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In this rich memoir of his early life, the celebrated scholar and writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr., gives us an indelible portrait of a vanished America. Born in 1950, he grew up in Piedmont (population 2,565), a West Virginia town perched on the side of a hill in the Allegheny Mountains. He was raised in a small, intimate, middle-class "colored" community where secrets and haircuts were prime commodities and the major social event was the annual mill picnic.
It was a time when the United States was just crossing the threshold into desegregation (the Piedmont schools were integrated the year before Gates entered first grade); when racial boundaries were constantly shifting and progress was measured primarily by the number of black faces that appeared on television. But Gates's story is not only a story about race. It is the story of a family, of a village, and of a special time and place in American history.
Gates vividly recalls the characters who peopled his childhood: from his first love, the bookworm Linda, to Uncle Earkie the Turkey, who shared his views on the opposite sex with whoever would listen, to his grandmother Big Mom, founder of the local Episcopal church, to the exuberant Reverend Monroe, who captured many a soul.
And of course the person who had the greatest influence on young Skip, his mother - a fearless, determined woman who was famous for her delivery of eulogies at funerals, who was the first colored secretary of the Piedmont PTA, and who, as an older woman, triumphantly acquired the house where she had worked as a young girl.
Through Gates's memories and portraits of the people in his early life, he conveys a deep sense of and longing for the extended family and close community that was so much a part of an earlier America. Full of humor, thoughtful, and engaging, Gates has written a classic coming-of-age story that will inspire generations to come.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Social life and customs, Critics, African American scholars, African Americans, Childhood and youth, Biography, African americans, social conditions, Leadership, African americans, intellectual life, Upper class, United states, race relationsPeople
Henry Louis GatesPlaces
United States, West VirginiaEdition | Availability |
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1
Colored People: A Memoir
June 4, 1996, Books on Tape, Inc.
Audio cassette
in English
0736633855 9780736633857
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Colored people: a memoir
1995, Vintage Books
in English
- 1st Vintage Books ed.
067973919X 9780679739197
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4 |
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Colored people: a memoir
1994, Knopf, Distributed by Random House
in English
- 1st ed.
0679421793 9780679421795
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July 25, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
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April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |