African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 by Quintard Taylor, Shirley Ann Wilson Moore

Abstract

African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 Edited byQuintard Taylor and ShirleyAnn Wilson Moore University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2003. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 400 pages. $34.95 cloth. Reviewed by Roger D. Hardaway Northwestern Oklahoma State University,Alva African Americans in theAmerican West have been the object of much schol arly inquiry in the past few years. Among the most prolific historians writing on the topic isQuintard Taylor. This ishis fourthbook on black westerners. Shirley Ann Wilson Moore previously contributed a significant study of African Americans inCalifornia. Both Taylor andMoore have concentrated on the twentieth century African American frontier,however. This anthology expands theirfocus by encom passing the years 1600 to 2000. The historical record for themajority of that time period is sketchy,so thebook mainly covers thepast two centuries,with five articles thatprimarily look at thenineteenth century and ten that address the twentieth. The volume's essays are divided between treatmentsof specific subjects and biographies of dynamic individuals. To portray the nine teenth century, the editors chose works on the desegregation of streetcars, efforts to obtain adequately funded public schools forAfrican American students,and the involvementofblack women inchurches and other social institutions. Biographical studies include those of civil rights advocate Mary Ellen Pleasant; Jane Elizabeth Manning James, the best-known Mormon of her race and gender; and newspaper editor and political activist Susie Revels Cayton. During the twentieth century, thousands of African Americans migrated westward in search of economic advancement. This trend increased dramatically during the early 1940s, when the federalgovernment fundedmany war industries in the West. Studies focused on the twentieth century address job discrimination faced byAfrican Americans, the role ofwomen in transplanting black culture to the West, and female leadership in the anti-establishment Black Panther Party and other organizations that advocated social and racial integration (especially the National Association for the Advancement ofColored People). Biographies of twentieth-centurywomen include educator Ruth Flowers; attorney Beatrice Morrow Can nady; civil rightsorganizers LuluWhite, Lucinda Todd, and Clara Luper; and actresses Fredi Washington andDorothy Dandridge. Obviously, thisvolume offersa diverse arrayof insightsinto western African American women. The contributors to this excellent compila tion range from well-known, seasoned histori ans to thosewho are justbeginning theircareers. All but two arewomen, andmany ? including bothmen ? areAfrican Americans. The racial and gendermakeup of theauthors underscores the fact that the studyofwestern American his tory isnot limited to the effortsof Caucasian men. An additional positive aspect of the book is that itseighteen primary articles ? includ ing the editors' introduction and a survey of the literature available for additional study of the topic ? are original works not previously published. Interspersed among the essays are fourteen snippets ? diary entries, letters,and excerpts from published works ? that add a nice flavor to the book. These vignettes allow theeditors to touchbrieflyupon matters thatare important but do notmerit entire articles. Ex amples include a homesteader's firstimpression of theall-black town ofNicodemus, Kansas, and a letter written by a California shipyardworker 324 OHQ vol. 106, no. 2 toPresident FranklinD. Roosevelt during World War II to protest her exclusion from the local union because of her race. The volume is further enhanced by nine photographs and one drawing.Additional pho tos ofwomen prominently mentioned in the text should have been included. The footnotes that accompany each essay, the editors' biblio graphical listing, and the index are all useful. One distraction is thatwhile some articles are totally freeof typographical errors,others are replete with them.This indicates thattheeditors left proofreading up to the individual authors.A final, close reading of the entiremanuscript by the editors undoubtedly would have corrected several of thesemistakes. Reporting thePacificNorthwest: AnAnnotated Bibliography of JournalismHistory inOregon andWashington By Floyd J. McKay Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, 2004. Illustrations, bibliography. 80 pages. $15.00 paper. Reviewed by Philip Cogswell Salem, Oregon AN UP-TO-DATE SCHOLARLY HISTORY of Or egon andWashington journalism has yet to appear, although, as this book docu ments, much has been written about one piece or another of the region's newspaper tradition. Knowing about that tradition is important for understanding the region itself. As Floyd J. McKay notes in his preface, "The study of journalism history is essentially the study of thenation, state, region...