Black Women In Texas History, by Glasrud & Pitre (ed.)

Source: Texas A&M University Press
(here)

★★★ (of 5)

Authors: (various)
Year: 2008 (mine was library hardcover)
Pages: 220*
Genre: History, Black History, Texas
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 978-1-60344-007-3

(* 220 pages does not include Preface, Index, Selected Bibliography, or Contributors, but DOES include the introduction.)

Editors Bruce A. Glasrud and Merline Pitre complained in the preface that, despite 30-plus years of increasing scholarship relating to African Americans, and Black women in particular, “the literature on black women in Texas leaves a lot to be desired” — “there is still no comprehensive history on the subject.” This book, they said, “is an attempt to fill this void.”

In the introduction, Glasrud and Pitre imply that they initially intended to write the work themselves, but “upon discussion and consideration” they “realized that they could not research, write, and publish the work alone.” So they contacted scholars specializing in the relevant fields: Black women’s history, Black history, women’s history, and Texas history. The resulting chapters are presented in chronological order, each covering a specific time period in Texas history:

Slavery to 1865, by Angela Boswell
Reconstruction, 1865-1874, by James M. Smallwood and Barry A. Crouch
Post-Reconstruction, 1874-1900, by Rebecca Sharpless
Early 20th Century, 1900-1930, by Bruce A. Glasrud
Mid-20th Century, 1930-1954, by Merline Pitre
Civil Rights Era, 1954-1974, by Stefanie Decker
Modern Era, 1974-2000, by Kenneth M. Howell and James M. Smallwood
Contemporary, 1974-2000, by Jewel L. Prestage and Franklin D. Jones

The book begins at the beginning, when early Spanish explorers of Texas brought an enslaved Black man with them in the 1500s — there are no records of the first Black woman in Texas, but by the time Spanish colonial records and censuses began keeping track — in the late 1700s — there were 19 Black women and 167 “mulattas” listed as residing in Spanish Texas. The first chapter also mentions, very briefly, one of the central ideas in the book Forget The Alamo, which I finished late last year: that white Texan settlers fought for their independence from Mexico in order to preserve their right to enslave Black people.

It points out the difference between slavery in Texas and other southern U.S. states — mainly the proximity of “the frontier” and how sparsely this vast territory was settled at the time. Any enslaved people brought to Texas in those days were — typically — far more isolated than enslaved people in more established southern states, for example. Drawing heavily on the WPA Slave Narrative Collection (compiled in the 1930s), the book paints a picture of what life was like for typical Black women in Texas in the early days.

From the late 1800s through the 20th Century, far more records were available and the authors are able to cite statistics gathered by various government agencies, first-hand accounts of the Black women in question, legal documents (like civil rights lawsuits), and newspaper accounts.

Throughout the book, I noticed the style subtly changing, mostly due to the types of sources available, but also due to the advancement and progress secured by Black women. Many were not listed by name in early records, for example, society seeing them either as property of white people or otherwise of no account. By the end, the Black women in positions of power and influence were too numerous to list (though Prestage and Jones attempted to do so in the final chapter).

I was pleased when I encountered names I already knew, like Barbara Jordan (first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives), who was in Congress when I was a toddler; and Mae Jemison, who graced many international news stories while I was in college — she was the first Black woman on the entire planet to travel into space (and she returned to Earth on my 20th birthday). [Jemison isn’t a Texan, but trained for her space mission in the Houston area, and later suffered standard police brutality in the state, according to the Galveston newspaper.]

The information contained in the book went a long way toward accomplishing the goal that Glasrud and Pitre listed in the preface. However, it very often felt like only that: listing information. The final chapter, especially, felt like it should be a Wikipedia article: “Prominent Black Women in Texas”, with each paragraph listing a new woman and what she had accomplished. Earlier chapters often relied too heavily on statistics like joblessness or how many of each gender and ethnicity had college degrees, and so on. While I am very much interested in these historical facts, and especially the numbers, I can’t claim they represent good writing.

Contributors

I couldn’t find Wikipedia pages for this book, or the two named editors (Glasrud and Pitre), which I typically list at the top of my reviews. Nor were most of the authors prominent enough to warrant Wikipedia entries. The only one I found listed was Jewel L. Prestage, who died a few years after this book was published. Interestingly, Prestage herself was one of the prominent Black women listed in the final chapter — her achievements are many, including being the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate in political science in the United States (notably, she completed her doctorate at age 22).

Conclusion

As always, I enjoy learning new things, and this book contained plenty of new information for my brain. For that I give it three stars. I can’t add two more stars due to the writing quality, which was distracting at best, and downright poor in places. I wouldn’t even call the style “academic” — it often felt like a high school research paper that was compiled via copy/paste, with a few wooden transitions thrown in.