A history of the struggle of black women to attain equality and break away from exploitation. At the turn of the century, when African-Americans faced lyching, mob violence, segregation, and disenfranchisement, African-American women stepped forward with a plan of organized resistance. Thus began a century of black women organizing on behalf of their race and themselves. This work explores the efforts of black women to define and explain themselves as well as race and gender issues to white and black men. This history highlights their persistent struggle against racism, male chauvinism and negative stereotypes; it also brings to light and celebrates early 20th-century African-American women's unlauded support for women's rights, civil rights, and civil liberties. The book covers how black women sought to hold their race and gender identity in balance while being pulled in different directions by the agendas of white women and black men. Finally, it tells the larger story of how Americans began the century measuring racial progress by the status of black women but gradually became to focus primarily on the status of black men - the masculinization of America's racial consciousness.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In the last decade of the 1800s, lynching, mob violence, and segregation were well-entrenched responses to the American "race problem." Rising up in spirited defense, black women launched several regional organizations designed to defend and improve the rights of their race and their place within it. Yet the creed of betterment espoused by many black club women overlay sometimes-bitter commentary on black men for their failures as supporters and protectors. It also castigated lower-class "sisters" whose oft-caricatured mores cast a shadow on their own. And it had a rocky relationship with the broader American feminist movement: "Since they could not control white men, the source of most of their woes," historian Deborah Gray White says, "and since they believed that a race could rise no higher than its women, they had to begin that elevation with the women themselves." Too Heavy a Load swings on through the maelstrom of the civil rights movement, welfare advocacy, black nationalism, and feminism to more recent rifts, such as the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings. While doing so, it pieces together the engaging story of the backstage struggles in such early firebrand organizations as the National Association of Colored Women and the National Council of Negro Women. By including the clashes that strong personalities and different aims beget, White brings dimension to her story and provides strong illustration for her contention that "gender and race sameness [are] no guarantee of a beloved sisterhood." --Francesca Coltrera
Review
Deborah Gray White's splendid new study is the rarest of works: a broad and sweeping history that becomes an intensely personal experience for the reader....[A]n inspiring showcase of scholarship and sistership. -- Raleigh News and Observer, Nell Irvin Painter, 1 November 1998
It is hard to imagine a more eloquent and compelling examination of why, when black women assert themselves, when they take up the battle cry of race, the echoes of gender and class are sure to be heard as well. -- Trenton Times, Toni C. King
Studying the past is essential for dealing with the present. "Too Heavy a Load" reads like a wonderfully historical novel. -- Emerge, Akilah Monifa, December 1998/January 1999
This is a brave book. Deborah Gray White dares to expose rifts in the black community between the sexes and between women as she travels the path of turn-of-the-century clubwomen. -- Boston Sunday Globe, Eileen Boris, 22 November 1998
White has achieved something nearly as remarkable as the women she profiles: an easily readable and inspiring story of brilliant, but real, women dedicated to improving the lives of black folks. -- Black Issues Book Review, February 1999
[White's] thought-provoking book is a fascinating read, even for those who are not history buffs. Much like the women here, her facts speak for themselves. -- Dallas Morning News, Brenda Boyd Raney, 7 February 1999
It is hard to imagine a more eloquent and compelling examination of why, when black women assert themselves, when they take up the battle cry of race, the echoes of gender and class are sure to be heard as well. -- Trenton Times, Toni C. King
Studying the past is essential for dealing with the present. "Too Heavy a Load" reads like a wonderfully historical novel. -- Emerge, Akilah Monifa, December 1998/January 1999
This is a brave book. Deborah Gray White dares to expose rifts in the black community between the sexes and between women as she travels the path of turn-of-the-century clubwomen. -- Boston Sunday Globe, Eileen Boris, 22 November 1998
White has achieved something nearly as remarkable as the women she profiles: an easily readable and inspiring story of brilliant, but real, women dedicated to improving the lives of black folks. -- Black Issues Book Review, February 1999
[White's] thought-provoking book is a fascinating read, even for those who are not history buffs. Much like the women here, her facts speak for themselves. -- Dallas Morning News, Brenda Boyd Raney, 7 February 1999
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Informative read.,
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This review is from: Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 (Paperback)
I really appreciated the interest Deborah White has taken in this time period and in these people. The book is intended for those that are truly interested in the development of the role NACW in a hundred year span. The book could be used more specifically for those studying the liberation of women or African Americans in this time period. White is a teacher by profession and that comes though in the book. It was written more to educate, not to entertain.
0 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Veronica,
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This review is from: Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 (Paperback)
Disappointed at the misleading title of "collectible". This was advertised as a first edition when in reality it is a first edition of the 1991 print which is by no means a COLLECTIBLE. Although the book is in great condition it was supposed to be a gift for someone and I am very disappointed that it is a book that I could have just purchased at a book store locally.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
On a sticky hot night in 1916, Charleston's black women met at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church to hear Mary Church Terrell speak on "The Modern Woman." Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
national welfare rights movement, many clubwomen, black clubwomen, welfare rights organization, club leaders, poor black women, black womanhood, race leadership, most black women, negro women, many black women Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
National Association of Colored Women, New York, New Negro, National Welfare Rights Organization, African Americans, National Council of Negro Women, National Black Feminist Organization, Fannie Williams, Jim Crow, International Council, Jacques Garvey, Margaret Murray Washington, Mary Church Terrell, World War, Anna Cooper, Johnnie Tillmon, John Hope, National Association Notes, United States, Addie Hunton, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Bethune Council House, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Dorothy Height, Howard University New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
On a sticky hot night in 1916, Charleston's black women met at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church to hear Mary Church Terrell speak on "The Modern Woman." Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
national welfare rights movement, many clubwomen, black clubwomen, welfare rights organization, club leaders, poor black women, black womanhood, race leadership, most black women, negro women, many black women Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
National Association of Colored Women, New York, New Negro, National Welfare Rights Organization, African Americans, National Council of Negro Women, National Black Feminist Organization, Fannie Williams, Jim Crow, International Council, Jacques Garvey, Margaret Murray Washington, Mary Church Terrell, World War, Anna Cooper, Johnnie Tillmon, John Hope, National Association Notes, United States, Addie Hunton, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Bethune Council House, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Dorothy Height, Howard University New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
49
books
cite this book:
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- Remaking Respectability: African American Women in Interwar Detroit on 8 pages
- Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African American Communities by Johnnetta B. Cole on 4 pages
- What's Love Got to Do With It?: Understanding and Healing the Rift Between Black Men and Women by Donna Franklin on 4 pages
- Interpretations of American History Vol. II: Patterns and Perspectives [Vol. 2 From Reconstruction], Seventh Edition (Interpretations of American History; Patterns and Perspectives) by Francis G. Couvares on page 324, page 355, and page 356
- The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925 by Mia Bay in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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