Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl (Women in Southern Culture) [Hardcover]

Kitty Oliver (Author)

Book Description

Series: Women in Southern Culture | Publication Date: October 12, 2001

" A telling memoir by an exciting new voice, Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl explores journalist Kitty Oliver's coming of age as she makes the crossing from an all-black to a predominantly white world. Born and raised in an all-black area of Jacksonville, Florida, Oliver was one of the first African American freshmen to enter the University of Florida. Though she chronicles the strains of her transition from Jim Crow to desegregation, this book is much more than a memoir of the turbulent sixties. It is an upbeat journal of self-discovery in the aftermath of that decade, a look at one woman's coming to terms with living an integrated life in America. With humor, poignancy, and lyrical language (reminiscent at times of another Florida writer, Zora Neale Hurston), Oliver shares her passage from the "old world" to the new -- an immigrant's journey indicative of the American experience. Blending past and present, she searches for roots from the Gullah or "Geechee" culture of South Carolina to the urban streets of northern Florida to the multicultural mix of South Florida's diverse ethnic cultures, serving up family stories with large helpings of southern "folktalk," food, and music along the way.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"We piece together a life of meeting people, going places, collecting stories," says Oliver, a journalist and writer in residence at Florida Atlantic University, but the pieces don't quite gel in this lifeless account of one of the first African-American freshmen to integrate the University of Florida in 1965. Her experiences intrigue (her father was fired from his job at a local restaurant after she participated in a civil rights demonstration, and she adopted a biracial child), but her book is pedestrian. Part autobiography (marred by an overabundance of "I," even for this genre), part account of a generation (dulled by an arguably editorial "we") and part meandering memoir, it leaves the reader with a confusing m‚lange of personal history and impersonal generalities. Autobiographical detail is lacking e.g., her husband and children receive short shrift and authority is scant for broad observations about her generation. Stories that might pass muster at family gatherings (getting lost in a store, one's first cup of cappuccino) wilt between book covers. The memoir reads like discreet essays that simply fail to cohere, and the chronology is equally disordered. Such work is sometimes redeemed by elegance and grace, but no such luck here: the style is flavorless. (Oct.)Forecast: This is far from Anne Moody's Coming of Age and Lorene Cary's Black Ice. Women's studies groups will pick it up, and black readers who came of age in the '60s may identify, but nothing else will push sales much.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Oliver (Voices of America), who worked for the Miami Herald for 19 years and is now writer-in-residence at Florida Atlantic University, was one of the first African American freshmen to integrate the University of Florida in 1965. In this beautifully written memoir, she tells the story of her school experiences, her search for her roots, and her marriage and eventual divorce. She also discusses the fears she used to have about the white community and how she went beyond the stereotypes imposed on her as a child to come to terms with living an integrated life in the United States. The only downside to her account is that she tends to bounce back and forth so much that it is sometimes difficult to follow the story. Still, this unique blend of autobiography and travelog is filled with rich prose that will keep many readers' interest. For all academic libraries with Southern or racial studies collections. Danna Bell-Russel, Library of Congress
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 173 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (October 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813122082
• ISBN-13: 978-0813122083
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,666,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars THE FIRST, May 27, 2002

By 

Bonita L. Davis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl (Women in Southern Culture) (Hardcover)

Picture yourself in a SUV roving through out the countryside. You take in the view of the countryside but are in such a hurry to reach your destination to the point of not appreciating what you've seen. Kitty Oliver's autobiography is very similar to the above experience. She takes you through the roads, streets, detours and valleys of her life never stopping to give you a full appreciation of this native Floridian.

As the first generation of Black students to integrate the University of Florida in Gainesville (1965)Oliver certainly has a story to tell. It is one of turbulent times and great transitions as she leaves the segregated community of her youth and enters into a whole new chapter in her life. Oliver shows us her fears, drive and hope that she has for the future that was denied her elders. Now it is up to her to make a difference.

Kitty tells of her quest in finding her roots from the exploration of her Geechee background to her attempts to become a bridge to her estranged father's family. You meet up with a varied mix of people in her community (train workers, cooks, teachers,etc) who held things together even in their limited world. She also dispels the myth of the united Black community during segregation. You meet with Black people who are class conscious, want to keep the status quo and are insanely concerned about skin color. Her Jacksonville home reveals a diversity of Blacks who have their own opinions and mores that are not necessarily what one would want them to have.

Such a coming of age story has great potential but Oliver lets us down. She takes us on an excursion of her stream of consciousness as we roam from one subject to another. Her thoughts appear disconnected and you do get confused as to how she gets into school in one moment and then is married in the next without anything in between. She rarely talks about her own family except to mention her biracial adopted daughter and son. What about her husband and the lives they shared together? Was it unable to survive in an integrated world?

Oliver goes on and on about multi-culturalism as if she just discovered it. You get a sense that she doesn't fully appreciate who she is and at times you wonder how much she has assimilated (her word) in the white culture.

Despite those flaws her work is an enjoyable read of one reminiscing about those FIRSTS who broke the racial barriers and ushered in a new era. Her story is one that should be read, reflected upon and appreciated for its one particular viewpoint of a time gone bye.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth, October 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl (Women in Southern Culture) (Hardcover)

For those of us who "came of age" during the time Kitty Oliver remembers so poignantly, her story is a great affirmation of our hopes and fears. In both Race and Change in Hollywood, and Multicolored Memories, Kitty writes down what some people knew and no one else cared about. The reviewer for Publisher's Weekly may dismiss the feelings of black reader's who grew up in the 60's, but Kitty Oliver doesn't.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Big Wow For This Heartfelt Journey To Find Home, October 15, 2002

By 

barriebrett (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl (Women in Southern Culture) (Hardcover)

I hoped MULTICOLORED MEMORIES OF A BLACK SOUTHERN GIRL would continue past its 173 pages. I just finished the book, and I want more. Kitty Oliver's journey from a small Florida town to her travels around the world feel very real. "When a trip is over for me, however, I enjoy observing the way life falls back into place. The toothbrush slides into the cup waiting empty on the sink."
Kitty's honest account of her childhood, her family, her personal encounters with integration and her journey to find "home" resonate with each description and heartfelt memory. I'm a fan of her writing and look forward to more, soon!