No two men of equal stature could have come from different places than Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois One was born during slavery and worked menial jobs to obtain his education while the other was raised amongst a relatively well-to-do family with roots in one of New England’s most [...]
Archive for February, 2010
The Black Elite in America
Washington D.C. was both the capitol of the United States, but also the black elite. It was in this city, which was built with the labor of thousands of African-Americans, to which the beacon lights of the nation drew like moths to a flame. The “colored elite” of the capitol centered aro[...]
February 16th, 2010 - 1:35 pm § in African American, Etiquette
African-American Etiquette
During the Gilded Age, American publishers met the needs of social climbers aspiring to emulate their betters by producing endless etiquette manuals, so did small presses meet the aspirations of newly wealthy blacks surging into the enclaves formerly preserved for the black elite. These etiquette bo[...]
The Souls of Black Folk: Arts & Literature
Literature Paul Laurence Dunbar James Weldon Johnson Frances E. W. Harper Pauline Hopkins Alice Dunbar Nelson Art Edmonia Lewis Meta Vaux Warrick Henry O. Tanner E. M. Bannister May Howard Jackson Music Harry T. Burleigh E. Azalia Hackley Thomas G. Bethune Scott Joplin James Reese Europe Will Marion[...]
Honey For Friends, Stings for Enemies: The Washington Bee
From the moment African-Americans could set pen to paper, there was the black-owned newspaper. The role of the black press reached its heights in the postbellum era, as millions of the formerly enslaved black Americans hungered for a voice amidst the clamor and fuss of Reconstruction. This voice gre[...]
The Negro Exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition
A major development of the nineteenth century was the emergence of world’s fairs, all of which served to entertain visitors and impress them with the technological and cultural advances of Western nations and their colonies which increased exponentially–and dazzlingly–after the 185[...]
Fascinating Women: Sissieretta Jones
Opera singers were the world’s first pop stars, and the nineteenth century saw the apex of diva and divo worship, with hundreds of thousands left spellbound by the heavenly voices of Jenny Lind, Nelli Melba, Enrico Caruso, and Jean de Rezke, to name a few stars. Since this was before radio, an[...]
