Books Quirky storyteller mixes tales of African-Americans with raw
insights
STRONG MEN KEEP
COMING: THE BOOK OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN By Tonya Bolden John
Wiley Sons, 320 pages, $25.95 |
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By ARTHUR JONES
As a constant reader Im wedded to books. You know, something
old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. New at the moment is
this entertaining treat -- entertaining in the same sense Whos
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was entertaining -- raw life well told.
Bolden is a quirky writer but not a boring one. How often in a
biography when the subject suffers a downturn does the author comment,
Bummer?
But dont, from that one remark, underestimate what Ms.
Boldens doing here. Strong Men Keep Coming is a collection of 110
biographies delivered by a storyteller who editorializes along the way -- as
good storytellers can without offense. What she has delivered are accounts of
men worth admiring for an audience that can range from white readers who like
to dip into biographical short takes, to African-Americans who want more on the
men in their past and present (the book is divided into Forefathers
and Sons of the Dawn).
And its relevant to drop this book into the mix of what else
Im currently reading, for I usually have four books going.
The something old is Christopher Sykes slightly defensive
1975 official biography of Evelyn Waugh, the borrowed (from the library), is
the quasi-Marxist C.L.R. James The Black Jacobins: Toussaint
LOuverture and the San Domingo Revolution, and the blue is invariably
a pulp mystery or spy thriller (two a week, just tossed Elmores
Leonards Rum Punch into the bag for the friends of the
library.)
So Boldens in tough company. She doesnt write down to
anyone, yet heres a volume that can work both sides of the aisle, as an
informative read and a textbook, as at home on the adult bedside table as in
the classroom or confirmation class.
And for the smarties well read in their African-American history,
therell be a few comeuppances. Those we know well are here, Nat Turner
and Dred Scott among the forefathers; W.E.B. DuBois to Jesse Jackson and the
Million Man March among the Sons of the Dawn.
But Dave Dinwiddie? Dinwiddie (1891-1957) kept a grocery store in
Taft, Okla. I mean thats all he did. But bear with me as I focus on
Dinwiddie at the expense of some of the others, as an example of what Tonya
Boldens about. (And if her writing doesnt match Waughs, whose
does?)
Dinwiddies mother, Thursda, was half Cherokee and half
African. She walked -- walked -- the 400 miles from Alabama to Indian Territory
in the late 1870s. It wasnt Oklahoma yet. She met and married Smith
Dinwiddie.
He has adventures enough hinted at in this under 2,000-word
account. But finally, in one of those two-dozen black towns on the Oklahoma
border relatively safe for African-Americans, land vacated by Cherokees,
Choctaws, Creeks and Chickasaws forced on to the Trail of Tears in the 1820s,
Smith Dinwiddie sets himself up as farmer and grocer.
Dave grows up, goes to Wiley University in Marshall, Texas, but
returns home, in time buys out half his dads interest in the store, and
runs it for the rest of his life.
Dave Dinwiddie is a good man. He helps people, provides for
family, raises good, hardworking children. All his children would go to
college -- Dave Dinwiddie had been determined about that before they were born.
So it was that Lorene became a special education teacher; Odell, a
schoolteacher and later a supervisor in a Chrysler plant in Detroit; Lily Jean
a social worker, and the baby girl a teacher and writer.
The only Dinwiddie child who did not go to college was the
firstborn, Merrill -- because he died when he was 15 on a late August day in
1936. Bright and all-a-beam over the bicycle he had bought with his earnings
from his paper route and other odd jobs, Merrill was going to ride down and
around to Daddys store to help Daddy out. But there was a drunk driver
between Merrill and the store.
The driver was a white doctor, who was never ever charged
with manslaughter. Dave Dinwiddie lost a little of his dance after that, but
Dave Dinwiddie held up, stayed the rock.
Boldens mood changes with the pieces. But theres
always the sting. Always, within the joys and triumphs -- and there are plenty
-- the pain of the black experience.
Whoever at Wiley publishing laid out this book, did an attractive
job on the readers behalf. Between the bios are snippets of historical or
sideline interests, or titles of books to read allied to the theme.
There is also an epitaph of such concision I cant
resist:
SACRED to the memory of Amos Fortune. who was
born free in Africa, a slave in America he purchased liberty,
professed Christianity lived reputably, died hopefully. Nov. 17,
1801
Writer Bolden is new to me. But then many of her previous titles
arent exactly aimed in my direction, such as 33 Things Every Girl
Should Know (though I must say Im curious.)
What I do know is that Bolden provided me with insights I
didnt have, introduced me to people I didnt know, and the book
ended all too soon.
Bummer.
Arthur Jones is NCR editor-at-large.
National Catholic Reporter, January 28,
2000
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