Week 5 - Annotated Primary Source Bibliography

Oral Histories

Harvard’s Schlesinger Library has an incredible collection of oral histories of African American women conducted in the 20^th century that are available online.

·      Lena Frances Edwards-Madison. Oral History-31. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

One of the first African-American women to become board-certified as an OBGYN, Dr. Madison’s account presents a fascinating look into Black professional motherhood. Between 1925 and 1939, while running her practice, she bore and raised six children. This oral history is available online through Harvard.

·      Dorothy Ferebee. Oral History-31. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Dr. Ferebee was a leading obstetrician and a tireless advocate for racial equality and access to healthcare for women and children. In conjunction with her husband, a Howard-educated dentist, Dr. Ferebee set up free health clinics for Black women and children throughout the Southeast D.C. area.

·      Sadie T. Alexander. Oral History -31. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Alexander became the first Black woman in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in economics, receiving hers from University of Pennsylvania in 1920. She then became the first Black woman to enroll and graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

Negro Digest

·      Sarah D. Gilbert, “The Black Woman’s Fate in Affluent America,” Negro Digest, 1968

Written in 1968, this article addresses African-American women’s historic role in the home and workforce. Discussing the role that black women have frequenrtly played as breadwinner and head of household, the article predicts a detrimental correlation on professional success for Black women.

·      Pauli Murray,  “Why Negro Girls Stay Single”, Negro Digest 1947

In this article, Pauli Murray delves into some of the negative aspects occurring as a result of Black women’s racial and gender identities, an issue she argues is intensified for the highly-educated. Murray also presents the phenomenon of “Jane Crow,” the form of racial and gender-based discrimination unique in the Jim Crow era to Black American women.

Memoirs

·      Bonnie Thornton Dill, “Our Mothers’ Grief: Racial Ethnic Women and the Maintenance of Families”, Journal of Family History, 1970

Somewhat similar to the Negro Digest article “The Fate of Negro Women in Affluent America,” this article details the role that Black women have had to juggle as emotional and financial backbones of their families – a role their white counterparts did not have to assume in the same way for much of American history.

·      Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, “Destiny’s Child: Memoirs of a Preacher’s Daughter”, 2014

Gibbs outlines her own experiences as a Black woman pursing a Ph.D. and her subsequent career in academia. Throughout the book, she also interweaves this narrative and experience with her role as a mother and how it compared to her own mother’s experience in motherhood.

Transcripts

·     ·      “Consultation on Status of Black Negro Women”, 1968

      In 1962, the JFK administration produced a number of documents on the status of Black (un)employment at the time. Dismayed by the lack of reference and acknowledge of Black women in the report, the National Council of Negro women led their own discussion. This primary source is the transcript of some discussions from the conference.

·      Remarks of Representative Barbara Jordan Before the Black Women Lawyers Association, 1970

       Barbara Jordan’s speech to the BWLA in 1976 addresses the intersectionality of being African-American and a professional woman when the legal profession was still quite rare field for Black women.  I’m searching for more primary sources from the BWLA in particular as I may plan to focus on this profession.

Wishlist Sources

Many of my wishlist sources are primary sources located in the National Archives for Black Women’s History located in Landover, MD. I would love to have access to the collections of Euphemia Haynes, an early Black physician as well as Dovey Roundtree Johnson, an early lawyer.

Another couple of sources that are not available online that I would love access to are the Shirley Chisolm and Constance Baker Motley projects, housed at Rutgers University and Smith college respectively. Both of these women were deeply involved in the public sector and civil rights work and the primary sources from their lives and careers (including correspendeces between Motley and Pauli Murray) seem fascinating and rich.