Title Summer snow : reflections from a Black daughter of the South / Trudier Harris

Published Boston : Beacon Press, ©2003

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 186 pages) Contents Contents -- Preface -- 1. My Mother�s Creation -- 2. Three Centuries -- 3. Cotton-Pickin� Authority -- 4. Dental Charity -- 5. “Would you go out with a white boy for five dollars?� -- 6. Porch-Sitting as a Creative Southern Tradition -- 7. The Overweight Angel -- 8. “Make a Joyful Noise� -- 9. Changes and Challenges -- 10. Black Nerds -- 11. Fishing -- 12. A Love of Expression -- 13. The Ubiquitous Hair -- 14. The Price of Desegregation -- 15. The Staying Power of Racism -- 16. Nursing Home -- 17. Summer Snow -- Acknowledgments Summary "Trudier Harris will tell you that African Americans who consider themselves southern are about as rare as summer snow. But Harris has always embraced the South, and in Summer Snow, her collection of poignant autobiographical essays, Harris explores her experiences as a black southerner and how they have shaped her into the writer and intellectual she has become." "Harris grew up in the racist environment of Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the 1950s and 60s. A member of a black southern family whose father was born in 1885 and whose mother died in 2001, she claims three centuries of blackness and southernness as pivotal forces in her life. Not surprisingly her most important influence was her mother. The book opens with a charming essay about how her mother chose the name Trudier, not Trudy, as her daughter's first name. Additionally, Harris includes a funny piece about her mother's use of "cotton-pickin' authority," an entertaining tribute to her mother's lifelong love of fishing, and a touching story of her mother's final heroic years in a nursing home." "Harris's family, church, and community served as antidotes to the white racism that surrounded her. Whether writing about the family front porch, where storytelling prevailed, or the church choir, where black voices could sing as loudly as they liked, Harris depicts sites where black life thrived and prospered. Within her black community, though, colorphobia did affect her high school experiences, and sexual harassment by black professors followed her to the black college she attended." "Summer Snow is filled with wonderful stories and wry wit. But it also contains a number of toughminded essays - one, about the price blacks have paid for desegregation, and another on the "staying power of racism." In still another moving piece, Harris remembers a white teenager who propositioned her for sex when she was twelve years old, in exchange for five dollars."--Jacket Bibliography Includes bibliographical references Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL English Print version record digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Subject Harris, Trudier -- Childhood and youth SUBJECT Harris, Trudier fast Subject African American women -- Alabama -- Biography African Americans -- Alabama -- Biography African Americans -- Alabama -- Social life and customs -- 20th century Country life -- Alabama BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical. HISTORY -- State & Local -- General. Childhood and youth of a person Manners and customs Country life African Americans -- Social life and customs African Americans African American women SUBJECT Alabama -- Social life and customs -- 20th century Subject Alabama Genre/Form autobiographies (literary works) Autobiographies Biographies Autobiographies. Biographies. Autobiographies. Biographies. Form Electronic book ISBN 9780807072530 0807072532 0807072559 9780807072554

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