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Books by Marcus Bruce
Christian
Song of the Black Valiants: Marching Tempo
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High Ground: A Collection of Poems /
Negro soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans
I am New
Orleans: A Poem
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Negro Iron Workers of Louisiana: 1718-1900 /
The Liberty Monument
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Self-Made Men,
Lyle Saxon, & Class Tension
December
10, 1943
I
began to prepare dinner, slowly turning about my task in the
kitchen, thinking as slowly as I went about my task. Maybe it is
that Saxon is as sick as he thinks. After all, he has been
hitting the bottle rather heavily within the last few years. No
man can stand that slow poison for long, I thought to myself.
Just what made him that way? I have long since ceased to blame
anyone for their faults--we are just fashioned that way by early
associations and environments. We cannot change, unless in
the environment of our former existences was dropped the seed of
change.
Every
"self-made man" owed his making not to his own strong
will power but to the fact that somewhere a hundred years ago,
or a thousand years ago, was dropped the seed of a strong
character which acted directly upon his own. He might have
forgotten all about how he came about this strange gift, but the
gods of our making never forget. They know that thousands of us
are damned because any other thousands in our same circumstances
would also be damned--that there are really no self-made men,
that somewhere along the moving mass production line of life an
experience came here, financial assistance there, seeds of
character growth here, human sympathy and understanding from
over yonder, strength and vigor from the food our mothers ate
before we were even conceived, and resolute determination moving
out of the crucible of despair.
But
what happened to Saxon? Where along the line he got the seeds of
a tragic melancholy and frustration which will sooner or later
tear wide the bonds of his own existence? Where came that love
of the under-dog and hatred of the overlord--of which he himself
is one, and even likes it sometime? Were there black blood
connections in the ascending or descending scale of thing. Or
was there love? What? Where? Who? I turned and went about
preparing my breakfast-dinner of dried shrimps, apple jelly,
bread, and Ovaltine.
I
took my medicine, thinking about Saxon dying in the laps of
plenty. Plenty of warm heat--steam heat--plenty of
medicine--plenty of doctors--plenty of flunkies--plenty of
food--plenty of everything, but plenty of existence. When men
die where there is warmth, food, care, and medicine, what will
happen to men who have only cold, hunger, exploitation, and perpetual poverty of a sort? Good Lord!
<<---Previous
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Selected Letters
Selected Diary Notes Memories of Marcus B. Christian
(Cains) Christian's
BioBibliographical Record Introduction to I AM NEW
ORLEANS
A
Theory of a Black Aesthetic Magpies,
Goddesses, & Black Male Identity
Activist Works on Next Level of Change
Intro to I Am New
Orleans
Letter from Dillard University
A
Labor of Genuine Love
Letter of Gift of
Photos
Letters from
LSU and Skip Gates * * *
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Negro Iron Workers of Louisiana: 1718-1900
By Marcus Bruce Christian
Study of the blacksmith
tradition and New Orleans famous lace balconies and
fences.
Acclaimed
during his life as the unofficial poet laureate of
the New Orleans African-American community, Marcus
Christian recorded a distinguished career as
historian, journalist, and literary scholar. He was
a contributor to Pelican's
Gumbo Ya Ya, and also wrote many articles
that appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and
general-interest publications. |
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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A Wreath for Emmett Till
By Marilyn Nelson; Illustrated by
Philippe Lardy
This memorial to
the lynched teen is in the Homeric
tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a
heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan
rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite
formal not only in form but in language.
There are 15 poems in the cycle, the
last line of one being the first line of
the next, and each of the first lines
makes up the entirety of the 15th. This
chosen formality brings distance and
reflection to readers, but also calls
attention to the horrifically ugly
events. The language is highly
figurative in one sonnet, cruelly
graphic in the next. The illustrations
echo the representative nature of the
poetry, using images from nature and
taking advantage of the emotional
quality of color. There is an
introduction by the author, a page about
Emmett Till, and literary and poetical
footnotes to the sonnets. The artist
also gives detailed reasoning behind his
choices. This underpinning information
makes this a full experience, eminently
teachable from several aspects,
including historical and literary—School
Library Journal |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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