Skip to main content

Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats










The Urban Life Experience Book discussion Series has been immersed in the outrage against racial injustice, mass incarceration and the killings of unarmed citizens by the police. Imagine how we responded when asked by the New Haven Free Public Library and the Long Wharf Theatre to read the book Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats. The book features black and white photos taken by Michael Cunningham. Journalist Craig Marberry provides the mini-bios of the women pictured. The group met on Saturday April 14th and actually had one of the best discussions ever.

The oral history provided in the women’s stories, although not so much concerned with criminal justice or race relations, was yet meaningful, providing another facet of African American culture. The forward was written by Maya Angelou, who asserted that “Truly the Civil rights Movement was begun In the Black Church.  She made the connection between African head coverings and African Americans covering their heads for church in submission to God. Of course submission evolved to adornment:

Addie Webster: “When I get dressed to go to church, I’m going to meet the King, so I must look my best.”

Among the women featured in the book one was a state representative, six were college professors, several were teachers, at least two were business owners. In spite of the book’s focus on head covering and adornment, there is some social history interspersed throughout.

Nancy Carpenter: “Back when I got my first hat, blacks could shop only in certain stores…In the sixties, we were finally allowed to in Montaldos.”

On the day of our book discussion, Shelara led us off with such issues in the book as colorism, feminism, economic empowerment, and desegregation. She related how even though the society told us we weren’t ladies, we adorned ourselves. Lenslie told us how even though the dress codes had been relaxed when she went to Bennett College, her aunt had gone before her and had to wear the hats gloves, and stockings every time they went off campus. One of the women in the book, Ms. Ollie Mc Dowell relates her story from her Bennett College days.



Ms. Dora Lee Brown, the oldest member of our book group, asserted, “I’m 81 years old and grew up in Kentucky. Church was where we had to wear our best things. Even at 16 years old I had my white gloves…I think that today we can have a little more respect for the church. Dolores Colon co-signed on this adding, “Even at funerals, people don’t dress to show the proper respect.
We all agreed that church on Sunday was the one day Black people could congregate. Betty pointed out that “the house servants and the field workers could be together in church. Church was where the Dr. Kings and the Andrew Youngs were started."

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby, 2003

Nine of us met on Saturday March 16 th to discuss Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement by Barbara Ransby, published in 2003.    Although born 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia, Ella Baker was predominantly reared in Littleton, North Carolina. Her Civil Rights and Human Rights career spanned over five decades, some of her work took place in New York and some took place in the South.    Some of the groups she worked with are   YNC L Young Negroes’ Cooperative League    WEP Worker s’ Education Project    NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People    SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference    M FDP Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party    SCEF Southern Christian Education Fund    SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee     She established her place in these movements as a behind the scenes organizer and never sought leadership positions. Her philosophy about movement work involved training regular people to lead from the bottom up, as opposed to  
Post a Comment
Read more

The Movement Made Us: A Father, A Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride by David J. Dennis Jr. in collaboration with David J. Dennis Sr.

  Book Discussion of The Movement Made Us by David Dennis Jr. and David Dennis Sr.    Discussion date: December 30, 2023   Nine of us met for our last book discussion of 2023 on the last Saturday of December. The book, The Movement Made Us: A Father, A Son, and The Legacy of a Freedom Ride. This book chronicles Dave Dennis Sr. ’s Movement stories from 1961 to 1964. The stories are transcribed by his son Dave Dennis Jr.     Meghan : He (the son) was like translating a n oral history that he had broken down through interviews . I like the wordplay he used but I also questioned   how much of this is the son kind of creating literature and not necessarily the father’s voice? But at the same time, I appreciated it because it’s so inter-generational because the Movement is about family and passing down activism.   Janice: T he re is a YouTube video about this book recorded at MDAH. (Mississippi Department of Archives and History . ) The video features both David Dennis Sr. And
Post a Comment
Read more

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton

  The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is a fictional oral history of the  interracial 1970s rock duo Opal Jewell and Nev Charles. The journalist S. Sunny Shelton  (nee SarahLena Curtis) is now editor of the music magazine Aural . Sunny proposes a book- length feature about Opal and Nev because there’s a rumor of an upcoming reunion tour.  Sunny has her own reasons for wanting to write this story. The book begins with her note: Disclosure: My father, a drummer named Jimmy Curtis, fell in love with Opal Jewell in the summer of 1970. For the duration of their affair, he was married to my mother, who in ’71 got pregnant with me. Before my birth…he was beaten to death by a racist gang during the riot at the Rivington Showcase. And before my mother could bury his broken body, his mistress blazed to stardom. In continuing the Urban Life Experience Book Discussion Series, six of us met on Saturday Oct. 22 to discuss this incredible book. The way that the fictional duo fit into the actual cultur
Post a Comment
Read more