The Sons & Daughters of Washerwomen

Compiled by Rudolph Lewis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), Brazilian novelist, was the son of a mulatto painter and an Azorean washerwoman. Born in Rio de Janeiro and educated by a priest, Machado de Assis became one of Brazil's most famous novelist. He was familiar with the works of Swift, Sterne, and Leopradi. He is started his career first as a typesetter, a proofreader, and finally a journalist. her worked laeter as an official of Brazil's Agricultural department. Machado de Assis' writings include poetry, theater, chronicles, short stories and novel. His trilogy Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas (1881), Quincas Borbas (1892), and Dom Casmurro (1900) have received considered emphasis of critical studies and public interest. His novels are distinguished by psychological insight and a profound awareness of social conditions; their objective attitude stands in sharp contrast to the prevalent romantic tendency of the time.

His major realistic novels  Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881, tr. Epitaph of a Small Winner, 1952, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, 1998), Quincas Borba (1891, tr. Philosopher or Dog?, 1954, 1998), and Dom Casmurro (1900, tr. 1953, 1998) are still in publication and have been translated.  His pessimistic view of life and criticism of Brazil's high bourgeoisie is impelled by irony.

Machado's poetry and fiction show an indifference to enslaved blacks and is lacking in black themes. Some suggest however that more investigation and analysis into Machado de Assis' identity as an Afro Brazilian writer would be illuminating.

Bibliography

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated from the Portuguese by Gregory Rabassa Oxford University Press, 219 pp., $25.00; $12.95 (paper)

Quincas Borba by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated from the Portuguese by Gregory Rabassa Oxford University Press, 290 pp., $25.00; $13.95 (paper)

Dom Casmurro by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated from the Portuguese by John Gledson Oxford University Press, 258 pp., $25.00; $12.95 (paper)

Esau and Jacob by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Lowe Oxford University Press, 276 pp., $35.00; $16.95 (paper)

A Master on the Periphery of Capitalism: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis by Roberto Schwarz, translated from the Portuguese and with an introduction by John Gledson Duke University Press, 194 pp., $54.95; $18.95 (paper)

Machado de Assis: Reflections on a Brazilian Master Writer edited by Richard Graham University of Texas Press, 134 pp., $25.00; $11.95 (paper)

Source: The New York Review of Books July 18, 2002. Review "Master Among the Ruins" By Michael Wood

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Actress, Dancer, Freedom Fighter

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

Catholic Priest and saint 

St. Martin de Porres (1579-1339)

Corporate Executive & Arts Supporter

A'Lelia McWilliams Walker (1885-1931)

Publisher & Business Executive

John H. Johnson (b. 1918)

Pianist and Composer of Ragtime

Eubie Blake ( 1883-1982)

Lawrence T. Carter, Eubie Blake: Keys of Memory (1979); Al Rose, Eubie Blake (1979).

First African-American Professional Poet 

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) / http://www.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/dunbar.htm

Baseball Pitcher

Leroy Robert ("Satchel") Paige (1906-1982)

Leroy Satchel Page, et al. M  Maybe I'll Pitch Forever: A Great Baseball Player Tells the Hilarious Story Behind the Legend (1962; 1993).

Source: A Look at the Negro Leagues

Lawyer & Social Critic

Frederick McGhee (1861-1912)

Nelson, Paul D. Frederick McGhee: A Life on the Color Line, 1861-1912. Feb. 2002. 261p. illus. index.

Read also: Radicalism in the South Since Reconstruction  / Booker T. Wshington Papers Vol.14l  /  Booker T. Washington Papers Vol.8

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Historian, Lecturer, Educator The popular and beloved  John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998)  was born January 1 in Union Springs, Alabama and died July 16 in New York City. His mother, Willie Ella Mays Clark, was a washerwoman who did laundry for $3 a week. His father was a sharecropper. As a youngster Clark caddied for Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley.

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Audio: My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)

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Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification (2009) By David Waldstreicher Taking on decades of received wisdom, David Waldstreicher has written the first book to recognize slavery’s place at the heart of the U.S. Constitution. Famously, the Constitution never mentions slavery. And yet, of its eighty-four clauses, six were directly concerned with slaves and the interests of their owners. Five other clauses had implications for slavery that were considered and debated by the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the citizens of the states during ratification. This “peculiar institution” was not a moral blind spot for America’s otherwise enlightened framers, nor was it the expression of a mere economic interest. Slavery was as important to the making of the Constitution as the Constitution was to the survival of slavery.By tracing slavery from before the revolution, through the Constitution’s framing, and into the public debate that followed, Waldstreicher rigorously shows that slavery was not only actively discussed behind the closed and locked doors of the Constitutional Convention, but that it was also deftly woven into the Constitution itself.

For one thing, slavery was central to the American economy, and since the document set the stage for a national economy, the Constitution could not avoid having implications for slavery. Even more, since the government defined sovereignty over individuals, as well as property in them, discussion of sovereignty led directly to debate over slavery’s place in the new republic.

Finding meaning in silences that have long been ignored, Slavery’s Constitution is a vital and sorely needed contribution to the conversation about the origins, impact, and meaning of our nation’s founding document.

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AALBC.com's 25 Best Selling Books

 

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#22 – Thug Matrimony  by Wahida Clark

#23 - Thugs And The Women Who Love Them by Wahida Clark

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Non-fiction

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#11 - Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure by Tavis Smiley

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#13 - The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life by Kevin Powell

#14 - The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore

#15 - Why Men Fear Marriage: The Surprising Truth Behind Why So Many Men Can't Commit  by RM Johnson

#16 - Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire by Carol Jenkins

#17 - Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell

#18 - A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

#19 - John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism by Keith Gilyard

#20 - Alain L. Locke: The Biography of a Philosopher by Leonard Harris

#21 - Age Ain't Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife by Carleen Brice

#22 - 2012 Guide to Literary Agents by Chuck Sambuchino
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#24 - 101 Things Every Boy/Young Man of Color Should Know by LaMarr Darnell Shields

#25 - Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class  by Lisa B. Thompson

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The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michele Alexander Contrary to the rosy picture of race embodied in Barack Obama's political success and Oprah Winfrey's financial success, legal scholar Alexander argues vigorously and persuasively that [w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration as a system of social control (More African Americans are under correctional control today... than were enslaved in 1850). Alexander reviews American racial history from the colonies to the Clinton administration, delineating its transformation into the war on drugs. She offers an acute analysis of the effect of this mass incarceration upon former inmates who will be discriminated against, legally, for the rest of their lives, denied employment, housing, education, and public benefits. Most provocatively, she reveals how both the move toward colorblindness and affirmative action may blur our vision of injustice: most Americans know and don't know the truth about mass incarceration—but her carefully researched, deeply engaging, and thoroughly readable book should change that.—Publishers Weekly

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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays Edited by Miriam DeCosta-Willis  Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a collection of fourteen essays by scholars and creative writers from Africa and the Americas. Called one of two significant critical works on Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late 1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of Carter G. Woodson and Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an historical context for understanding 20th-century creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone writers, such as Cuban Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist, and scholar Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the significance of Negritude in Latin America. This collaborative text set the tone for later conferences in which writers and scholars worked together to promote, disseminate, and critique the literature of Spanish-speaking people of African descent. . . . Cited by a literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."

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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  /  The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll  /  Only a Pawn in Their Game

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery

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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg

The Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804  / January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of Haiti 

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posted 22 June 2008