "She won't know whether she's white or colored...going to a private school like Hobbe — where there's never been a colored girl before — can be a disaster for her and for the rest of us," Mrs. Downs tells her husband. Moreover, the author seems to accept isolation as an inevitable part of black existence; there is no need to explore its exigencies. Tessie is not only isolated in a very real physical sense, but in one which identifies her with a biological difference, namely her hair texture. She agonizes over the fact that he hair is kinky, not like that of the white characters and goes to the extent of straightening it to conform to that of the majority norm.

Asserting that Tessie "seemed to have been written in rose-colored ink," Shelton Root, Jr. felt that "Jackson had lost touch with the changing times and was incapable of writing out of contemporary settings" (SFC, p. 29^). And clearly there is some truth in the criticism . The author does seem to have lost his bearings or rather has become divorced from the wiiite world as he knew it in the Charley

Moss series. How does this affect his writing about the possible conflict a ghetto girl will experience when she tries "to carry water on both shoulders," that is, when she attempts to bridge the gap between an affluent society and the ghetto? The problem can be stated in terms of fam iliarity and also of empathy. In Tessie, Jackson has evidently been living in a totally different environment and under different circumstances than those when he wrote about Charley 'bss.

TJhy and how do these circumstances surface in Tessie? Jackson writes as though he has no real idea of white reaction to blacks in the new 120 era of black activism. The Broun decision changed the way America thought about the black minority; the black became a first class citizen in public affairs, at least. Moreover, in the wake of the black revolution, Jackson has not touched on how blacks began to view themselves. The emphasis on black life styles began with the large city ghetto d'vraller who was the prime mover in the black revolution.

The thematic emphasis in Tessie seems incongruous since making it in the white world was the thrust of the intégrâtionist who sees no worth in the black world. Retaining one's racial identification is an expression of black pride and is one facet of the cultural p l u r a l i s t s ' s ta n c e .

Mrs. Downs wants Tessie to remain black; Tessie's father wants her to prepare for a life which w ill embrace the best of both worlds. To Ethel Downs it seems that the larger world w ill swallow up her daughter, "that Ilobbe w ill alienate Tessie from the Harlem community or change her in a sinster fasion" (EB, Aug. 1968, ^30).

That is, in time the heroine w ill achieve integration and never come home again. The author refutes this concept by emphasizing the unchangeable difference that stands between black Tessie and her white

Hobbe friends — the texture of Tessie's hair. Throughout the book,

Tessie is pre-occupied with her hair. If her hair reverts to its natural state she is distraught: she looks "like a wild girl!"

(Tessie, p. 5)- But to whom does she appear as one? To her white classmates, she assumes. I-dien Tessie's hair was wet, she said it would not act right. By whose standards? And by the same standards

Tessie's mother tells her that being black is unnatural: "You have 121

to get used to being colored. It's like suiiming against the

current vithout going under. You've got to figure out how to hold

your head high enough out of the water so you won't drown and s till

keep svimming" (Tessie, p. $0).

Jackson admits that he was never pleased with Tessie, and well he

might not: to a girl of Tessie's age and social setting, black was

beautiful and an Afro hair style an expression of that beauty; and,

hence, in Tessie, as with his Charley I loss series, the main character

is bifurcated. Tessie's goal was to be an actress; while at summer

camp she has heard that exclusive Ilobbe in Manhattan has a drama workshop wherein some students get to appear in off Broadway plays;

subsequently she applies for and is offered a scholarship, "the escape route" from Harlem life , where there's "no use looking for miracles.

Hoe, her best friend, tells, Tessie; for

everything’s just like you left it. Guys hanging out in front of the barbershop across the street, butcher shop next to it with the same chickens hanging in the windows, fish stand with fish frying — ...You figured you were gone to that camp in Vermont long enough for things to change in Harlem! They'll never change (Tessie, pp. 1-2).

As Tessie looked around her, she saw the "same sky, same sun, same clouds she had loved at Camp Outlook in Vermont. But here — in Harlem — they didn't seem as beautiful....Even being back with

Hoe didn't help malce her less happy" (Tessie, p. 2). The Downses were professionals Ethel was a nurse and Ed was a printer. Tessie could not understand why her mother objected to her career plans to get ahead; Ethel "had studied at night after working all day and had taken nurse's training that way" (Tessie, p. 13). It didn't taize 122

Tessie long, however, to discover why her mother did not want her a t Hobbe:

Those rich kids — their cars, their traveling all over creation, their country homes w ill Just make Tessie bitter. She won't know whether she's coming or going. Hobbe would educate Tessie beyond our means — Just confuse the child. I've always tried to teach Tessie and Teddy to keep their feet on the ground and scorn notions poor people like us can't afford. Her head'll be in Hobbe — her body in Harlem. She won't know whether she's white or colored...[she] would be a Ilobbe girl during the week and a Harlem weekender...[and] would have to learn to carry water on both shoulders — rich friends at Hobbe on one side and poor ones in Harlem on the other. Ho, Tessie, isn 't going to take that scholarship. She'd be neither fish nor fowl — nor good red herring (Tessie, pp. l8-20).

Ethel concludes that Tessie's reach exceeded her grasp; and as far as her own ambitions go she informs Tessie, "I had a friend who was a nurse and I saw that a colored girl had a good chance of succeeding in that" (Tessie, p. hj). Iluch l i k e Zlabel Moss who explained the ways of the world to Charley, Ethel Downs instructs

Tessie in knowing her proper place in the scheme of things, for although Ed Downs is the positive parent, he is not cast in the role of effecting changes; he is supportive: "I have faith in Tessie," he says to his wife's objections. "She can keep a level head. He can't take this chance away from her" (Tessie, p. 21). As far as black identity is concerned, Mr. Downs opted out, holding "that it's more healthy to act as if you didn't have to bo colored or white — that maybe it's that only way to freedom of being yourself"

(Tessie, p. 20). 123

Transferring her uncertainty to Tessie, Ethel cautiously

consents that her daughter enter Hoohe; stipulating that she must mal:e

the honor roll and keep her head. Tessie's first reactions to Hohhe are

clearly indicative that Tessie feels isolated and that she will attempt

to conform however possible to prevent that isolation: She thought

"her hair looked a fright — standing on end. Eer speech was different, she hated her voice. It sounded so different from theirs.

She wondered whether braces would make her spealc better" (Tessie, p. 30).

Eer skirt was different from the Kobbe g irls’. It was too long and the material was a poorer quality than theirs. That evening, shortening h e r s k i r t , T e s s ie malces a change which i s im m ediately p o s s ib le .

Ploe and her mother note her actions, sensing that they foreshadow

Tessie’s eventual metamorphosis. But Hobbe would prove a challenge, both academically and socially to Tessie; she was on probation, I'iss

Colfax, the school director tells her. In addition, Hiss Colfax explains, she must understand the close-knit exclusive Ilobbe relationships :

Most of our youngsters started here in nursery school when they were four years old. Many of their parents went to Ilobbe before them, so they help them under­ stand what was expected of them. Our students study together on weekends. They’ve gone from grade to grade, forming friendships and developing similar interests, and they've had advantages you haven't had (Tessie, p. 53).

Miss Colfax believes the greatest challenge facing Tessie is that while adapting to Hobbe, "she w ill be fighting to break away from old friends at Cullen — or fighting to hold on to them" (Tessie, p. 53).

But Tessie is dismayed that she is on probation: ''It really made her

’a traveler in a foreign land'" (Tessie, pp. 53-55). She meets her 124

first friends. Eve Cohen, Eea Ficarra, Susan Pulaski, and Doris

Dressier, the racial higot, and chatting over soda, Tessie learns that

she is expected to attend an initiation for her at Eve Cohen's home and that, according to Doris Dressier,

Eohbe vas handed to Tessie on a silver platter. She doesn't have to vorry. Even if Pringle failed her, she'd he passed on to the next grade. We've all got to help the little girl from Earlem...Hohhe's first colored girl....T his year some of the parents thought it vould he nice to get a girl from Harlem — so people could see Hohhe vas not just for Westchester and Pari: Avenue h rats....T hat's vliy you can't miss (Tessie, pp. 71-72).

Thus, Doris imposes another isolation firmly upon Hohhe's only hlack student vith the bigot's special brand of snobbery, distortion and malice. Moreover, Tessie's reaction is totally predictable; she begins to doubt her oizn vorth as she senses exclusion factors m ilitating and mounting against her. Tessie yearns to te ll Doris that all blacks are not "freebies," that her parents are professionals and are saving money to buy a house in Queens. She remained silent, hovever, concluding correctly that "someone like Doris didn't vant to knov and that she, Tessie, vould have to prove herself"

(Tessie, p. 73). 3ea and Eve assure Tessie that Doris' personal problems mal:e her act unpleasantly to others as veil. Eve later confides that Doris had treated her rudely because Eve vas Je:d.sh.

Doris, it seems cannot accept difference in people's appearances;

Tessie's color. Be a says, malces her different; this circumstance is equated vith O'Mara, vho vears a beard and Doris objects to

O'Mara's beard. In the exchange, there is definitely a false analogy, and it indicates the superficial understanding that Tessie's nev 125 friends hold ahout being black: 0'Mara's beard is clearly a

temporary condition vhereas Tessie's color is permanent and an

integral pairt of her being. Her blackness cannot be separated from

her total identity. Tessie begins to understand that the difference

between her and her new friends is considerable, despite their support,

acceptance and friendliness. Eve thinks that Tessie being black

should know Sarah, her family's black cook; all blacks know one another.

Tessie misunderstands Eve and Bea takes it for granted that Tessie's mother is a house servant. Tessie thought that Bea and Eve

"understood that the Downses weren't the whole ITegro race. But it was no use. They thought the Downses and Sarah were like peas in a pod. All sorts of people live in Harlem" (Tessie, p. l8).

However, when Eve reveals that Doris treats her rudely because she is Jewish, Tessie does not sense that Eve's Jewishness and her blackness are of a different order. At Eve's Long Island home Tessie does feel isolated. The girls are exchanging confidences about boys, and Tessie joins in, discussing her friend Jimmj'' Bibb. Nothing is amiss until she mentions that he attended Cullen High; at that admission, she observed, they acted if he went to school in Russia

"and when she attempted to talk about Jimmy again they all looked blank, except Eve who seemed interested" (Tessie, p. I 09). From this incident Tessie concluded that exclusiveness was a hallmark of these particular Hobbe girls; noting that "nobody, but nobody, meant anything to these girls unless they went to Hobbe, had finished at

Hobbe, or were connected with Hobbe. This is what her mother tried to make her understand..." (Tessie, p. 110). 126

According to the author, when her hair reverted during her weekend stay a Eve’s, Tessie considered the circunstances a major disaster.

For, as Tessie agonized that

Doris and Eve could not possibly know how hard she had worked to keep her hair neat. They didn't know what happened to her hair when it got wet. They could go swimming or out in the rain without bathing caps, comb out their hair, and forget it. But she couldn't (Tessie, p. 121).

Of course, what the author conveys by emphasizing that Tessie's hair texture is curly is that straight hair is the most advantageous and desirable, assumptions that are no longer viable to the awalisned black consciousness. Furthermore, and sadly propagandistic, if not ludicrous, Sarali is quoted as asserting that "unruly hair is at the bottom of the race problem" (Tessie, p. 127). The scene which follows, contrary to Saturday Review* s opinion that it is honest, is completely suspect. Tessie, absorbed in becoming a straight-haired Eobbe girl, gets her hair under control with the help of Bea, Eve, Susan, a heating pad and butter 1 Tessie appears shallow and totally unprepared for a life which w ill undoubtedly be peppered ^ritli denial and suppression.

Her attempts to pattern after the exclusive Eobbe girls are seen as pretentious and have no value to a black girl who must face prejudice of some sort no matter where her upward nobility stance will take her. Siie is characterized as refusing to accept that her hair texture is part of her biology, rendering her Tessie

Downs, a black girl. Tessie's anguished attitude about her hair is the view of an old black and would be challenged b%r most young blacks in 1967 when Tessie was published; and as Shelton Root, Jr. writes, in Tessie, Jackson lost touch with the changing times (3FC, p. 29I+). 127

Mary Louise Birminghan's insightful criticism that the stor;.' is

"tragicomedy, even narrot’er in scope that Guess TTho's Coning to

Dinner gains support as Tessie faces other trials vhich are rather

superficially and unrealistically solved. She was, Jackson writes, between two worlds. But was Tessie really a Iloboe girl? And what did being a Hobbe g irl mean, anytray? To Tessie it apparently meant more than acquiring an excellent education: it represented a change in her consciousness by acculturation. She desired to change her

speech pattern and above all she wanted to achieve the ultimate by

changing her hair texture.

Doris subjects her to a hoax which inadvertently alienates

Tessie's Harlem friends further, especially Eloe. In addition, our heroine concludes that she is failing academically. Pondering these seemingly insurmountable barriers, Tessie decides to quit Hobbe.

The problems are solved when Eve Cohen challenges her to put something "of herself on the platter for Eobbe" since Tessie, too, is a part of the changing scene as much as 0'Mara, who is challenging an administration ultimatum to shave off his beard or leave Eobbe.

Tessie, Eve asserts, represents the right to be different in the same manner as O’Mara's stand. Eva suggests also that Tessie should seek the advise of Mrs. Blue, the librarian, in regard to her academic problems, which she does. Tessie then decides that black and white together can protect the right to be different and that Hobbe kids and her Harlem friends should unite and get to know one another, inviting

Hobbe students to attend a dance given by her old Guardian club.

Jackson,in the confrontation which follows, adopts a familiar formula: 128 at the outset, Tessie's friends are cold, accusing her of snohhislmess and ignoring and betraying her old friends. Her Hobbe friends, too, feel that she had been less than honest when they discover she knows the name of the play selected by the Drama Guild; her sole supporter, of course, is steady Jimmy Bibb. Facing her detractors in true Hobbe style, Tessie felt that "a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, one she had carried since she had refused that first ride home — weight of being ashamed of where she lived" (Tessie, p. 200).

And we are not suprised when Tessie gets off probation, has her moment in the sun when she gets a part in the school play and decides to finish what she had started - to get a Eobbe education and remain

T e s s ie Downs who commutes from Hobbe to K arlen . W ith th e s e assurances Jackson closes the story with the problem of ÎTs. Doims' vision of her daughter "neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring" unsolved (Tessie, p. 2k2), Indeed, the conviction that Tessie has opted for a Hobbe life style has not been overturned, but strengthened.

Ifhat can be said about Tessie as a work of realism? The answer may be found in Jackson's criticism of his book in which he states that "he would have 'preferred' writing a 'more realistic' one, a book he 'knew the editors would probably not accept'"

(Profile, p. 337). Jackson notes also that in preparing these earlier books he was working "closely with white editors vho were anxious that [his] books reflect the viewpoint of a white writer writing for white readers." Comparing the style of these books with his latest releases, The Sickest Don't Always Die the Quickest and

The Fourteenth Cadillac, Jackson notes that the latter were written 129

"purely from the Tieivpoint of a black in a black setting" for an

English editor vho "had less of the hangup about white being right than Americans" (Profile, p. 339).

John Lovell charged that "racial novels" were usually

failures because white w riters, generally apathetic toward or unaware of their subjects' problem, did not develop their characters fully and black writers were compelled to belabor the point that blacks were human; and, of course, the latter position was the alpha and omega for black writers until the late IpoO's.

And clearly, in the Charley Moss series and Tessie, Jackson uses the novels to talk about the race problem and does not focus on the individual who is affected by the problem. The elder Mosses represent the old black and Charley represents the point of view of the old black; he represents what the old black had hoped he would be able to do and could not because the system into which he wished to integrate would not accept him. And, as observed earlier,

Tessie represents the view of the old black as a lone black assaulting the system. She is juxtaposed with the author's schizophrenic desire to alternately praise and condemn the system which Tessie obviously concludes is the "best of all possible worlds." In regard to the literary worth of these books, this study must conclude with Small that they "are inferior attempts at the novel genre" (Sma]], p. 207). 130

Shuttered Windovs by Florence Crannell Means

One of the sad things about writing critical comments on children's

literature is that often it is not literary criticism per se but must

Indeed end as critical opinion on the societal norms of the times. And

nowhere is this conclusion more apparent than in the problem of Harriet

Freeman, the protagonist of Shuttered Windows by Florence Means. As a

majority person. Means apparently portrays as honestly as she can the

plight of the American minority person. As in all societies, however,

in which superior and inferior roles are played as though seriously

advocated and believed, certain condescending and patronizing expressions

w ill creep in. Hence, in the Means novel, we have Harriet Freeman, a

northern black girl,feeling superior to her southern kith and kin.

H arriet’s movement from northern ghetto to southern isolation can be

easily followed. In that movement, Harriet affects many changes or

philosophical stances of what being black in American means. But the

author, as Broderick points out, refuses to reveal all and it is from

this point of view that Means must be vigorously criticized as failing to explain the why of black isolation.

By all accounts Means can be described as a social uplift author.

Her criticism of America's posture on minorities underscores that

differences are acceptable and desirable, but as noted, she fails in

Shuttered Windows to bring it off. Her portrayals of America's minorities have a universal appeal and, in addition to blacks, have

included Chinese, Japanese, Native Americans, and Mexicans. Means

stated that she was motivated by a "desire to introduce one group of people to another, who might not otherwise ever know them, and so 131 regard them vith fear bred of lack of knowledge, vhich [she has] seen blazing out of destructive force against all Germans, against all

Japanese, against all Negroes." Essentially, then. Means writes for social change and, as she elsewhere states, to produce strong model characters for self-identification. But is Harriet Freeman of Shuttered

Windows a character with whom black girls and boys can and should identify?

The reviewers thought so when the book was first published, and since it has survived, appearing on many recommended lists, such as the Black

Experience in Children's Books, and Junior High School Library Catalog,

1965 and 1970, among others, it clearly is suitable for the purposes of this study. The book could be titled Shuttered Windows or T-That Harriet

Learned. For what Harriet "learned" was what Means asserted being black in 1938 in America meant. Regardless, however, of Means' failure to come to terms with H arriet's blackness and its meaning in America, she does, as Broderick notes, describe the black central character with dignity — an important advance in the literary image of the black

(IBCF, pp. IIU -II 5). Also noteworthy was that it dealt with black-white relationships and presented images of blacks as professionally and goal-oriented. Furthermore, Harriet is not a portrait of a representative black girl. She has the qualitative roundness and authority to exist; she is indeed a memorable character in that she is clearly Harriet Freeman.

But Means, in giving her life , failed in the end to permit her to follow her star, and here, again, as in the Charley Moss stories, freedom of movement, so essential to the democratic principle, is sharply curtailed.

The reviewers, however, missed such important nuances. This is not to say that what they admired in the story was not there; it was. 132

Siri Andrews was entirely correct to write that the hook was "an original story...of an orphaned Negro girl who, horn and brought up in the North, went to visit her great-grandmother on an island off the coast of South

Carolina. It was H arriet's first knowledge of the South and the southern

Negro; and what she learned was hoth a shock and a revelation to her, when instead of returning to Minneapolis for her senior year of high school, she entered a school for Negro girls near her great-grandmother's island home" (U , 6 3, Jan. - Dec. 1938, BOO). Finding the story

"convincing and consistent," Andrews concludes that it presents "one of America's serious problems in a form which should interest and stir hoth hoys and girls" (LJ, 6, Jan. - Dec. 1938, 8OO). In what way does

Means affect the change in H arriet's unawakened hlack consciousness?

And why does Means alter H arriet's dream which is centered on becoming a concert pianist? Can white authors write seriously ahout the hlack consciousness without severely damaging their story-line? That is, can Means survive her own tendency to inject white values and goals into a hlack life style? Teachers T/ill find the answers to these and other questions as the analysis goes forward.

H arriet's odyssey into the meaning of blackness follows a rather circuitous path. Her gro'vrth and continued dismay at southern hlack life style has shades of meaning which Means endeavors to justify by ignoring them for the most part. Instead she manipulates the heroine through contrived situations. We first meet Harriet as she is speeding

South safely accompanied by Reverend and Mrs. Trindie, a cozy comfortable couple who "adopted" Harriet after her parents died. During the long drive from Minneapolis to Charleston, South Carolina, Harriet has been deciding several things ahout her future, and dreaming. She wanted to 133 know more about her famous ancestor. Black Moses, and her

great-grandmother, whom, as Small reveals, "she is sure needs her rather

than having something to offer her" (Small, p. 338). She wanted also to

spend a year at Landers, a seventy-year old southern hoarding school,

largely financed hy Northern philanthropists. Hence, as Small points

out, "...she is sure of herself and her purpose" (Small, p. 338). Her

first experience with the southern way of life occurs when she is told

that certain "long buildings...with funny little high windows [had been]

slave quarters...," heard the dialect which was unintelligible to her,

viewed the physical shabbiness of Landers, felt social segregation

underscored by "for colored" and "white only" signs, and was depressed

by the dilapidated shack her great-grandmother called home.^^ Since

H arriet's view of her great-grandmother and Black Moses was romantic,

she is further dismayed when she discovers that Granny, though charming

is illiterate. Northern Harriet, Means posits, had no idea what life

was like for blacks especially for the rural isolated black of the deep

South. Furthermore, Northern-reared Harriet is so goal-oriented in her

desire to be a concert pianist, that she does not understand that blacks

in general and the Southern black in particular faced serious socio­

economic barriers to mobility upirard and that these barriers had their

origin in the traditional antiblack legal and extra-legal mores erected

so firmly in the South. Moreover, she has no feeling that she is her

brother's keeper and that she should utilize her talents unselfishly to

improve the quality of life for her southern people and, in doing so, help

all blacks. Means has created a character whose strength supersedes her

abilities. IVhat is the basis of this conclusion? Obviously the author must create a character whose great strength is that she can be persuaded to relinquish her dream of what her destiny is, to devote her life to a 134

cause. But if Harriet's abilities as a pianist had been central to her

being, then Means would not have been able to manipulate her protagonist

as she so carefully does.

In reading Means one should seriously consider the date of publica­

tion as essentially a part of the overall design of the book's message.

Put simply, although what is in the book is far from that, the theme of

the story emphasizes that blacks must help one another, that they must

unite and put their best foot forward, the latter formula made familiar

by I-Irs. Moss. Means, however, wrote that black unity is black strength

which is in opposition to the individualism promoted by Charley and Mrs.

Moss. Harriet was channeled, therefore, into the position of lifting up

her brothers and sisters while sacrificing her life's ambition. Means is

careful in presenting Harriet as a model for the black community of

Gentlemen's Island to emulate, but she assiduously avoids casting Richie

Corwin as the ideal black male. Hliereas Cormn had been considered the

possible saviour of his people. Means cuts him down by having him opt for

the bright lights and stardom as a pop a rtist. How this contretemps alters

the tone of the book and the image of the black male is cheerfully pre­

sented as the way it is. All that Corwin gets for his selfish decision

is a mild reprimand from his white benefactress.

Harriet is as frozen in her world as Charley Moss and Tessie were

in theirs. She is isolated in a double sense. For once Harriet has been manipulated into accepting the view that the isolated blacks of the South need enlightening and her duty is plainly set on that path, she is stripped

further of access to mobility upward and out of the isolated life of

Gentleman's Island. She cannot escape black isolation as Means so pointedly writes. Blacks may be isolated and shut out of the mainstream 135 society, but Means intends that they shall live well in their isolation; they shall rise on the shoulders of hlack educators. Means does not trrite ahout an integrated society; she avoids the subject as well she might. Integration was no more than a dream of the hlack

elitists at the time of Shuttered Windows was published.

TThat can he said, then, of Means' attempt to present a picture of hlack life? Can one accept the author's premise that one way for blacks to lift themselves out of the morass of poverty and illiteracy is to present a united front and to rely on their own resources? If the personae in the story were white, one could accept Means' message.

But perhaps the story was too hastily written, or written without looking into America's racial problems. But Means was a careful writer ; her work was always well-researched. As the author reveals, she spent "much time in Carolina Low Country and on its tidal islands and Tuskee" in preparation for writing the story (SAA, 1, p. 155). She wanted, she writes to present

"living characters in a true setting sympathetically, hut without sentimentality. And that end could only he gained hy studying widely, talking with persons who had intimate acquaintances with the groups, and then—going to the groups and getting really acquainted" (SAA, 1, p. 155).

TOiat can he pinpointed, then, as the central problem of the story?

Simply put, Means either did not understand the complex nature of

American racism or, if she did, she was not permitted to place the onus of hlack rejection and isolation on the attitude of the majority society toward the hlack minority. Otherwise Means' thematic emphasis on hlack self-help has little or no meaning since hlack dependence is a fact of life.

Landers student, W illie Lou Bennett, of all the characters, seems to understand the hlack condition, hut she also blames the victim for being 136 the victim. During a school debate W illie Lou voices the opinion that the race problem v ill cease when color becomes a non-factor. Urging black unity and awareness and pride in accomplishment, she says

We got to step higher by holdin' hands and climbin' all together...Every one of us that does something big, every one that irrites a book or paints a picture or sings or acts or preaches - big' - we lift the whole race. If we hang together' we don' have to try to be white folks. We aren't white. And colored must be as good as white, or why did the Lord malie 'em? But long as nine-tenths of our folks live shifless and know nothin' in dirty shacks - long as that keeps up the other tenth is held down, too; nine hundred pounds is too big for one-hundred pounds to tote one its back. îlot if it wants to get anywhere (SW, pp. 8$-86).

W illie Lou is the adamant black whose philosophy w ill be expressed . more fully in the separatist movement which surfaced in the sixties.

She believes in black for black and sees no compunction on the part of white America for its part in the black condition:

...It's no use us savin' that white folks ought to educate us. White folks is a lot of 'em as slack- twisted as colored. And most of 'em's dog-poor. You know it. It's up to us to look after our own! ...Quit lookin' to the white folks, I tell you. They don' mind if they did drag us here in the first place. They don' mind if they did take us away from our people and our country. They think it's fine to spend a couple of dollars a year to teach a colored child and fifty to teach a white (gf, p. 86).

Of course, W illie Lou is hissed and booed for her m ilitant posture and considered ungrateful and boorish by the majority of Landers students.

Ironically, Harriet wonders if Willie Lou sees herself as a crusader of some sort. And, in truth, Willie Lou was a singular sign of her times and an overview of the American condition seems appropriate here. In the early 1930's America was still recovering from the Depression, a calamity which felled most Ajnericans. Since the national administration 137 was blind to the human status of blacks, the Depression left them in their most deprived and desperate position since Reconstruction. In

1936, two years before the publishing date of Shuttered Windows,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a second term with the

aid of the black vote which was to shift massively from the Republican to the Democratic Party in lg40.

There were two reasons for the change. First the New Deals' program, though imperfect, was considered promising, providing national welfare programs to which blacks were admitted. The assistance tended to favor whites over blacks, but black poverty was so abysmmal that any act to

ameliorate it was considered a boon by the black community. In 1935 the Harlem riots were the direct outgrowth of high unemployment, exorbitant rent, and a belief that Harlem had not received its share of relief money. But with all its faults, such as residential segregation in public housing developments, many blacks thought that the New Deal was promising. The second reason for the shift to the Democratic party must include some consideration of Eleanor Roosevelt's open commitment to equal opportunity for all, which provided the entrance of black leadership into New Deal bureaucracy.

Prior to 1935 black employment and poverty were lumped under generalizations dealing with the poor state of the American econovry w ith no specific reference to blacks. After 1935 specific references to the black condition may be credited also to Mrs. Roosevelt's sensitivity.

