Audiobook8 hours
My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations
Written by Mary Frances Berry
Narrated by Sharon Washington
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Award-winning Civil Rights advocate Mary Frances Berry sheds new light on the fight for reparations. Callie House, an ex-slave who led the fight, founded the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association in 1899. Defying conventions of race, class, and gender, Callie led the organization in an attempt to petition the government for the pension promised them as freedmen. "Callie House and her historic role deserve to be brought out of the shadows, and Berry achieves that superbly."-Publishers Weekly
Related to My Face Is Black Is True
Related audiobooks
The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow (Scholastic Focus) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Make Our World Anew: Volume I: A History of African Americans to 1880 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIda B. the Queen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Make Our World Anew: Volume II: A History of African Americans from 1880 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Truth Be Told: Three Classic Black Women’s Narratives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSouthern Horrors: Lynch Law In All Its Phases Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHave Black Lives Ever Mattered? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Denmark Vesey's Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Power and the American Myth: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship, and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Hands, White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Buried in the Bitter Waters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoir of a Race Traitor: Fighting Racism in the American South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Cultural, Ethnic & Regional Biographies For You
Just as I Am: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Say Babylon: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Exotic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marriage Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heavy: An American Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unprotected: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Boy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Living Remedy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tremendous: The Life of a Comedy Savage Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for My Face Is Black Is True
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A scholarly examination of the early efforts to persuade Congress to grant reparations to ex-slaves in the form of pensions. The essentials of the struggle could be summed up this way: In the late 19th century, an organization called the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association began efforts to petition the US Congress to legislate pension funds for the benefit of former slaves and their descendants. A subscription to the Association entitled members to various forms of aid from its own funds, as well as paying for the expenses associated with lobbying Congress to pay the debt the country owed to its formerly enslaved citizens. An early plan to grant freedmen plots of land confiscated from Southern plantation owners had been clobbered by President Johnson; in fact land that had been granted to some former slaves was taken back and returned to its original owners. Large numbers of freed slaves, many of them elderly and infirm, had no resources whatsoever, and were scarcely able to perform any work sufficient to support themselves.A woman named Callie House was a driving force of the Ex-Slave Pension movement, which was perceived as such a threat that the Postal Service entered a fraud order against the group, cutting off its access to the US mail, and asserting that House and other officers were deceiving people, taking their money and using it for their personal benefit. No "due process" was involved. The rationale was that Congress was never going to grant the group's petition, so continued attempts to raise money to advance the cause were fraudulent.The movement changed tactics, and attempted to pursue monetary damages through the Federal Courts, by suing the Treasury Department for funds that had supposedly been set aside from a cotton tax collected during the Civil War. This effort, too, was doomed to failure, but served to attract more supporters and to keep the cause alive well into the 20th century, despite the fact that many middle class black leaders (including Booker T. Washington) were dismissive and distanced themselves from it.In 1917 Mrs. House was indicted for fraud, based on the use of the words "of the U.S.A." in the name of her organization, the government alleging that she misled people into thinking she had the backing of the U. S. government. She was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in jail. Following her release, she returned to domestic service and was no longer actively involved in the fight for reparations, but others stepped in to continue efforts, which continue to the present day.This book illuminates an important aspect of race relations in this country, and it taught me several things I did not know (and reminded me of a few I had forgotten). It was not a particularly engaging read, however, being packed with names, dates, facts and figures. The author made no effort to bring Callie House to life. Because the same things kept happening over and over, reading got a bit tedious. As history, this is essential reporting. As narrative, unfortunately, it doesn't cut it.