Going Against The Grain pt.3

In this section we learn that most African American parents around this time did not approve of public schooling. Their reasons behind this were to avoid the humility of having to send their children through “the abuse of white southerners” or “to a southern-designed system of ‘black education’…..”  Instead of pressing their children to go to these schools, they preferred to send them off to private schools such as Morris Brown, Morehouse, and Spelman College. African Americans strived to become literate and each one has a story of how this came to be. For instance, let’s examine Clara Howards’ story. Born in Greenville, Georgia, Clara Howard was one of 9 siblings. Her father was a literate skilled worker and business man and refused to allow her to become illiterate. She was a member of the first graduating class of Spelman College and also one of the first graduates to teach as a missionary in Africa. She dedicated her time to help out communities in need due to her strong Christian values and beliefs. During her travels, she faced several dangers which included having to deal with wild animals as well as people. Her services were forced to an end in 1897. She returned to Spelman to become a staff member and an active member of the Atlanta community.  On November 23, 1969 Spelman College dedicated a building to her naming it Howard Harreld.  She has left behind an inspiring legacy that will continually go on.

Selena Sloan butler graduated from Spelman college class of 1888. She was born Thomasville, Georgia on January 4, 1872. Selena was educated by missionaries who encouraged her to go as far as possible in education. She was sponsored at Spelman College by her minister and received a diploma in Spelman’s 2^nd graduating class. For the next five years of her life, she taught English classes in the Atlanta public schools and later at Tallahassee, Florida. She later married a graduate of Lincoln University medical college named Henry Rutherford Butler. Some years after, Butler became a public speaker locally and nationally and as a community activist. She was a delegate representing the Atlanta woman’s club in 1896. In her very own home she organized the first kindergarten for African American children in Atlanta. Butler had many other accomplishments including being the founder and first president of the Georgia Congress of colored parents and teachers in 1920.

In that time opportunities for African American women in literacy was brought about many obstacles. Their opportunities were limited because of their race and sex. African American women were placed at the bottom of the scale and had negative stereotypes placed on them.

To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation (Pt. 2)

In this section, Leonie C.R. Smith traces her literary experience upon moving to the United States. In 1987, she moved to New York and quickly realized that not only were there cultural but academic changes that she would have to adapt to. Her first struggle came when she failed a seventh grade reading test and was placed in a lower academic standing class. She soon learned that textbook answers were valued over her usual explanations in essay form. Another struggle she faced was culture. Many of the children made fun of her accent as well as her clothes. She began to see that name brand clothing was pereferred and that she was an immediate outsider. Smith was constantly teased and callled a geek because of her higher academic standing than her peers. Yet and still, she prevailed through adversity. She worked out an agreeement with the assistant principal and was able to return to her original homeroom. She ignored the teasing and was mature enough to understand that she was doing good and was helping to better herself and her future. She managed to graduate sixth in her entire class and proved that although she was different she was intelligent as well. Her Antiguan upbringing taught her that she need not to give up but to keep going as there was a bigger task that lay ahead and that task was her literacy and education.

The essay was very informative. I am sure that we have all at one time or another felt that we were an outsider or was wronged in some sort of way. Leonie C.R. Smith had many barriers in front of her. She was black, an immigrant, and she was a woman. Instead of making excuses, she decided to act and to make a way out of no way. She managed to get back into her class and later an honor's class. She is a true inspiration and has proven that no matter what the case, anything is possible. Just because you are a black woman does not mean that you have to accept that stereotype. You are as intelligent and educated as you make yourself. Sometimes if you want change, you have to grab it and change it yourself. Her literacy and education were worth the struggle and the fight. She is living proof that the only person that can hold you back is yourself.