The New Deal did nothing, however, to end segregation, or to improve black education, or to restore the black vote. Southern blacks were still subjected to disenfranchisement, social and residential segregation, unequal justice maintained by legal and extra-legal violence and rural 138 impoverishment. The southern migrant of the 1930's found the northern ghetto as impoverished as the rural South. Though northern black schools were superior to southern black ones, they were inferior to their white counterparts. Southern black school systems depended upon philanthropic interests and public assistance for existence and were the poorest in the nation, but educational discrimination was rampantly utilized as an instrument of economic policy; the South s till needed a serf class in its economy.

Landers and Booker as described in Shuttered Windows are examples of the isolated minority-group boarding and county line training schools dotting the entire South by 193^, largely organized through the John L.

Slater Fund, among others. Industrial education was the core of the county line schools and tragically for whole generations of blacks and whites. Means' central thesis that blacks should cast their buckets in the sea of vocational training was the accepted status quo. Broderick gives the subject a thorough treatment, emphasizing the impact of

Booker T. Washington's short range goals concerning black education centering on an industrial in lieu of a classical thrust. But Broderick concludes that "if Washington's long range goals had succeeded. Means would not have been able to irrite Shuttered Windows, which reflects the

Booker T. Washington philosophy throughout" (IBCF, p. 80). In his now famous or infamous Atlanta Compromise speech, Washington laid the ground rules for black existence which held that blacks should expect jobs and education from majority America, should not press for social equality, and should maintain an agrarian economy by hard work. His views, unchallenged until the founding of the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People in 1909, were considered representative of black philosophy for a generation. 139 And how does Means deal id.th these facts of American life? As previously noted. Means fails to come to terms with H arriet's blackness and the essential meaning of that blackness in American life, in fact,

as the story unfolds, it becomes more questionable if the author had any

real understanding of the black experience. Clearly, she feels that

Black Moses would have derived much satisfaction from the fact that

H arriet's head "was unbowed in the land of his captivity" (SW, p. 6).

Of course, twentieth-century Harriet faces a "slaverj'"" far more sinister than that of her ancestor's. For once the chains were removed, cries

of "VThat to do ;m.th the black?" and "kliat do the blacks want?" have

filled America's racial air, as the majority society moved continuously to contain the ex-slaves and their heirs.

Limited to an incident with one white bigot, the story is peopled with well-meaning and supportive whites, such as Miss Francis, Lander's principal. Miss Sent or, home economics teacher, and Miss Locke, Corwin's mentor ; and self-sacrificing blacks such as talented Miss Bates, black racists such as W illie Lou Bennett and Ella Hooper. Means has black and white characters judging and weighing the black experience in some very revealing passages. One of the most exasperating view is given by

Reverend Trindle upon hearing H arriot's decision to remain in the South:

Even in the North, I grant you, we have our handicap. But there is no soul on this green earth who has not a handicap. Some have poverty. Some have the curse of real wealth. Some have ill-health. Some, my dear Harriet, have the greatest handicap of all, which is to have none — nothing to build bone and sinew of the spirit. Now we have the handicap of color in a white country. Some of us think about is so much that it hides all other handicaps from our minds, as a dime can hide in the sun if held close enough to the eye. Color is not the only disadvantage; it is by no means the greatest one, but if you were to remain in the South, Harriet, you would double it, at least. (SW, p. 5^0. 140

First and foremost, an educated black minister who relinquishes all black claim to America by advocating that it is a white man's country is suspect. Could Reverend Trindle be speaking for Keans?

If not, then, he is clearly speaking for Booker T. Washington, whose policy of black subordination eschewing social and political ambitions, was readily accepted by white America. His views made Washington the archetypal black Quisling of whom there were many carbon copies throughout the black world. And furthermore, to consider blackness a mere handicap in a country where consciousness of color combined with a tradition of slavery and caste deeply rooted in the white psyche is to reveal a deep ignorance of the black experience in

America. In addition, H arriet's version of life in the Worth was not reflective of the average black experience in the segregation era as she explains the promised land to Richie CorvTin in these terms:

We don't have separate schools. Separate places on street-cars and trains, either. There aren't so many colored people in Minneapolis. Goodness, I never did see these - these Jim Crow compartments until I came South. They mal:e me feel like some kind of animal...We got snubbed plenty. — They are fair to us in school, I played for the Glee Club, and the singers were white girls and boys. If you malce good you g e t th e c r e d it (SW, pp. k2-U 3).

If there are not too many blacks in the promised land, then living is easier, Keans indicates, and, as in Anchor Kan, white antipathy to large numbers of blacks is again in evidence. It takes a special kind of intellectual fortitude to contemplate in depth the calamity of the black experience; Keans does not attempt to bridge the gap. The strife, the destitution and persecution in daily life faced by blacks are in themselves indictment of poverty and racism.

But Means has Joan Senter equate the island people's experience with 141 that of other ethnic groups; reminding Harriet of the geographical isolation of the islanders, Joan points out that " ...it's like this vith any part of any race that has no education and no higher contacts. Weren't you ever dovn in the slums of a hig city?

Wouldn't you a lot rather have the island people's life and chances?

And vhat ahout our white mountaineers?" (SW, p. 132). The author fails to explain that the imposition of the caste system created an all hlack world isolated from the mainstream society. Nor does she explain an economy which required the presence of a working class which would accept low-paying johs for which the Landers' education would prepare them. Ilor does she explain that mobility out of all this was almost non-existent since the hlack world was created to satisfy and meet all the demands of that world.

One of the demands of that world was the presence of role models; teachers were needed to satisfy that demand and Means decided that

Harriet Freeman was clearly qualified since she brought "viewpoints that are fresh and wholesome [once she adapted] . . .to the situation"

(SW, p . 182 ). All of which means that Harriet has been manipulated to devoting her life to helping her people live; and the manner of her assistance is clearly spelled out when she announces that she plans to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time, Spelnan was a prime example of the provision for higher education which simply continued the pattern of educating for the caste system.

Colleges such as Spelnan in Georgia, Hampton in Virginia and Tuskegee in Alabama were also supported by philanthrophy and were located throughout the South, much in the same manner as the county-line 142 training schools. The original liberal arts curricula had gradually been phased out and these colleges eventually instituted industrial education■, those colleges which showed the' most promise in th is area reaped substantial financial benefits. But blacks were not only programmed into accepting these educational lim its, they were also limited in other endeavors to an all black world. Therefore, black education developed along lines which enforced segregation and supported a caste system which produced a biracial American society.

As a result of both the formal and informal educative processes blacks were formed into a particular social type and both blacks and whites began to perceive themselves as different, wdth blacks cast as the exceptions. Though many blacks came to believe that they were the inferior different creatures which white myths proposed, there were those who did not; they were the "uppity blacks who did not know their place" who eventually made the advancements in the 1930's which would eventually break down the barriers of segregation. For on balance, the

1930's set in motion a series of developments which would drastically alter the position of the American black. The new attitude of the

Supreme Court toward the realities of "separate but equal" doctrine, and the questioning of local and state legislation enacted as denial of black rights were important steps toward alleviating the black condition in American society.

One curious thing about the stor%/ is that the author tends to dominate the thinking of both Harriet and Richie, but does not attempt to manipulate H arriet's great-grandmother. And in the end. 143 it is the latter who tends to dominate the story. TThat does this imply ahout Means' interpretation of hlack life? Does the author im plicitly deny that H arriet's great-grandmother and Black Moses have any real power to change things? l-That kind of person was Black

Moses? These questions surfaced at the end of the story and clearly deserve answers. While Granny and Black Moses are presented as strong models, they are undercut hy the factors of age and death; Granny is old and Moses is dead. Means does not wish to contend with youthful models who have great strengths and abilities. She prefers to interpret hlack life in terms of past history - Granny’s day is past; Black Moses' day is past. Granny has endured, she was mannerahle. The legendary

Black Moses was a leader of his people. But what concrete accomplish­ ments could Harriet refer to as essentially those of her heloved relatives? Harriet is never reminded that she must do something heroic in emulation of her great-grandmother's accomplishments.

Black life had a foundation, Means w ites, hased on past histor;; which hoasted of no hero or heroine in the sense of controlling their destiny. To he sure Granny t:as heroic, saving H arriet's father from the killer hurricane which took the lives of his parents; hut she could not escape her blackness. The elusive Black Moses was heroic, for teaching his people to read he was flogged to death. At bottom.

Granny is the epitome of all that Africa held dear. She is gentle, understanding, has an awareness of her past and visibly reminds Harriet of the African Moslem in her facial features and white headdress. 144

"Granny, in a patched calico dress and a white kerchief and apron and

headcloth. Granny, whose old face was like those proud bronze

statues Harriet had seen: high, carven nose flaring strongly at the

nostrils ; eyes deep socketed ; cheek planes flat ; mouth long and cleanly

cut, flexible for speech and laughter, fiin for closure. Granny, fit

child of Moses" (SW, pp. 22-23). But Granny has been separated and

isolated from her beginnings, and references to Black Moses are a constant reminder of that separation and isolation. TThat Means does reveal inadvertently is that the protagonist, just as Granny and Black

Moses, has the isolating factor of blackness going against her; the latter is a fact of life in the black American experience which has not changed in essence and will be found in all the books in this study.

In the final analysis. Means is a good story teller. Her strength is in setting and characterization, and her weakness is her "patronizing attitude" (Dodds, p. 75). Shuttered Mindot/s has literary merit, but falls short in its ultimate purpose of favorably and interestingly depicting black life. The author endeavors to come to terms with the black condition, but fails. If the book is to be utilized for classroom study, it would be well to take into consideration the relationship of the date of publication, setting and characters to Harriet's decision in the story.

A Cap f o r Mary E l l i s by Hope H ew ell

A Cap for Mary E llis by Hope Newell has been favorably reviewed since its publication in 1952. It appeared in the Junior High School

Library Catalog, First Edition, 19^5, Second Edition, 1970, was reviewed 145

in English Journal and Elementary English, Best Books for Children,

Adult Books for Young People, American Library Association's Best

Basic Books for Elementary School Libraries, 19^9; Basic Book Collection for Junior Hifdi Schools, Third Edition, 19^0; Books for Teenagers, and among other sources, the Horn Book and Booklist both approved of

Mary E llis. Standing alone, perhaps, the Children's Book Center noted that "the characterizations...were typed and not especially realistic."30

Again as in the vork of Jackson and Means, the date of publication is essential in understanding the story vhich concerns the experience of Mary E llis Stebbins and Julie Saunders, the first blacks to be admitted to a previously all-white nursing school.

Newell does little to project Mary E llis' personality beyond the characterization of a black girl embroiled in the dilemma of being a first black, an awesome task for any one and especially for an eighteen-year old girl who has had minimal contact with the world outside of Harlem. Mary E llis, ghetto born and reared, and her friend Julie Saunders "have their hearts set" on Jefferson nursing in Harlem. Miss Laurie, however, of the Jefferson school, thinlis that they should go to Noodycrest, "a fine privately endowed nursing school in upper Hew York State, which has decided to admit Hegro students." 31 Explaining this to the two girls. Miss

Laurie notes that Hoodycrest director's "experience with her first two 146 Negro students w ill be an important factor in Woodycrest's decision on admitting other colored girls" (CME, p. 126). Broderick brands this form of scapegoating as "one of the most insidious forms of prejudice found in children’s books," concluding that "it is one of the worse forms of discrimination in life, whether directed at races, ethnic groups, or sexes" (IBCF, p. 159).

Mary Ellis and Julie enter Woodycrest anyway and since the staff is determined that the "experiment" w ill succeed, the two girls find life pleasant but exacting. As student nurses, they face one white bigot, Ada Belle Briggs, who is equally despised as "a selfish neurotic" by her white classmates (CME, p. 60). At bottom, the book promotes the thesis that blacks are human and that they can excel if given the chance. Newell’s thematic emphasis falls short because her personae are not fully developed characters but stereotypes.

Mary Ellis does not have a distinct character of her own. She could be any black girl attempting to make her way in the larger society.

She comes from a typical middle-class family which could be white as well as black. She represents the values of the larger society.

Neatly precise and family-oriented, Mary E llis’ deep concern about appearances is emphasized by her ability to organize her roommates’ disorder. Mary E llis would make a good roommate for anyone since she was, as Dodds writes, adaptable (Dodds, p. 74).

As in the Charley Moss series, Mary and Julie face one racial bigot. But the author’s premise that one white bigot represents a totality in the black struggle is false. Furthermore, as Broderick notes, the staff is determined that the experiment will be successful; the message of the book is "that people of goodwill outnumber those 147 with negative racial views" (IBCF, p. 16). But Broderick also points out that "if in real life persons of goodwill outnumbered the bigots

In the same proportion as they do in children's books, there would be no racial conflict in society" (IBCF, p. 179). In the process of desegregating Woodycrest, Mary E llis is so deeply integrated into the fabric of that society that she begins to look at the race factor differently as evident in this conversation with Julie:

And I ’m so lucky to have Rosamond Camody for a . roommate. I've never known any white girls very well, but I am sure there couldn't be anyone nicer than Rosamond. I don't know how to explain it, but she is so natural that she nearly makes me forget that she is white and I am a Negro girl in a school that has had only white students until now (CME, pp. 57-58).

But Julie wishes that her roommate, T.’h o was over solicitous, would relax and forget that she is black. Both girls agree, however, that any trouble they are having is not race-inspired. Hence the author writes out the problem of isolation for Julie and Mary E llis. The problems the girls encounter, Newell implies, are not those which accrue from racial conflicts, but are those which are encountered by any student nurse. The staff is fair and administers to all students alike. There is no prejudiced staff instructor to overcome.

In fact, the contretemps which prompt’s Mary E llis decision to leave

Woodycrest is brought about by her reluctance to reveal that their untidy room, which was censured by the assistant director, was the handiwork of her roommate Rosamond. Later, Mary E llis, in true

Woodycrest spirit, responds to the call in a crisis at the school and

Is persuaded to remain.

A Cap for Mary Ellis is scarcely realistic. Mary Ellis and hjlie are more isolated after their sojourn into the world of Woodycrest 148 than they were In their all black world of Harlem. What is the basis for this conclusion? And what is the real purpose of the book as stated by the author? After reading A Cap for Mary E llis, one notes that the characters are more rigidly isolated as creatures of Newell's imagination, which zeroes in on transforming blacks into whites. Mary

Ellis and Julie are, in the end, characterized as showcase blacks.

As Dodds points out, there are "no major obstacles to success.. .Though the book deals with the problems of integration and of growing up, it does not handle them well" (Dodds, p. 74). To serve the cause of effective integration, Newell asserts, blacks must sacrifice their black identity, which is the identical message Charley Moss and

Tessie Downs emphasized. Ostensibly Newell wrote about Mary E llis from her vocation as a nurse - she was a public nurse until 1943 - and as a former resident of Harlem. But she indicates no insight into blacks as blacks. Moreover, the book has little literary value to recommend it as a class assignment for that reason alone.

Recommendation would be justified, however, on the basis of studying the story from the majority perspective and the philosophical stance the author projects.

Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling

Nine years after the appearance of Mary Ellis Stebbins, Dorothy

Sterling introduced twelve-year old Mary Jane Douglas in Mary Jane,

(1959), a story of school integration in an unreconstructed southern town called High Ridge. At publication the book received thirteen favorable and two mixed reviews. It has consistently appeared on recommended lists such as We Build Together, New York Public Library’s

The Black Experience in Children's Books and Reading Ladders, among o th e rs . 149

The reviews were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the realistic and objective handling of a difficult theme. For example.

The Horn Book notes that "against the background of Mary Jane’s ordeal is shown an appealing and realistic picture of childhood and the things important to children of all races" (HB, 35, June, 1959,

216). In addition. The Horn Book felt that because of Sterling's perception and remarkable objectivity, the story has unusual power.

But more surprising was Horn Book’s assessment of the subplot concerning the squirrel Furry: "Girls can find here two engaging friends and w ill probably be as much concerned over the trouble caused by an ingratiating and obstrepterous pet squirrel as over the problems of school integration" (HB, 35, June 1959, 216). Finally, however, Horn Book does concede that "readers may gain some insight into the inheritance of young people everywhere today—an inheritance that is demanding of some understanding and great courage" (HB, 35,

June 1959, 216).

Judging the "fictional aspects of the story little more than adequate," Kirkus Review immediately marked what it considered important in Mary Jane bv noting that "the real value for the...reader is the clear, undeviating challenge to prejudice, the expose of some of its evils in their active and virulent forms and a removal of the issue from the academic to the recognizable level" (KR, 27, Feb. 1,

1959, 94). M. S. Libby of the New York Herald Tribune concluded that Mary Jane was "a fine book," writing that the two girls are "drawn together by their common love of Furry [the squirrel] and ^ some other problems....Their difficulties which even [in school] are affected by prejudices give this story a good plot to hold the attention of girls...who w ill also be helped to see many sides of a 32 tangled unhappy situation presented in a wise and fairminded way."

Sterling seems qualified to write about the black experience

from the perspective of tearing down the walls of social injustice,

such as racial segregation and prejudice; she is a civil rights

activist and the author of numerous critical articles on black

literature which have been utilized in this study. She also received

the Nancy Block Award for two books which "best foster intercultural

understanding," Captain of the Planter (1958), a sympathetic biography

of Robert Smalls, and Mary Jane (1939). To understand more fully the

perspective from which Sterling writes, however, teachers, would do

well to keep the following in mind; What solution does Sterling

eventually suggest w ill solve the black-white conflict? And of what

kind of stuff is Mary Jane made? And what role do the townspeople

play in the story? Was the integration of the school the central

issue or were there other elements just as important in considering

the major activities of the characters? What role did Dr. Douglas

play in the story? Was his role significantly changed after Mary

Jane becomes more involved in her school situation? What can be

said of Sterling's final equation?

Mary Jane Douglas is the youngest daughter in a black upper- middle class family. Her father is an attorney and her mother a

housewife. Moreover, she is the granddaughter of renowned biologist.

Dr. Charles Douglas, who had taught at the State Agricultural School.

Mary Jane, too, wants to be a biologist, and white Wilson High School

offers the necessary background courses. Goal-oriented Mary Jane

decides that since only integration will make attending possible, she

elects to integrate the high school, along with five other black students. Her parents remain neutral in her "determination to break 151

the color barrier," Broderick points out (IBCF, p. 159). Continuing,

Broderick states that Mary Jane sees no real value in her father’s suggestion that she could go to her old school, Douglass, instead of

Wilson High "since she did not see herself as a social crusader. She is merely a girl with a burning desire to be a biologist, and one who knows that Wilson provides a better program than Douglass" (IBCF, p.

160). She was given the role of crusader, however, by family friends who interpret her actions as making "it easier for my Jimmy and the 33 o th e rs when th ey come a lo n g ."

Her first encounter with m ilitant whites occurs on the first day of school when she and her friends, including Fred Jackson, face an angry crowd which greeted them with cries of "Go back to Africa" and "Pull her black curls out." And what Mary Jane saw was that "the crowd, not people, but a crazy Thing of faces and open mouths, was behind them, roaring in their ears. The Thing moved closer, closer, until it seemed as if it were about to pounce" (MJ, p. 52). The force of the law halted The Thing, which then "stood s till, stepped back, turned into people again" (MJ, p. 52). In addition, when the school doors close, Mary Jane and Fred must face the children of these militant diehards and the agony of isolation. The mood is set for the latter in the first assembly attended: "In the big auditorium

Mary Jane and Fred sat alone. Alone in the midst of a room full of boys and girls. Alone, as if they were on a desert island in the middle of the ocean" (MJ, p. 54).

As expected, Mary Jane experiences other oppositions. White classmate Darlene Duncan is the prototype of those students whose 152 parents virulently oppose Integration. Darlene refuses to sit by

Mary Jane, but when she must,ignores her, mouths racial epithets, and identifies Dr. Douglas as a "cotton picking old darkey" (MJ, p. 90).

And as the story unfolds. Sterling carefully explodes several cultural myths concerning black dialect and innate abilities. For example, since Mary Jane spoke no dialect, one student assumes that she is a hired Northern agitator. Explaining, erudite Fred tells her; "You don't talk the way she thinks Negroes talk. You're supposed to say

"Dis-here chile sho' nuff down in de Souf' like Aunt Jemina or old

Black Joe or somebody." (MJ, p. 75). The music teacher. Miss Collins, thinks that all blacks are musical; subsequently, she is unable to accept Mary Jane's insistence that she has no musical talents:

"I'm sure you're just being modest." Miss Collins shook her head. "All your people have such wonderful voices. I just love your spirituals. Now suppose you come to the music room at three and let me decide where to place you." ...she suddenly understood what Miss Collins meant. All "your people," all Negroes have beautiful voices and sing spirituals just as all Negroes say "dis here chile" and "sho' nuff" (MJ, p. 88).

Mary Jane was surprised that teachers, too, were prejudiced and wonders if Miss Collins is one of those mysterious "theys" to whom her mother frequently referred. While at her old school, Mary

Jane had participated in extra curricular activities - the school plays, student council and newspaper - but at Wilson she was turned down as a cheerleader, the last one picked for volleyball, and not chosen at all for folk dancing until rescued by Sally Green, who was also, Broderick points out, "an outcast, being too small for her age and sensitive to her childish appearance" (IBCF, p. 161). 153 But Mary Jane and Sally develop a relationship and Mary Jane

finds allies in Mr. S tiller and Miss Rosseau, the science and French

teachers respectively, as well as the school principal, Mrs. Davis.

Mary Jane experiences further isolation when she faces the prospect

of eating alone since Fred, who gained his acceptance through sports,

decides to join the team at lunch. The two girls are thus thrown

together. They become friends, hesitatingly at first, by eating

together and strengthened then through their mutual adventure of

finding a home for Mary Jane's pet squirrel. Furry, which Mary Jane had rescued from an attacking cat while other students merely stood by and watched. Eventually, a well and frisky Furry proved a problem at the Douglas home; Mary Jane and Sally must find a new place for him, and the science room at school provided a temporary haven in a double sense. Although Mary Jane and Sally become friends, socializing beyond the school is anathema. In school it was equally difficult since the two wayfarers are unable to find a place where they could be together without eliciting the hostility of other white students.

At one point, Mary Jane seems to have gained acceptance at school through Furry as noted in this passage;

The boys and girls laughed when they saw the red bow around Furry's neck, and some of them moved to make room for her on a bench down front (MJ, p. 130).

But Darlene, interpreting the gesture as a threat to white solidarity, reports that Furry is housed at school. Upon the objection of

Darlene's bigoted mother. Furry is banned and Mary Jane must again find a suitable home for him. A dressing room at school becomes a home for Furry, and a refuge for them. But Furry gets out and Mrs.

Davis demands his removal. 154 After Dr. Douglas takes Furry, what of the two girls?

The formation of a junior science club solved their problem and projected Mary Jane into a position of directly interacting favorably with other students. Involved with Sally in a Science Fair project about mice learning a maze, Mary Jane feels that the lessening of racial conflicts is visibly apparent. Sterling believes that once people get to know one another and stereotyped racial generalizations are exploded, racial barriers will fall. She is not a gradualist, but neither does she advocate getting at the root of the problem of black- white relationships. As Broderick notes, "In Mary Jane only the smallest steps are taken toward improving racial posture" (IBCF, p. 179).

The message in Mary Jane clearly promotes the thesis that all blacks are not alike. The author attempts to particularize blackness as in this passage where Sally says to Mary Jane, "You're tan, sort of, and

Fred, he's brown like, w ell'...like horse chestnuts when they're ripe.

And your mother, she's certainly not black. Until I got to know you I always thought... that all Negroes looked alike and were different somehow from w h ite s!" (MJ, p . 152). A lthough R a n d a ll's knowledge of blacks has been similar to Sally's, since knowing Fred and Mary

Jane, Randall, too, agrees with Sally that blacks are "just the same as we a re " (MJ, p. 209).

The author intended to mark the effects of school integration on the central character. But it is through her characterization that Sterling does not give us the book so intended. When the club president suggests laughingly that the appropriate sign for their p ro je c t was: " I f White Mice Can le a r n . So Can You" (MJ, p. 218), meaning that people can leam not to be prejudiced^ Sterling seems to anticipate the ultimate solution, that time, the ally of the ^55

recalcitrant forces, is not the answer. Mr. Stiller, when confronted

with the dilemma of two girls who have no place to be together,

observes that "we say 'next year' and 'patience' only you two can't

wait, can you?" (MJ, p. 195). But the author does not provide this

solution. The solution. Sterling posits, was written in the minutes

of the Junior Science Club: "Resolved that the Junior Science Club

of Woodrow Wilson High School w ill make a list of all the places it

wants to visit. Those places that won't permit Negro students, the

Junior Science Club won't go to" (MJ, p. 203). Sterling does not

advocate social change which would alter the basic structure of the

southern way of life. The wall of intolerance may fall, but not

because Mary Jane addressed itself to that issue. The author skirts

the real problem; she does not support political activism on the

part of the junior science club members. To be sure. The London Times

may only surmise that "to make Mary Jane acceptable to white readers"

Sterling portrays her as "cinnamon colored" not black, with long hair,

but her heroine's "thoroughly upper middle-class pedigree" is another

V 34 serious concession in the story (IBCF, p. 179). Moreover, the

author superficially equates Mary Jane's rejection because of ethnic

origin with Sally's repudiation because of immature appearance.

Being a first black, experiencing social segregation and facing hostile forces do affect a personality. Experiencing isolation, which

is an integral part of the foregoing processes, does change a

personality, and with all this going on, Mary Jane should be made of

pretty heavy stuff. But, as Small points out, Mary Jane is basically

a static person. "Although... she changes in mood from excessive 156 optimism to fear, sadness, and despair, these changes are not permanent character changes but merely momentary reactions to external situations" (Small, p. 264). Concluding, Small notes at the end, "She is somewhat less blind." Although some "profound personality change or development should have resulted from her experience during the book, the Mary Jane of the final chapter is little changed from that of the first" (Small, pp. 264-265). Among those problems facing

Mary Jane are the townspeople, who, though in the background, make their presence oppressively apparent in the park, in the school, in the stores, and everywhere in High Ridge. The townspeople clearly represent socio-economic, political, and moral issues which can neither be solved in toto through the process of socialization nor integrated education. As Broderick points out, books such as Mary

Jane "personalize the race issue instead of recognizing it as the social, economic, and political problem it is" (IBCF, p. 179).

As a final consideration an assessment of Mary Jane’s family seems in order. Mary Jane's parents are assigned marginal roles.

The father is an attorney, but we are not told what he does and are given only the barest details about him. Her mother is bound by appearances, and one of the ways in which she thinks Mary Jane can be better prepared for Wilson and "them" is through altering her daughter's physical appearance. Mary Jane loses her braids and she and her mother shop for "an entirely new wardrobe in which to face white students. . .with [her mother] constantly making comments about

'they' and 'they think' and 'they expect'" (IBCF, p. 148). Dr. Douglas, however, gives Mary Jane practical advice concerning her reception at

Wilson and her possible reaction to that experience. "Sometimes you may get the feeling that the whole world's against you....It's a 157 terrible feeling. I've had it and I know. Can choke you, suffocate you if you let it" (MJ, pp. 26-27). And, as Bookmark notes, "it was the balanced philosophy of her grandfather that allowed [Mary Jane]... to recognize the sincere gestures of friendship" made by Sally and 35 members of the Science Club. Except on one occasion. Dr. Douglas was the voice of moderation; he represented experience and patience.

