Negroland a memoir
Jefferson, Margo
Negroland a memoir - New York Pantheon Books 2015 - 248p.
"At once incendiary and icy, mischievous, and provocative, celebratory and elegiac, a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American culture through the prism of the author's rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned to distance itself from whites and the black generality, while tirelessly measuring itself against both. Born in 1947 in upper-crust black Chicago--her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at the time the nation's oldest black hospital; her mother was a socialite--Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the nineteenth century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, "a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty." Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial historical moments--the civil rights movement, the dawn of feminism, the fallacy of post-racial America--Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life informed by psychological and moral contradictions. Aware as it is of heart-wrenching despair and depression, this book is a triumphant paean to the grace of perseverance. (With 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations.)"--
9780307378453
2015006843
Jefferson, Margo
Jefferson family
African American women--Illinois--Chicago--Biography
African Americans--Race identity
Elite (Social sciences)--Illinois--Chicago Regio
African American girls--Social conditions--Illinois--Chicago Region--20th century
African Americans--Social life and customs--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural Heritage
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.
Chicago (Ill.)--Race relations--History--20th century--Anecdotes.
Chicago Region (Ill.)--Social life and customs--20th century--Anecdotes
Chicago Region (Ill.)--Biography
F548.9.N4 / J44 2015
305.896073 / JE-N
Negroland a memoir - New York Pantheon Books 2015 - 248p.
"At once incendiary and icy, mischievous, and provocative, celebratory and elegiac, a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American culture through the prism of the author's rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned to distance itself from whites and the black generality, while tirelessly measuring itself against both. Born in 1947 in upper-crust black Chicago--her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at the time the nation's oldest black hospital; her mother was a socialite--Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the nineteenth century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, "a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty." Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial historical moments--the civil rights movement, the dawn of feminism, the fallacy of post-racial America--Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life informed by psychological and moral contradictions. Aware as it is of heart-wrenching despair and depression, this book is a triumphant paean to the grace of perseverance. (With 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations.)"--
9780307378453
2015006843
Jefferson, Margo
Jefferson family
African American women--Illinois--Chicago--Biography
African Americans--Race identity
Elite (Social sciences)--Illinois--Chicago Regio
African American girls--Social conditions--Illinois--Chicago Region--20th century
African Americans--Social life and customs--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural Heritage
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.
Chicago (Ill.)--Race relations--History--20th century--Anecdotes.
Chicago Region (Ill.)--Social life and customs--20th century--Anecdotes
Chicago Region (Ill.)--Biography
F548.9.N4 / J44 2015
305.896073 / JE-N