| Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863-1913 Contributor(s): Clark, Kathleen Ann (Author) |
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ISBN: 0807856223 ISBN-13: 9780807856222 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $30.88 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: September 2005 Annotation: In the first book-length study of African American commemorations in the South following emancipation, Clark shows how traditions such as Emancipation Day created unique opportunities for southern black communities to memorialize slavery and celebrate freedom while also defining themselves collectively and asserting their citizenship after the Civil War. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv) - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 975.009 |
| LCCN: 2004029988 |
| Physical Information: 0.73" H x 6.18" W x 9.2" (1.04 lbs) 312 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Chronological Period - 1900-1919 - Cultural Region - South - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The historical memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction has earned increasing attention from scholars. Only recently, however, have historians begun to explore African American efforts to interpret those events. With Defining Moments, Kathleen Clark shines new light on African American commemorative traditions in the South, where events such as Emancipation Day and Fourth of July ceremonies served as opportunities for African Americans to assert their own understandings of slavery, the Civil War, and Emancipation--efforts that were vital to the struggles to define, assert, and defend African American freedom and citizenship. Focusing on urban celebrations that drew crowds from surrounding rural areas, Clark finds that commemorations served as critical forums for African Americans to define themselves collectively. As they struggled to assert their freedom and citizenship, African Americans wrestled with issues such as the content and meaning of black history, class-inflected ideas of respectability and progress, and gendered notions of citizenship. Clark's examination of the people and events that shaped complex struggles over public self-representation in African American communities brings new understanding of southern black political culture in the decades following Emancipation and provides a more complete picture of historical memory in the South. |
Contributor Bio(s): Clark, Kathleen Ann: - Kathleen Ann Clark is assistant professor of history at the University of Georgia. |