Initially, Sterling seemed inclined to make him a strong character, but as Mary Jane's problems at Wilson decreased, his role diminished, and he became a stereotype. The reason for his diminished role is a serious flaw in the story. He could have been a memorable character, such as Granny in Shuttered Windows, but if Sterling had given him a distinct personality, Mary Jane would have developed differently.

But character is not the point in this story. For example, the main character is ebullient with a great and tender love for animals, which she must have to introduce the Furry theme. Although "The

Thing" made her an outsider, a stranger, she was only momentarily stunned by being so stigmatized. She was, as noted, a static character. Since character is not the point in the story, one cannot walk in Mary Jane's shoes. It is safe to conclude, therefore, that the story was told for the purpose of exposing and dispelling negative racial attitudes and myths.

Classmates by Request by Hila Colman

If we are to discuss isolation in terms of the black world, then we must look at it in terms of white society also. Classmates by

Request does that and is the only book in the study which deals with the issue of reverse integration. Hila Colman explores school integration, mixing socially out of school, and bridging the gap between black and white isolation, which are all difficult themes. The story, published in 1964, received favorable notice from Book

Week, Commonweal, Library Journal. Horn Book, and the New York Times

Book Review, among others. If Colman Is to be Interpreted correctly, the story's message Is that the Issue of Integration Is a multi-faceted problem which requires understanding from both parties. Colman also emphasizes that some blacks are as prejudiced as some whites are on some Issues and that whites must be more tolerant In their efforts to overcome barriers to attain understanding between the two ethnic groups. Horn Book believes that Colman does w ill In presenting some realistic "viewpoints on a major social problem" (HB 60, No. 1,

October 1964, 504). Her conclusions, Horn Book states, are that

"Integration Is a slow process, people get what they fight for, and top quality education Is essential for the best opportunities"

(HB, 60, No. 1, October, 1964, 504).

There are some major concerns, however, with Colman. One Is that the author does not put It clearly that the power to Integrate lies entirely within the realm of the majority. Another Is that there are no answers to the question of whether or not segregation In other facets of living w ill disappear or will continue, as In The Empty

Schoolhouse, to flourish as an accepted and unchallenged way of life.

The effects of segregation on a black character are, for the first time In the study, explored, but Colman Is not convincing, however.

In her portrayal of the struggles of the urban community of

Thompsonvllle to Integrate the high schools by participating In a token volunteer exchange program Involving ten black and ten white students. The central characters are Ellen Randall whose civil rights activist father, George, Is underemployed as a high school 159 teacher and white Carla Monroe whose lawyer father, Jake, is an

Integration proponent. Other characters are Carla's brother, Dan;

her friends Twinkey, Cadge Confrey, Mary Jane Peterson, Fred Dingee,

Chris and Gail Waters, Adam Blake, Monroe’s assistant, Mrs. Monroe,

who is a nurse, Ellen’s younger sisters, her great Aunt Hattie, who works for the Monroes, and Eugene Ritchie, Ellen's boyfriend.

Questions which must be answered are centered on Ellen's

personality and self-involvement. Can a black girl whose family ties were as structured and as solvent as Ellen’s were, prepare herself to meet the larger world as a self-sufficient person? Can Ellen's

friendship with Carla be considered a permanent one given the barriers

that separate them? What kind of love did Carla have for her father?

In contrast what was Ellen’s relationship with her father? When the

first demonstration was taking place, what activity engaged Ellen’s attention? Why? What roles do Eugene Ritchie and Cadge Confrey play in the story? Why does the story fall short as a realistic portrait of black-white relations?

The two girls are characterized as being influenced by their father's image. Carla is very proud of her father's independence, his liberal spirit, and his community activism. Ellen, too, thinks

that her father is a very fine person who, though important in the community, has been thwarted in his ambition to use his engineer's degree because of racial barriers. Ellen has a life-style and personal ambitions which do not include integration. She is dis­ trustful of whites, scornful toward white tokenism, opposes the black community's demand that the new black school be integrated, dreading "the idea of having those self-confident cocksure, arrogant 36 _ boys and girls as classmates." She alone refuses to demonstrate, but offers her services elsewhere.

In Ellen's view, integration would be disastrous and she voices her fears to Eugene by remonstrating against the demonstration and reviewing past racial incidents:

I couldn't demonstrate, because I couldn't bear all those people staring at me; I'm scared even of ten white kids coming to our school. I've never been to a white kid's house. I've never been to a dance with white kids. You know me, I hate to go downtown to their big stores. The saleswomen don't like to wait on a colored girl. They always bring her something gaudy and awful, and if she wants to try on something decent, they say they haven't got it in her size. We get insulted right and left, and you say we've got to be friends, we've got to get their little handouts and their promises" (CBR, pp. 63-64).

Afraid of change, Ellen feels that it would bring unpleasant­ ness and that the change would not be beneficial for the community or bring social betterment. Thus at the beginning of the story,

Ellen is limned as being unable to adjust to social change occasioned by integration which meant upheaval and introduction to a larger world. While the first demonstration was proceeding, Ellen felt that

"she was a coward, crouching in the house, hiding behind - what?...

She didn't know anything except that suddenly with a fierce burst of indignation she hated the whole system, the hidden explicable thing that had ever made a difference between black and white in the beginning. Why did it ever have to happen?" (CBR, p. 35).

Carla Monroe eagerly embraces the opportunity to participate in "the tremendous thing taking place in her own city, part of something big and deeply important that was happening all over the country" (CBR, p. 39). Unlike Ellen who disdains to follow her 161 demonstrating father, Carla seeks her father’s advice concerning her desire to be a part of the social drama. Carla leams that

Mr. Monroe has been appointed to an important civil rights commission whose purpose Is to rid the city of segregation and slums. And It Is

Mr. Monroe's decision not to retain Mr. Randall on the commission as anticipated which w ill separate the girls whose lives converge In the pilot exchange program to desegregate the schools. IVhen the exchange of ten black students and ten white students, each attending white and black schools respectively, is consummated, the book considers the activity at the black school and Carla's sense of racial

Isolation since she and her friends are the only whites In a majority black setting. The theme of black white Isolation Is only briefly examined. At the beginning of the story, Ellen feels Isolated not only from the mainstream, but from her own people, especially Eugene. She neither shares his enthusiasm for Integration nor his acceptance of white largess which comes through Mr. Monroe and architect Blakey, who guarantees Eugene's college expenses to get his degree as an architect and offers him a summer job working In his office.

Though E l le n 's f a th e r u rges h e r to be frie n d s w ith C a rla , E llen at first resists Carla overtures, wondering If Carla saw "the dark skin and heavy black hair or did she see a human being, a girl like herself with feelings and thoughts and hopes and dreams" (CBR, p. 85).

But the girls become friends, and Carla forgets "all about the color of Ellen's skin. They had talked together the way any two girls do"

(CBR, p. 92). Hence Colman follows the fam iliar formula which has been used by writers since the early forties and fifties — that once the barriers fall, blacks and whites are alike. This Is the Identical 162 espoused by Tom Hamilton, Randall, and Sally Green, Mary E llis Stebbins,

Mary Jane Douglas, and Tessie Downs. But Carla later refers to blacks

as "you people" which is divisive language long abhorred by the black

community.

But both girls realize that their relationship is precarious,

as Carla tells Ellen that " you and I both know it w ill be hard to

become really close, trusting friends. But if we talk things out

instead of getting hurt and turning away, maybe it will be easier "

(CBR, p. 94). Estrangement comes, as noted, when Mr. Monroe refuses

to select Mr. Randall for his commission. At first Ellen retreats

to her mountain, feeling that she had been right not to have trusted

white people. Eventually, however, she resorts to action to spur the

wheels of time by deciding to join the movement to boycott Mr. Monroe's

office in protest against what Ellen considered was the shabby

treatment of her father. Learning of the intended action, Carla's

reaction is mixed. She begins to doubt her father's sincerity and

also reassesses her position with Ellen whom she sees as "supersensitive

and stuck-up" (CBR, p. 144). Carla also concludes that "...Negroes

talk about segregation, but they segregate themselves" (CBR, p. 144).

Later she tells Ellen, "'I tried to be friends with you, I wanted to be

friends, but you have a lot to learn about friendship'" (CBR, p. 148).

One of the points of the story - that education must have quality - is

illustrated in the incident involving Mr. Randall and the commission.

Mr. Randall was not appointed it seemed because he failed to qualify academically. Since his engineering degree, in Mr. Monroe's view, was

from a third rate institution, giving him the position under those

circumstances would have been detrimental to the work of the commission. 163 Of course, Colman qualifies that judgment by mentioning that

exclusion from qualified higher educational institutions was in itself

a way of life for blacks.

The stoiry does not explore the problems of race relations

satisfactorily. The author touches on that part of the subject which

deals with the separation of the races, but does not zero in on this

factor. In addition, Colman writes about the problem with a heavy moralistic slant. She falls into romantic error and is a bit too breathless and sentimental. Ellen's moves from rejection, acceptance,

rejection and final acceptance of Carla's friendship are unconvincing.

The final change in Ellen lacks definition; as Small points out, she

"gives no indication of the nature, depth or cause of the change in her attitude toward white people or indeed, if such generalized changes have taken place" (Small, p. 289). It would be difficult to assess the impact of the events which occurred in a matter of a few weeks in the lives of the two girls. Colman, however, does nothing to prepare for Ellen's eventual acquiescence at the end of the story, and Carla is merely a foil for Ellen, who dominates the story since it is black demands and black family life which promotes the action.

The ancillary characters, such as Cadge and Eugene, are stereotypes and are in the story to support Ellen and Carla. And it is Cadge who enlightens Carla concerning Ellen's feelings about the commission affair: "'I think Ellen feels she can't trust any white person anymore, and she doesn't want to be close to anyone outside her circle of friends'" (CBR, p. 144). But as Carla sees it, further concessions on her part would be indulging Ellen. Cadge disagrees, telling Carla that "'Ellen and you are different, and don't you forget 164 it. She's had totally different experiences from yours, and they have taught her to expect the worst of white people! You're going to have to prove to her that she's wrong over and over again before she even begins to believe you!'" (CBR, p. 144). Cadge decides to join

Eugene in the picketline over Carla's protest, but Mr. Monroe convinces his daughter that he would welcome a demonstration for

"'pressure and support'" for his commission (CBR, p. 181). Subsequently

Carla approaches Ellen and the two with their friends join the demon­ stration, and as they sing ^ Shall Overcome, Carla thought that "it was the most significant moment she had ever felt in her life. It was like being in church on Christmas Eve, when you felt close to God and to the people around you....She knew that she had come home to her friends, and she was happy" (CBR, p. 187).

While Colman is not an exceptional w riter, she does attempt to get down to basic issues. But one of Colman's problems is that she is unable to resolve the issues she raises. For example, though the book closes with black and white demonstrating together, the question of whether or not segregation and other similar attitudes w ill remain a better part of the way of life in Thompsonville remains largely unanswered. This and related issues are important to both blacks and whites, but Colman seems unable to plumb the depth of their attitudes and prejudices.

The Empty Schoolhouse by Natalie Savage Carlson

The story of ten-year old Lullah Royall in The Empty Schoolhouse

(1965) by Natalie Carlson concerns efforts to desegrate a Catholic elementary school in rural Louisiana and does not primarily zero in on, Broderick notes, "the matter of the legality of segregation, but 165 the morality" (IBCF, p. 160). At bottom, however, the book does not describe a moral and human complexity which shelters to some extent the southern way of life. Published six years after Mary Jane and eleven years after the Brown decision, the book presents some knotty problems to those who feel that school desegregation is the answer.

The story, told through the consciousness of Emma, Lullah’s older sister, gives the same message Means and Jackson conveys: if blacks persist and apply themselves, they w ill rise. Broderick, noting

Carlson's thematic emphasis, observes that "what is so depressing about children's books is the length of time it takes for a changing attitude to appear in them" (IBCF, p. 108). But Carlson adds the dimension of color acceptability to her formula for black success in a white world. The addition makes the book painful, and even cruel, since the story is told through the consciousness of fourteen-year-old

Emma, light-skinned Lullah's older and darker sister. The arrangement, as we shall see, clearly places Emma in a position of reinforcing her own isolation and upholding a negative value judgment based on her own c o lo r.

The author has some things to say and chooses the theme of school desegregation to introduce them. One has not read far when it becomes apparent that a number of other things are going on in addition to the latter activity. Carlson admits an abiding interest in other people; to her, evidently, the Royalls represented other people. Expressing a theme found frequently in this study, Carlson believes that "people only seem different, but are so like us when we really get to know them" (SAA, p. 49). Therefore, her stated purpose in writing, she says, is to promote "something toward bringing 166 peace in a future world because understanding makes for sympathy and tolerance" (SAA,2,p.49). Teachers should keep the latter goal in mind while reading the story; for the professional reviews evidently felt that Carlson had realized her purpose in presenting the book. Although the reviews were positive but mixed, none commented on Carlson's stereotyped racially biased thinking concerning color. Sandra Schmidt of the Christian Science Monitor wrote that the "plot is interesting, the characters real, and the moral good and tru e....It is straight reality - no fantasy in this one, but it 37 is reality that lacks a certain bite and sparkle." Broderick, however, finds the happy ending less than real; Anne Izard concurs, writing that "the children's conversation, play, and quarrels are natural and ring true. The background of place and time comes alive; it is so good one wishes it were more realistic in solution" (LJ, 90,

Jul 1965, 3124).

In The Empty Schoolhouse, as in Mary Jane, it is acceptable for very young black and white children to play together and allow racial proximity in housing patterns. But in the Carlson story black-white relationships are from an entirely different viewpoint than that in Mary Jane. The Royalls are lower middle class blacks who know their place in the scheme of things. Emma Royall's low opinion of herself probably exemplifies one of the messages of the book: Blacks should do whatever they do best. Daddy Jobe, a field hand, ably operates a big sugar can cutter, and Emma, a drop-out, works at a local motel where, in her own words, she tries "to be the 38 best scrub girl there is." Emma's desire to be the best scrub girl stems from her feeling that she lacks the scholastic ability to 167 be a teacher or stenographer. Her pathetic and persistent acceptance of the status quo is negatively self-demeaning. Other negative self-images in Emma's mind are that she is dark and that she has short hair just as her father and brother do, but the latter, Emma concludes, is "a handsome little boy all the same," that is, as

Woodard and Thompson note, "in spite of the fact that he is dark and has short hair" (ES, p. 18, BPBC, p. 18). These factors also dim the light of her existence to the extent that they isolate her along with her father within her own family. This type of thinking exemplifies the black American caste system which was the primary target of

Marcus Garvey's thrust to raise blackness into something beautiful.

As the story unfolds one gets an unpleasant picture of this seemingly all right family as somehow all wrong. Why?

Ten-year old Lullah, the central figure, develops into a character whom Carlson attempts to manipulate. Daddy Jobe can operate the big cane cutter, but is not the man in his own family. His wife, light skinned with long hair, is the strong silent type who "when she does talk, ...means business" (ES, p. 14). And Emma, as we have seen, is beset by the self-fulfilling prophecy. Lullah provides the author with the chance to say some things she wants to explore. Ostensibly the story concerns school desegregation, but it concludes by being a study of black-white relationships in a rural Louisiana parish called French Grove. Lullah's best friend is white Oralee Fleury, whose family seems middle-class. The two girls have always been best friends and their friendship is encouraged by both families. Lullah, then, is the link between the old black, represented by her father and sister, Emma, and the new way of looking at black-white relation­ ships. She is, therefore, somewhat ambiguous since Carlson cannot 168 come directly out with what is apparently her view of the new social order precipitated by the Brown decision which made blacks first class citizens in public life.

Emma Royal represents the old black in her low self-esteem and her acceptance of her status as a perennial failure; "I always tell myself since you quit school in the sixth grade you’ll never fe<=) anything but a scrub girl at the Magnolia Motel" (ES, p. 1). As

Woodward and Thompson see it," ["H]er sense of identity is sharply circumscribed by her employment throughout the book" (BPBC, p. 18).

At the blessing of the sugar can harvest, Emma says" "It made me feel like I was made special by God and real important to Him even if I was just a scrub girl" (ES, p. 56). Emma regresses further by saying that if she had lived in the "good old days" when the cane was picked she would have been "a field hand instead of a scrub girl" (ES, p. 68) .

And her role in the narrative is made manifest: she is the old black and is therefore an isolated person; the isolation is condoned and historically manifested. Emma does not relate to any character in a meaningful way, but as narrator, she is the link which keeps the story together. She scrubs at the motel, minds little Jobe and advises her sister. She is the ghost of the past which haunts all relationships based on inequalities and ephemeral conditions such as race and color.

Since only the living can make changes and form relationships which are healthy, Lullah is assigned that role, but she cannot bring herself to play it. She, too, is at the mercy of a rather curious set of circumstances. Anyone reading the book should be very skeptical of the author’s solution. What the author would have us believe is that the town of French Grove, in the process of desegregating the 169 school, is invaded by outside anti-desegregation agitators, whose, acts of villany, including shooting Lullah, are eventually exposed, after which all ends happily with black-white relationships intact. As the story goes forward Carlson gets her metaphors mixed, wanting to insure her majority readers that although the bottom rail is on top, the kind of person who has been elevated to that position is closer in physical appearance to the majority norm than those of Emma’s kind. Hence

Lullah is described as "being very bright, and having skin...like coffee and cream mixed together and she has wavy hair to her shoulders"

(ES, p. 2). She is characterized as being brave and heroic by going to the empty schoolhouse when other community members, because of intimidation, involving loss of a job and violence, eventually withdraw their children. These qualities also set her apart from her family. Thus Carlson zeroes in on Lullah as representative of the new black, but it is Erma who ties the story together. l*Jhat can be said concerning the isolation which pervades the Royalls’ family structure?

And what avenue could Carlson have elected to close the schism created by her characterized roles for the two girls? Why did Emma think that Oralee was good for Lullah, that is, why did she encourage their relationship?

The blacks in the story are isolated from the community by those barriers which have been accepted by both blacks and whites. There is neither explanation for nor protest against segregated activities which still support the southern way of life. The book presents complexities which cannot be explained sim plistically. The bottom rail may be on top insofar as school desegregation is concerned, but the Royalls still sit in a segregated church pew; Lullah may be best 170 friends with Oralee and may even quarrel with her, but Lullah

cannot play in the public school yard with her friend, and the public

schools are still segregated. Hence there is both external and

internal isolation in the story, but as in all the previous books

in the study, the impact of these conditions is neither acknowledged

nor explored.

On the one hand, Jean Fritz praises Carlson for being sensitive

to the fact that "labeling children Negro and white [and] airing their

racial feelings can be as divisive in print as it is in real life"

(LJ, 90, July 1965, 3124). On the other hand, no reviewer saw

anything divisive in the color consciousness and low ^elf-appraisal which pervaded Emma Royall's characterization. And racial feelings were aired in subtle and not so subtle ways in the book. Among the

former was the scene in which white Mrs. Cole and Mrs. Benoit come to visit a recuperating Lullah, who was shot in the ankle at school by the outside agitators. Emma noted that they were wearing hats and white gloves. Upon being apprized that the two ladies were also on their way to a social engagement, Emma thought, "So the hats and gloves weren't for us" (ES, p. 112). Obvious racial bias is demon­

strated by the use of the epithet 'nigger' in the text.

Emma is isolated in that she engages in marginal activities.

To be a vibrant character Emma would have to be transformed. She ties the story together, as noted, because she is the narrator.

Lullah is also insensitive to her sister's problems to some extent.

Once she advises Emma to wear bows in her hair so that she "won't

look so much like a boy" (ES, p. 91). Another time Lullah does not

encourage Emma to return to school, although it would have been quite 171

naturally a sisterly desire. Another familiar subtlety is to imply

that color has something to do with ability. Lullah is light-skinned

and smart; Emma is dark and slow.

It would be safe to assume that the author has produced a work

which quite accurately portrays how some parts of white Americans per­

ceive black Americans. But if critics do not point out the biases,

then one must assume that what the book limns w ill be taken at face value by many educators. Hence its message w ill be spread. In my view. Empty Schoolhouse is not a story which should be assigned

freely or carelessly since its message presents a distorted and

denigrated view of the black experience. The book could be utilized

as an example of one majority view of black America and studied from

that point of view, with research directed toward the why of Carlson's biases. Then upon finding that the author cannot explain the southern way of life in terms of a world view of modern life, teachers should be aware that French Grove, Louisiana is not the whole world.

Introduction

The Dogtown N ovels by Frank Bonham

The Dogtown novels of Frank Bonham occupy a unique position in

teenage fiction, dealing with the black experience. Bonham has, per­ haps, contributed more to the misconceptions about that experience

than any other author in the study. Essentially, Bonham is a mystery and western writer for both an adult and youth audience.

According to Something About the Author, he has to his credit approximately five hundred short stories, novels and TP^^llettcs in magazines, including Saturday Evening Post serials, short stories 172 In McCall's, American, and in mystery and western magazines" (SAA, 1 .

p. 31). Of his numerous youth books. Mystery of the Red Tide was

named the 1967 runner-up for the Mystery W riters of America Edgar

Award. And in 1971, V iva Chicano won th e Woodward School Annual

Book Award which is given for books "which best represent sifnificant

human relations for elementary or junior high school children" (HE,

Oct. 1971, p. 556). Noteworthy, too, for the purposes of this study

is the fact that the author has an affinity for romanticism; he wrote

the television scripts for the Death Vally Days, Wells Fargo and

Shotgun Slade series which were larger than life portraits of western

life and he takes a romantic approach in three Dogtown novels. His novels, Durango Street (1965), The Nitty Gritty (1968), Mystery of

the Fat Cat (1968), Cool Cat (1972), and Hey, Big Spender (1972),

depict life in the mythical ghetto of Dogtown, an enclave of Coast

City, in Southern California.

Identified with the Watts area of Los Angeles, Bonham's books have been widely acclaimed. For example, Durango Street, an American

Library Association notable book, was hailed as a literary breakthrough when it was published and has consistently appeared on approved reading lists such as Adventuring With Books, Your Reading and Books for You,

New York Public Library's The Black Experience in Children's Books,

1971, 1974. It is published in both hardcover and paperback. Reading

Ladders lists the novel under "living with others," "coping with change," with the main entry under "appreciating different ethnic cultures," noting that "the book gives insight into the lives of teenagers who must resort to violence in order to survive, and tells of the frustrations of those who try to help them" (RL, p. 202). 173 Bonham reveals that "the publication of Durango Street resulted in

correspondence from librarians and teachers working with minority

youth, telling me of the need for similar books — those dealing with

the problems of ghetto life" (SAA, %, ?• 31)*

Furthermore, the author reports that he conducted "much

research into these matters, with the assistance of parole and

probation officers, police officers, social workers, and private

individuals" (SAA,1, p.31'. Continuing, Bonham states that:

Delinquency is a field of special interest to me, as it is closely related to ghetto and barrio problems. I attend meetings at a San Diego parolee house where a dozen young men and boys on parole from Youth Authority prisons live and attempt to aid one another in finding acceptable ways of handling their problems. Most of my material is drawn from life. My story characters are real people transmitted by merging with other characters, and by sheer imagination (SAA,).p. 31).

Bonham's central thrust, of course, is based on the culturally deprived theory which asserts that the problems accrued by deprivations of ghetto life are realities which must be recognized and solved. The basis for his interest in the ghetto/barrio arises from the problems of deviant behavior basic to the life-style generated by a segregated society. The author does not explore why the ghetto/barrio exists, namely, the exclusionary policies of the larger society. As Jane

Goldner observes, Bonham senses "social brutalization in Nitty Gritty 39 but not for blacks." And as the novels are read, one thought keeps cropping up: What kind of Americans do ghetto youths, living by themselves this way, have a chance of growing up to be?

On one le v e l Bonham can be in te r p r e te d as p re s e n tin g th e popular view which America holds concerning its m inorities; that is. 174 that minorities are the problems. That his outlook is erroneous is

evident in that minority groups do not dictate policy, and as Goldner notes, "the dominant society has controlled every aspect of life so

far that it can mold the images needed to keep it cohesive" (Goldner, pp. 47-48). The author makes political statements in the stories which are too serious to be overlooked. His characters are not concerned with the processes of democracy inasmuch as they are isolated in their attempt to exist. In terms of Dogtown, the novels present a picture of that segment of American society which is landless and sponsorless except in marginal areas. In a society which measures individual values in terms of consumer values,

Dogtown residents are considered valueless and powerless.

On a n o th e r le v e l Bonham has c o n s tru c te d a h ie ra rc h y of power within the ghetto which further perpetuates the economy of the poor.

He has isolated the doers from the receivers in that those who wish to achieve must receive help from external sources, ’v h ic h n eg ates any self-help or sense of pride in achieving which might occur in ghetto residents by interaction. What examples can be offered to substantiate these observations? Charles Matthews is clearly one example. Charles is a dreamer during much of the story, yet at the end, he stops short, leaving his dream unfinished. But he has interacted with four persons from outside his environment, namely his uncle, his teacher, and Mr. Woodson and Mr. E llis, his erstwhile employers. These experiences give him insight into what a future based on daydreaming w ill hold, and also indicate that if he does not get an education, he can only expect the most menial jobs. In

Cool Cat, the hauling business initiated by Buddy and his friends is 175 merely a vehicle for the author to connect the Dogtown youths with

Blue Eyes Infante and the drug theme. On a third and final level,

Bonham en d o rses s o c ia l is o la tio n by f a l l i n g to p re d ic a te th e existence of his characters on the larger issue of forebearance;

Dogtown would not exist if the dominant society would practice forbearance for human differences.

Bonham’s stories may be studied by dividing them into three categories. Durango Street attempts to portray ghetto life as realistically as can be anticipated for someone "on the outside looking in." The Nitty Gritty departs from reality in that its emphasis is on making it out of the ghetto via education and does not center on what effects the ghetto has had on the protagonist.

The Mystery of the Fat Cat, Cool Cat, and Hey, Big Spender are fantasy-filled vignettes of slum life which portray how acclimated

Dogtown youths are to their environment. That Dogtown life is abysmal and the effect of the slum is anything but minimal, are realities, yet Bonham does little with the latter which looms so large in their lives.

Of these stories, Bonham does well with the story of Rufus Henry except that he gives no relief of Rufus' troubled soul. Rufus has some admirable qualities, but he is portrayed as neither weak or strong. He is limned as doing what he must to stay alive in the jungle, or so Bonham would have us believe. In all of the books, the characters are visually assailed by multi-form isolation of which th e au th o r ta k e s no n o tic e . But can Bonham be expected to re v e a l th e tr u t h o f e x is te n c e in Dogtown? Can Bonham d e liv e r th e r e a l i s t i c novel about black ghetto youth? It would be safe to assume that the 176 author cannot in either case. Simply put, the dominant society of w hich Bonham i s a member has l i t t l e aw areness of b la c k is o la tio n as an organic reality of black life. To admit that blacks are isolated and alienated would be to admit that black ghettoes were formed, not by chance, but by intent.

Bonham's novels about the central city of Dogtown easily follow the criteria of ghetto research. Set on the coast, Dogtown is a separate urban entity, ostensibly patterned after the Los

Angeles Watts area, a predominantly black enclave in which other minorities such as Mexican-Americans and Orientals live also. It has typical small businesses and is a source of menial jobs. Grimy stores and restaurants, bars, and storefront churches line its streets. In Bonham's words: "Dogtown was too hilly for factories or housing projects, too old for anything but small and usually very poor houses. Because of the hills that ring it, it was more or less 40 hidden from the rest of the city of which it was a part."

