Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 - Hardcover

White, Deborah G

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393046672 ISBN 13: 9780393046670

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998

Synopsis

A history of the struggle of black women to attain equality and break away from exploitation. At the turn of the century, when African-Americans faced lyching, mob violence, segregation, and disenfranchisement, African-American women stepped forward with a plan of organized resistance. Thus began a century of black women organizing on behalf of their race and themselves. This work explores the efforts of black women to define and explain themselves as well as race and gender issues to white and black men. This history highlights their persistent struggle against racism, male chauvinism and negative stereotypes; it also brings to light and celebrates early 20th-century African-American women's unlauded support for women's rights, civil rights, and civil liberties. The book covers how black women sought to hold their race and gender identity in balance while being pulled in different directions by the agendas of white women and black men. Finally, it tells the larger story of how Americans began the century measuring racial progress by the status of black women but gradually became to focus primarily on the status of black men - the masculinization of America's racial consciousness.

About this title

About the Author:

Deborah Gray White is professor of history and co-director of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis at Rutgers University. She is also the author of Too Heavy a Load.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0393046672
• ISBN 13: 9780393046670
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352