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As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner - Notes + Thoughts

Main Themes: death + grief, classism, individual agency, religion

Images + Symbolism: bananas, buzzards, cows/horses/steer, eggs, rain/water - change, "queer" in reference to Darl's behavior/demeanor

Classism:

Dewey Dell: "I had saved enough so that the flour and the sugar and the stove wood would not be costing anything." (pg. 7)

"'But those rich town ladies can change their minds. Poor folks cant."(pg. 7)

Dewey Dell experiences the class divide starkly after painstakingly saving for the ingredients for a cake - which she cannot sell because the customer, "change[d] their minds" which is privileged

Darl: " Without looking back the horse kicks at him, slamming a single hoof into the wall with a pistol-like report. Jewel kicks him in the stomach"(pg. 13)

Darl works his horse like he is worked, especially by Anse who believes he should own what his children own - violence seems to somehow communicate respect, maybe the respect of handling physical responsibilities

"I have never seen a sweat stain on his shirt. He was sick once from working in the sun when he was twenty-two years old, and he tells people that if he ever sweats we will die."(pg. 17)

Dewey Dell: "We are country people, not as good as town people."(pg. 60)

Anse: "It's because there is a reward for us above, where they cant take their autos and such. Every man will be equal there and it will be taken from them that have and give them that have not by the Lord."(pg. 110)

"But now I can get them teeth. That will be a comfort."(pg. 111)

Darl: "When Jewel comes up he has the saw."(pg. 162)

Darl and others go to retrieve Cash's tools from the water - risking their lives for material goods, those goods are worth significant money, and without them, it would be difficult to make money - the family seems reliant on Cash to produce income through carpentry

Cash: "Kind of hangdog and proud too, with [Anse's] teeth and all, even if he wouldn't look at us. 'Meet Mrs Bundren,' he says."(pg. 261)

the main characters of the story are all aware of the class division to some degree

Religion:

Dewey Dell: "If it is His will that some folks has different ideas of honesty from other folks, it is not my place to question His decree"(pg. 8)

Cora: ". . . coming sometimes when I shouldn't have, neglecting my own family and duties so that somebody would be with her in her last moments and she would not have to face the Great Unknown without one familiar face to give her courage."(pg. 22)

"I have tried to live right in the sight of God and man, for the honor and comfort of my Christian husband and the love and respect of my Christian children. So that when I lay me down . . . I will be surrounded by loving faces, carrying the farewell kiss of each of my loved ones into my reward."(pg. 23)

reminds me of the play EVERYMAN, wanted to take with him family and friendship, but neither would come with, but the symbol for Love did go with in the end

Tull: "The Lord giveth"(pg. 30)

'The lord giveth, and the lord taketh(but please lord don't take it all at once"

Anse: "When He aims for something to be always a-moving, He makes it long ways, like a road or a horse or a wagon, but when He aims for something to stay put, He makes it up-and-down ways, like a tree or a man."(pg. 36)

Tull: "Then [Cora] begun to sing again, working at the washtub, with that singing look in her face like she had done give up folks and all their foolishness and had done went on ahead of them, marching up the sky, singing."(pg. 153)

Addie: "[Cora] prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too."(pg. 176)

Cora seems to be practicing Christianity in preparation for death, almost waiting for the exalting that comes with being at peace with your loved ones and lord, however, she seems to ignore the strife and trials that come with living

Death + grief:

Peabody: "The nihilists say that it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or a town"(pg. 44)

death as change, not the end, just difference

Vardaman: "my mother is a fish"(pg. 84)

right before Addie passes, Vardaman catches a fish and guts it - this is the way he can contextualize his mother's death, which allows her to live on in certain ways

Darl: "Life was created in the valleys. It blew up onto the hills on the old terrors, the old lusts, the old despairs. That's why you must walk up the hills so you can ride down."(pg. 227)

Addie: "I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time."(pg. 169)

Individualism:

Vardaman: "an is different from my is."(pg. 56)

"He was there and he seen it, and with both of us it will be and then it will not be."(pg. 67)

Addie: "And when I knew that I had Cash, I knew that living was terrible and that this was the answer to it. That was when I learned that words are no good; that words don't ever fit even what they are trying to say at."(pg. 171)

Ars Poetica

Cash: "It's like there was a fellow in every man that's done a-past the sanity or the insanity, that watches the sane and the insane doings of that man with the same horror and the same astonishment."(pg. 238)

Misc:

Tull: "Only it kind of lived. One part of you knowed it was just water, the same thing that had been running under this same bridge for a long time, yet when them logs would come up spewing up outen it, you were not surprised, like they was a part of water, of the waiting and the threat."(pg. 138)

Would love to hear other thoughts on this novel!

Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. Vintage Books, 1900.

[gr8gollygrace]

African Grove Theater - Thoughts + Notes

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

Also known as the African Company(1816)

first documented black acting troupe

started by William Henry Brown in NYC, put on Shakesperian and other famous plays

"Brown also wrote and staged the first African American play, The Drama of King Shotaway(1823), a historical drama based on the Black Carib war in St. Vincent in 1796 against both English and French settlers"

Burned down in 1823

Ida Aldridge started acting with the African Grove Theater, before becoming a famous actor in Europe

Thoughts:

After emancipation, there was so much emphasis for black people to become 'functioning members of society' to get trade and manual labor type jobs. Not that there's anything wrong with these jobs, but often they were discouraged from artistic endevours as they were not taken seriously

Reminds me of WEB Du Bois' "Criteria for Negro Art" which argued art created by black artists didn't need any justification(Art for arts sake) and that creative endeavours could uplift the community just as much as financial improvements

[gr8gollygrace]

Josephine Baker's "Speech at the March on Washington" - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

1963:

"they beat me with their pens, with their writings.  And friends, that is much worse"

"I could go into any restaurant I wanted to, and I could drink water anyplace I wanted to, and I didn’t have to go to a colored toilet either, and I have to tell you it was nice, and I got used to it, and I liked it, and I wasn’t afraid anymore"

"You know, friends, that I do not lie to you when I tell you I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents.  And much more. But I cold not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad"

"So then they thought they could smear me, and the best way to do that was to call me a communist"

"And when I screamed loud enough, they started to open that door just a little bit, and we all started to be able to squeeze through it.  Not just the colored people, but the others as well, the other minorities too"

"You must go to school, and you must learn to protect yourself"

"Make it safe here so they do mot have to run away, for I want for you and your children what I had"

"But I must tell you that a colored woman—or, as you say it here in America, a black woman—is not going there"

Why was this something I had not learned -- or at least turned in some depth?

her speech was given right before MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech, which was the only speech tought in public schools from that march, and often the civil rights

she lived much of her life in France, and saw the racial segregation happening in the US from an outside perspective, this was another thing not taught much in public school history curiculum

[gr8gollygrace]

Biloxi Wade-Ins - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

Biloxi, Mississippi(1958-1963):

Led by Gilbert R. Mason Sr. for desegregation

First desegregation/civil rights demonstration in Mississippi

Began after Mason and friends were prohibited from swimming on the beaches, and they were illegally trespassing

After petitioning the city governing board, they were offered a segregated portion of the beach, "Mason said no"

Bloody Wade-In Day: 125 men, women, and children held a protest on the beach, they were pelted with rocks and shots went off overhead, Mason was arrested(again)

1960: US Department of Justice sued city of Biloxi for denying access to black Americans

1963: another bloody protest that followed the assassination of Medgar Evers, in which black protestors were attacked by counter-protestors and arrested by police

1968: 4 years after the Civil Rights Act, "Biloxi beaches were finally opened to all races"

Thoughts:

10 years after starting the campaign is finally when the local government allowed/created the infrastructure for the original goal. Typical, that the government is so slow that a generation of children could grow up during this time and never get to swim at the beach

peaceful protest tactics can be used in a variety of ways, I would never have considered a wade-in at the beach or pool

[gr8gollygrace]

Curt Flood and Free Agency - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

Born: 1938 in Houston, TX

signed with the Cincinnati

"refused to accept a trade" which was then appealed to the Supreme Court - "free agency" within the sports world

Passed in 1997 after battling throat cancer, only after the Baseball Fans and Communities Protection Act of 1997 passed in Congress

This legislation created antitrust protection laws within the MLB

Why might this information not been something I learned -- or at least learned with some depth?