"Over the hills of Dogtown, just the color and shape of potatoes, crawled narrow streets. Down in the flats were schools and small shopping areas, as well as decrepit churches" (MFC, p. 15).

The flats in which Rufus Henry lived were jammed between the concrete riverbed on the west and the freeway on the east. Passing beneath the freeway and ascending a h ill, Durango Street, which gives its name to the first novel, was symbolic of a way out of the ghetto.

The main shopping center was composed of one and two story buildings, many of which are vacant, the pool hall, laundromats various bars, and the to rtilla factory. Dogtown was one hour's ride from the central district where the money was, for there was no money in the ghetto.

Durango Street

The protagonist in Durango Street is seventeen-year old

Rufus Henry, archetypal in that he has run afoul of the law, is on probation, is fatherless, acts as protector for a younger sister and brother, and can cope with ghetto life in terms of gang warfare.

Mrs. Henry is a stock character; she is hardworking, earnest but limited. Her view of Rufus' problems is that hard work is the answer. She thinks of her son in terms of trouble, but believes that education opens the door to mobility upward and is willing to help her son attain that avenue of escape. Otherwise she does not seem to understand her son very well; she has also stated that football star

Ernie Banks was Rufus' father.

Rufus is not goal-oriented; he is vague about the what and why of any goal. He might teach, he tells his parole officer, because he likes children and he did a lot of reading while in Pine Valley. He does realize, however, that if he is ever to go to college, it must be on a scholarship. He perceives that his physical ability "might make all the difference between carrying a lunch pail all his born days, and getting into some kind of work that paid a decent wage and was of some account in the w o r ld ."41 He recognizes overt displays of discrimination, as demonstrated by his responses to his parole officer, and to his short time employer: "When a black boy found work, of course, it was going to be heavy" (PS, p. 27). 178 Rufus' re-entry into gang activity is occasioned by an

incident involving a threat to his sister by a member of the Gassers.

Believing that the only safe kid is a gang member, Rufus quickly outmanuevers the current Moors' president, Bantu, and assumes leadership. His main objective is to annihilate the rival Gassers and to outwit the law since gang fighting is illegal and he is on probation; he succeeds. At this point black social worker Alex

Robbins attempts to redirect gang violence into productive activity through the common love of sports and black superstar Ernie Banks.

But whether Rufus can be reformed remained a question at the book's end. Teachers would do well to cover the following questions.

X'Jhat has Bonham in mind as he ends the story on a question? Why does the author omit all references to a world outside the ghetto environs? What does the author prefer to emphasize about urban life?

Why does the story contain no references to a world view of life?

Rufus is limned as intelligent with "high potential"; his aim is to stay out of trouble, but he could not divorce himself from the street tradition. Bonham emphasizes that environmental conditions do not permit Rufus to do so; he must henceforth be involved and win or lose in Dogtown. There are no alternatives, as Rufus states:

"The only way to stay alive in a big city jungle was to join a fighting gang — before some other gang decided to use you for bayonet practice" (PS, p. 13). Violence in the central city is stressed but the author does not give the whys and wherefore of the alienation and isolation imposed upon the ghetto. Elsewhere

Bonham attem p ts to come to g rip s w ith th e e f f e c ts o f r a c i a l d is c rim in a ­ tion as he writes: 179 Rufus Henry, the hero of the story, is a Negro, and most of his friends and enemies are Negroes. It would be a mistake to conclude from this, however, that the members of any one race are more gang- oriented than another. All races contribute their share to the lands of delinquent group. What does seem to be true, though, is that racial discrimina­ tion is a strong factor in the formation of such groups (PS, p. 185).

Keeping a scrapbook on Banks, Rufus worships the football star although he is not certain whether Ernie is his father. Why

Bonham introduces this theme is a puzzle since he does not utilize it to enhance either Rufus' or his mother's position. The inclusion of the Banks' theme is just one of the puzzles of the story. If

Bonham meant to imply that Mrs. Henry had some defect in her character by engaging in this masquerade or if the knowledge that he was Ernie's sone would be the modus operandi by which Rufus is trans­ formed into a model youth then the inclusion of the theme is apparent.

These conditions, however, are not met.

The thematic emphasis in Durango Street is peer ^^ou" relationships in the context of gang activity which absorbs Rufus' time. He is limned as having minimal contact with the larger society through brushes with the law and probation officers, and menial job opportunities. What can be said of Durango Street can be said of most books about ghetto life published prior to critical protest against unrelieved negative images of the black experience.

The pattern is predictable for his protection and that of his younger sister, Rufus Henry becomes involved again in gang activity despite a warning from his probation officer to the contrary. His activities and talents are linked with the daily, struggle to walk unmolested in Dogtown. The skills Rufus utilizes to survive within 180 the limits of Dogtown demonstrates his leadership potential which

the social worker attempts to channel into productivity. The ending

is cloudy since Rufus sees no rings on the merry-go-round for him.

And probably the highest honesty in the book occurs when the author

ends the story with an uncommitted Rufus contemplating Alex Robbins

proposals concerning his future. On center Dodds praises the story

because the author "very skillfully avoids the temptation either to

preach against evil or capitalize on the sensationalism and excite­ ment of crime" (Dodds, pp. 78-79). But in my view the story makes a mockery of the American way of life which guarantees its citizens

the right to the pursuit of happiness. The name Dogtown is in

itself derogatory. In conclusion, Durango Street, written to

delineate how blacks live, is an example of the kind of social science

research which studies the victim of deviant behavior for the purpose of reforming the victim to meet standards of the larger society.

The story would have been meaningful and effective if Bonham had written of the causes of the black enclave. Rufus, in his

searching, cannot find the respect and love which are essential to all human relationships. In this novel, adolescent conflict dominates, but unlike Peri Thomas' Down These Mean Streets or Claude

Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land the work lacks the humanity necessary to justify unrelieved brutality. The ghetto experience deserves a more insightful treatment than the ones received in these exploitative pieces. It is important to note that only one review mentioned the overwhelming importance of place. Best Sellers wrote that the book was "a timely exponent of the environment that may 42 have been instrumental in causing the disturbance." The review concluded that "young readers would find Durango Street an exciting 181 story, but that it was also an interesting social study with proper values set high" (BS, 25, Sept. 15, 1965, p. 25). Perhaps it would be safe to say that Bonham seems admirably motivated and seems to have done his homework to the extent that he could. But as McBride notes the author "was on the outside looking in" and clearly

McBride's criticism is basic to the problem of Bonham's Dogtown 43 books. Bonham is obsessed with the matter of the ghetto environment which one is never permitted to forget in the novels. What was described in Durango Street was elaborated on in The Nitty G ritty, and continued in Mystery of the Fat Cat and Cool Cat. Bonham describes the ghetto until it comes alive and the various characters move around in it. Hence Dogtown becomes the main character in the novels. And the author moves his characters around in the murky environment of Dogtown but offers no explanation of the whys and hows of ghetto life.

The Nitty Gritty

F ollow ing Durango S t r e e t , Bonham p u b lish e d The N itty G ritty which has appeared on approved lists such as Reading Ladders and

Child Study Association Booklists, among others. Children's Book

Center wrote that'hs a case study it's very good; as a novel it lacks impetus. The writing style is excellent, novel characters well-drawn and the family relationships candidly and perceptively pictured"

(JHSLC, 2nd Ed., 1970, p. 322). Though Booklist critized the book for its "forced slang and a stereotyping of the Negro ghetto s it u a t i o n ," i t concluded th a t th e s to ry "has enough momentum to carry his message" which is that one can escape the ghetto through 182 hard work and education (BL, 65, no. 5, Nov. 1, 1968, p. 305). The author does not include obvious descriptive phrases such as "he had a small, neat Negro head and nappy hair cut short," and terms "kinky hair" which are found in Durango Street, but he does stereotype the ghetto experience and the disregard for Charlie's In house growth is the most glaring inadequacy in the story (PS, p. 8, p. 38).

Bonham, in an attempt to people Dogtown with a variety of persons, introduces seventeen-year old Charlie Matthews whose desire to leave Dogtown is matched by this greater penchant for daydreaming.

The Matthews family, members of the working poor, live in one of the decrepit Dogtown houses and struggle against urban poverty. Mr.

Matthews, a night janitor, has never had a decent job which improves his self-image, he has a running monologue about the eccentricities of the old building of which he takes care and has found his solace in drinking. Mrs. Matthews, a motel maid, takes shelter in her wonderful sense of humor. Both parents are anti-education; the father equates reality with a job at Mr. Leonard's shoe shine parlor rather than with dreams of being a newspaperman or playwright, either of which Charlie's teacher, Mr. Toia, thinks may be attainable for their bright son. Hence, Mr. Matthews negates a college education for Charlie, observing that he could point out plenty of Negroes in

Dogtown that went to college, and they’re out of work as much as [he] is. Or they got a degree, and all they can do is work in some agency 44 teaching kids to run a printing press or lay asphalt tile."

Therefore, it is to his mother's brother, lovable, likeable. Uncle

Baron, to whom Charlie turns in an attempt to leave Dogtown. Uncle

Baron has had a typical sporting life; he had worked at racetracks 183 across the country, could play a guitar, tell wonderful stories and was always traveling; he was entertaining and exciting. Charlie

feels that he and his uncle would be a winning combination in wresting something from life's dusty plain; in escaping his parent's negativism and working at the shoe shine parlor.

Though Charlie engages in Walter Mitty dreams about situations where he is in command of his life, all occur in environments outside of Dogtown. Though his dreams include finding a huge treasure, healing a famous race horse, and being mayor of a Mexican village, nothing could equal what happened to Charlie when he and his uncle become partners earning money to promote Uncle Baron's big scheme to go into business. The ensuing incidents read like Mystic Knights of the Sea endeavors to conquer life and its vicissitudes, reducing honest endeavors to caricature and ludicrously limns black life as chasing butterflies.

In p o rtra y in g th e b la c k urban e x p e rie n c e , Bonham does n o t attempt to acknowledge or interpret the effects of isolation segregation in terms of seminal responsibility for the demoralization, lack of esteem for school, concomitant limited employment opportunities, crime, addiction, discrimination, and poor housing found in the ghetto; these factors are accepted as the way it is. But Charles

Matthews, the author posits, wants to escape from the dark ghetto.

To bring his uncle's business venture to fruition, they earn money in the most vicarious ways. They clean up a junk-filled lot, Charlie engages in a boxing exhibition reminiscent of Ellison's battle royal and they also catch ladybugs to sell. But Charlie makes some mistakes as foreshadowed by his

response to a situation in A Raisin in the Sun which he is studying

in school. The play, concerning a black family's attempt to escape

the Chicago slums, is summarized by Mr. Toia as underscoring that

"we’ve got to look it in the eye, and not try to solve our problems by daydreaming and gambling" (MG, p. 51). Charlie's statement that

the husband was foolish to put all his trust in anybody is ironic and foreshadows Charlie's experience with his uncle, whose business venture Charlie does not investigate until it is too late. The business venture was buying a fighting cock which is killed.in the first fight. Since the activity is illegal the police raid the site and Uncle Baron deserts Charlie, driving off with no explanation.

Later, Mr. Toia tells a hurt and discouraged Charlie that his experience points out two conditions; "that some people are to love and some are to invest in" (NG, p. 155). When Charlie attempts to daydream again the bubble breaks, signifying that he has stopped seeking escape in daydreams and begins to face reality. Finally,

Charlie starts to write about his experience, giving the impression that he w ill go the education and scholarship route as Mr. Toia has proposed.

Why did Bonham choose a Charlie Matthews as his protagonist?

Charlie does not engage in gang activity; he wants to make it out of the ghetto and is willing to work. He is in direct contrast with

Rufus, who, though characterized as having leadership ability, is caught in street activity, being unable to break away. Charlie has both parents, but their view of this proposed life style is negative.

But in many ways Charlie and Rufus are alike. They are both challenged by their environment. Charlie’s parents are rural 185

southern born as are Rufus'. Both must fight predators, but Rufus'

are vicious and deadly. Rufus has no confidant such as Breathing

Man or Mr. Leonard or Mr. Toia. Both youths must depend upon

scholarships to get them through college. But the sim ilarities do

not exceed the one basic difference in their life styles. Rufus is

engaged in immediate physical self-preservation and Charlie's goal is

to leave Dogtown. The remarkable thing about Charlie was that since

there was no money in Dogtown, his ability to earn $182.00 in two

weeks was phenomenal. Charlie is on his way to be another superblack.

He can have all the things that upward mobility w ill grant him if

he works hard, but he w ill simply exchange one ghetto for another.

There is nothing in the story which w ill prepare him for the inroads which racial discrimination w ill certainly make upon his ego. At

least Rufus understands the black condition. Charlie never questions why his father has had only menial jobs or why there are black

college graduates out of work.

How has Bonham p rep ared th e re a d e r to accept th e u n accep tab le?

That is, to accept and understand that the equal access principle underlying a democracy based on equality is negated by the very life of the urban center. How has Charlie been prepared for the isolation which will be a permanent factor in his life? His contact with the dominant group has been minimal. Mr. Toia is not representative of

the larger society. He is characterized as different, in his teaching methods and in his relationship with his students. Booklist considers him " e x tra o rd in a ry " (BL, 65, no. 5, Nov. 1, 1968, 305). White Mr.

E llis, the absentee landlord, and his partner, Mr. Woodson, who is also the fight promoter, are close and sharp dealers. But Bonham 186 does not imply that they are representative either. Charlie therefore has no blueprint to guide him in the world beyond the ghetto, and clearly he has no world view. Education is, by and large, the escape route many have taken, however, education is not a weapon of defense against the isolation and discrimination which Charlie Matthews w ill face in the larger world.

Mystery of the Fat Cat

Bonham's third Dogtown novel. Mystery of the Fat Cat, is an adventure story which emphasizes the ability of the Oak Street Boys

Club members to get their fair share of the pie as represented in the w ill of H arriett Atkins, whose estate overlooked Dogtown. By terms of the w ill, at the death of her pet cat. Buzzer, the Boys Club would inherit the trust. Hence, as Horn Book notes, "urban social problems and mystery are brought together" (HB, 44, August 1968, 426). The story has the ingredients for a truly memorable portrait of black life, but it does nor deliver. The cast includes the once poverty stricken

Williams family, who have moved up the ladder in Dogtown, living "in a small neat home at the foot of one of the clustered hills. Both parents worked and brought in good money (MFC, p. 22). Mr. Williams was an adult parole officer and Mrs. Williams worked at the service center. Other family members are seventeen-year old Buddy, Boys Club secretary and life guard; Angie, who at sixteen wants to be a nurse; and twelve-year old Ralph who, though retarded, has a total recall memory. Then there are Buddy's friends, Mexican Johnny "L ittle Pie"

Pastelito, who had been a member of a fighting gang and has a record. 187 Robert'tool"Hanklns, who was also a parolee, and Rich L ittle. Other adults are Mr. Hannibal, the imposing director of the Boys Club,

Joel Shriker, the black Atkins' chauffeur-caretaker, and Mrs. Podesta, the Atkins' white lawyer-trustee, who is clever, but slightly wacky about dogs.

The Club is more than a recreation center; under the aegis of the masterful Hannibal, the Boys Club code set the moral tone for members. "In four sentences, the code built a fence a kid could not crawl under and over. It hemmed him in with such good intentions and good feelings that he was proud to be trapped there" (MFC, pp. 36-37).

As Buddy observed, "Whoever wrote i t . ..he knew boys - that any kid would much rather be good than bad" (MFC, p. 37). Though any infring- ment of this code brought suspension of membership, above all, "in the

Boys Club, it made no difference what a boy had been. Only what he was now, or was trying to be" (MFC, p. 34). But Bonham gives only two of the four rules of the important pledge; "I believe in God and the right to worship according to my own faith and religion. I believe in fair play, honesty and sportsmanship" (MFC, p. 36).

Since the city has already condemned the roach and rat infested Oak Street Boys Club, the Dogtown communal center, a sense of doom invades the club when Buddy Williams is bitten by a rat.

For "it had been nip and tuck over closing the Club for years.

Mr. Hannibal, the director, had struggled and schemed to keep it open.

There were problems with the Health people, the Fire people, and the

Safety people. The building had been condemned over and over, but

Mr. Hannibal had always managed somehow to get a rematch with the rate and roaches and the secret killer called Fire" (MFC, p. 15). 188 But the reason for keeping the Club open was an urgent necessity for

the welfare of Dogtown:

The truth was that no one really wanted to shut down the Boys Club. For if the building were demolished, everyone knew that another dangerous animal would crawl from the ruins to roam the streets in noisy hordes. Animals of this variety would eat anything, fight anything, try anything. They had a fierce craving for greasy food, soft drinks, excitement, and games. When bored, the older animals would even trifle with girls (MFC, p. 17).

The one ray of hope which loomed for building a new club house was, as noted, through the money guaranteed under the Atkins' will. Upon the instigation of Mr. Hannibal, Buddy, L ittle Pie, Cool and Rich form a secret investigative Buzzer Atkins Committee to find whether the cat is alive since Shriker and Mrs. Podesta are hostile to open inquiries from the Boys Club about Buzzer. An in itial foray on the Atkins' estate, where Shriker lives in the guest cottage with

Buzzer, reveals that the cat is still alive, though seemingly there is a difference in his ear markings. Research at the library also reveals a 1950 picture of Buzzer with a black left arid white right ear.

The tempo of the story is accelerated when the Boys Club, which has received a reprieve, explodes, leaving a thousand members, who, without a recreation center, resort to turning on fire hydrants, stealing and vandalism. In addition, the investigating boys' confrontations with

Shriker and Mrs. Podesta are uncomfortably close. And when they attempt to get a picture of the cat, which vanishes. Buddy is apprehended. All Dogtown, including other club members who have gotten into trouble, Mr. and Mrs. Williams, and Shriker, converge at the police station, Mrs. Podesta forestalls Shriker's trespass charges and gets all the troublemakers released, offering a five hundred dollar reward for Buzzer’s return, but later threatens to have Buddy jailed again if he fails to return Buzzer. Angie and

Ralph find Buzzer whose ears are different from those depicted in

the newspaper picture and in the picture which Rich had taken.

Since the two photographers show the same ear markings, the youths are stumped and also outwitted as a private detective, posing as a police officer, confiscates Buzzer.

The question then becomes how many cats there are. The youths also reason that if the real Buzzer is dead, then his corpse must be buried somewhere on the Atkins' estate. Returning to Shriker territory, the boys dig up a box which they hope contains Buzzer's remains. Buddy seems destined, however, for serious charges when he is again caught by the caretaker-chauffeur. Meanwhile, Ralph's violent objections to the word sequence on a pet food sack showing in the background of Rich's picture leads to the discovery that everything in the picture is backwards and the mystery is solved: the live cat proved not to be Buzzer whose earmarkings were just the opposite from the ones in the picture. Shriker confesses and

Mrs. Podesta protests in vain. Did the Boys Club get its new home?

The author does not say in this story, but in Cool Cat it is indicated that the new Boys Club is in the process of being built.

The problems of the book concern characterizations and setting. The characterizations are only fair since the action centers on thwarting Joel Shriker and Mrs. Podesta, whose circumvention of the terms of the will include having a dead Buzzer live forever via live substitutes. How the youths deal with their problem controls the characterizations, but fails to illuminate the basic issues of 190

ghetto life. The story is a comedy of sorts, albeit the humor is

grim in the sense that it is difficult to accept the light-hearted

manner in which Bonham writes about the ghetto experience. The

reviews are favorable, however. Horn Book wrote that "Bonham's

simple but uncondescending style and judicious use of colloquialisms

give immediacy to the problems of the underprivileged without

undermining the basic plot" (HB, 44, Aug. 1968, 427). In fact,

Horn Book goes so far to say that characters and plot are blended

"so well that the reader thinks only incidentally of the boys as

[blacks]" (HB, 44, Aug. 1968, 427). Jane Manthome of the New York

Times concurred in the latter by noting that "only gradually does

the author paint these characters brown or the color of dark rosewood,

revealing them as blacks or 'beans' (Mexican Americans)." Concluding,

Manthome observes that "they emerge as realistic guys of the

ghetto...Particularly in his handling of encounters between citizens

and cops and of alert boys with a mentally retarded youngster,

Bonham shows slum people th e way th e y a re , w ith h o n est pragm atism

and tough vitality" (NYT, Aug. 25, 1968, p. 24). Though starred,

the Library Journal review consisted primarily of plot summary with no literary criticism , concluding that the four main youths in the

story are attractive and "speak the lingo of Durango Street" (LJ, 93,

May 15, 1968, 174).

The questions which should be answered concern the character­

izations and setting. Why do Cool and L ittle Pie play their parts so well? In other words, why do Bonham's ancillary characters perform

in a straightline? These characters are stereotypes. Rich has more depth than either L ittle Pie or Cool in that his photographic 191 invention -led- to the solution of- the mystery. In other words he

does something which forwarded the action. Buddy is more active than

Little Pie or Cool, also. To be sure, he acts in a prescribed manner

towards his brother and sister, but he, too, forwards the action and

this gives him an added dimension. There is one notable development as Horn Book points out, "a powerful contrast is developed in the

persons of Mr. Hannibal, who looks like an African delegate to the

U.N. and Shriker, the scheming...chauffeur" (HB, 44, Aug. 1968, 427).

But Shriker is stereotyped as mean and vicious with plenty of brawn

to support the image and he exhibits the ghetto dweller's unease with the forces of the law when he is at the police station with

Buddy: 'Snrlker was in the position of any Negro in any police station: restless, ill-at-ease, under an invisible thumb. Though he was the complaining witness, he came from a long line of people whose experiences with the law had been universally bad. He began sounding as though the next thing he would say was : 'Oh, well, forget i t '"

(MFC, p. 109).

Mr. Hannibal, good general that he was, marshalled all his dignity and wit on all occasions to accomplish any mission, but he is not fully developed either. Perhaps of all the characters,

Mr. Williams has the most difficult role. He must be on the side of law and order, but he also has clear roots in the ghetto, which is anti-law and order. He must play a dual role. For example, when he states that he has parolees who could have done better than what the boys tried to do, he never answers his wife's question as to whether he would have them break the law. In another incident Mr. Williams is faced with the problem of providing an alibi for the boys, he 192 states that "since they're the real lawbreakers [Mrs. Podesta and

Shriker] I 'll do my best to back you up. You realize, of course,

that if they break our story. I 'll be charged, too. But you're my boy, and it seems to be something I've got to do for you. The last probably" (MFC, p.151). He is saved, however, when Buddy inadver­ tently blurted out that the cat was dead, an admission which automatically placed the strong box in his possession.

The setting, however, again is the real culprit. For if

Dogtown were not a slum ghetto the story-line would be different.

But Dogtown is a slum ghetto and in the story Bonham supports the concept that its inhabitants, finding that the power of the larger world inordinate, generally resort to solving their problems in unorthodox ways, bending the law, or as Manthome observes, looking at life pragmatically.

Why does Bonham, with the basis for a powerful book, resort to telling the story in a vignette style? In my view, Bonham seems more comfortable writing about situations or case studies as in

Durango Street and The Nitty G ritty. In The Mystery of the Fat Cat, his is the social worker's approach laced with folklore such as broad humor, grass-roots independence, and vigilantism all of which are indigenous to the American experience. But did the adventure change the boys' view of life in relation to themselves and to others? Did the activity generate a deeper understanding of the black condition?

What was the main thesis in the story? Was the thesis connected in any meaningful way to a world view of the characters' basic perception of what is what? Why did Bonham choose Buddy Williams to be the main character? What role does Ralph play? What does Buzzer 193 represent? Of course, the characters are not depicted as having been affected psychologically by the encounter. Neither is there any evidence that they develop a world view of the black American position. The main emphasis of the book is that right will triumph.

The amateur ghetto youths win over the seasoned schemers, black Joel

Shriker and white Mrs. Podesta, a color combination which abrogates any notion of racial partiality. The theme, however, has an immediacy to the larger problem of ghetto life and to the world at large, but there is no linkage to these factors.

Buddy Williams, along with his family, was an excellent choice for the main character in that he exemplified one kind of ghetto experience. He was just average all around; he was the ideal type to render the story believable. Ralph provides the comedy; and Buzzer represents the power, the absurbity, and the irrational of the main­ stream. What can be said, then, of Bonham's attempt to bring ghetto life into mainstream objectives? There is little in the novel to recommend it as a realistic picture of ghetto life. The isolated lives of Dogtown are contrasted with the world beyond its boundaries.

Therefore, it must be concluded that if the story was written purposely as black literature it fails. Blacks are not whites and stories which do not address blackness and what that means in terms o f th e la rg e r s o c ie ty a re n o t v ia b le . Bonham w rite s th e s to ry o u t of context in that he writes about an experience; he does not explore the black condition and isolation. He either does not understand the why of the black life or he fails to consider these conditions.

In Durango Street he did attempt to get into the black world, but just like Means in Shuttered Windows, Bonham supports the thesis 194 that the social and psychological pathology of the ghetto are natural.

In my view, a realistic portrayal would offer a positive

image of the blacks' physical, emotional and intellectual potential.

It is ironic that the material utilized to aid students gain control over their lives and extend their freedoms are subtly telling them that their potentials are severely limited and that the nature of their societal contribution is sharply prescribed at birth. The story, as do Bonham's other Dogtown novels, portrays blacks as naturally members of "out groups" - strange, different and isolated - but Banks has recommended that books such as Bonham's be utilized in the classroom, especially in social studies, accompanied by discussion and meaningful teaching strategies in order to make the student aware of the harsh realities of the black world and the dominating role of the larger society in that world (Banks, DRT, p. 549). Though the

Mystery of the Fat Cat is well-written, it does not move beyond the superficial, it does not tell about the real and the true in the black world.

Cool Cat

In Cool Cat, his fourth Dogtown novel, Bonham, attempting to write realistically about the ghetto experience, resorts to a superficial story-line involving violence, drugs, and gang activity.

The reviews were mixed. Writing in Library Journal William Forman noted that "the plot, basically a good one, is handled poorly; little [was] told that might provide some real insights into the drug scene, ghetto life, depicted" (LJ, Mar. 1, 1971, p. 1810).

Booklist found the study "realistic but not grim [with]...humorous 195 as well as bitter moments" (BL, 68, June 1, 1971, 833). The

Children's Book Center concluded, however, that although the book was "well-written and grimly mirrored the ghetto scene...[it] lacked

direction or focus" (CBC, Apr. 1971, p. 152). And the latter

criticism is perhaps the key to Bonham's weakness in the story.

Briefly put, some of the Mystery of the Fat Cat characters such as Buddy Williams, Cool Hankins, Rich L ittle, and L ittle Pie, attempting to run a hauling business, are harrassed by Machete gang leader Benny Blue Eyes Infante, who considers police-cadet Pastelito a pig, but whose connection with the drug trade leads to Pastelito's arrest, when a mutual friend. Speedy Noon, nearly dies of an overdose.

