A Centennial Celebration of the Brownies' Book by Dianne Johnson-Feelings

Author:Dianne Johnson-Feelings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Pearl’s letter is an intriguing example of a young girl who is desperate to make sense of her oppressive reality. As her letter states, Pearl is an avid reader of The Crisis and, eventually, The Brownies’ Book: “I am a constant reader of The Crisis and it takes me from six o’clock until nine to read it from cover to cover, and then there remains an endless year of waiting for the next number.… it is really a book that never tires one” (111). The “next number” that Pearl refers to is the annual Children’s Number of The Crisis, which preceded publication of The Brownies’ Book. Pearl notes her age—fifteen years old—in a postscript, asks that readers have “a little pity,” and shares in the body of her letter that many believe her to be odd: “I have been called odd,—in fact, I know that I am odd and I don’t like to do things like other people” (111). Her letter does not go into detail about what makes her odd, but we can infer a few things that make her distinctive. Pearl and her family had the money to subscribe, at fifteen cents an issue, and the time to engage with The Crisis. Time and money were at a premium for most African American families, especially those living in the Jim Crow South. This is particularly important in light of the 1914 displacement of residents of McKee Row, a Black neighborhood in Charlottesville. Their property was confiscated and deeded to the city. The area became the site of a Confederate monument honoring Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Despite the smallness of the city, Pearl’s letter represents her investment and engagement with ideas about Black life, which is precisely what the editors had in mind for readers of The Brownies’ Book.

A second and equally important intersection with New Negro ideologies is the emphasis on intellectual history and social uplift. As literary historian Ann duCille points out, children were almost always the objects of uplift work: “Children were the wealth and the future of the black nation. As the birthplace and nursery of future generations, the home was the focal point of social reform” (63). The letters illustrate that children are not merely the beneficiaries of social reform movements, but also agents of change in their own right. Being of service is at the core of early Black uplift movements. A series of updates from the July issue of The Brownies’ Book, known as the Education Number, focused on recent graduates. The series showcased their personal achievements and serviceability to the race. One such student, Thelma B. Lewis, mentions her work at the Hiram House: “I entered Central High School of Cleveland, Ohio, four years ago and have never been absent nor tardy for that length of time. For two years I have been a volunteer social service settlement worker at the Hiram Social Settlement House” (qtd. in Allison 206). Another recent graduate, Olive M. Thomas, was very confident of her abilities: “I have a strong ambition toward literature.

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