Flood's actions were in direct opposition to capitalistic motivations from corporations and wealthy team owners, so of course we don't learn about how the actions of individuals can fight against financial oppression

[gr8gollygrace]

Combahee River Collective - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

1977

"The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking"

"Black, other Third World, and working women have been involved in the feminist movement from its start, but both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself have served to obscure our participation"

"Above all else, Our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s may because of our need as human persons for autonomy" 

"We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough"

"We realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy"

"We have a great deal of criticism and loathing for what men have been socialized to be in this society: what they support, how they act, and how they oppress"

"The major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions"

"Many Black women have a good understanding of both sexism and racism, but because of the everyday constrictions of their lives, cannot risk struggling against them both"

"Issues and projects that collective members have actually worked on are sterilization abuse, abortion rights, battered women, rape and health care"

"As Black feminists we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism, which requires among other things that they have a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and Black history and culture"

What significance did/might this have had in the lived experience of African Americans?

Even today there is radically-exclusionary feminists who seek to separate themselves from other women - ultimately solidarity is required to create real change

Not only do Black women experience racism, but also sexism, which is so convolutely intertwined amongst all interpersonal relationships. This is traumatizing, exhausting, and compounds through generational trauma.

[gr8gollygrace]

Birmingham Children's Crusade - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

May 2nd, 1963: Birmingham, Alabama

over 1000 children skipped school in protest of police brutality

hundreds were arrested and sent to jails

"Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor directed local police and firemen to attack the children with high-pressure fire hoses, batons, and police dogs"

Birmingham Board of Education originally expelled or suspended students involved, but was eventually reversed

Why might this information not been something I learned -- or at least learned with some depth?

Because this paints the police as heartless, violent, and dangerous. America loves to pretend to care about children, and this incident shows how little children are really cared for, especially when those children are not white, cis, straight, and neurotypical.

[gr8gollygrace]

The Black Panther Ten Point Plan - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

1: Freedom to determine community and personal destiny

2: Full employment federally provided as a human right

3. "We Want An End to the Robbery By the Capitalists of Our Black Community" - 40 acres and 2 mules

4: Housing fit for human beings - quality, safe, clean homes

5: Education decentralize the American perspective - learns about ones' self

6: "We Want All Black Men To Be Exempt From Military Service."

7: The right to defend ones self against the brutality of police

8: All Black men released from any prison or jail as a fair trial was not conducted

9: For Black people to be tried in court by members of their community, and not by an entirely white jury.

10: "We Want Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace."

followed by the preamble of the Declaration of Independence

What was I learning about instead that seems in direct opposition to this truth?

That the Black Panthers were violent beyond reason. Essentially, in this piece, they are using the Declaration of Independence to assert their own reasonings for independence. I do believe that what they are 'asking' for is a possible consideration for reparations and measures towards equality.

[gr8gollygrace]

Pierre Samuel Du Pont's "Delaware Experiment" - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series curated by Rachel Cargle

Delaware was racially segregated well into the 20th century

1875 Delaware collected taxes from Black men to improve Black schools in the state - was not enough to raise standards

(1919-1928) Du Pont donated money($2million) that built more than 80 schools for Black children - after Delaware had adopted a new school code(using money from white tax payers to maintain Black schools)

New School Code required both white and Black students to attend school when 14 years old or younger

Du Pont hired James Oscar Betelle as architect for these schools who focused on natural light and recommended a space for hot meals and to play

In 1938 all schools were rebuilt and Delaware jumped from 39/40 to 8th out of 48 states

Du Pont saw the success of these schools as 'an experiment' to encourage other states to follow suit

Why might this information not been something I learned -- or at least learned with some depth?

