Telling Histories gender & american culture Coeditors Thadious M. Davis Mary Kelley Editorial Advisory Board Emerita Board Members Nancy Cott Cathy N. Davidson Jane Sherron De Hart Sara Evans John D’Emilio Wendy Martin Farrah Gri≈n Amy Kaplan Linda K. Kerber Annette Kolodny Nell Irvin Painter Janice Radway Barbara Sicherman A complete list of books published in Gender and American Culture is available at www.uncpress.unc.edu. Telling Histories black women historians in the ivory tower edited by Deborah Gray White the university of north carolina press Chapel Hill This book was ∫ 2008 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved published with the Manufactured in the United States of America Set in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. assistance of the The paper in this book meets the guidelines for Z. Smith Reynolds Fund permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the of the University of Council on Library Resources. North Carolina Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Telling histories : Black women historians in the ivory tower / edited by Deborah Gray White. p. cm. — (Gender and American culture) Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-0-8078-3201-1 (cloth: alk. paper) isbn 978-0-8078-5881-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. African American women—Historiography. 2. African American historians—Biography. 3. Women historians—United States—Biography. 4. African American women—Biography. 5. African American women—Social conditions. 6. Historiography—Social aspects—United States. I. White, Deborah G. (Deborah Gray), 1949– e185.86.t379 2008 398.2089%96073—dc22 2007045654 cloth 12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1 paper 12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1 In tribute to anna julia cooper and marion thompson wright This page intentionally left blank contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: A Telling History 1 deborah gray white Un Essai d’Ego-Histoire 28 nell irvin painter Becoming a Black Woman’s Historian 42 darlene clark hine A Journey through History 58 merline pitre Being and Thinking outside of the Box: A Black Woman’s Experience in Academia 72 rosalyn terborg-penn My History in History 85 deborah gray white The Politics of Memory and Place: Reflections of an African American Female Scholar 101 sharon harley History without Illusion 135 julie saville On the Margins: Creating a Space and Place in the Academy 146 wanda a. hendricks History Lessons 158 brenda elaine stevenson The Death of Dry Tears 172 ula taylor Looking Backward in Order to Go Forward: Black Women Historians and Black Women’s History 182 mia bay Journey toward a Di√erent Self: The Defining Power of Illness, Race, and Gender 200 chana kai lee Bodies of History 215 elsa barkley brown Experiencing Black Feminism 228 jennifer l. morgan Dancing on the Edges of History, but Never Dancing Alone 240 barbara ransby How a Hundred Years of History Tracked Me Down 252 leslie brown Not So Ivory: African American Women Historians Creating Academic Communities 270 crystal n. feimster Contributors 285 A section of illustrations appears after page 122. acknowledgments Many people made this book possible. It would not have happened had I not had to respond to papers given on my book Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South at the 2003 Southern Historical Association meeting. I thank the members of that panel and the Program Committee co-chairs, Steven Lawson and Nancy Hewitt. Many thanks also go to Kate Torrey for supporting this project from the beginning. Of course, the contributors made the book, and I am very, very grateful for their participation. I thank them for trusting me with their stories. Words of encouragement, especially from Darlene Clark Hine, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, and Anne Firor Scott, made me realize that a book like this was necessary. Vanessa Holden, Felicia Thomas, and Rebecca Tuuri, the graduate students who helped compile and gather all the biographical information, provided invaluable assistance. So too did Laura Fuerstein, who over the years taught me the value of personal testimony.