Pastelito is vindicated when cool cat Cal Brown uncovers Infante's drug operation, which has been under surveillance by Brown, an under­ cover agent, whose identity is not revealed until the end of the s to r y . Again as in h is o th e r Dogtown s t o r i e s , Bonham z e ro e s in on the physical aspects of the ghetto:

It was a jungle. On a smoggy day, breathing the air was like being down in a smokestack.. . [A] smoky dusk had rolled in, a cold haze settling like fumes from a fireplace that would not draw. Neon signs burned through the early dark of Ajax Street, loops and slashes of red, green and blue, like tangled blood vessels. Along Ajax Street, stores, pawnshops, bars and dingy hotels jostled for space. On the walks Buddy had seen every kind of human being there was - little kids, winos, preachers, hustlers, addicts, C ir l S c o u t s ,drunken Santa Clauses. In every doorway some derelict huddled with a slack jaw, a hand out for quarters, and unfocused eyes that seem to say. Seems like _I was going someplace. . .Wonder what happened?45

One gets the impression that Dogtown is not only isolated from its immediate world, but from the world in general, where, ironically blacks and Mexican Americans have clear roots since they are a part 196 o f th e g lo b a l m a jo rity . But why does Bonham mesmerize h is audience

with the dismal aspects of Dogtown? What quality does he invest his

c h a ra c te rs w ith most c o n s is te n tly ? Bonham s u p e r f ic ia lly ex p lo re s

the human problem of Dogtown and consistently dwells on the urban

problem, focusing on urban physical disorders, ignoring the human

misery of the ghetto, because he is, as previously noted, on the

outside looking in. Both the ghetto and its dwellers endure, a

characteristic of Bonham's characters in general. For example.

Buddy Williams, unlike Charlie Matthews, who is motivated to leave,

has roots which are firmly entrenched in Dogtown soil. In the

Mystery of the Fat Cat, he displayed his ingenuity for getting things

done and since his ambition at the moment is to buy Rich Smith's

scooter, action may be expected. Buddy and his friends are unable

to find suitable summer work, and Buddy, wanting something better

than working on a garbage truck or handing out towels at the mission,

"was bothered by the way everybody knuckled down to getting used to

what they got, rather than hanging on till they got what they wanted"

(CC, p. 12). Cool and Rich, too, have their ambitions. Cool, whose

aunt was on welfare, "stayed pretty clean and went to school more

often than not. It was just that he was always broke" (CC, p.35 ).

Cool sold blood at the plasma center to obtain gas money for his old

Buick. Rich Smith, dating Angie, Buddy's sister, wanted to buy a

c a r.

There is plenty of action in the story, but it has a negative

quality. Pastelito thinks that Speedy Noon's unprovoked attack on

him is because Noon is spaced out. Though he does know that Blue

Eyes holds his police cadet position against him and has informed 197

the police that Pastelito is the titular head of the Mexican Mafia,

Little Pie does not connect the two activities. Later he and

Buddy find Speedy, who has taken an overdose; they must therefore

make a report at the police station. At that time, some pills fall

from Little Pie’s hat. He is, of course, innocent. Though his

superior. Sergeant Tucker, a black plainsclothesman, is very

understanding, the evidence seems so concrete that Pastelito is

relieved of his position and booked for a hearing. Meanwhile, the

four boys, in pursuing their hauling business with Buddy's Uncle

Joe Sawyer, who makes a baseball bat called the Dogtown Destroyer, must enter Blue Eyes Infante's Machete territory where the Sawyer

Wood Products' plant is located.

In the many confrontations between Infante and the youths,

there is a fight between Blue Eyes and Pastelito, the boys are shot

at, and their truck, which they had purchased from Mr. Sawyer, is wrecked. Repair money is obtained by raiding an old bank's historical deposit corner, which their truck had initially struck

in the accident causing some block breakage, and in which they find some old coins and redeem them. Later, they dynamite Infante's automobile. In all of this, cool cat, Cal Brown, drifts in and out of their lives, showing up when Speedy is found, being present at

Infante's car bombing and later at the junk yard when the car was taken by police. Is he a pusher? Did he give Speedy the overdose?

What is his game? He does carry a gun, and is indeed a mystery man for whom the boys have a general aversion. In the end, of course, he reveals that he is a narcotics agent and that Infante's cache was carried in his car tires. Speedy was one of his customers and 198

had hidden his pills in the gum machine at the service station-garage

where he worked. While at the station with Buddy, Ralph had found the

pills and had placed them in Little Pie’s hat. One of the redeeming

features of the story is that the older boys care for Ralph is the

same manner as in Mystery of the Fat Cat.

There is little to say here that has not already been voiced

about Bonham and h is view of th e b la c k w orld. As in h is o th e r n o v e ls,

Bonham does not present all the facts about ghetto life; the omission

results in a picture of reality that is different from the one that would have emerged had all the facts been presented. Only part of the

truth has been presented; other parts of the truth have been censored

so to speak. In my view, teachers of adolescent literature about blacks have a great social responsibility to present books which have

a well-rounded view of black life which can be discussed and

criticized and appreciated for its ethnicity. The problematic nature

of the black experience includes their marginality, their specialness,

their separateness, and also their centrality to the world beyond, but Bonham treats the black community as an abstraction not "our" people.

Hey, Big Spender

Bonham p u b lish e d th e f i n a l Dogtown s to r y . Hey, Big Spender in

1973, and by that time some critics such as Rae Alexander were beginning to reject books such as Bonham’s declaring that these books, written from the outside looking in, presented only negative images of black life. (Alexander, p. 59). Other sources, such as We Build

Together and the New York Public Library’s The Black Experience in 199 C h ild re n 's Books, though re ta in in g th e Bonham t i t l e s , d e le te d th e

terms "recommended" and "not recommended" from the annotations. These

actions were by all accounts, steps forward. Other review sources

were also beginning to be more critical of Bonham. For example,

writing about Hey, Big Spender, Library Journal states that the author

"combines fantasy, mystery and adventure" in the story, but that the

"realities of ghettoes makes it hard to swallow Bonham's romantic

picture of life in them," concluding that the book "was a pleasant

diversion." (LJ, 98, No. 2, Nov. 15, 1973, 266). Booklist noted that

"likeable characters and natural dialog enhance a somewhat incredible

but entertaining story" (Booklist, 68, 18, May 15, 1972, p. 818).

In my view, the terms "pleasant diversion" and "entertaining"

are hardly appropriate for a description of the story if it is analyzed

from the perspective of being on the inside looking out. But in this

book, as in th e M ystery of th e F at C a t, Bonham d is p la y s h is tendency

to romanticize the ghetto experience. And, as in the other Dogtown

novels, the larger world is the spectator and the ghetto is the stage.

Those questions which should be considered for class discussion

necessarily concern setting and personae' from the latter perspective.

For example, does the book deal with the challenge of being a ghetto minority? Does the protoganist learn to find pride in his social

identity? Do the characters learn to establish their own worth as a

social group? Does the book present a realistic picture of the basic

problems facing the urban black and provide the central characters

with the opportunity to understand and acknowledge their identy?

Of course, these questions could be utilized with the other books

in this study. 200

The story of Hey, Big Spender is slight. Breathing I!an inherits a half million dollars and hires seventeen-year old Cool Hankins to interview clients to determine the neediest recipients in order to give the inheritance away, and hence Cool earns the title . Big

Spender. Cool is a continuing character, who had a supporting role in Wÿstery of the Fat Cat and Cool Cat. Living with his aunt, who operates a run-down foster home for children. Cool is characterized as being "aware of the drug abuse, racial prejudice, poverty and crime which surround him, but his is above it" (LJ, 98, Jan. 1,

1973, 266). If Cool is dismayed at the poverty and heartbreak he uncovers in dispensing with the inheritance money, he is also angered at "the phonies and con men, one of the latter is his father," who flood his organization’s office, which his friend Buddy Williams and

L ittle Pie, both continuing characters, help him organize. The first r e c ip ie n ts a re w h ite Woodrow Snow, who l a t e r tu r n s t o d r in k , and

Chicano mother Cruz Torres.

As other settlements are made. Cool finds it increasingly more difficult to compile a final list from which Breathing Man can select the winner. In addition, in contacting Breathing î-îan who lives in the city storm drains. Cool encounters the tough homocidal Hoad Pascals motorcycle gang, who also hang out in the drains. The tension encounters between Cool and the Pascals climaxes with Cool's refusal to pay funeral expenses for two of their members who are killed in an accident. In retaliation. Cool is pursued in a wild chase through the drains. Cool escapes but later his motorcycle is sabotaged.

Giving away the inheritance as Breathing Man desires proves impracti­ cal; Aunt Josie Moore presents the idea of establishing a foster home 201

chain which appeals to Breathing Man and Cool.

In p re s e n tin g th e s to r y , Bonham has B reathing Man evolving

into the man with a magic lamp of which he does not understand the

value, not because he shuns wealth, but because he exhibits not even

a rudimentary knowledge of the economic system which is central to

his existence. The southern black-owned LeDuke Motel chain from which the inheritance came is in all probability based on the A.W.

Gaston Motel chain which prospered because of the southern way of

life, and made its owner a wealthy businessman. But Breathing Man w ill have nothing to do with high-finance; he wants to dispense with his windfall; the incidents which compose the largest segment of the text, of course, deal with Cool and his commitment to find

those in need.

Although Bonham is especially good in capturing the speech and thought of the universal adolescent. Cool has nothing to say about what it means to be black in a hostile environment. This subject is lim ited to one conversation between Cool and Breathing Man who says that as a youth in the South he had encountered some "no good whites who stoned the horse he was riding causing the horse to run himself 46 to death." And, there is less emphasis on soul food which is presented in Durango Street and The Nitty Gritty as regular fare for black families.

There are discrepancies, however, concerning Cool's name which was Robert in The Mystery of the Fat Cat and Cool Cat, but is

Walter in this story. In addition, in this story. Cool's father was said to have left when his son was small and Cool was reared by his

Aunt Josie. But in The Mystery of the Fat Cat, when the boys are at 202 the police station Bonham writes that Cool s parents could not be located at the time. (MFC, p. 71).

As in his other novels, the author has failed to indicate that life in the black ghetto has two boundaries; the struggle for existence within and the struggle against the force of the larger society. Cool, as all the other Bonham characters, is a loner in a sense more powerfully demonstrated in his activities than in his dialogue with other characters.

In Hey, Big Spender, Cool is extraneous to the supreme sacrifice Breathing Man is making. But he is not extra in his dialogue with those with whom he must deal to accomplish his mission. Cool is a character who knows that he is extra. He plays a small role in his aunt's life but he plays no leading role in the life of Dogtown until Breathing Man selects him and he is selected because of his character which is any man's. Breathing Man understands this and sees

Cool as a faceless anonymity, knowing that Cool's character would not interfere with his judgment. Breathing Man too is limned as an isolated person. For while it is true that his role is that of an in­ formant and a bénéficient, he interacts with other Dogtown dwellers only to the extent of that information and beneficence given. A clue to his character is clearly found in his gesture to dispose of his inherited fortune. To keep his fortune would necessarily drive him into the arms of others. His mode of living, characterized by his home in the storm drain, point to his desire for isolation.

In conclusion, then, what can be said about Bonham's novels.

The characters in all the novels may be described as pen and pencil sketches; but to be representative of the complexities of human life. 203 their outlines need to be filled in and more substance added to their

portrayals. When Bonham introduces a character such as Charlie

Matthews, Cool Hawkins, and to some extent. Rufus Henry, one assumes

that he is aware of their substance, but he does not present this

knowledge. What are more essential to character building than those external forces such as human relationships, were experiences which comprise the pattern of daily life? And what forces mold the

Dogtown youths? The primary force, of course, is the ghetto environment which does not necessarily enrich the lives of its dwellers, but is a negative force, something from which to escape or to endure, but enduring the ghetto experience is equivalent to bankrupting the spirit.

What, then, can be said about the heroes of the Dogtown novels?

Can we properly entertain that idea that these are real heroes in the primary sense of fighting dragons and winning gloriously or losing ungloriously? The answer, of course, is negative. Bonham does not permit any of his male characters to be heroic; they are instead reduced to caricatures buried in the miasma of Dogto;vn.

Is it heroic to face what is considered ordinary in daily life?

And the ghetto sordidness as portrayed was regarded as the status quo.

Hence, Bonham’s portraits lack the efficiency of life lived as a triumph over recalcf‘■r~nt forces, in my view, these stories could be utilized effectively by comparing them with other views of the ghetto in order to catch the thread that runs through all ghetto stories.

All Bonham’s stories are peopled with the old and the new poor, the poverty-stricken, con men, and hustlers who are not developing c h a ra c te rs . And ag ain and ag ain Bonham h an d les a s o c ie ty where children and adults are packed closely into the decrepit old homes 204 of Dogtown.

The Contender by Robert Lipsyte

A fte r Bonham p u b lish ed h is f i r s t Dogtown n o v e l, R obert L ip sy te

offered another view on ghetto life in the story of Harlemite Alfred

Brooks, the protagonist in The Contender, which was selected the

Child Study Association Best Children's Novel in 1967. In addition,

Lipsyte, a native New Yorker and sports w riter with the New York Times,

has co-authored Nigger (1964) with Dick Gregory and received the

Dutton Sports Story Award for 1964, 1965, 1970 and 1971 and the Mike

Berger Award for distinguished reporting in 1966. It is not surprising,

therefore, to find that the action boxing scenes which dominate the book are vivid and realistic. As Nate Hentoff points out,"...whenever

Lipsyte writes about boxing itself, he indicates how intensely evocative he can be and he moves the reader beyond maxims into participation" (BRD, 1967, p. 798). Otherwise, Hentoff felt that the story "failed as believable fiction...[since] the material is so neatly and obviously manipulated that virtue will have to be its own reward" (BRD, 1967, p. 798).

To be sure, the author, Hentoff and John S. Simmons remark,

indulges in didacticism to underscore the philosophy that being a 47 contender first is more important than winning. But he does depict

"the inner transformation of a boy gone slack into a boxer gradually responding to different and compelling rhythms as he is driven by

self-stretching imperatives, as emotional as they are physical"

(BRD, 1967, p. 798). Hungerford believes that "Lipsyte writes from deeply within the boy's self and the life of the ghetto" (BRD, 1967, 205 p. 798). Hungerford notes also that "the reader suffers with Alf's humiliations,is stirred by his strivings. Mechanics disappear and between the reader and the struggling boy no obstacle stands"

(BRD, 1967, p. 798). Concluding, he writes that The Contender is "a fine book in which interest combines with compassion and enlightenment"

(BRD, 1967, p. 798): Recommending the book as suitable for "early secondary literature study" John Simmons considers it "highly teachable"

(LC, p. 116). Basing his opinion on Lipsyte's adherence to acceptable guidelines for adolescent fiction, Simmons also believes that the author's "ability to produce a picture of life which is credible for today's adolescent and to avoid censorship...is a tribute to his craftsmanship and an endorsement of the text for use by teachers"

(IÆ, p. 116).

The story concerns young Alfred Brooks, a high school drop-out and potential loser, who finds his niche through the rigors of training and its application in the ring as an amateur boxer. His is a success story as far as his ability to be a contender, the one who is, his manager te lls him, "The Man coming up, the Man who knows there is a good chance h e'll never get to the top. The Man who's willing to sweat and bleed to get as high as his legs and his brain and his heart will take him" (TC, p. 27). But his willingness to buy peace of mind through the fuzziness of Lipsyte's acceptance of the status quo for blacks is somewhat puzzling as we shall see.

The chance to be somebody comes through his training at Vito

Donatelli's gym where Alfred gets his start to be a contender outside as well as inside the boxing ring. Contrary to Summers' assertion that the treatment of problems endured by those who live "in the 206 ghetto is presented realistically," the author takes poetic license with life in Harlem, in my view (LC, p. 118). There are violence

and drugs in the story, but the underlying cause for these conditions

is not given. There is an attempt to people Alfred's world with a variety of characters such as Vito Donntelli whose fatherly interest in Alfred is singular; Henry Jackson, the assistant trainer;

B ill Witherspoon, an ex-boxer turned teacher, both of whom show concern for the young boxer. Others in the story are Alfred's addicted friend, James Mosely, who once had dreams of becoming an engineer; Aunt Pearl, who reared Alfred with her two daughters after his father's desertion and mother's death; Uncle Wilson, prototype of an older generation who is "not sure [he] understands the new [one]"

(TC, p. 156); Alfred's cousin, Jeff, a college student, who leads

Alfred to his final decision. Other persons are Major, Sunny and

Hollis, street prototypes, and Lou Epstein, the champion ex-boxer and co-owner of the small grocery store where Alfred works. Through the black characters and the exhortations of the black nationalists,

Lipsyte attempts to present a variety of views concerning black life.

To be sure. Summers finds the book concerns "alienated young people searching for a place in a modern urban setting," but Lipsyte does not discuss in depth the problem of isolation inherent in a system which labels ethnic groups minority citizens and shuts them up in ghettoes

(LC, p. 117).

And it is to this problem that black nationalists for separatists should have addressed themselves in the book; they do not. The men­ tion of the black separatists philosophy is a new problem which the book presents since Lipsyte chooses to ignore the basic causes 207 underlying the philosophy. While the nationalist explained to the

street crowd that "the white man's got his foot on your throat...

you gonna lick his shoe...He shoots you down in the street, you

gonna keep turning the other check?" The author writes that "Aunt

Pearl sailed serenly past....she looked neither right no left, eyes

focused straight ahead, her face glowing with the quiet joys of Sunday,

her day" (TC, pp. 24-30). Furthermore, the author has Aunt Pearl's minister warn his parishioners not only about the nationalists but

the civil righters, too "...the devil's agents wear new uniforms

these trying days, but their poisons are the same. They say go out

and hate the white man. They say go set yourself down in places where you are not wanted" (TC, p. 32).

There is no reason for Lipsyte to question or negate the

authenticity of the nationalists' or civil righters' appeals, but his handling of these issues is a crucial factor for the purpose of

this study. Once introduced, if the author had given any credence

to the nationalists' and civil righters' views or explored the factors underlying their philosophies, the story-line would have been

entirely different. But Lipsyte limns Alfred as non-political and has him ignore Harold, "a big shot politician he had never liked in school" (TC, p. 30). When Harold exhorts him to "come on, we have to wake our people up, things are happening, man," Alfred refuses, which prompts Harold to call him a "happy little darkey" (TC, pp. 30-31).

But who does Alfred's thinking for him? Alfred gets advice from many sources such as Major, Aunt Pearl, Uncle Wilson, his boxing associates and Jeff, his cousin. But beneath all the quiet ruminations he is selective about the advice he accepts. At this point there are 208 concerns about the author's Intent which teachers should be questioning. A good starting point, in my view, is to examine the kind of advice Donatelli gives Alfred which would negate any feeling of black consciousness Alfred might develop on his way to be a contender. Another question would concern what the dentist tells

Alfred on his first day at the gym which is significant to Alfred's later decision to quit the ring. And most importantly why does the author present only negative images of the nationalist movement and civil righters? In my view, Alfred's aggressions are inward; he punishes himself with fears of his own shortcomings in coping with the rawness, narrowness and squalor of the ghetto. TJhy?

Before the significance of these questions is examined, a look at Alfred's character seems in order. He is mild-mannered and quiet; he is labeled an accommodating uncle Tom by Major for being loyal to the Epsteins. Feeling emphathetic toward his fugitive and drug- addicted friend, James, Alfred wants to help him.

Also, he is subject to black dependency. But he is presented as a black who has no consciousness about the black condition- He is the bootstrap advocate who judges his failure in terms of his own inadequacies. Lipsyte clearly indicates that success is an apple for

Alfred to pick; all the protagonist must do is to reach for it and persevere. For instance, Donatelli's advice was about the struggle of life in general. It could have been given to any youth who seeks the answers. There is no particular appeal to black pride to overcome specific obstacles which have their seminal seat in being a black minority. The dentist tells him that if he kills "the belly, the head w ill die," which would have symbolically happened to Alfred, who 209 does not have the killer instinct for fighting, if he had decided

to pursue a boxing career. (TC, p. 50).

Lipsyte has the nationalist spokesman spewing sensational rhetoric which would naturally negate any beneficial rational response the philosophical stance would evoke and limns Harold, the civil rights activist, as self-serving. Negative images are further reinforced by the black m inister's dire admonitions against the movements. Alfred is neither a political nor a civil rights activist. He finds violence, which is Major's thrust, unacceptable.

But he neither finds a connection between the irrelevancy in the television programs featuring whites to his life nor the relevancy of the black nationalists and civil rights stances to his own situation as a black ghetto dweller. He plays the role of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps with the support of kindly but tough

Donatellij sage Henry, and resilient Witherspoon. The problems which Alfred confronts, Lipyste writes, are not the problems of the larger world. If Alfred accepts the status quo for blacks - just as

Witherspoon apparently does, then he too, can rise. And it is not by chance that the minister labels boxing, which Aunt Pearl thought was

"full of gansters.. . [where] people get hurt," "a meaningless pursuit"

(TC, p. 78, p. 81).

The writing is uneven, but is acceptable. The book has some deficiencies, perhaps the chief of which is that Lipsyte offers Alfred a world which has been sanitized: There are no racial bigots, but there are solicitous police officers who inquire about Alfred's future as a boxer. Lipsyte does not, then, provide the story of ghetto life.

What the author presents is his formula for black success in a white 210 world. The factors of the isolated and alienated black world with which the urban dweller must deal in mundane affairs are not considered. Unfortunately, Lipsyte presents his formula through the consciousness of a black youth who seems entirely trustworthy; therefore many teachers may miss the book's ultimate message which promotes an acceptance of the status quo. FOOTNOTES

Chapter III

1. Darwin Taylor, "Literature and Society's Values," English Journal, 60 (May 1971), 577.

2. Leola Bond, English Education (Winter 1972) rpt. in Daniel Dieterich, "Black Literature In the English Classroom" English Journal, 62 (June 1973), 151.

3. Louise Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration (New York: Appelton, 1938), p. 21.

4. Personal Interview with Virginia Hamilton, April 1, 1976.

5. Ossie Davis, "The English Language is My Enemy," IRCD Bulletin, 5 (Summer 1969), 14.

6. "Editorial Comment," "The Environment of Language," Saturday Review, 8 April 1967, p. 36.

7. "A Short Flay in 'Black' and 'White' Words," Interracial Books for Children, 7, no. 5, (1976), 3.

8. Simon Podair, "How Bigotry Builds Through Literature," Negro Digest, 16 (March 1967), 40.

9. Nancy L. Amez, "Enhancing the Black Self-Concept Through Literature," Black Self-Concept, eds. James A. Banks and Jean D resden Grambs (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972), p. 96.

10. Robert Small, Jr., "An Analysis and Evaluation of Widely Read Junior Novels With Major Negro Characters," DISS., University of Virginia, 1970, p. 227. Hereafter cited as Small.

11. Ruby J. Lanier, "Profile: Call Me Jesse Jackson," Language Arts, 54, no. 3 (March 1977), 339. Hereafter cited as Profile.

12. Booklist, 42 (November 15, 1945), 96. Hereafter cited as ^ with proper volume and pagination for all references.

211 13. Book Review Digest, (1945), p. 335. Hereafter cited as BRD with proper year and pagination for all references.

14. Broderick, p. 90.

15. Jesse Jackson, Call Me Charley (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1945), p. 183. Hereafter cited as CMC.

16. Jessie Jackson, Anchor Man (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1947) p. 21. Hereafter cited as AC.

17. Shelton Root, Jr., "Books for Children," Elementary English, 48 (April 1971), 294.

18. Kirkus Review, 15 (August 15, 1947), 430. Hereafter cited as ^ with proper volume and pagination for all references.

19. Alvin Poussaint and Carolyn Atkinson, "Black Youth and Motiva­ tion," Black Self-Concept, eds. James A. Banks and Jean Dresden Grambs (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972), p. 63

20. Martin Luther King, Jr., "The American Dream," Negro History Bulletin, 31, 5 (May 1958), 10.

21. Jesse Jackson, Charley Starts from Scratch (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1958), p. 10. Hereafter cited as CSFS.

22. Rev. of Charley Starts from Scratch by Jesse Jackson, Library Journal, 83 (July-December, 1958), 3578. Library Journal is hereafter cited as ^ with proper volume and pagination for all references.

23. George Schuyler, Pittsburg Courier, 9 Sept. 1939, n.p.

24. Rev. of Tessie by Jesse Jackson, Saturday Review 50 (May- August 1968), 33. Saturday Review is hereafter cited as ^ with proper volume and pagination for all references.

25. Jesse Jackson, Tessie (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1968), p. 16. Hereafter cited as Tessie.

26. Mary Louise Birmingham, rev. of Tessie by Jesse Jackson, New York Times Book Review, 26 May 1968, p. 30. The New York Times Book Review is hereafter cited as NYT for all references.

27. John Lovell, Jr., "The Ways of Racial Art," Journal of Negro Education 24 (Spring 1955), 1 5 6.

28. Anne Comire, ed.. Something About the Author (Detroit: Gale Research, 1971), I, 155. Hereafter cited as SAA with volume and pagination.

212 29. Florence Crannell Means, Shuttered Windows (Boston: Houghton M ifflin Company, 1938), p. 8. Hereafter cited as SW.

30. Chicago Children's Book Center Bulletin, Junior High School Library Catalog, 1st éd., eds, Gary L. Bogart and Ilene R. Schechter (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1965), p. 339. Junior High School Library Catalog is hereafter- cited as JHSLC; Chicago Children's Book Center Bulletin is hereafter cited as CBC.

31. Hope Newell, A Cap for Mary E llis (New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1953), p. 20. Hereafter cited as CME.

32. M.S. Libby, rev. of Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling, New York Herald Tribune Book Review, Part 1, 10 May 1959, p. 16.

33. Dorothy Sterling, Mary Jane (Garden City: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1959), p. 45. Hereafter cited as MJ.

34. Rev. of Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling, London Times Literary Supplement, 29 May 1959, rpt. in Book Review Digest 1959, p. 942.

35. Rev. of Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling, Bookmark, 18 (April 1959), p. 182.

36. Hila Colman, Classmates by Request (New York; William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1964), p. 31. Hereafter cited as CBR.

37. Sandra Schmidt, rev. of The Empty Schoolhouse by Natalie Savage Carlson, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 November 1964, p. 34. Hereafter The Christian Science Monitor is cited as CSM.

38. Natalie Savage Carlson, The Empty Schoolhouse (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1965), p. 20. Hereafter cited as ES.

39. Jane Goldner."Aesthetics, Morality, and the Two Cultures," The Black American in Books for Children eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972), p. 48. Hereafter cited as Goldner.

40. Frank Bonham, Mystery of the Fat Cat (New York: E.P. Dulton and Company, Inc., 1968), p. 15. Hereafter cited as MFC.

41. Frank Bonham, Durango Street (New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1965), p. 27. Hereafter cited as DS.

42. Rev. of Durango Street by Frank Bonham, Best Sellers, 25 (September 15, 1965), 251.

43. James McBride, rev. of Durango Street by Frank Bonham New York Times Book Review, 5 September 1965, p. 20.

213 44. Frank Bonham, The Nitty Gritty (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1968), p. 24. Hereafter cited as NG.

45. Frank Bonham, Cool Cat (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1971), p. 6, p. 22. Hereafter cited as CC.

46. Frank Bonham, Hey, Big Spender (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1972), p. 67.

47. John S. Simmons, "Lipsyte's Contender: Another Look at the Junior Novel,"Elementary English, 49 (January 1972), 117. Hereafter cited as LC.

:14 CHAPTER IV

VIRGINIA HAMILTON

By her own admission Virginia Hamilton "was a late developer" as a writer; nevertheless, her credentials are in order.^ For her first children's novel, Zeely, published in 1967, Miss Hamilton received the

Nancy Bloch Memorial Award of Downtown Community School Awards Committee,

New York, followed by the Edgar Allen Poe Award for the best juvenile mystery and the Ohioana Book Award, 1969, for The House of Dies Drear; next. The Planet of Junior Brown, a Newbery Honor Book in 1971, joined the preceding novels as an ALA Notable Book, and in 1975 she became the first black to receive the Newbery Medal, winning it for M. C^. Higgins, the Great, which was judged the "most distinguished contribution to children's literature" in 1974. For this novel. Miss Hamilton also won the coveted National Book Award for Children's Books, the first time that one book won both awards.