This story shows how the weathly have enough money to seriously impact the condition of their state or local infrastructure - the money many of them hoard in enough money to solve many humanitarian issues

[gr8gollygrace]

Sundown Towns - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series crafted by Rachel Cargle

Sundown Towns refers to places that were/are "white-only" through "laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence."

many Black individuals were permitted to work in these spaces, but were not allowed 'past sundown'

Often also extended to other people of color and racial minorities

"estimate[d] . . . up to 10,000 sundown towns in the US between 1890 and 1960, following the Great Migration of Black families away from the South East"

towns like Edmond, OK and Mena, AR advertised anti-Black policies as a reason to live there

If businesses provided rentals, home or business loans, or employment to Black people in these towns, the residents would often boycott that business

Marion, IN(1930): two Black teenagers were lynched causing 200 Black residents to move away

These towns made it difficult for Black people to move on the motorways, as they would often travel through towns antagonistic of them

"Victor H. Green, a postal worker from Harlem, compiled the Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide to accommodations that served Black travelers."

Who benefited from this history being buried or erased?

because there was little record-keeping in terms of how these towns were kept 'white-only' prevented them from being criticized or seen as illegal and immoral - difficult to describe why sundown towns are bad without clear 'evidence'

[gr8gollygrace]

Angelina Welde Grimke - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series crafted by Rachel Cargle

Feb. 1880 - June 1958

Father, Archibald Grimke: lawyer, author, Vice President of NAACP at one time

Angelina began teaching English at Dunbar High School and studied at Harvard during the summers

began writing poetry, short stories and eventually plays

Rachel - 3-act drama as a response to Birth of a Nation, published in 1920

Much of her work was not published because, identifying as a lesbian, her sexuality would have been a theme of her writing(1917-1927)

After her fathers death in 1930, Angelina moved to New York and didn't publish any more work

Considered by Alain Locke as "a forerunner" of the Harlem Renaissance

At April

Toss your gay heads, Brown girl trees; Toss your gay lovely heads; Shake your brown slim bodies; Stretch your brown slim arms; Stretch your brown slim toes. Who knows better than we, With the dark, dark bodies, What it means When April comes a-laughing and a-weeping  Once again At our hearts?

Why might this information not been something I had learned -- or at least learned with some depth?

This was an awkward time period, right before what most scholars recognize as the Harlem Renaissance

She was a gay woman of color, who wrote about joy, love and passion, "racial injustice and black pride"

Have any of y'all read her work before? I'd love to know your thoughts!

[gr8gollygrace]

Black Cowboys of the American West - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series crafted by Rachel Cargle

Colonial South Carolina: evidence to support the idea slaves from Senegal West Africa were sourced specifically for stock grazing

1850's: 2/3 of population of Texas were enslaved Black individuals, working as cattle hands and Cowboys

Notable Black Cowboys include: Pete Staples, Bose Ikard, Jim Perry, and Daniel (80 John) Wallace

"Four African American cowboys in New Mexico Territory were involved in the Lincoln County range war of 1878 that produced William Bonney (Billy the Kid),"(Blackpast)

By the 1900's Black Cowboys were the majority

Who benefitted from this history being buried or erased?

Hollywood: The classic Western films cast only white cowboys because the racist Hollywood Producers/Directors of the early 20th century could not depict Black cowboys as the rugged, manly hero of Western films.

[gr8gollygrace]

General William T. Sherman's Special Field Order Number 15 - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series crafted by Rachel Cargle

(1865): "40 Acres and a Mule"

400,000 acres in the South distributed amongst newly emancipated people in 40 acre chunks

" Domestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters and other mechanics, will be free to select their own work and residence, but the young and able-bodied negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers in the service of the United States,"(Sect. II)

"the military authorities will afford them protection, until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title"(Sect. III)

"a general officer will be detailed as Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, whose duty it shall be to visit the settlements, to regulate their police and general management, and who will furnish personally to each head of a family, subject to the approval of the President of the United States,"(Sect. V)

"After Lincoln’s assassination, President Johnson overturned the special field order. He stated that the confiscated land could only be held during wartime. After the war ended, the land would need to be returned to the landowners. After the land was restored, the Black families had few options, resulting in most becoming sharecroppers. This limited their financial opportunities and independence despite being free"(Georgia Historical Society)

What significance did/might this have had in the lived experience of African Americans?

Without this redistribution of land, many Black families became sharecroppers which was only marginally 'better' than enslavement. While they were getting paid, sharecropping often did not leave enough income for 'investment' and upward mobility, while the people who owned land(former plantation owners) profited off of Black labor.

