Color

Kenneth A. McClane

Description

In 1991, acclaimed poet Kenneth A. McClane published Walls: Essays, 1985-1990, a volume of essays dealing with life in Harlem, the death of his alcoholic brother, and the complexities of being black and middle-class in America. Now, in Color: Essays on Race, Family, and History, McClane contributes further to his self-described "autobiographical sojourn" with a second collection of interconnected essays. In McClane's words, "All concern race, although they, like the human spirit, wildly sweep and yaw."

A timely installment in our national narrative, Color is a chronicle of the black middle class, a group rarely written about with sensitivity and charity. In evocative, trenchant, and poetic prose, McClane employs the art of the memoirist to explore the political and the personal. He details the poignant narrative of racial progress as witnessed by his family during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. We learn of his parents' difficult upbringing in Boston, where they confronted much racism; of the struggles they and McClane encountered as they became the first blacks to enter previously all-white institutions, including the oldest independent school in the United States; and of the part his parents played in the civil rights movement, working with Dr. King and others. The book ends with a tender account of his parents in the throes of Alzheimer's disease, which claimed both their lives.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Ethnic
• Cultural
• Essays
• Norte y Sur
• América
• Africana studies
• Biography
• General officer
• Regional
• Discrimination positive aux États-Unis
• General
• American
• Autobiography
• North and South

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 mars 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268086695
• Langue: English

Extrait

K e n n e t h A . M c C l a n e

e c o ns s a y s o f a r a c e , l m i l y , a o h i s t on d ry

c o l o r

T h e A f r i c a n A m e r i c a n I n t e l l e c t u a l H e r i t a g e

Paul Spickard and Patrick Miller, Series Editors

K e n n e t h A . M c C l a n e

c

o

l

o

r

Essays on Race, Family, and Histor y

University of Notre Dame Press . Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2009 by Kenneth A. McClane

Published by the University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McClane, Kenneth A., 1951– Color : essays on race, family, and history / Kenneth A. McClane. p. cm. — (The African American intellectual heritage) ISBN-13: 978-0-268-03515-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-03515-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. McClane, Kenneth A., 1951– 2. African American poets— Biography. 3. African Americans—Social conditions—1975– I. Title. PS3563.A26119Z46 2009 814'.54—dc19 2008051320

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

F o r R o c h e l l e

B o o k s b y K e n n e t h A . M c C l a n e

p o e t r y

Running Before the Wind

Out Beyond the Bay

Moons and Low Times

To Hear the River

At Winter’s End

These Halves Are Whole

A Tree Beyond Telling: Selected Poems

Take Five: Collected Poems, 1971–1986

e s s a y s

Walls: Essays, 1985–1990

Color: Essays on Race, Family, and History

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Shadow Boxing

1

5

ix

The Mitchell Movement

Teachers

20

13

A King’s Holiday: A Personal Reminiscence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 30

Color

43

Hungers: Reflections on Affirmative Action

Musicals

68

A Love Note: A. R. Ammons as Teacher

The 13th Juror

Driving

91

85

78

60

The McClane Family ( from left: Adrienne, Paul, Genevieve, Kenneth, and Kenneth, Jr.)

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the editors of the following pub- lications in which these essays first appeared:Bookpress,for “A Love Note: A. R. Ammons as Teacher”;English Department Newsletter,Reflections on Affirmative Action”;for “Hungers: andEpoch,for “The Mitchell Movement,” “The 13th Juror,” and “Color.” “Shadow Boxing,” © The Antioch Review , Inc., first ap - peared in theAntioch Review ,vol. 58, no. 4, Fall 2000. Re- printed by permission of the editors. “Teachers,” © The Antioch Review, Inc., first appeared in theAntioch Review,vol. 60, no. 1, Winter 2002. Reprinted by permission of the editors. “A King’s Holiday: A Personal Reminiscence of Dr. Mar- tin Luther King, Jr.,” © The Antioch Review, Inc., first appeared in theAntioch Review,vol. 60, no. 4, Fall 2002. Reprinted by permission of the editors. “Musicals,” © The Antioch Review, Inc., first appeared in theAntioch Review,vol. 63, no. 4, Fall 2005. Reprinted by per- mission of the editors. “Driving,” © The Antioch Review, Inc., first appeared in theAntioch Review,vol. 64, no. 4, Fall 2006. Reprinted by per- mission of the editors.

ix