Her work has been acclaimed by some critics as portraying "the 2 reality of today's world." Other critics, such as Paul Heins, believe that she "is not strictly a realistic writer, although the base of her 3 operations may be said to be realism." By her own light. Miss Hamilton says that her "concerns begin at some point on the far side of reality.

What I am com pelled to w rite can b e s t be d e sc rib e d as some essen ce of the dreams, lies, myths, and disasters befallen a clan of my blood re­ latives whose troubled footfall is first discernible on this North

American c o n tin e n t some ona-hundred f i f t y y e a rs ago'* (HJRA, p. 118). 215 216 Virginia Hamilton was born March 12, 1936, in Yellow Springs,

Ohio, the youngest of five children of Etta Belle Perry Hamilton, the

eldest daughter of Levi Perry, a fugitive slave, and James Kenneth

Hamilton, an outlander Illini-Iowan of Creole parentage, and musician

and farmer. Miss Hamilton was "a country child," surrounded by her

mother's vast and rambling Perry clan amid family farmland in the soil

rich Miami Valley (LCI, p. 307). Speaking of her family, she observes:

I learned early that the Perry Clan was more important than the house of Hamilton. My m o th e r's people were warm h e a rte d , ti g h t w ith money, generous to the sick and the landless, close-mouthed and fond of telling tales and gossip about one another and even their ancestors. They were a part of me from the time I under­ stood that I belonged to all of them. My Uncle King told the best ta ll tales; my Aunt Leanna sang the finest sorrowful songs. My own mother could take a slice of fiction float­ ing around the family and polish it into a saga (SAA, 4, p. 99).

There is no doubt, however, that her father had a great influence on her life. Although a graduate of Iowa State Business College, a hard-earned feat for a black man in the 1890's, he found that the opportunity to employ his skills was non-existent. Finding other methods of supporting himself, he spent his earlier days wandering over the face of North America and running gambling halls in the Dakota mining towns. He was, his daughter writes, 'charming, talented, moody and forbidding.' A superb mandolinist, 'he remained bitter to all unions because in his youth the musician's union would not give member­ ship to blacks like him' (SAA, 4, p. 99). Just like her father, she admits, she dislikes darkness, revealing that " he tried to conquer darkness through his haunting classic harmonies: I through the endless parade of figures that tramped across the reach of my mind " (SAA, 4, 217 p. 99). And clearly, he was influential in developing her sense of the black condition: "There was never any part of the world nor any inci­ dent in the black man's history that he didn't expound upon. He knew

Jack London and Blind Lemon Jefferson," Miss Hamilton reveals (SAA,4, p. 99). Along with his love of music and pride in race, her father also shared his love of books with his children, urging them to read the classics and authors such as Poe and Kafka. As a direct outgrowth of her father's habit of holding up great black men and women to his brood as models of integrity and fortitude. Miss Hamilton has written biographies on W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson, two names frequently discussed and praised in the Hamilton household.

Of her place of birth. Miss Hamilton observes that "I was born in a miserable corner of southern Ohio and dutifully raised there, where it is said that God Himself has seen the place only twice: once when

He created it; and the time He came back to apologize for what He had done."^ But beyond the witticism is the deep pride in beginnings:

"Actually, Yellow Springs, where I grew up is quite a pretty place.

My mother's Perry family came to town before Emancipation. I grew up within the warmth of loving aunts and uncles, all reluctant farmers, but great story-tellers. I remember the tales best of all" (Hopkins, p. 564). Speaking of her early decisions, she writes that "by the time I was seven, I knew that life must be freedom; there was not better life than those acres and surrounding farmlands. Being the 'baby' and bright, mind you, and odd and sensitive, I was left alone to discover whatever there was to find" (Hopkins, p. 564).

And she firmly believes that her childhood experiences and opportunities were formative: 'No wonder then that I started to write 218 things down at an early age. I'm a writer, I think, nearly by birth.

There was no other way, really, that I could go" (Hopkins, p. 564). Her

interest in writing did indeed begin early in childhood. At nine she

started a notebook filling it with family anecdotes unintelligible to

her, but which she hoped would be understandable with maturity. Before

she was ten, however, she lost this monumental record of family gossip;

a loss from which, she confesses, she has never fully recovered, since

"the mystery of what lay stark and open within its pages would never be

known" (LCI, p. 307). And now in compensation, she reveals, she "writes

books in order to rediscover a mislaid mystery" (LCI, p. 308). Reminisc­

ing, she relates that as a child growing up, she was stranger than her

father who was considered eccentric: "I was the one who wandered away

from home for hours on end at age six and wandered again a few seconds

before the arrival of the local gendarme. I was the one who had night­ mares and walked the house, the night road and the fields in her sleep.

I was the worry, the trouble, the one with the unusual voice who would never perform for Sunday aunts and cousins" (LCI, p. 308).

Continuing, she confesses that "I was born to live within my mind, to have thoughts and dreams more vivid to me than any daylight.

The wisest thing my family ever did was to realize early on that there was no changing me and to leave me alone" (LCI, p. 308). Small wonder,

then, she writes that her family "left me to discover what I wanted and

to learn what I could. In my whole life, I have been left alone to be what I wanted to be" (LCI, p. 308). And clearly this tendency to be a

"loner" well within the bosom of her beloved family, as Lee Hopkins notes, is reflected in many of her characters and forms the nucleus of

her being (Hopkins, p. 567). In 1955 Miss Hamilton was given a full 219 scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs. Here she was encour­

aged, as she had been all through grade and high school, to "write

things down." Eventually, though, she left the shelter of her family

and village and after three years at Antioch, she attended Ohio State

University for two years.

The move to go beyond her immediate intimate environment was to

extend itself further in the next fifteen years. For during the time

she attended Ohio State, she began her "flirtation," Paul Heins writes,

"with New York, ----- interm ittently paying visits to the city, working,

singing in obscure nightclubs, studying at the New School for Social

Research, and becoming acquainted with musicians, artists, and other

writers" (Heins, pp. 345-346). And, at the age of twenty-five, she

definitely opted for New York and a career as a writer. Of this deci­

sion she reveals that she, like many others in that time, seemed to be

between generations - that of the disappearing Beats and the avante

garde hippies, the Pepsi, the peace and freedom, and black is beautiful

people. In all of this, she notes, she felt "compelled to strike out

for the Big Apple of Manhattan...I knew that I would be a writer. I

knew that I had to learn my craft away from all the kind of people who

wanted to help and did help but maybe hadn't realized there came a time when help was not needed " (PAW, p. 237).

She lived in what is now known as the East Village of New York, which then was home for teachers from the defunct Black Mountain College,

Eastern Europeans, and a Shakespearean troupe among others; here, they

all lived isolated from one another and insulated for what, she writes,

"we thought was worth the loneliness: independence, self-knowledge and

expression and safety from intrusion of a chaotic world" (PAWW, p. 238). 220 The need to be closer to a river of her liking led her to Greenwich

Village and the calming influence of the Hudson: "I could spend days

writing and get nowhere. But if I went down to the river to set awhile,

I could come back home feeling as though I had partaken of a healing

potion" (PAm, p. 238).

During the Village period of her life. Miss Hamilton observes,

she was often alone, "going for days without talking to anyone and making no friends" (PAWW, p. 238). It was a fruitful exercise in that

she succeeded, she writes, in learning from Carson McCullers "what a good sentence was." Eventually, however, realizing that a writer also required rich experiences she moved Uptoim, close to her people and, of course, near the Hudson which had become symbolic of her own growing inner awareness. Explaining she reveals:

My writing grew better as I grew older inside. I came to understand that the river’s flow was the flow of freedom inside us all....th e river is the mind of the people, ever flowing to some other where. Whenever any of us grow deep like rivers it is because we have learned to allow our minds to flow free as the rivers flow. And so that’s the reason rivers figure so largely in my writing and ever w ill (PAWW, p. 239).

In 1960 she married Bronx-born Arnold Adoff, who was, at the time, a teacher in Harlem and Upper west side of Manhattan. Seeking material for his students, Adoff, already a published poet, subsequently began a career as an anthologist of black poetry. He is, as Paul Heins writes,

"attractive, intelligent and witty" (Heins, p. 345). As Miss Hamilton reveals, "Adoff is basically a poet....As every one knows poets talk all the time - as Arnold does. He not only talks forever but he works for­ ever. He keeps everything all stirred up and noisy" (Heins, p. 568).

But the whirlwind of New York proved too enervating for Miss Hamilton 221 and eventually after fifteen years in the Big Apple she and Arnold,

with their two children, Leigh and Jaime, moved to Yellow Springs to be

near her family and the Ohio River — those components of her being

which she had never really left, she said.

The Adoffs live in a house that they built on two acres of the

farm where Miss Hamilton was bom. Their house, which she considers her

castle, has high redwood peaks, no windows, but sliding glass doors,

patios, a deck, and clerestory lights to chase away the gloom of gray

days. Antiques, living plants, books and wall decorations, which in­

clude artistic efforts of the children, make their home warmly elegant

and comfortable. She also lives close to her mother, who resides at

"the old homestead just down the field and through the roses and trees,"

and to her brother who lives on Grandpa Perry's old farm (Heins, p. 345).

Miss Hamilton, of course, revels in her family and is quite happy to be

back in the community from which she came. She believes that family

ties are a source of strength: "The relationship of my relatives to

past and present is something I learned as a child and the learning is

s t i l l going on. I know how people in t e r a c t . I know what an e x c e p tio n a l

spiritual experience is the extended family" (Heins, p.345). The people in her community, she notes, are "so supportive and yet they know how to leave us alone. I know generations of people here. It is a com­

fort to see families regenerate themselves" (Heins, p. 347).

The Adoffs consider themselves to be extremely fortunate in that both work at their profession full-time. These two, so different in background and personality, are a striking combination. A typical day

in the Adoff household. Miss Hamilton relates, is one in which "we both work in the morning and late at night. We get very little sleep. Who 222 needs it anyway? The last long sleep is long enough" /Hopkins, p. 568).

Speaking about the way that she works, she reveals that she works every day and every night at her profession. She also reveals that she ' admires and is influenced in her writing by writers who are story-tellers, such as Dostoevsky, Faulkner, James, Mann, and Mauriac (Hejns, p. 308).

Concerning technique, she reveals that "I don't often ask myself about the kind of techniques I am using, or what motivates the characters.

For a time I simply wrote it out, carried along by a strong sense of story unfolding with no lim its on what the story can or cannot be"

(LCI, p. 308).

Elsewhere, Miss Hamilton writes that "I am content to let things develop, using craft learned so painfully long ago — that myriad of technique and style which my instinct suggests is right. This is the way I began writing and it is still the way I write" (LCI, p. 309). On balance she believes that creativity and imagination are inseparable, that they create order out of images inherent in memory, which is, she asserts, the vital source of inspiration:

Memory can be as new as th e l a s t m inute and as old as childhood, past generations, all of the experience and history of experience one has ever learned. It is the Freudian Collective Unconscious and the Jungian Archaic Heritage; it is at times primordial and inexplicable. I rediscover what I can of memory and heighten it to new under­ standing through story, character, mood, technique and style (LCI, p. 309).

Accordingly, Miss Hamilton sees memory in many dimensions:

"Memory is what I have stored away, what did happen, what I think happened, what never happened but might have been great if it had, what

I fear could have happened — on and on" (LCI, p. 309). And subsequently 223 these memories take shape and form and color and reality to become a

Virginia Hamilton story.

Getting her ideas and inspiration from myths and rituals of the black experience which is, of course, her motif, she presents that experience in the light of realities as she sees them. Transcending the barriers of race, she succeeds in presenting those universels that affect all people. Sometimes, somewhere, she feels, everyone has been glad, sad, or happy. Her writing, she hopes, allows her vision to be shared by others: "I attempt to recognize the unquenchable spirit which

I know exists in my race and in other races in order to rediscover a universality within myself" (HJRA, p. 120). Continuing, she argues that my assumption of course, is that non-white, although different, is as American as white (HJRA, p. 120). The latter is a key assumption in her writing. Her art does make a social comment, but is not propaganda.

For while Miss Hamilton feels that the writer should be an instrument for social change, art is primary: "First and foremost I want to tell a good story. My involvement in writing of course, has to do with being Black and I draw on my experiences. But I don't think that be­ cause I'm a Black writer I have to be a missionary".^ Elaborating, she points out that her forte lies elsewhere: "I'm interested in subtle ways of talking about injustices. I don't believe angry writing is necessarily good for kids or makes good literature. I hope my books speak for themselves" (Essence, n. 58).

She came to write primarily for teenagers, she relates, because an old college friend who was working at Macmillan remembered a twenty page adult story Miss Hamilton had written while at Antioch. The story was about a girl named Geeder Perry whose life is not unlike that 224 of the author's, "I had almost forgotten it; but she reminded me of it

and thought if 1 tried making a book out of it, it would be a great

story for children.. .Zeely came from th a t....I never really decided to write for children. It happened about the time I was thinking about giving up being a writer since I was having trouble breaking into the adult writing field" (Heins, p. 565).

Miss Hamilton is exceptionally attractive with reddish hair framing an expansive brow, finely formed nose and mouth, and a pair of brown intelligent eyes. All of these features are enlivened by an expression of vibrant good-nature. She considers herself as being

"chronically overweight, foul-tempered and given to alternate fits of depression and elation" (Heins, p. 563). She is soft spoken, but can become a bit edgy sometimes about such diverse things as the perils of the publishing world and the lackaidasical attitude contemporary young people have toward work. Above all, she is an articulate and provoca­ tive intellectual, who is not only an award-winning author, but who, along with her husband, has learned practically all there is to know about the publishing business; a fact which enables them, as already observed, to secure their income solely from the fruits of their pro­ fession. In addition, they are community activists, serving on the

Yellow Springs Human Relations Committee and the Committee on Equal

Education and raising, she adds, "lots of hell in town" (Heins, p. 569).

She attributes the latter to the local environment: "Yellow Springs draws artists, ecologists, socialists, and other rabble rousers like moths to a light! You can perhaps blame Antioch for that — maybe the crystalline quality of the atmosphere (Heins, p. 569). FOOTNOTES

C hapter IV

1. Virginia Hamilton, "Literature, Creativity and Imagination,” Childhood Education, 49 (March, 1973), 307. Hereafter cited as LCI.

2. Virginia Hamilton, "High John is Risen Again," Horn Book* 51 (April 1975), 119. Hereafter cited as HJRA.

3. Paul Heins, "Virginia Hamilton," Horn Book, (August 1965), p. 344. Hereafter cited as Heins.

4. Lee Bennett Hopkins, "Virginia Hamilton," Horn Book, 48 (December, 1972), 564. Hereafter cited as Hopkins.

5. Virginia Hamilton, "Portrait of the Author as a Working W riter," Elementary English, 48 (April 1971), 237. Hereafter cited as PAW.

6. Harriet Jackson Scarupa, "Virginia Hamilton A Teller of Tales," Essence (February 1976), p. 58. Hereafter cited as Essence.

225 CHAPTER V

ANALYSES OF SELECTED FICTION BY VIRGINIA HAIHLTON

Introduction

Jane Langton, discussing the three "levels of truth-telling"

Involved in writing, describes stage one as the production of surface truth recognized by the sonatic senses.^ A second deeper level, which she names the quick, bares surface realities and reveals universal complexi­ ties. But writers, delving into the deepest level, should strike chords of response only, she asserts, and probe -vrith great art and restraint

(Langton, p. 25).

She believes that "to write at the second level of truth-telling, the level directly under the surface, is to convey both meanings from the word; the writer exposes this layer of intense sensitivity; and at the same time, he brings his story vividly to life" (Langton, p. 2Q).

In Langton's opinion "Virginia Hamilton writes at the second level with keenness and subtlety" (Langton, p. 28). But, in my view, Hamilton also writes on three levels with distinction and craftsmanship. Essentially

Hamilton's thematic emphasis are the isolation of the spirit, the loneliness of being black in America, and the importance of the family and survival. She is among the first of the new black authors who write about blackness as viable and whose persceptive and understated style gives one the sensation of being a participant in the story, thus enlarging one's understanding of the human condition. She writes with integrity, eschewing the formula of adolescent fiction which is based on advice, prediction and happy endings. She writes about life as it is lived; hence she indicates that life is serious, often formidable and joyous, but a necessary undertaking. Her novels are written from the

226 227 heart of blackness and what that means in America. She cannot be read hastily or without some knowledge that life is complex and involved.

Her forte is language and she uses it to fulfill the promise that her books w ill present life in terms of human understanding. Hamilton does not promise that pat answers will be found in her writing. For just the opposite is true; she knows from her experience as a being that life is confusion and from her experience as a black woman that there is no rational explanation for the black American position. Confirming this, she states that "how eccentric is the total history of blacks in America, imbued as it is with the spiritual isolation of the fugitive alone and running, with weird tales which are true tales handed down from one 2 generation to the next." She examines that condition in light of her own experience and finds that it is too painful for the majority society to accept its role in that condition therefore she carefully places the meaning of that role in other vehicles in her stories. Hence the great 3 threatening slag heap in M.C. Higgins represents the larger society.

She has overcome her own horror at the black American experience and can write lucidly about it, thus gaining an important audience for the black experience. She writes out of a spiritual understanding of this condition and thus reaches out to another level of human perception.

Hamilton recognizes that what is true in life must also be true in her characters. If her protagonists, therefore, such as Junior

Brown, Buddy Clark, Zeely Tayber, and M.C. Higgins are lonely beings they do delineate the poverty of spirit which sets them apart, for they too, were molded in America. They are, she points out, "descendants of slaves and freemen"; as such, they hold the images of people in bondage within their consciousness. "That sort of knowledge," the 228 author believes, "must corner reality for them and hold it at bay. It

must become in part eccentric and in part symbolic for succeeding

generations" (lAR. p. 5). Moreover, Hamilton sees her characters as

based on her own personality, as she states in Horn Book. "Every lead

character is something of a loner, imaginative and contemplative, from

Zeely up through Thomas Small in The House of Dies Drear to Junior

Brown...I am tremendously interested in the human as oracle and as a

spirit isolated'" (Hopkins, p. 567). And M.C. Higgins, too, follows

the loner route and is, perhaps, the most profound of all her characters.

In Zeely the characters of Geeder Perry, her brother, Toeboy, and Uncle Ross, Hamilton reveals, are reminiscent of her Uncle Lee, her brother and herself; for Zeely she simply re-wrote the past. The character Zeely was pure imagination and in re-writing the past, Hamilton places markers and suggestions that bring to mind the history and character of the black world. As she states, "The strain of the fleeing slave or the persecuted, moving and searching for a better place becomes the theme of the Night Traveller in Zeely which is also Africa"

(PAWW, p. 239). Another theme is the "black man hiding his true self, ever acting so that those who betray him w ill never touch him"

(PAIR7, p.267). The actor son of Mr. Pluto in The House of Dies Drear, the personification of the Dunbar poem, % Wear the Mask, marks "the ambiguous relationship between the runaway slave and his white neigh­ bors" (Heins, p. 347).

The Planet of Junior Brown deals with black isolation in terms of the larger society and M.C. Higgins, the Great explores the theme of the spiritual annihilation of black people. She has, therefore, created a world which is peopled with characters who suffer from 229 Isolation,but who also'survive. Hamilton explains this fact in her

Newbery Medal Acceptance speech:

But no one dies in MC. Hisgins, the Great or in any of my books. I have never written demonstr­ able and classifiable truths; nor have my fictional black people become human sacrifices in the name of social accuracy. For too long, too many have suffer­ ed and died without cause. I prefer to write about those who survive...^ Zeely Hamilton's first book, Zeely, is a story about the experiences

of eleven-year-old Elizabeth "Geeder" Perry and her brother John "Toeboy" as they spend the summer on their Uncle Ross' farm located in mid-west

Ohio. During their visit, Geeder meets Zeely Tayber whose father rents part of the Ross farm for his swine herd,which Zeely helps her father tend. Geeder finds a picture of an African princess which resembles

Zeely,who is as tall and stately as the Watutsi in the picture. Geeder is mesmerized by her fixation and spends her summer daydreaming about a friendship between herself and Zeely. Geeder perceives that the Tayhere are "different from any people" she had ever seen. She tells Toeboy

"We don't know that kind of person Zeely is." Geeder's voice was full of the awe she felt for her: "But you know what I think? I think we've found a new people that nobody's ever heard of."^ From this exchange between Geeder and Toeboy, Hamilton skillfully builds up the image of

Zeely as being different in Geeder's mind.

When Geeder finds the magazine picture of the Watutsi woman of royal birth, who was as tall as Zeely, she was certain that Miss Zeely

Tayber was a Watutsi queen. Geeder, of course, wants everyone to know and to appreciate Zeely's identity. Finally, however, she meets and talks with Zeely who tells her that although she is descended from the 230 Watutsi, she does not consider herself a queen. Zeely also tells Geeder

that she neither enjoys being tall nor tending swine, for both condi­

tions set her apart. She confides to Geeder that she, too, once day­

dreamed and made up stories, and wanted people to believe that she was

an African queen. But the best thing, she points out, is to be one's

own s e l f .

Particularly memorable is the scene in which Zeely, the landless

rover, who must tend swine and attempt to ameliorate her father's meanness,

advises Geeder, the protected daydreamer, who has her immediate family

and Uncle Ross — representatives of stability. Geeder had said that

she would like to be like Zeely who

...smiled. "To be so tall that went, people stared and questioned? You'd like to be able to call a hog to you and have it follow you as though it were a puppy?" She laughed. The sound of it was harsh. "Hogs see one as just another animal - did you know that? Their scent, that is all there is to it. As for being so tall, I would like once in a while not to have people notice me or wonder about my height." "No," Zeely added, "I don't think you'd enjoy being like me or different in the way I am." "I guess not, then." Geeder said. "I mean, I don't know." She would never have imagined that Zeely didn't like being tall. . ..(Zeely, pp. 114-115.)

Zeely then tells Geeder that she tries to make the best of her

life. Though Geeder is a little sad about all this, she concludes that

Zeely, because of her forbearance for the harshness of her life, is'

truly a queen in spirit. The Horn Book captures the feeling of the book by noting that it is a "strangely haunting story...rich in atmo­

sphere and so true to a little girl's imaginings (HB, April 1967, p. 205).

Listing the story under "creating a positive self-image," Reading Ladders

concludes that by "meeting Zeely personally and getting to know her. 231 Geeder finally returns to reality" (RL, p. 84).

Zeely, though scarcely a full-length novel, could be utilized in the classroom in conjunction with presenting a new perspective of the black experience. Zeely Is the epitome of what It means to be bio­ logically different from those with whom one must live; her height sets her apart and she Is sensitive to this difference. With her own kind - the Watutsi - Zeely would not be considered different. And here Hamilton touches on the role which relevance plays In our dally lives. Observant readers w ill also want to know why Zeely Is cast as a swine herder since one tends to consider the stately Watutsi as regal and royal. And at this point, Hamilton divulges her secret weapon; she tends to use opposites to create her Images; she puts unlikely things together In order to dramatize that life Is Indeed, a confusion, but at the same time It has a marvelous order and harmony, which surpasses the finite understanding. And, as noted, Zeely's view of life Is royal. The ending of the story Is significant In that Geeder has decided that the lowly swine herder Is truly a queen; she has looked beyond the surface of things and found that she has based her first appraisal of Zeely on physical or surface resemblance. Zeely's frank talk and introspection led Geeder to a deeper understanding of the truth of life. With this understanding acquired so early, Geeder is better equipped to find the truth of things as they really are, not as they seem.

Hamilton displays the same unique method of getting at the sub­ stance In her view of life and it is partially through this door that the reader enters her stories. Another strategy which Is evident In

Zeely, Is the author's use of plain language; she tends to use simple terms which have a directness about them. An example Is the passage 232 when Toeboy and Geeder decided to sleep outside and Geeder tries to frighten him with tales of night travellers:

The sound of her voice made the night less strange and he felt safe.. .Toeboy felt so good that he decided to get up and make his bed next to Geeder's. "I think I'll come over there," he called to her. "Better not," she said. "Just better stay where you are." "I know one thing," Geeder said. "Late at night in the country, night travellers walk along dark ro a d s ." "What?" "Night travellers," Geeder said again, "and they u s u a lly come up when y o u 're about a s le e p ." "What kind of things are they?" asked Toeboy... "I'll tell you this," Geeder said. "If you see one, you'd better close your eyes fast and dive as far under the covers as you can go. They don't like kids watching them. In fact, they don't like anybody watching them'" (Zeely, pp. 26-27).

The House of Dies Drear

The journeys which Zeely and Geeder both undertake are signifi­ cant to their development. And, as with Geeder Perry, Hamilton's pro­ tagonist Thomas Small, in The House of Dies Drear, undertakes a journey, learning something about himself.^ While Zeely came from Canada to

Ohio and Geeder from the city to her Uncle Ross' farm, thirteen-year- old Thomas travels from North Carolina to a small Ohio town where his father, a Civil War historian, has accepted a position teaching college history. Other members of the family are Mrs. Small and the twins,

Billy and Buster. The reviewers were enthusiatic about the story, seeing in it evidence of the further unfolding of Hamilton's talent. Library

Journal stated that it was "an unusual, highly intriguing story skill­ fully incorporating Civil War history" (LJ, December 1968, p. 53). And

Horn Book observed that "the author of Zeely has surpassed her earlier 233 excellent achievement by dramatizing the history of an Underground Rail­ road in Ohio, viewed from its extraordinary present day milieu" (HB, 45,

October 1968, p. 563).

Zina Sutherland of Saturday Review commended the writing and the characterization, noting that "that this kind of book has been written about Negroes is of tremendous importance. Not a problem novel [this] is memorable literature that gives dignity to black heritage" (SR, 51,

Nov. 9, 1968, 69). Both reviews felt that Hamilton had written a supe­ rior . mystery story involving a family that happened to be black.

Dorothy Sterling, however, recognized that Hamilton "has found her own way of saying 'Black is beautiful'...(by not writing) and angry book - although there is a need for anger too" (NYT, 13 October 1968, p. 26).

The extensive treatment given the Underground Railroad and the reason for its existence calls attention to the plight of the black slave without preaching and ties the Thomas' family neatly into the story since they are living in the house of Dies Drear, a New England aboli­ tionist, who brought his fiery beliefs to Ohio, and established his house as an important station in the Underground Railroad. The mysterious murder of Dies Drear and the plunder of his house give rise to the myth that the house was haunted by Drear and two slave ghosts, all of whom had been killed by the bounty hunters. But there was a mystery, too, about the fate of a third slave who was with the two slain ones. In addition, no one has ever stayed in the house over three months since slavery times and there are hidden passageways which could not be found since the complete house plans were missing.

