Language that cannot be misunderstood : African American commemoration, 1863-1913 -- The vanguard of liberty must look into the past : celebrations of freedom -- A resurrection of manhood : gendered reconstruction -- Has emancipation been a failure? : the end of Reconstruction -- Signs of the times : making progress in the post-Reconstruction South -- Bosoms filled with hope : collective representation in the age of Jim Crow
Summary
The historical memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction has earned increasing attention from scholars. Only recently, however, have historians begun to explore African American efforts to interpret those events. With ###Defining Moments#, Kathleen Clark shines new light on African American commemorative traditions in the South, where events such as Emancipation Day and Fourth of July ceremonies served as opportunities for African Americans to assert their own understandings of slavery, the Civil War, and Emancipation--efforts that were vital to the struggles to define, assert, and defend Afr
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-294) and index
