Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863-1913 / Edition 1

by Kathleen Ann Clark

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807856222
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/05/2005
Edition description:	1
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kathleen Ann Clark is assistant professor of history at the University of Georgia.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

An intriguing analysis of African-American celebrations of freedom during the late nineteenth century. . . . A worthy addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of the period.—Georgia Historical Quarterly



The most complete account to date of Southern black commemorations of the war, emancipation, and Reconstruction.—Civil War History



An excellent study of an important topic, and should find its way onto the shelves of all scholars interested in African American and Southern history and the politics of commemoration.—Southern Historian



The first monograph to concentrate exclusively on southern African American commemorations in the fifty years following emancipation. . . . Has helped establish a firm foundation for further studies.—Civil War Book Review



A welcome addition the literature on Emancipation celebrations. It enhances understanding of the diversity of black responses to Emancipation and Jim Crow, and it sheds new light on the roles of gender and religion in formulating African American identity.—Register of Kentucky Historical Society



Through skillful analysis, the author offers an interesting and plausible narrative of the role and significance of commemorations.—NC Historical Review



Break[s] new ground in the burgeoning field of American memory studies. . . . Finds success and triumph in a subject that could easily result in disillusionment.—Southern Historian



Clark makes effective use of period newspapers, manuscripts, and secondary sources to offer a valuable regional study of an important aspect of postbellum southern political culture. Recommended.—Choice



Clark's well-researched study is a great addition to the growing literature on the black experience in America.—Historian



The amalgamation of emancipation celebrations, African American political culture, and American intellectual history has never before been so fully or so intelligently explored as in Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863-1913.—Journal of Southern History

Editorial Reviews

"Through vivid, evocative stories, Clark charts an ongoing public debate among African Americans about how to narrate their history and define the nature of their progress since Emancipation. The book's high points are its close examinations of people or events that reflect the complexities of this struggle; Clark's discussions of Augusta's Emancipation Day and of the career of Charles Hunter bring lost worlds to life.(Stephen Kantrowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison) "

"An intriguing analysis of African-American celebrations of freedom during the late nineteenth century. . . . A worthy addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of the period."
-- "Georgia Historical Quarterly"

"Clark seeks to uplift and inspire with a steady drumbeat of African American agency and resistance on the long march to freedom."
-- "Journal of American History"

From the Publisher