The story's bizarre element is further heightened by the intro­ duction of Mr. Pluto (Henry Skinner), the eccentric caretaker, who 234 lives in a cave near the mysterious house and whose physical appearance resembles his name. Moreover, "unnerving noises, vandalism intended to frighten the Smalls away, forbidding neighbors with threatening sons, and an unpredictable mysterious little girl," keep Thomas frightened but fascinated (LJ, 93 Dec. 15, 1968, 4731-32). The immediate mystery, of course, concerns the whereabouts of Dies Drear's fortune, if it does indeed exist. It is through white Mr. Carr that Mr. Small learns of the feud between old Pluto and the dead Mohegan, River Swift Darrow, whose family always seemed to be digging up their gound which joins the Drear land. A Greek cross, formed by triangles, left by someone who could enter the locked Drear house at w ill, and something that is unsettling about Mr. Pluto, something that seems out of character at times, are but two of the elements in the mystery which is solved when it is revealed that old Pluto has been guarding the Drear treasure in a cave.

Subsequently, Pluto explains that River Swift Darrow't fzther.

River Thames, had accompanied Dies Drear from the East and after Drear's death, felt that the legacy was rightly the Darrows', but the treasure belonged to Pluto by Drear's w ill. Old Pluto's actor son, Mayhew

Skinner, knowing that the Darrows would become more aggressive after they discovered their old enemy was sick, decided to play his father's role to thwart their plans. The mystery of the Greek cross is solved, with old Pluto explaining that each triangle was a direction finder for the slaves and that the Darrows could never understand their mean­ in g .

This story sums up the evils of the slave trade as expressed through the activities of those who fled its chains and those who 235 aided them. It may be studied from three perspectives. One perspec­ tive is through the consciousness of sensitive Thomas Small whose view of slavery from that vantage point is relevant to contemporary times.

Another perspective takes the reader to the level of the history as viewed through the eyes of Thomas' father, the Civil War historian, and another level involves Old Pluto, whose forebear was the third slave, who had escaped from the murderous bounty hunters who had killed Drear:'.he subsequently fled to C anada. It is through this ancestor that Pluto could claim the Drear fortune since the old abolitionist had willed it to the first son of a slave who would return and find it.

Again as in Zeely, Hamilton engages the reader through mixing opposites and creating tensions. She juxtaposes the mysterious with the ordinary; the house is certainly eerie, but Mrs. Small and her family carry on with their daily chores and attend the small Methodist church service. Thomas, though afraid, is led by his curiosity to open doors and seek the unknown, at the same time he is responsive to the needs of his twin brothers , as well as those of his mother and father.

There is a thread of isolation which runs through the story and it touches at all levels. The running slaves were certainly isolated as were those who aided them. The isolation of being different drove

Mayhew Skinner away from the house of Dies Drear and Old Pluto by necessity into seclusion, and the Smalls were different by reason of their moving into an isolated, supposedly haunted house. Of the story,

Hamilton reveals that "it is so full of all the things I love: excite­ ment, mystery, black history, the strong, black family — and I tried to show the importance of the black church to my being; also the land and the good and bad of small town rural life" (HB, 63, no. 6, December 1972, 236 566). The author handles the intricate events leading to the denoue­ ment with ease and the central personae emerge as personalities. With her penetrating sense of black history carefully interwoven into the text, the thematic emphasis reveals how the historical fact of slavery continues to haunt contemporary life and is pointedly marked by Thomas' innocent observation that his first non-segregated public dining experi­ ence was-at: the college-. And in his journeying, Thomas "gains a new appreciation of his heritage" (LJ, 93, December 1968, p. 4732).

The P lan et of Ju n io r Brown

We move from a small town milieu to an urban one in The Planet of

Junior Brown for a new experience in which journeys of a different kind are undertaken by the central personae. Junior Brown, who is weighted down with his 200 plus pounds, his asthmatic overprotective mother and his mental isolation, and Buddy Clark, who is forced to deal with lone­ liness, maintain a place for homeless youths and just make it on a daily basis. Their journey, in my view, is a memorable one. And the reviewers for the most part concur. For example, writing in the Christian Science

Monitor, Nancy Gordon observes that the author "tells this sad but loving story with authority, compassion, and skill. As a result. The

Planet of Junior %rown can take its place among the best examples of recent children's literature (CSM, 11 Nov. 1971, p. 135). Stating that the book is "stunningly good, absolutely compelling, weird and unique,"

Michael Cart of Library Journal concludes that "it is a perfectly executed piece of music; the author doesn't strike a single false note" (LJ 96,

October 15, 1971, p. 2928). Alice Walker, however,of the New York Times, found the story dull and the characters and situations uninspired, though inventive, concluding that "unlike the warm and memorable exchange 237 between Geeder and Zeely...the exchanges between Junior Brown and

Buddy Clark are oddly stilted, studied, and false,"which criticism will be discussed later in the text (NYT, 24 Oct. 1971, p. 8).

In my view, the author has put on her shoes and has extended an

invitation to walk a mile with her into the world of the inner-city black in a way which no other book in this study has approached. She has, Paul Heins notes, "molded, rather than simply presented, experiences of black, inner-city children to create a narrative of unusual dimensions and unexpected facets. Combining realism of detail and verisim ilitude of speech with occasional touches of melodrama, she tells the story of a crucial week in the lives of two New York City eighth graders who have ceased to attend their classes...."^ Underscoring Hamilton's ability to involve the reader in her story, Jane Langton cites the scene in which

Junior Brown perceives himself as the center of a wheel, concluding that this imagery strikes chords and gives readers "a sense of recogni­ tion" (Langton, p. 29). And to understand the black experience, one needs to have a sense of recognition within. Therefore, Junior and

Buddy do not journey alone; for Hamilton recognizes that the city streets are filled with the Juniors and Buddies of all ages, colors, ethnic groups, shapes and sizes. Their story has been told before, but never in such a different way. And if the reviewer found the dialog between the two friends less than real, it is perhaps, because of being on the outside looking in.

The story of Junior Brown and Buddy Clark centers on their planets and the relationship of the two youths to the world of their planets.

As noted. Junior and Buddy are eighth grade students who have been cutting classes regularly. And, ironically, their haven has been the 238 basement room in the school where Mr. Pool, the present janitor and

former teacher, has set up a solar system with planets; the tenth one being the planet of Junior Brown. Though Junior Brown, a musical genuis, views himself as ugly and obese, his greatest difficulty lies in his inability to cope with the larger society which orders his world.

T-Then we first meet. Buddy and Junior, who are absorbed in the solar system w ith its dimly lighted globes. Junior’s anguish is already apparent.

With Buddy, Mr. Pool had constructed the wonderful planet in order to help Junior "take his mind off things... Only this planet of Junior

Brown was almost more attention and kindness than he could stand —

Rocking gently back and forth, he cupped both his hands over his eyes...

Understanding Junior's shyness, Mr. Pool thought to lock away. He turned toward Buddy Clark, who stood bathing his hands in the feeble light.

Buddy seemed not to know what to do next to show his regard for the huge and talented, often helpless fat boy.

Buddy, too, was estranged, living on the streets and trusting no one, he had found Mr. Pool and Junior,in whom he believed and for whom he felt a deep empathy. The two boys,in turn, gave Mr. Pool new hope:

"only now through his work with Buddy Clark and the example of Buddy’s devotion to Junior Brown, did Mr. Pool slowly begin to believe in himself again.. . .Working with Buddy, he sensed a whole new being lying in wait within the boy" (POJB, p. 14). And thus their days were filled with watching Junior’s planet and constructing a new world. Junior’s home life was dominated by Junella Brown, his asthmatic and over- solicitous mother, whose husband was only home on the weekends. Their life together had a macabre air, and once when she has an asthmatic attack, he administers to her needs, handling her like a rag doll. But 239 saddest of all, because his mother needed quiet Junior, genius that he was, must practice on a piano with no strings.

Buddy senses that his friend is slowly loosing touch with reality and endeavors to keep Junior from sliding away. However, after Junior’s v isit to Miss Peebs, his mad music teacher. Buddy senses that something dreadful occurred when Junior insists that Buddy must accompany him on the next lesson. Street-wise Buddy, meeting Miss Peebs, recognizes her true mental state in her imagining that an unwanted relative has forced his way into her house to stay. Junior enters Miss Peebs' fantasy, and ostensibly removes the unwanted non-existent guest.

Added to these circumstances, the two boys are finally caught cutting and must answer to the authorities. But Buddy, too, has been living in another world of the planets, which are really refugees for homeless boys. Buddy with no family, and on his own since the age of nine, now lives in "a place on Tenth Avenue in a boarded up building... due to be torn down" (POJB, p. 66). He belongs to "that unbelievable world of homeless children" having been taught by an older boy, a

Tomorrow Billy, how to look after himself, so that now, he too, was a

Tomorrow Billy with a planet and homeless boys of his own to teach

(POJB, p. 72).

With the world closing in. Buddy, Mr. Pool, and Junior, in his fantasy world at last, take refuge in Buddy's planet. Though he had once thought that "the highest law is to learn to live for yourself,"

Buddy now comes to realize that "we have to learn to live for each other" (POJB, p. 73; p. 210). As Paul Heins points out, "Together the two boys are the protoganists of a psychological and moral drama. Junior

Brown, oversensitive and frustrated, sinks tragically to psychotic depths; 240 and Buddy Clark, grown hard in his experience of the cruelty of a

murky, subterranean New York, becomes heroically devoted to Junior

Brown" (Heins, PJB, p. 81).

And what art has Hamilton employed to bring the world of Junior

Brown, Buddy and Mr. Pool into reality? What art does she submerge?

What are the basic positions she, as a writer of adolescent fiction,

assumes, in all her stories reviewed thus far? What has she cele­

brated in her fiction which other authors studied here have omitted?

And finally what are the problems of life into which she has delved

thus far? Writing in The Horn Book, Paul Heins observes that

H am ilton is not a strictly realistic writer, although the base of her operations may be said to be realism; she can fa^ce up to the horrors of naturalism; "His /Junior'_s/ mother gagged and brought up a mass of sputum over the dirty dishes." She can create a scene tre­ mendous in its grotesquerie, as when Mr. Pool arranges to lift Junior Brown in a hoist to take him down to Buddy Clark's basement hideout. Actually, however, Virginia Hamilton overcomes the bonds of sordid reality. Her imagination, spilling over into metaphors and symbols, is a liberating force,for she feels, 'Perhaps th e human ra c e i s y et to come. ...We must make life ready.' Ultimately, she writes of her aspirations - with a Dostoevskian intensity (Heins, PJB, p. 81)

The guiding force behind the philosophy that "perhaps the human race is yet to come...We must make life ready" seems altogether the base for Hamilton's art (POJB, p. 13). She has powerful mastery over

the mechanics, but the guiding force behind her art is a deep convic­ tion that man is ever evolving, that the immediacy of the now is not

the end of the world. In a time when instantness is the key to solu­ tions and service in all areas of life, Hamilton feels that the human race is on a spiritual growth continuum. And she celebrates this as ^A1

survival which other writers in this study have omitted in their fic­

tion. This is not to say that Hamilton feels that time unaided and

unabetted, is the answer, for she states that "we must make life ready"

(POJB, p. 13).

An excellent embodiment of Hamilton’s position on immediate so­

lutions may be found in the character of Mr. Small in The House Of

Dies Drear. Thomas was often impatient with what he perceived as his

father's slowness to act, and yet he recognized that Mr. Small always

knew about things. And Old Pluto, who in his thirty year search for

the Drear legacy, his long stewardship over it, and the house and the

legend, demonstrated what it takes to protect a heritage. And, at

first. Buddy,too, had the urgency to live in the now, to solve things

immediately, to bring things to a close in a hurry; but he learns,

in his journey, that life continues, and since it does, it is much

better lived in togetherness. For while Mr. Pool was not always sure why he s a id th a t " th e human ra c e i s bound to come one tim e ," he was

certain that"Junior and Buddy were forerunners on the road down which

the race would have to pass" (POJB,p. 159).

Hamilton's stories studied this far have been many-sided, with

adventure, mysticism, fear and baseness, love and happiness, loneli­ ness and isolation, human affection and understanding all skillfully blended and presented in her protoganists and their travels. The

author has set in motion, as Jane Langton observes, "a succession of

solemn children each one grasped by a mystic sense of significance

and purpose - who moves through space and time, passing ta ll columnar

presences of immense dignity (Zeely, Mr. Pluto, Mr. Pool), intent on 2k2 strange random errands or journeys in which peculiar events are part of the circumscribing dailiness."9 ^jhat, then, is the ultimate meaning of Zeely's robe, Pluto's cavern, Mayhew's mask, and Junior Brown's tenth planet to the reality of daily happenings? These characters are limned as being generally and specifically isolated, that is, they suffer from the universal malaise of human isolation, but the particular symbolism of the robe, the cavern, the mask and the planet - point to another deeper totally destroying isolation which denies their very humanity as beings. In these stories, the author has steadily increased her pressure in this area until she arrives at a climax in her Newbery award winning book M. C. Higgins, the Great.

M. C. Higgins, the Great

If it is expected that Hamilton has changed her style and method and approach to the complex problems of human relations, we need not read this powerful book, for what she began in her previous stories, she completes in M. C. Higgins, the Great.^0 She entertains the theme of the destruction of the human spirit, the destruction of the environment, the aggression of the larger society, the solitude of always being left out, the strength of the family, and the triumph of survival in a spectrum of the realities of our times. Like her other books, M. C. Higgins is provocative literature which is well-written and pertinent. It is a quiet story filled with the pain of people who do not prevail over but endure "the condition of their lives...they endure the emptiness, the oppression, the dull sameness. They endure it all. That is, all save M. C., who lives by means of his courage and his strength and daring" (PAW, p. 240). The author chose poverty-ridden southern Appalachia as the 243 setting of her fourth and, at the time of publication, her most com­ plex novel dealing with the black experience. The story concerns the Higgins family whose great grandmother Sarah McHigon had fled from slavery with her baby, taking refuge in the mountain that now bears her name and is the family's ancestral land. Though mountain living is hard,and impoverished, and threatened, Jones Higgins, working sporadically as a steelyard laborer and as a handyman, refuses to bury the past and search for a better life for his family. Both he and his wife had lived in the city, but they had returned to the hills; Sarah's Mountain was home and where their roots were. His beautiful and talented wife, Banina, works as a domestic and toils up the mountain every night, bringing a richness to her family by just being herself. Their children are Mayo Cornelius or M.C., Macie

Pearl, Harper and Lennie Pool. Of course, thirteen-year-old M.C. is the central protagonist and it is his story which concerns us.

It is through M.C.'s consciousness that the story unfolds and the rich detail of his life in the hills is told in complex but com­ prehensible metaphors and symbols. The protagonist is knowledgeable about his mountain: he is a trapper, is familiar with the indigenous plant life and excels in physical feats he successfully swam the

Ohio River. For the latter triumph, Jones gifted his son with "forty feet of glistening,cold steel," a pole which M.C. sunk in their junk- filled yard and topped with a seat equipped with tricycle wheels and pedals. (M. C., p. -3 ), Skinning up the pole, and seated on its top, M.C. could survey the mountain, surrounding hills and valleys, the town of Harenton, catch glimpses of the Ohio River,which was three miles away, and see anyone walking in the hills (at least for 244 nine miles) or swimming in the lake nearby. It was a fine, Olympian view and gave M. C. an exhilarating feeling to watch people and places as "the pole swung forward in a slow, sweeping a rc ...• He raised his arm so that his hand seemed to slide over the perfect roll and curve of the hill range before him to the south. He fluffed the trees out there and smoothed out the sky. ’How,’ he said softly,

'you’re looking good’" (M. C.»p. 25, pp. 27-28). And only he had mastered the art of climbing the pole; Jones had not. His father warned, however, that climbing the pole and swimming the river did not make him "some M. C. Higgins, the Great" (M. C., p. 63). Never­ theless, M.C. jokingly names himself the Great which foreshadows his final action in the story.

M. C.’s great worry was his father’s seeming indifference to the soil heap which hung over the mountain top and threatened their home on th e o u tc ro p p in g . One day, M.C. knew, i t would come c ra sh in g down:

"He had nightmares in which the heap came tumbling down. Over and over again, it buried his family on the side of the mountain" (M. C«, p . 13).

For death had come to Sarah’s Mountain: "bulldozers had come to make a cut at the top of Sarah’s Mountain. They began uprooting trees and pushing subsoil in a huge pile to get at the coal" (M. C., p. 13).

To get at "ten-foot of coal," "heathen machines" sheared off soil from the mountain slopes, baring ugly cuts and escarpments and set in motion great soil heaps which slid down the mountain sides, crushing and destroying on the way (M. C., p. 39, p. ). And as M.C.’s

"pile grew enormous, so had M. C.'s fear of it" (M. C., p. 13).

M. C .'s worst imaginings about the spoil were confirmed by the 245 dude, James K. Lewis, who came into the hills collecting and record­

ing folklore. M. C. had heard about the dude, who wore a suede hat, hot city clothes, and carried a tape recorder, from young Ben Killburn with whom he has a surreptitious friendship. The Klllhums, who were vegetarians, farmed on the Mound adjacent to the Higginses' outcrop­ ping and sold ice. They were a large extended family said to be witchy and having the power. Ben father's and uncle set about heal­ ing the cuts on the mountains by a-laying on of hands. Their activi­ ty, as well as their appearance, in some minds, constituted their differentness. Ben, like all the Killburns, had hands and feet with six appendages, red hair, gray eyes, and a ghostly appearance. Jones forbad M. C. the Killburn company. But M. C. and Ben met on the mountain trails and shared many secrets, for Ben knew as much about the mountain as did M. C.

The protagonist, hearing about the dude, imagines that it is through Lewis and his mother's wonderful singing that they can escape from the mountain. Consequently, M. C. meets Lewis, and makes arrange­ ments for him to record Banina. But there is an ominous note in their first encounter, as Lewis looks over the spoil heap and points out to M. C. that "it's moving, all rig h t....It's growing, too, and sliding about a quarter inch at a time. I suppose your daddy is pre­ pared" (M. C., p. 41).

M. C. is immobilized, "Jhat?" he said, "in the faintest voice"

(M. C ., p. 4 1 ). "Why, i t ' s ab so rb in g r a in lik e a sponge," th e dude went on, "and then seepage reaches the mountainside and acts like an oil. This whole thing is just sliding along on the oil, getting a free ride...lucky it takes off the pressure by moving a little. But give it the right angle of steepness and the pressure is going to 246 build up until it crashes down" (M. C., p. 41). For M. C. "it was his nightmare come to life. Having somebody like the dude say what he had often dreamed made him sick with dread" (M. C., p. 41). While the dude, the first stranger coming out of the hills, corroborates M. C.'s fears, the second stranger is Lurhetta Outlaw, a young city girl, who for reasons of her own, elects to roam the hills for the summer. She is a stranger in reality and represents the outside world of which the protagonist has little knowledge. It is she who sets in motion a train of thoughts which w ill eventually lead to M.C.'s liberation from the inwardness of living apart in the hills and from his father who is "a man of strength and integrity, yet superstitious and un­ yielding" (NAA, p. 337). For M. C. may be the greatest in his phy­ sical accomplishments, in his maturity in caring for his younger sister and brothers, and in comprehending the implications of the spoil heap, but his total experiences have been limited. For ex­ ample, he "had heard of Harlem. Heard somewhere that there were as many black people in Harlem as equalled the whole population of Cin­ cinnati. But he didn't know if it was true or not" (M.C., p. 187).

Lewis is unable to play the role of the stranger bringing good news of the outside world; he is a sham, old and tired; he has no future in the greater world. But it is he "who clarifies for M. C. his father's inability to face the reality of the endangered mountain"

(NAA, p. 37). And it is Lurhetta, whose outrage at the treatment of the Killburns, demonstrates the relevancy of being thought different to M. C.

In struggling to define himself in relation to his immediate *>47 envii'orj-.cnt, to his father and mother, to the Killburns, to the dude, and to Lurhetta, M. C. comes to the decision to chart his own life, but this decision rests on no final assurance that M. C. holds all the answers; for life is never that certain. But as the author states, "I'm inclined to think that it is unimportant whether the wall will stop the heap. It's probable that nothing can halt the momentum o f to n s o f f a l l i n g d e b ris . S t i l l , M.C. must r i s k i t , f o r no wall at all means certain destruction. At least with the wall there is that one chance of a lifetime " (HJRA, p. 121).

M. C.'s acceptance of the dude's inability to make Banina a star, his decision to work for the Killburns, and his initial work on the wall which he hopes w ill stop the spoil heap are triumphs of his spirit; he has refused to endure the conditions of his life, and has moved to change them.

Of M. C., Hamilton writes that he "lives by means of his courage, and his strength and daring" (PAW, p. 310). Calling upon her sense of history she notes that"there are boys like M. C. who when they be­ come men a re le g e n d s, and th e re a re legends - p u re ly f i c t i o n a l men - who have become real to us. We know Wild B ill Hickok, and Billy the

Kid, Nat Turner, and Crispus Attucks...C. C. Rider and Long John and

Staggallee... " (PAW, p. 310). Continuing, Hamilton observes that

"M. C. is content to survive when he understands that the aim of his life is to live it in terms that only he can define. And so he lives it up and if he is like Nat Turner, may destroy himself. If he is

John Henry will burst his heart proving he is a man" (PAW, pp. 301-

302). Hamilton concludes by writing that a M. C. Higgins "will live not just some life he was born into but his own life, never loving it OAO and never hating it either" (PAWM, p. 302).

The art is in the author's ability to involve the reader in the

story. To the theme of the destruction of the mountain by strip

mining, as it relates to M. C.'s character, Hamilton paints a por­

trait of M. C. in his relationship to his family, to the two stran­

gers and to the Killburns. Therefore any theme which strikes a re­

sponse ties the reader into the rich complexity of the story. For

example, when Lurhetta and M. C. v isit the Killburns, one is struck

by the elemental values displayed by the elder Killburns. They have

a respect for the land as caretakers and the land has returned their

respect in the abundant food supply in evidence everywhere. This

brings to mind their attempts to heal the land where the cuts were made. In turn, one is then reminded of M. C.'s spoil heap and all

the other themes follow, including his father's stubbornness, his mother's talent and the dude who is collecting folklore.

Hamilton's ultimate art of engaging the reader in the story

stems from her ability to present her thesis in terms of humanity as being everywhere the same, but particularly different and relevant.

She carefully denies that color',-, whether black or white, has in it­

self any ultimate value. The value, she writes, of a being rests in

that being's humanity. She therefore removes all racial overtones

or barriers which occasion resistance so often in daily existence and present an almost built-in resistance to participating in racially

oriented literary experiences. For all too often it is said that

those who should be reading about the black experience never do.

Ironically, Zena Sutherland illustrates this point by noting

that The House of Dies Drear is not a "problem" book (SR, 51, Nov.9, 249 1968,69). But there are problems In the story; Hamilton has, how­

ever,removed all the racial flag's which to the larger society signal

racial problems or the problem of the black minority. Hence the

reader may enter into the experience without first thinking in terms

of a black or black-white conflict or guilt as is so often the case

in life. She consistently follows this method in all her books.

One of her major emphasis is, as noted, that there is a resis­

tance on the part of any majority to realize the importance of rele­

vance in our daily lives. A majority opinion does not constitute a

basic truth, she points out in The House of Dies Drear and in M. C.

Higgins, the Great, because it is a majority opinion; and in her own words she illustrates the ephemeral but on-going quality of life by writing that "perhaps the human race is yet to come...We must make

life ready" (POJR. p. 13).

Also, Hamilton enlarges upon the method utilized in Zeely, The

House of Dies Drear and The Planet of Junior Brown, by which she com­ bines opposites. The horror of the spoil heap threatens the lives of the Higginses as they carry on their daily routines, interspersed with scenes of Banina's nig’itlv clirhs to the mountain, her yodels to her brood, and other realistic details of familv Intimacies. Particular­ ly memorable is the scene in which Jones makes his wonderful potato soup for Lurhetta, working in the old kitchen of that old weather worn house.

There are questions, of course, which teachers should be aware of concerning the stories, that, in my view,would be better studied as a unit until each book becomes a distinct entity of its own. The thread that runs through Zeely is picked up in The House Of Dies Drear, The Planet of Junior Brown and M. Higgins, the Great. Hamilton's style and method can be better understood if the stories are studied in this sequence since each work is a greater unfolding of her art.

For example, in Zeely, we get the aura of mystery, of gentle­ ness but eeriness and isolation in her portrait of the over-tall girl who glides through the story. In The House of Dies Drear this same atmosphere is most evident from the beginning of the story and is h ig h lig h te d by th e appearance of Mayhew as Old P lu to , and th e cav ern , embellished by the richness of the Drear legacy. Pesty, too, adds a whimsical touch and is a forerunner of the teenager, Lurhetta. The theme is again isolation, emphasized by the memory of the running slaves. The Planet of Junior Brown picks up the isolation theme and it bursts full bloom into madness, as Michael Cart points out that the book "presents an unforgettable evocation of madness ---- madness in the individual (overwhelming, generalized fear resulting from un­ relieved spiritual/emotional/physical solitude) enforced by the mad­ ness of society which is indifferent (the indifference which rejects

Junior's need, while walking, to touch a profile here and a full face there.../his/ seeing and longing for the faces)..." (LJ,96, Sept. 15,

1971, 2928). And of course, in M. C. Higgins, the Great, the theme is spiritual isolation and the destruction of people who have no control over the conditions of their lives.

The questions which teachers should be concerned with in studying the four stories as a unit may be summarized as follows: What common theme runs through all the stories? Ifhat are the supporting themes and how do the ancillary characters tie into those themes? What is understood to be the most consistently destructive force in the 251 stories? How does Hamilton handle the racial elements in the books?

Why does Hamilton utilize such unusual things as a forty-foot perch and the ten planet solar system in her stories?

The first question, as noted, has been discussed. The second question which concerns the other themes ties into the third question.

Hamilton stresses the importance of family of which the Smallses and the Higginses are representative. She ends The Planet of Junior

Brown with image that Mr. Pool, Junior and Buddy, along with the home­ less boys, are a family unit in their togetherness. She sees in The

Planet, "a war between the capacity for living and the rejection of l i f e ...... 'îiss Peebs and Junior Brown establish their fears as apparition, with no chance for communication for life in the real world" (LCI, p. 309). And explaining further, the author notes that "Mr. Pool and Buddy Clark allow the energy of life to flow into them from reality and from them into reality" (LCI, p. 309). And

Thus her consistent theme of survival is supported. Whereas survival is one of the most consistently positive themes, the most obvious negative theme is the power that relevance has over those who do not understand its force. The author is adamant in her stand against this concept which plays such an important role in daily life. She enter­ tains the notion that relevance is so destructive that its application is the main force which separates people. For example, the Killburns were ostracized by their neighbors because of their activities and their appearances,but Lurhetta found them altogether charming and good.

She did not have the same superstitious biases toward these gentle people as the other hill folk. M. C.'s decision to work for the

Killburns is Hamilton's method of showing that the power of relevance 252 can be broken by simply accepting people as they are, by looking be­ yond the surface, and recognizing the common humanity of all people.

And her approach to race is identical with her approach to humanity: blacks and whites are a part of humanity, they are both just that and no more. Hence she does not use race as the focus of her stories; she deals with black people as a part and parcel of the totality of the American experience; but emphasizes the psychological impact that the experience has wrought upon the black American character.

And if Zena Sutherland does not consider The House of Dies Drear a

"problem novel," she does not understand that the heritage of the fleeing slave has a deep and abiding significance to contemporary

American life; Hamilton did speak to the black condition in the story.

And speaking to the last question which concerns M. C .'s perch and the secret planet, Jane Langton asks, "Are they images for the vastness of all-surrounding reality? Do they work? Do they help?

Or are they merely puzzling and queer?" (Langton, VHG, p. 67).

