First pick, “DEATH OF INNOCENCE: The Story Of The Hate Crime That Changed America” is a book written by Emmet Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley and civil rights journalist, Christopher Benson, published in December 2004, after her death. It tells her story, starting from her beginnings growing up in Chicago and her family ties to Mississippi, how close-knit the family and community was between Illinois and Mississippi. Ms. Till-Mobley gives her account of what happened to her son while visiting relatives on a summer vacation in Money, Mississippi in 1955, just one month after his 14th birthday.
Now there have been many books written about Emmet Till, but I gave this one a read because it was Mamie Till-Mobley’s account. With his mother’s telling, Emmet Till becomes more than a civil right’s icon – he becomes a living, breathing little boy, his mother’s child. Because of Ms. Mobley’s deep love for her son, her determination, courage and moving with grace, she helped to jump-start the country’s civil rights movement by exposing her tragedy and loss to the world. This is a moving, painful, but beautiful account from a mother about her son that everyone should read.
Second pick, “THE GILDED YEARS” by Karen Tanabe is a June 2016 historical novel based on the true story of Anita Hemmings, the first woman of African descent admitted to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, although no one knew because she was passing for white. Now, when when I picked this title up while bargain hunting in Barnes and Noble one Friday afternoon, I did not know it was based on a true story until I finished reading. The author had a section in the back explaining this with a picture of the real Anita Hemmings, which was a surprise to me.
The novel portrays the striking and forbidding barrier between the black and white world at the time. Blacks knew they were not welcome and made a combined effort to better themselves, including helping those who wanted to pass for white, pass. Anita had to keep her family members secret, for they were of darker complexion and lived in the colored section of Boston. It’s disturbing to read how she has to hide the truth about herself to her college friends on campus – she can never say where she lives, she can never speak of her brother who is enrolled in college also, but at a negro college, she can never write or receive letters from friends and family.
Anita’s passing as white is successful until her senior year, when she changes roommates and they become close friends. This roommate, Lottie Taylor, is part of the elite class and Anita is torn as to whether she should continue to pass and stay in this world, even though Lottie does not hide the disdain she has for blacks. It’s an interesting, gripping story – Anita is torn between two worlds, loving her family, but wanting a better life, hoping she is not exposed.
Third pick, “SPECTACLE The Astonishing Life of OTA BENGA” by Pamela Newkirk, published in June 2016, is the historical account of an African man named Mbye OtaBenga, coming from what was then the Belgian Congo. He was brought to the United States to be part of an exhibit at the St. Louis World’s Fair, Missouri, 1900 by a businessman/explorer, named Samuel Verner, looking for African people to be part of the exhibit.
Verner later left Benga at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, promising the curator of the museum artifacts on his return. At the museum he was exhibited as a pygmy savage – Benga was just under five feet tall, with chiseled teeth. After leaving the museum, Vernor placed Benga at the Bronx Zoo, where he was exhibited in cages with animals in the zoo’s Monkey House, where he would wear an animal skin and carry a spear.
When an African American clergyman, visiting the zoo observed this, he was appalled and started a petition to have Benga removed from the zoo. In 1906, Benga left the zoo in the custody of this clergyman to a colored orphanage in Brooklyn. Now, please note, Benga was short in stature, but he was a grown man, but they sent him to live in an orphanage among children. To avoid the press, Benga was later sent to Lynchburg, Virginia to live a quieter life, but he never stopped wanting to return home to the Congo.
Benga worked with the hopes of saving money to someday return home, but his plans were dashed when World War I broke out and passenger ships traffic ended. During his stay in Virginia, his main companions were children. Again, because of his small stature, he was not perceived as an adult, a grown man.
I suppose he finally decided his situation of returning home was hopeless because in March of 1916, Benga built a ceremonial fire, believing that with his body gone his spirit would return home – he shot himself in the heart with a pistol – he was about 33 years old. This sounded so sad and familiar; how many of our ancestors in slavery believed this, that death would send them home. This book was a heartbreaker, Ota Benga was a grown man, that was due that respect. From reading this book, it doesn’t appear he was ever given that respect.