{"id":36,"date":"2019-12-16T23:27:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T23:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-1109-fall-2019-racial-consciousness\/?post_type=te_announcements&p=36"},"modified":"2019-12-17T03:05:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T03:05:34","slug":"frances-e-w-harper-iola-leroy","status":"publish","type":"te_announcements","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-1109-fall-2019-racial-consciousness\/announcement\/frances-e-w-harper-iola-leroy\/","title":{"rendered":"Frances E. W. Harper ~ Iola Leroy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harper (1825-1911) was an abolitionist and a feminist. However, several of the white feminist movements she was a member of were only committed to their upliftment. White women believed their movement competed with the black movement. She opposed women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (founders of the National Women Suffrage Association) because of their opposition toward the implementation of the 15th Amendment (allowing black men to vote). Stanton went as far as to say, \u201cThe Negro is no longer \u2018lowest in the scale of being\u2019 and \u2018it becomes a serious question whether we had better stand aside and see Sambo walk into the kingdom first\u201d (18). This quote supports the idea that blackness and womanhood had to be resistance to each other. Racial consciousness for black women was the understanding that they were excluded from both the women\u2019s rights and black rights. \u201cWatkins Harper saw that her white counters would seldom operate with black women\u2019s concerns in mind\u201d (18). Both groups were forbidden certain rights in society, but instead of coming together and fighting for equal rights for all, they were fighting alone for their separate issues (see Anna Julia Cooper).<\/p>\n

Harper also depicts this opposition between black and white in her novel\u00a0Iola Leroy<\/em>. She shows that living as a white person leads to a different life than living as a black person. The light skin characters in the novel have two choices: pass with the white race, have access to opportunities that are only given to white people, and escape second class citizenship or to not pass, follow the black race, and choose a life of hardship. These white-passing characters show that aligning themselves with the black race is far more beneficial than being white because they have access to the black community that is centered around culture, family, and love. These characters are proud of their race and refuse, \u201cto live under a shadow of concealment which [they] thoroughly hate as if the blood in [their] veins was an undetected crime of [their] soul\u201d (217).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Harper also uses her novel to encourage other black people of the race toward being successful and then racial upliftment. Through Iola, Harper expresses, \u201cevery person of unmixed race blood who succeeds in any department of literature, art, or science is a living argument for the capability which is in the race. For it is not the white blood which is on trial before the world\u201d (194-195). During reconstruction, black people had more to prove their capabilities to the rest of the nation, and becoming successful black individuals in areas that have been historically inaccessible to black people is one way of accomplishing that. She also employs these successful black individuals to then work toward racial uplift. Iola says on multiple occasions, \u201cI intend, when this conflict is over, to cast my lot with the freed people as a helper, teacher, and friend\u201d (ch. XIII), and, \u201cI must serve the race that needs me the most\u201d (219). As an educated black individual, there is a moral responsibility to work in the community and help other members of the race reach their potential through education, Christianity, and manners. This was a primary stance both Iola, in the novel, and Harper, during her time, exercised in their lives because the fate of the whole race is dependent on how successful every individual can become.<\/p>\n