The Black Calhouns

pick

This was a wonderfully odd and specific work of family *and* general history - focused on the story of African Americans in the US, yes, and also on the specific history of Lena Horne‘s grandparents, parents, and her own life - and the life of her daughter, who wrote the book. The research is good, I learned a lot that I didn‘t know, and still it leaves one wanting more in the chapters at the end. 4 āļø¸ but definitely a pick. #history #memoir

suzisteffen Ah and that‘s Ms. Lena Horne in the photo. Her daughter mentions that she was always a fashion plate & I thought I‘d get a later pic to show how real that was! 5y

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suzisteffen

The Black Calhouns | Gail Lumet Buckley

Did not know this about Truman (the only president from my city btw): ā€The Truman inauguration, thanks to his show of friendship with blacks, was the most integrated since James A. Garfield‘s. Garfield, an abolitionist and a Union war hero, ran on a pro-Reconstruction platform and won the presidency in 1880 without a single Southern stateā€”but with the black vote. Garfield was assassinated in 1881.ā€¯

suzisteffen #history @Weaponxgirl š‰ 5y

Weaponxgirl Damn 5y

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suzisteffen

The Black Calhouns | Gail Lumet Buckley

ā€In February 1942, a mob of some 1,200 [white] men armed with clubs, knives, and shotguns gathered to prevent three Negro families from moving into the two-hundred unit Sojourner Truth Housing Project, designated by the U.S. Housing Authority, of which Frank Horne was an official, as Negro housing.ā€¯

š�š�š�š�š�š�š� THE. SOJOURNER. TRUTH. HOUSING. PROJECT. (Detroit)

In the middle of WWII. #history

Emilymdxn Absolutely horrifying. Thank you for posting, even if it‘s awful to read 5y

suzisteffen @Emilymdxn I know, my profile is kinda ... Grim Quotes At All Times of Day or Night. š³ The mind just boggles though. 5y

Theaelizabet I would say it‘s unbelievable, but it is, sadly, not. 5y

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Weaponxgirl I love the quotes you post! Don‘t ever stop being grim, you‘ve put me onto so may books I want to read. 5y

suzisteffen @Weaponxgirl I think you just gave me my new Twitter bio. 5y

Weaponxgirl @suzisteffen š‚ your welcome? 5y

Weaponxgirl @suzisteffen but seriously I love all the serious stuff you post about. In the real world I‘m always worried I‘m too depressing for others when I‘m quoting book info at them but I love that there‘s other people on here I can share it all with and not have them mind. Keep at it! 5y

suzisteffen @Weaponxgirl thank you and I appreciate you too! I mean, I majored in US 1960s history, got a master‘s in art history (ecofeminist art history!), and I just care about all of this. I also read a lot of fiction but am trying to balance that out this year. Great that we found each other and others like us to follow/inspire! 5y

Weaponxgirl Ok, I want to know more about eco feminist art history! I‘m with you on the caring. I sometimes get asked why I‘m always reading stuff that makes me sad/ angry nonfiction wise and all I can ever think to say is I care and I need to know more. I‘m always mentally tagging what you and a few others are reading, I am really thankful for this little community and the books we can all share with each other. 5y

suzisteffen @Weaponxgirl about to teach so I can‘t say too much, but I wrote my master‘s thesis on an artist named Ana Mendieta. I might theorize her work differently now, in 2019, but in 1997 I situated her in the ecofeminist tradition. 5y

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suzisteffen

The Black Calhouns: From Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family | Gail Buckley

The more I read about US history, the more š®š�š�š�š�š�š� I am. And not that France was or is truly great with Black people, including those from its former colonies, but ... this is interesting, and one sees why James Baldwin and many other Black expats sought out refuge in France. #history #WWI

Weaponxgirl It‘s insane! We had a similar thing in the uk with American soldiers in ww2. We aren‘t a perfect nation at all with racism but white American soldiers used to get annoyed British pubs wouldn‘t follow segregation when stationed here. I think it was on a series called black and British that I saw it. 5y

suzisteffen @Weaponxgirl Yes, I‘ve seen a lot about WWII - our post-war President desegregated the military in 1948 - but I had never thought about THIS MADNESS in WWI. It‘s so intense to see this from Pershing after listening to The Warmth of Other Sons because one of the main people in that had the name Pershing bc his mom thought Pershing was a hero. Makes me want to puke. (edited) 5y

Weaponxgirl That‘s so awful! It honestly blows my mind just how racist America is. I watched a documentary on John lee hooker recently and apparently he was shocked when he came to the uk on tour as he was put up in hotels and musicians like the stones were fighting to see him. Yet at home he made no money as white America wasn‘t even aware of his existence. They didn‘t care till white uk musicians sold him back to them. 5y

suzisteffen @Weaponxgirl I‘m listening to The Cooking Gene right now, and Michael Twitty says enslaved people were prisoners of war and victims of kidnapping in forced labor camps - and while I‘ve been working on being anti-racist for decades, that take just blew my mind into a whole new place of understanding what the Spanish and British (ahem) and French, & then white Americans, did for centuries. Centuries. 5y

Weaponxgirl I need to get to that book! That‘s such a good take as it doesn‘t let us compartmentalise it. I do have to sometimes remind people about the uk and just how bad colonialism was for so many people. Just because lots of us didn‘t have slavery in the same way as America it doesn‘t mean it wasn‘t devastating and that we didn‘t profit off the back of it. 5y

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suzisteffen

The Black Calhouns | Gail Lumet Buckley

ā€The Vatican profited heavily from slavery and the slave trade, but had a civilizing effect on slavery itself. In Catholic areasā€”Louisiana, for example, as well as Latin Americaā€”slave marriages were sanctified, and children could not be sold away from their parents.ā€¯

I knew the first part but CERTAINLY not the second part. You‘d think my Church education would‘ve emphasized that? Interesting.

Theaelizabet Interesting, indeed. 5y

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suzisteffen

The Black Calhouns: From Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family | Gail Buckley

My first #history book for May. Happy that one of my libraries has it! Gail Buckley is the daughter of Lena Horne, but thatā€s not why I snagged this book - it was because of this review: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/books/review/the-black-calhouns-by-gail-lumet... #BlackHistoryYear

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MsLeah8417

The Black Calhouns | Gail Lumet Buckley

I will admit, I was drawn to this book because of the author‘s relation to the late great Miss Lena Horne. However, the entire family narrative is fascinating so I am doubly glad I picked it up. #gaillumetbuckley

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