Langton confesses that she does not know the answers. Moreover,

Langton concludes that, in her opinion. Junior Irown would be a better book without the planet and that M. C. Higgins could have stood on his own lofty front porch on Sarah's Mountain and looked over his world without climbing a steel pole at all" (VHG, p. 671). Hamilton states that "M. C. wanted something higher than anything to sit on. So he risked swimming a dangerous river in order to get a forty-foot pole because such a pole is better than anything even better than a moun­ tain" (HJRA, p. 121). "And," Hamilton writes, "everyday, he risks falling off the pole, still he climbs and sits because seeing that way is always worth the chance of falling" (HRJA, p. 121). 253 This element of risk, Hamilton observes is always in M. C.'s life,

"He risks catching skunks by setting traps for rabbits; or risks

his father's rage by playing with a forbidden companion because

friendship has to be more important that the chance of discovery and

punishment" (HJRA, p. 121). And in the ultimate assessment, M. C.'s

"final risk is to build a wall which may or may not stop a spoil heap"

(HJRA, p. 121).

The other oddity, the ten-planet solar system, Hamilton sees as

bringing to mind "the loneliness of mankind in the immensity of space

and time," and the isolated spirit, graphically illustrated when

"Junior Brown futilely sees himself as the center of a wheel or spiral,

trying desperately to find a place for his mental isolation" (LCI,

p. 567). This passage in the book combines the real and the unreal

in a way which reaches our understanding on these levels :

Slowly Junior started eating the cereal his mother had wanted him to have. He ate it all while star­ ing at her and willing her to sit down. She did come and s i t down next to him a t th e ta b le . She gathered her skirt in around her, she crossed her legs under the table, she folded her hands in front of her and cast her eyes down to one side... . Junior could hear movement, televisions, in other apartments, so still were he and his mother. He could hear the street ; and beyond their street, other streets. The city out there was loud and bright. All of it revolved around Junior like a wheel, like a system in an immense spiral Junior knew he was the center and the point of it all" (POJB, pp. 104-105).

And thus Hamilton limns Junior on another planet with the city

going round and round Junior like a huge wheel. And the metaphor of

the other planet brings a recognizing response at the level Langton

speaks of as the quick. Of her characterizations, Hamilton admits

th a t : 254 They are.. .peculiar, odd, and queer - strange columnar figures fixed somewhat off center of known human orhits. They are detached, as was Zeely, separated hy her very height ; or lir. Pool... barred from his professional group by self-imposed disengagement; or Mr. Pluto,...isolated because of the local superstitious belief in his supernatural activity; or Junior Brotna, rejected because of his ugly fat; or M. C. Higgins, literally risen above mere mortals by means of a forty-foot pole (lAE, p. 3).

Memorable novels are those in which one perceives the truth of the characters and the world in which they move. In my view, by delineating black characters who speak to the black experience

from an in house perspective and who elicit reader response

at the three levels of truth-telling described by Langton, Virginia

Hamilton has created such a world and peopled it tdlth characters who

are real and true to their black heritage and to their universalness

as people everywhere are in His world. Furthermore, through the medium of her a rt, one may enter into the world she has created as a participant - as a seeker - no matter; there are rewards for all.

For just as her final statement insists that American blacks will find a safe place within the American culture and society because they, as a people will not just endure, but will prevail, she also anticipates that "perhaps the human race is yet to come....We must make ready." FOOTNOTES

Chapter V

1. Jane Langton, "Down to the Quick: The Use of Daily Reality in Writing Fiction," Horn Book, 59 (February 1973), 29. Here­ after cited as Langton.

2. Virginia Hamilton, Illusion and Reality (Washington: Library of Congress, 1976), p. 5. Hereafter cited as lAR.

3. Personal Interview with Virginia Hamilton, April 1, 1976.

4. Virginia Hamilton, "Newbery Award Acceptance," Horn Book (August 1975), p. 343. Hereafter cited as NAA.

5. Virginia Hamilton,Zeely (New York: Macmillan Company, 1967), p. 34. Hereafter cited as Zeely.

6. Virginia Hamilton, The House of Dies Drear (New York: Macmillan Company, 1968).

7. Paul Heins, "The Planet of Junior Brown," Horn Book, 48(February 1972), 345. Hereafter cited as Heins, PJB.

8. Virginia Hamilton, The Planet of Junior Brown (New York: Macmillan Company, 1971), p. 11. Hereafter cited as POJB.

9. Jane Langton, "Virginia Hamilton, the Great," Horn Book, 50 (December 1974), 673. Hereafter cited as Langton, VHG.

10. Virginia Hamilton, M.C^. Higgins, the Great (New York: Macmillan Company, 1974). Hereafter cited as M.C^.

255 CHAPTER VI SDÎIMARY F indings The findings of the present study of the theme of isolation in

adolescent literature about black youth by selected writers are treated

under conclusions and recommendations.

Conclusions I

The analyses of the fifteen selected novels focused on the theme

of isolation, the author's awareness that the condition is a viable

element in black life , that the sociology of integration, separatism

and cultural pluralism are central to black isolation and that providing the opportunity for reader involvement is tantamount to "wearing the

sh o e."

I. In the context of the black experience the major themes

delineated in the fifteen selected novels were treated as follows:

1. Establishing Individuality

Establishing individuality excluded growth of racial awareness

and was geared more to a social milieu involving the

immediate environment, multiple conflicts such as white

hostility, in-house racial conflict, and dealing with middle

and lower-middle class aspirations and peer group pressures.

2. Social Values and Ethnic Awareness

In six of the selected titles the black protoganist accepted

the values of the dominant society as viable, rejecting black 256 257

values and the black vorld. Six of the title s projected the

theme that black perseverance and hard work were the formula

for black success in the white world. Four of these six books

were written by a black author.

3. Ethnic Conflicts

In six of the books the conflict is treated in terms of dealing

with one racial bigot. In one story the white townspeople are

the aggressors; and in another story, outside agitators are

responsible for the conflict.

In the seven title s concerning school desegregation, racial

segregation in other areas was depicted as "business as

usual." There was no delineation of the in-depth effects

which involvement in a desegregation situation might have on a

personality. Integration is delineated as the resultant o"

black demands and actions in one situation. There is a

progressive improved environment concerning blatant racial

epithets such as "darky," "nigger," and "Sambo." Overt and

covert racial biases, however, are found in all the titles.

For example, there is a negative characterization of a

girl protagonist which involves a subtle linkage of skin

color and hair texture to intellect and subservience.

U. Peer Groun Relationships

Gang activity is portrayed in three books, but no linkage

between ghetto existence and the larger society is presented.

5. Environmental Conditions

The isolated black world is accepted as a natural separate

entity in all the books. In incidents concerning isolation. 258 the condition was considered as individual and the effect

upon the character was not considered in-depth. In four of

the six hooks on ghetto life , the characters were limned as

enduring the condition. Of the remaining two, in one title

the protagonist, desiring to leave the ghetto, evinces no

in-house growth or understanding of the black condition, and

in another the central character, remaining in the ghetto,

postulates future success in terms of supporting the black

status quo with no celebration of black resiliency in evidence.

The stories concerning the black ghetto are considered as

representing covert censorship since the experience is viewed

from one perspective only.

The female protoganist in one story accepted the

prevailing philosophy that blacks should rise in their own

world and be educated for subserviant roles. Three stories

emphasized the separatedness of black life , with the exception

of school integration.

6. Intra-Group Conflicts

In four stories intra-group conflicts are depicted as arising

from a difference in racial awareness and the adoption of

dominant values by the central personae.

7. Interracial Friendships and Relationships

Interracial friendships and relationships were developed in

eight of the stories. The friendships in three books, evolve

from the process of school integration. Friendship was 259

developed prior to school integration and is momentarily

disrupted by the latter in one story. Five of the stories

limn friendships formed as a result of school integration or

continuing in a social milieu beyond the school.

The most consistent theme for all stories depicting interracial

friendships was that interethnic contact - "getting to know one

another" - was the main way to solve racial conflicts. This

belief was generally expressed as "blacks are just like whites"

which characterizes the general, but disregards the specific

facts of the black experience.

In one situation, a long-standing black-white friendship

was based on regional folkways.

8. Family Relationships and Conflicts

Five of the books portrayed family relationships and conflicts

as those conditions related to race and aspirations for a

better life.

9. Feelings of Isolation in an Integrated Situation

Three books depicted personae who experience feelings of

isolation in an integrated situation; the psychological effects

of the incidents were not explored at length.

10. Civil Rights Struggle

There were successful civil rights demonstrations limned in

one t i t l e . 260

One title delineated the civil righters and black nationalists

negatively, and indicated that the black church and black

respectable church-going citizens rejected these philosophies.-

The intégrâtionist philosophy vas most apparent in five books

w ritten between 19^5 and 1968.

There was no book with thematic emphasis on the black

separatist tenets. A minor female character, however, may be

considered to have voiced the tenets of separatism. And one

female protoganist may be considered a potential cultural

p l u r a l i s t .

II. The following themes which make the black world relevant are not

present in the fifteen selected titles (l) awareness of the

isolation of the black world; (2) the effects of that isolation

on the personae; (3) black pride in ethnic characteristics;

(k) growth of the black consciousness; (5) the vitality of black

culture, myths, folklore, customs; (6) drive for social

change on a continuum; and (?) a world view of the black condition.

These and the foregoing observations point to the conclusions that

the selected books did not consider isolation as an integral part

of the black world, that dominant values and culture were stressed,

that the stories of ghetto life did not delineate the real and

true of that life, that the ghetto is seen as a separate entity,

and that white ambivalence characterized black-white relationships

and the condition of racial segregation and that all portraits

presented lim itations to black aspirations. 261

III. In regard to the literary value of the fifteen selected novels.

1. Six of the fifteen titles vere considered veil-written, hut

did not realistically portray hlack life styles.

2. Five of the titles were considered inferior Junior novels;

which did not realistically portray the hlack world ;

3. Four title s ware considered acceptable as literary works, hut

did not depict realistically hlack life.

4. Wo title engaged reader involvement through forced empathy-

all were written from the perspective of "heing on the outside

looking in."

Three conclusions of the present study of the theme of isolation in adolescent literature about hlack youth were set forth.

Conclusions II

The analyses which were made of the four fictional ' stories of Virginia Hamilton focused on the author's awareness of isolation as a viable condition of hlack life and her ability to involve the reader in the story.

1. The theme of isolation runs through the four stories in the

study. The results of hlack isolation are depicted in terms of

madness, eccentricity, the isolation and annihilation of the

spirit, and the will to prevail and control the conditions of

life even at the cost of future destruction.

2. The reader is involved in the stories through forced empathy.

All racial flags have been removed and the reader may enter

the stories without initially thinking of racial confrontations

or statements as is frequently the case in daily life. 262

3. The four stories celebrated hlack heritage, culture and

intellect, and delineated hov to survive in a hostile

environment and realistically portrayed black life.

4. The stories are considered excellent examples of the art of

the storyteller.

Four of the conclusions of the present study of the theme of

isolation in adolescent literature about black youth were set forth.

Recommendations

The recommendations of this study are:

I . G eneral

1. There is a very basic need for titles which depict the black

world as an isolated entity with adequate explanation for the

existence of that world and the impact that that world has on

the personae.

2. There is a need for more black writers who can present the black

experience from an in-house perspective in celebration of that

experience, its culture, and heritage.

3. The media reviewers should make an honest arduous effort to

understand a title about black life from the perspective of

"looking from the inside" in lieu of the "on the outside looking

in" perspective which dominated in the fifteen title s studied.

U. The problem of literary criticism for children's literature

is recognized as being acute; there is no body of critical

literature to which critics and authors of children's

literature may refer. And, perhaps, there may never be

concrete criteria developed since most titles are for a 263 wide and diverse audience. But this is exactly why a body

of critical opinions should be developed. As this study has

proven, an author may be an excellent story-teller, but may

not present a realistic view of the subject. Therefore, it

is suggested that titles about black life be subjected to

content criteria as well as literary standards.

II. Particular

1. Teachers and authors should provide books which depict

a variety of black life styles including themes wherein

(a) poverty and anti-black conditions are overcome in lieu

of being endured; (b) the walls of the mainstream society

are assaulted, but the personae remain within the framework

of the black community; (c) the experience of blacks are

depicted as encompassing a variety of situations involving

inter and intra relationships and; (d) the culture of the

black community is presented in all its human complexity.

2. Teachers, reviewers and authors should recognize that

the theme of isolation is an important guideline in judging

and writing black books.

3. Teachers, reviewers and authors should be widely read

in black history and black adult writers. APPENDIX A

Bibliographies and Revlev Sources Consulted

Adventuring With Books,Champaign: National Council Teachers of E n g lish .

Baker, Augusta. The Black Experience in Children’s Books. New York: New York Public Library, 1971.

______. Books About Negro Life for Children. New York: New York Public Library, 19&3

Basic Book Collection for Junior High Schools. 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association Publishing Services, 19^9

B est S e l l e r s . PhiladelphiarlTorth American Publishing Company

Book Review Digest. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1938, 19^5, 1959, 1967, 1963.

Booklist and Subscription Books Bulletin. Chicago: American Library Association Publishing Services

Books for Secondary School Libraries. New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1971.

Books in P rint. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1976.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.

Child Study Association Booklists. New York: Child Study Association

Haviland, Virginia. Children's Books of International Interest. Chicago: American Library Association, 1972.

The Horn Book. Boston : The Horn Book, Inc.

Joint Committee for Media Center Development. The Heritage of the Negro in America; A Bibliography: Books, Records , Tanes, Film strips, Films, Pictures. Michigan Department of Education, Rev. ed., 1970.

Junior High School Catalog and Supplements. New York: H. W. Wilson and Company, 1965-1975.

264 265

Library Journal. New York: R. R. Bowker Company.

Interracial Books for Children Bulletin. New York : Council on .Interracial Books, for. Children.

M ills, Joyce White, ed. The Black World in Literature for Children. A Bibliography of Print and Non-Print M aterials. Atlanta: Atlanta University, School of Library Service, 1975.

Reid, Virginia, ed Reading Ladders to Hunan Relations. 5th ed. Washington: American Council on Education, 1972.

Rollins, Charlemae. We Build Together. Champaign: National Council Teachers of English, 19^1.

We Build Together. Champaign : National Council Teachers of English, 19^8,

We Build Together. Champaign: National Council Teachers of English, I 967.

Rollock, Barbara, sel. The Black Experience in Children's Books. New York: The New York Public Library, 197^.

Virginia Kirkus Service. New York: Kirküs Service.

W alters, Mary Dawson, comp. Afro Americana: A Comnrehensive Bibliography of Resource M aterials in The Ohio State University Libraries Bv o r Aboiii: Black /y-iaricans. Columbus : Office of Educational Services, The Ohio State University Libraries, 1969.

White, Marian, ed. High Interest - Easy Reading, 2nd ed. New York: Cltat Citation Press, 1972.

Wilson Library Bulletin. New York: Wilson Ccirnany. APPENDIX B

Preliminary Selections

Armstrong, William Sounder Nev York: Harper & How Publishers, 1967.

Bonham, Frank Cool Cat New York: E.P. Dutton and Conç)any, Inc., 1971.

Durango Street New York: Dell Publishing Company, I 965.

Hey, Big New York: E.P. Dutton and Spender Company, Inc., 1972.

The Golden New York: E.P. Dutton and Bees of Tulami Company, Inc., 19?^.

The Mystery of New York: E.P. Dutton and the Fat Cat Company, Inc., I 968.

The Nitty New York: E.P. Dutton and Gritty Company, Inc., I 968.

Bacon, Martha Sophia Scrooby gcstor: L ittle, Bro^-n, 1968. P reserv ed

Carlson, Natalie Savage The Empty New York, Harper & How Schoolhouse Publishers, 1965•

Childress, Alice A Hero Ain't New York: Coward, McCann, Nothing But A & Geoghegan, Inc., 1973 Sandwich

Colman, Hila Classmates By New York: William Morrow R equest and Company, Inc., 1964

Happenings at New York: William Morrow N orth End and Company, Inc., 1970 School

Danska, Herbert The S tr e e t New York: Alfred A. Knopf, K ids I n c . , 1970.

DeLeeuw, Adele l?he B arred New York : Macmillan Hoad Publishing Company, 1964. 266 267

F all, Thomas Canalhoat to New York: Dial 1966 Freedom

Fltzhugh, Louise Nobody's Family New York: Farrar,Straus & is Going to Change Giroux,.1974

F ox, P au la How Many îlile s New Y ork: David W hite, 196?• to Babylon?

The Slave Dancer; New York; Bradbury Press, A Novel 1973,

Friermood, Elizabeth W hispering New York: Doubleday and Willows Company, Inc., 196b.

Graham, Lorenz N orth Town New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965.

R eturn to New York: Thomas Y. Crowell South Town Company, 1976.

South Town Chicago : Follett Publishing Company, 19

Whose Town? New York: Thomas Y. Crow ell Company, I 969.

Greene, Bette Philip Hall New York: Dial Press, 197b. L ikes Me, I_ Reckon Maybe

Guy, Rosa The Friends New York: Holt, Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, Inc., 1 9 7 3.

Hamilton, Virginia House o f New York : Macmillan D ies D rear Publishing Company, 197b.

M.C. Higgins, New York: Macmillan The Great Publishing Company, 197b.

The Planet of New York : Macmillan Junior Brown Publishing Company, 1971.

Zeely New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1967.

Hentoff, Nate Jazz Country New York: H arper & Row, Publishers, 1965.

Hunter, Christine The Soul New York: Charles Scribner's Brothers and and Sons, I 968. S is te r Lou 268

Jackson, Jesse Anchor Man New York ; Dell Publishing Company, 19^7.

Call Me New York: Harper & Row, Charley Publishers, 19^5.

Charley Starts New York: Harper & Row, Prom Scratch Publishers, 19

T e ssie New York; H arper & Row, Publishers, 1968.

Lipsyte, Robert The C ontender New York: H arper & Row, Publishers, I967.

Marshall, Catherine J u l i e 's New York: Longmans, 1957 H erita g e

Mathis, Sharon Bell The Teacup New York: Viking Press, Inc. Full of Roses 1972.

Myers, Walter Dean Fast Sam, Cool New York ; Viking Press, Clyde and Stuff 197%.

Newell, Hope A Cap for New York: Harper & Row, Mary Ellis Publishers, 1958.

Mary E l l i s , New York : H arper & Row, Nurse Student Publishers, 1958.

Means, Florence Crannell Shuttered Boston : Houghton Windows M if f lin , 1938.

______T o lliv e r Boston : Houghton M if f lin , 1963.

Rinkoff, Barbara Member o f New York: Crown, I 968. th e Gang

Rodman, Bella Lions in Chicago: Follett Publishing th e Way Company, I 966.

Sterling, Dorothy Mary Jane New York: Doubleday and Company, 1959.

W hitney, P h y llis A. Willow H ill New York: McKay, 19%9. APPENDIX C

Final Selections

Bonham, Frank Cool C at New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1972.

PuranRo New York: Dell Publishing S tr e e t Company, I 965.

Hey, Big New York: E.P. Dutton and Spender Company, Inc., 1972.

Mystery of New York: E.P. Dutton and the Fat Cat Company, Inc., I 968.

The N itty New York: E.P. Dutton and G r itty Company, Inc., I 968.

Carlson, Natalie Savage The Empty New York: Harper & Row Schoolhouse Publishers, 19&5.

Colman, Hila Classmates by New York: W illiam H. Morrow R equest Company, Inc., 196U.

Jackson, Jesse Anchor Man New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 19^7-

C a ll ^ New York: H arper & Row, C harley Publishers, 19^5.

Charley Starts New York: Harper & Row, from Scratch Publishers, 1958.

T e ssie New York: Harper & Row, P u b lis h e r s , 1968.

Lipsyte, Robert The Contender New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 19^7•

Newell, Hope A Cap f o r New York: H arper & Row, Mary E l l i s Publishers, 1952.

Means, Florence Crannell Shuttered Boston: Houghton, M ifflin Windows Company, 1938.

Sterling, Dorothy Mary Jan e Doubleday, Doubleday and Company, 1959. 269 270

Hamilton, Virginia House o f New York : Macmillan D ies D rear Publishing Company, 197%.

M.C. H ig g in s, New York : Macmillan The G reat Publishing Company, 197%.

The Planet of New York : Macmillan Junior Brown Publishing Company, 1971.

Zeely New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 19^7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Dodds, Barbara. Negro Literature for High School Students. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English, 1968.

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Epps, Edgar G. "The Integrationists." Through Different Eyes : Black and White Perspectives on American Race Relations. Eds. Peter I. Rose, Stanley Rothman, and William J. Wilson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. 62-71.

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Ryan, William. Blaming the Victim. Pantheon Books, 1971.

Silberman, Charles L. Crisis in Black and TThite. New York: Vantage P r e s s , I 96U. 274

Tate, Binnie. "In House and Out House: Authenticity and the Black Experience in Children's Books." The Black American in Books for Children : Readings in Racism. Eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard. Metuchen, ÏIew Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972. 39- 49.

Thompson, Judith, et al. "The Black Perspective in Books for Children." The Black American in Books for Children : Readings in Racism. Eds. Donnarae MacCann and Gloria Woodard. Metuchen, Hew Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972. l4-27.

Weinstein, Allen, et al, eds. The Segregation Era, 1863-1994; A Modern Reader. Hew York: Oxford University Press, 1970*

PERIODICALS

Alexander, Joan. "Black Literature for the Culturally Deprived Curriculum." English Journal, 54 (Dec. 1970), 1229-1233.

Anon. "Editorial Comment." The Environment of Language." Saturday Review , 8 April 19^7. 36.

Anon. "A Short Play in 'Black' and 'VThite' Words." Council of Interracial Books for Children, 7, no. 5 (1976), 3.

Arnez, Nancy. "Racial Understanding Through Literature." English J o u r n a l, (Jan u ary 1 969)• pp. 56-61.

Banks, James A. "Developing Racial Tolerance with Literature in The Black Inner-City." Social Education, 34 (May 1970), 549-

Brown, Sterling. "Negro Character As Seen by I’lhite Authors." Journal of Negro Education, 33 (Apr. 1933), 179-203.

Davis, Ossie. "The English Language is My Enemy." IRCD B ulletin, 5 (Summer 1969) , 13-15-

Dieterich, Daniel J. "Black Literature in the English Classroom." English Journal, 62 (Jan. 1973) 149-155-

Denby, Robert V. "Negro Literature for Secondary English and Humanities Courses: An HCT/ERIC Renort." English Journal, 57 (May 1969) , 767- 771.

Greever, George. "Correspondence." The Dial, June 8, I 916. 531. ’75

Hamilton, Virginia. "High John is Risen Again," The Horn Book, 51 (April 1975), 113-121.

Illusion and Reality. Washington: Library of Congress, 1976.

"Literature Creativity and Imagination." Childhood Education, 49 (l-Iatch 1973), 305-310.

______. "îlevbery Award Acceptance." Horn Book, (August 1975), pp. 337-348.

"Portrait of the Author as a Working W riter." Elementary English, 48 (April 1971), 237-240, 302.

Heins, Paul. "Virginia Hamilton." The Horn Book, 51 (August 1975), 344-348.

"The Planet of Junior Brown." The Horn Book, 48 (February 1972),8 l.

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. "Virginia Hamilton." The Horn Book, 48 (December 1972), 563-509.

King, Ifertin Luther, Jr. "The American Dream." Negro History B ulletin, 31, 5 (I-îay 1958), 10-15.

Langton, Jane. "Down to the Quick: The Use of Daily Reality in Writing Fiction." The Horn Book, 59, no. 1 (February 1973), 24-30.

"Virginia Hamilton, The Great." The Horn Book, 50, no. 6 (December 1974), 671-673.

Lanier, Ruby. "Profile: Call Me Jesse Jackson." Language Arts, 5 4, no. 3 (l-iarch 1977), 331-339.

Loban, Walter. "Literature and the Examined Life." English Journal, 59 (November 1970), IO 86-IO 90.

Lovell, John, Jr. "The Ways of Racial Art." Journal of Negro Education, 24 (Spring 1955), 154-156.

Mlllender, Dharathula. "Through a Glass Darkly." Library Journal, 92 (Dec. 1 5, 1967) , 29- 3 4.

Newby, I [dus] A. "Historians and Negroes." Journal of Negro History, 54, no. 1 (January I 969) , 32-47.

Podair, Simon. "How Bigotry Builds Through Language." Negro D ig e s t, 16 (March I967) , 38-43. 276

Rollins, Charlemae. "The Role of The Book in Combating Prejudice." Wilson Library Bulletin, ^4 (October 19^7), 176-179-

Scarupa, Harriet Jackson. "Virginia Hamilton, A Teller of Tales." Essence (February 1976), pp. 58-59, p. 62, p. 94.

Simmons, John S. "Lipsyte's Contender: Another Look a the Junior Novel." Elementary English, 49 (Jan. 1972), 116-119.

Sterling, Dorothy. "The Soul of Learning." English Journal, 57 (Feb. 1968) , 166- 180.

"VThat's Black and White and Read All Over?" English Journal, 58 (S e p t. I 969), 817-832.

Taylor, Darwin. "Literature and Society's Values." English J o u r n a l, 60 (May 1971), 576-577-

Ten Houten, Warren. "The Black Family: I-^yth and Reality." Psychiatry, 33 (May 1970), 145-173.

REFERENCES

Comraire, Anne, ed. "Frank Bonham." Something About the Author. Detroit: Gale Research, 1971- I, 30-31.

"Natalie Savage Carlson." Something About the Author. Detroit: Gale Research, 1971- II, 48-50.

"Hila Colman." Something About the Author. Detroit: Gale Research, 1971- I, 65

. "Virginia Hamilton." Something About the Author. Detroit: Gale Research, 1973- IV, 97-99-

"Jesse Jackson.” Something About the Author. Detroit: Gale Research, 1971- II, 150-151-

"Robert Lipsyte." Something About the Author- Detroit: Gale Research, 1973. V ,1.

______. "Florence Crannell Means." Something About the Author. Detroit: Gale Research, 1971. I, 154-155-

"Dorothy Sterling." Something About the Author. Detroit: Gale Research, 1971. I, 206-207.

Fuller, Muriel, ed. "Hope Neuell." More Junior Authors. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1963- 158-159- 277

REPORTS

Otey, Rheba W. Children's and Teenage Folklore. Columbus: The Ohio State University Folklore Archives, Department of English, 1973.

Report of the Rational Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam, I 968.

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Bulletin no. 231 ii, 1972.

UNRTBLISHED MATERIAL

Brown, E stelle W. "Emerging Concepts of Social Developmental Tasks of the Young Black in Ten Selected Black Junior Novels. DIBS. Temple University, 197^.

Dunning, Stephen. "A Definition of the Role of the Junior Novel Based on Analyses of Thirty Selected Novels," DISS. Florida State University, 1959.

Cast, David. "Characteristics and Concepts of Minority Americans in Contemporary Children's Fictional Literature." DISS. Arizona State University, 19^5.

Glancy, Barbara. "The Changing Characteristics of the American Negro in the Children's Fiction of 1951 through I 963. (Unpublished M.A. The Ohio State University,' I 96U).

Morris, Effie Lee. "A Mid-Century Survey of the Presentation of the American Negro in Literature for Children Published in the United States, between 1900 and 1950. (Unpublished M.A. Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1956).

Small, Robert Jr. "An Analysis of Evaluation of Widely Read Junior Novels with Major Negro Characters." DISS. University of Virginia, 1970.

OTHER SOURCES

Hamilton, Virginia. Interview on April 1, 1976.