Edition |
First edition. |
Description |
248 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-248). |
Summary |
"At once incendiary and icy, mischievous, and provocative, celebratory and elegiac, a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American culture through the prism of the author's rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned to distance itself from whites and the black generality, while tirelessly measuring itself against both. Born in 1947 in upper-crust black Chicago--her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at the time the nation's oldest black hospital; her mother was a socialite-- Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the nineteenth century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, "a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty." Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial historical moments-- the civil rights movement, the dawn of feminism, the fallacy of post-racial America-- Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life informed by psychological and moral contradictions. Aware as it is of heart-wrenching despair and depression, this book is a triumphant paean to the grace of perseverance. (With 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations.)"-- Provided by publisher. |
Subject |
Jefferson, Margo, 1947- -- Childhood and youth.
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Jefferson, Margo, 1947- |
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Jefferson family.
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Jefferson family. |
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African American women -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography.
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African American women. |
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Illinois -- Chicago. |
Genre/Form |
Biographies.
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Subject |
African Americans -- Race identity.
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African Americans -- Race identity. |
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Elite (Social sciences) -- Illinois -- Chicago.
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Elite (Social sciences) |
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African Americans -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
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African Americans. |
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Manners and customs. |
Chronological Term |
20th century |
Subject |
Chicago (Ill.) -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century -- Anecdotes.
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Genre/Form |
Autobiographies.
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Autobiographies.
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Anecdotes.
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Anecdotes.
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ISBN |
9780307378453 hardcover |
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0307378454 hardcover |
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9781101870648 electronic book |
Standard No. |
40025241937 |
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