Kelley, Blair L.M.
Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class
Liveright (New York)
2023
OUR SYNOPSIS: Blair L.M. Kelley weaves her personal family histories together with overall Black working-class struggle from slavery to freedom in the United States. What emerges is a human narrative of persistence and empowerment, carving out a way of life despite structural adversity. While work was a constant, family and community provided fulfillment. She emphasizes the roles of Black churches, education, and grassroots organizing in sustaining these achievements.
BIG QUESTIONS:
What differentiates family histories from other forms of history? How does this relate to how stories are told, analyzed, and understood?
How does this book encourage thinking differently about the relationship between work and life?
FEATURE QUOTES:
“Though they lived in a nation tilted against them, Black people built and rebuilt vital spaces of resistance, grounded in the secrets that they knew about themselves, about their community, their dignity, and their survival. One of these secrets was joy in spite of sorrow: amid their endless labor, amid the violence, amid the hate, ordinary Black people managed not only to resist but to laugh and to make fun and to love. They insisted on it. Their insistence was political, as was their insistence on collectivity and faith.” (11)
“Tracing the roots of the Black working class, I found again and again that Black folks’ sense of self was supported not by the jobs they held but by their place within their own communities.” (14)
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Sarah Hill and Sadie B. Hornsby, “[Bea, The Washwoman],” National Archives, Manuscript Division, U.S. Works Progress Administration, Federal Writers’ Project, Series: Folklore Project, Life Histories, 1936-39, MSS55715: BOX A712, https://www.loc.gov/resource/wpalh1.12081312/.
BALTIMORE CONNECTIONS:
The story of Samuel L. Burton.