Going Against the Grain pt. 2

Literacy Opportunities after 1800s

During this time many of the noted African-American women began to step up and start schools in their homes, cabins and churches.  They also were able to attend certain academies.  Miss Deveaux from Savannah was one of many of the women who ran a school in her home.  Some slaves even taught sewing classes for the younger slave children.
Along with direct teaching from the black women, they also "learned from their slave masters."  They would watch their masters and observe what they did and try to imitate them.  They also would wait outside the school of the master's childen and eavesdrop while they waited on the children to be dismissed from school.
Some slaves were taught directly from their masters because the master needed them for work that sometimes required them to have a certain level of literacy.  Some of the family members of the masters such as wives, children and sisters, would often teach the slaves in secret how to read and write. 
Even though they had opportunities to learn they still had to do it in secret.
After the Civil War The Atlanta University was opened in the South and African-Americans had teh opportunity to obtain higher education.  One of the first African-American women to be able to attend and take advantage of the opportunity was Adella Hunt. Following her many other African-Americans began to acquire simple skills such as reading and writing.
I actually enjoyed this section because it is so interesting to me because they had such a hunger to learn and be educated.  Many of the African-Americans today want to be educated but the motivation to learn does not compare to the motivation of these African-Americans.

To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation by Leonie C.R. Smith

  Leonie Smith tells us about her experience with literacy during her childhood to present day.  She was the youngest child and she grew up in a home with both her parents. Her father dropped out of school as a young boy so he could work and support his family.  Leonie's mother was a homemaker.  Leonie states that "[her] parents were very intelligent people who [were unable to complete their education due to their family situations]"(184).  Her family suffered because of the illiteracies that were in her family.  For example, because her grandmother was illiterate she was taken advantage of by a white woman.  leonie's grandmother gave the rights to her grandfather's land to a white woman not knowing what she was doing. The white woman told her grandmother that her "children would rob her" (184).  The white woman "paid" her with "bags of flour for her bakery and a $5 bill" (184). 

  Along with the tragic lose of her grandfather's land, Leonie suffered the loss of her mother at a very young age.  After her mother died, Leonie's father went into a state of depression.  The older children ended up caring for the younger ones.  Despite Leonie's struggles, she never allowed her education to suffer.  Her experience reminds me of myself and my journey to become a literate black woman.  just like Leonie, I endured through my struggles to become a literate black woman. 

 

Going Against the Grain: The Acquisition and Use of Literacy

It seems that the African American woman has seen nothing but stuggles and resilence over the past 200 years in regards to her education and literacy. It started early in our homeland Africa. Black women still had a secondary role to men yet they took that role and created something much greater. They were more than nurturers but storytellers and eucators as well. They were reponsible for the entire community out of an unassigned obligation. When brought to the United States as slaves, they were denied access to education and anything that would derail their identity as a labor force. During the American revolution, a time when America was establishing itself as a free nation and separate from England, many blacks were held in captivity denied the freedon and American dream as promised by founding father Thomas Jefferson. Despite this, many women threw cauttion to the wind and grabbed their freedom and literacy. Many women such as Lucy Terry Prince who used the government numerous times to salvage her possessions. When her family was threatened, she went to the governor and ordered protection and successfully defended herself to the Supreme Court when her property rights were being infringed. Although struggling for a literaic voice, there were many people who helped in the education of African Americans. Many abolitionists, ministers, and philosophers who did not condone slavery and felt it was immoral. They believed blacks should at least be educated if not set free by their captors. Numerous African American women has succeeded in becoming literate and uisng it to their advantage. However, for the increasing number of successful ones, there were just as many that were not so fortunate to receive this education and literacy.

The essay was very good and gave a broad means to how African American women were able to take their secondary roles and use them to benefit not only themselves but their community as well. They never forgot their primary role as a nurturer but decided that there was more to them than taking care of the house and raising children. They had a voice and no matter how difficult and daunting a task it was, they managed to prevail and to give not just themselves but their community as well a little access to literacy and fredom.

Black Women/Black Literature

This essay was done on the basis of JoAnne Kilgour Dowdy interviewing Christina McVay, an instructor who teaches English in the Pan-African Department. When reading this, you would probaly never guess that Christina McVay is white. She discusses her non-conventional ways when it comes to her career, classroom, and her life. For instance, she got a position in the department when she was having a beer in a bar. There she met Wiley Smith who then was a coordinator for Communications Skills and Arts Division. They talked, and he thought she be great to teach in the department. Less than a week later, she was! In her classroom, she felt it necessary for her students to become comfortable with the black language, but first felt that they needed to be comfortable with her. In doing so, she came up with many exercises, one being the slang dictionary. This was where the students took a plain dictionary and filled it with only slang words, but they had to give the definition and the part of speech. This helped them and challenged the theory that Black English is bad and has no place in the classroom. It also gave respect to what she calls Consensus English. In the end, she talks of wanting to look up an old college friend and wondering if she is still that empowered and involved woman that she knew her to be.