[gr8gollygrace]

Compensated Emancipation Act - Notes and Thoughts

A Black History learning series crafted by Rachel Cargle

April 16th, 1862, District of Columbia local law - President Abraham Lincoln

compensated slave owners totaling nearly $1 Million

2nd Act on July 12th: enslaved people could petition reimbursement to slave-owner

Largely symbolic, meant to distinguish D.C. from the cruel South

District of Columbia was built with slave labor, and many politicians sought to restrict the freedoms of black people through 'Black Codes,' reinforced through curfews for instance - little distinction between enslaved and free individuals

Civil unrest(abolitionists) and slave uprisings had been increasing up to this point, which succeeded in pressuring the government to ban the slave trade within DC

Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act to convince Black people the US government was for freedom

What was I learning about instead that seems in direct opposition to this truth?

When learning about the Civil War in public Southern schools, Lincoln was praised as an empathetic President interested in bettering circumstances for Black people in America. With this information, Lincoln's actions ultimately supported the government's interests, rather than the 'people' that the government is meant to serve.

What do y'all think about this? ~Open discussion~

[gr8gollygrace]

Buffalo Soldiers - Notes + Thoughts

A Black History learning series crafted by Rachel Cargle

first professional Black soldier(1866)

Called "buffalo soldiers" by native populations as a way to contextualize Black soldiers

advantages of being a Buffalo soldier were moving westward, receiving pay and education(+ skill sets)

built roads, built telegraph lines, rebuilt/built Forts on the 'frontier'

While this position marked upward mobility for many Black men, they still experienced racially motivated abuse and violence from authority figures

Buffalo Soldiers of Yosemite(1890's)

some of the first park rangers in the US

"evict[ed] poachers and timber thieves, extinguish[ed] forest fires"

Why might this information not been something I learned -- or at least learned with some depth?

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, the South ran propaganda campaigns to paint Black people as incapable, lazy, unskilled, and morally dubious - the service Buffalo Soldiers gave to protect wildlife and to build infrastructure only contradict these claims

As always, what are your thougts?

[gr8gollygrace]

Black Seminoles - Notes + thoughts

A Black History learning series crafted by Rachel Cargle

Black Seminoles refers to an ethnic group created through the unification of escaped enslaved black people(usually from Georgia) the Seminole Indians, and other native American individuals fleeing British colonialism. Located throughout Florida, which was under Spanish rule at the time, they offered freedom to escaped enslaved people in return for military service.

the US Government signed many treaties with indigenous populations, but one way or another, these treaties fell through

Treaty of New York(1790): gave Creek Indians land then failed to prevent settlers from infiltrating

US buys Florida(1819): Andrew Jackson wanted to push out armed Black Seminoles largely because of the fear white settlers would be threatened

Second Seminole War(1835-1838): very expensive war, largely won by Black Seminoles, created one of the largest slave uprising in North America

During the war, Black Seminoles were continuously tricked by US Generals into imprisionment, continuously escaped and evaded troops in the Florida Everglades

Notable figures include John Horse, Micanopy, Sam Jones, Osceola, and Arpika.

After slowly being captured and held hostage by the US, John Horse surrendered and reuinited with community members and loved ones in "Indian Territory", Oklahoma

Black Seminoles were promised land and freedom, but when they arrived peace was short-lived - both indigenous populations and white settlers antagonized the refugees

When they appeal the government for aid enforcing the terms of surrender, it is revealed that the treaty did not guarantee freedom nor a soverign Seminole nation

John Horse and Coacoochee led many of the Black Seminoles south through Texas and eventually into Northern Mexico

Mexico had outlawed slavery in 1819, so they felt safe from US persecution - settled into Nacimiento which they were granted from the Mexican government

Who benefitted from this history being buried or erased?

The US Gov.: were super embarassed they were outsmarted, out-manuavured by those they thought were inferior - unhonorable war tatics meant to win at any cost - lie cheat steal(as long as it's 'legal')

While incredibly aurdruous, a story of triump and freedom, for both Black and indigenous peoples - inspiring to others facing oppression

What do y'all think? Looking for an open discussion!