I was very surprised when I read the essasy. Besides the fact that Christina McVay is white, but that she seemed so fascinated with black culture and the fact that she seemed so unnerved by the way that society has treated and defined black language. I loved the slang dictionary and felt that was a great way to incorporate Consensus English with Black English and how it applies to the students. Christina McVay is a great teacher and has an uncanny way of creating a bridge for her students to learn. I think that she felt that there is no way the students could possibly learn anything from her class if they could not find themselves in the writing---the literature. She respected their culture and helped them to embrace not only the black language but a bit of their own culture as well.

Response to "Literacy and the Black Woman" by Joanne Dowdy

Dowdy starts off by defining the black woman from the point of view of society. The black woman was viewed as poor, illiterate, and "an overrepresented member of the Society's bottom tier"(15). Dowdy goes on to address the "historical perspective" of black women and literacy. When people thought of women being literate, they usually referred to the white woman. Black women were ignored to the point where it seemed like they did not exist. Black women were only useful when it came to house work and child-bearing. Eventually the black woman realized that the only difference between her and whites was being literate. Women like "Harriett Tubman and Sojurner Truth epitomize the image of what black women endured to become [literate balck women]" (16). Dowdy goes on and talks about the black woman's efforts to help her black community become literate. Eventually programs were established to help the black woman build on her level of literacy.
In conclusion, Dowdy states that, "The black woman has struggled long and hard in an effort to achieve the skills identified with literacy. Unfortunately, if it had to be judged by present statistics on formal literacy, one would be tempted to say she has failed. This is not due to her lack of will; obstacles often greater than her will have been imposed on her every step"(23). This portion of Dowdy's book stood out to me because as I reflect on the hard work of many of the influential black women such as Harriett Tubman, Phillis Wheatly, and Sojurner Truth, I think of the ungrateful African-Americans today who do not take advantage of the education that is offered to them. The African-Americans today tend to complain about attending school and have the highest drop-out rates. Our African-American ancestors took beatings, hazing, and many other forms of torture because of their attempt to become literate African-Americans. Because of the portion of our Black community that lack the desire to become literate, our entire black community is judged and degraded because of the few.
I also agree with Dowdy when she states that "it seems {she} has lost the war of achieving literacy to uplift herself and her race, she continues the battle every day." Although Black women were denied the access to learn how to read and write, she found other areas in which to become literate. Lteracy is not only the ability to read and write but also the ability to communicate. Black women learned to dance and through dance they used their bodies to communicate what they were feeling. Black women also used music and singing as a way of communication.


Dowdy, Joanne. Readers of the Quilt: Essays on Being Black, Female and Literate. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press Inc., 2005.

"To Protect And Serve"

It seems as though the words “to protect and serve” appear to be what a black woman is expected of. She is strong and nurturing, hence comes her ability to protect, and she is also caring and loyal giving her the expectancy to be able to serve. She is viewed as everything except who she really is. Instead of the powerful queen that she should represent, it seems as though she has lowered herself into a position that is pleasing to the world around her. Not even thinking about her true purpose nor the many attributes she can give to society. Instead she was giving names such as mammy, which means “the faithful, obedient, domestic servant”, as said by Patricia Hill Collins. (676) As a black woman, it is common to be looked upon as a sexual creature. We have come to a place in time where black woman both young and old are considered “loose and immoral” (676) Although all of these things are expected, I am proud to say that we are aiming to rise above it. Black women literacy is way more than just simple words being spoken out or written down on a piece of paper. Black women have found ways to expand the horizons and discover new options and new opportunities to better themselves. Spelman college is a great example of this action. By embracing the knowledge that has been set out before us and aggressively pulling ourselves toward literary freedom and success, we as a people have proven the world wrong. It is now up to the future generations to keep this legacy alive. No longer should we be looked upon and casted down as immoral animals, but we shall rise above it become the strong leaders that we were destined to be.