It was, as Allyson Hobbs writes, a chosen exile. Hobbs calls it nine to five passing, although it required the passer to leave home before sunup and not come back until after dark to avoid being seen in their black neighborhoods. When you talk to African Americans of a certain generation, everybodyeverybodycan remember the difficulty they had, how hard it was to find a place to stay and a place to eat, Hobbs says. Du Boiss double consciousness that sense of being in two places at the same time. I should be able to stanch the wound, but I cant. My grandmother had told me incredible stories about the migration and moving to Chicago and her impressions of the journey, Hobbs says. Nowhere to Run: African American Travel in Twentieth-Century America explores the humiliation and indignities as well as the joy, exhilaration, and freedom that African American motorists experienced on the road and To Tell the Terrible, which examines the collective memory of sexual violence among generations of black women. Building 200, Room 113 Its a story weve of course read and seen before in fictional accounts numerous novels and films that have generally portrayed mixed-race characters in the sorriest of terms. The study found that 18 years after the death of a child, bereaved parents were more likely to have experienced a depressive episode and marital disruption than other parents. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. . I lined the house with outdoor lights and hired a musician to lead the group in caroling. Staggered by this nightmarish new reality, I am grasping for explanations for why my parents can no longer live together. A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, Nowhere to Run: African American Travel in Twentieth Century America, CCSRE 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Ph.D. Minor in Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, CSRE Ph.D. Minor Frequently Asked Questions, CSRE Graduate Teaching Fellowship Program, Technology & Racial Equity Graduate Fellowship, Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies, Annual Anne and Loren Kieve Distinguished Lecture. Hobbs reckons with the trauma, alienation, and scarsnot only for those who passed, but also for those they left behind. . Married to Thyra in 1924, Albert graduated from medical school but couldnt get a job as a black doctor, and passed as white in order to gain entry to a reputable hospital. Then one day, when their eldest son made an off-the-cuff comment about a black student at his boarding school, Albert blurted out, Well, youre colored. It was almost as if Albert had grown weary after 20 years of carefully guarding their secret. An older boy would steal the jacket before its leather sleeves had the chance to crease. Elsie changed her name to Mona Manet and wrote Hughes a letter bearing no return address stating that she intended to cease being colored. When she committed suicide years later, only her white-appearing relatives showed up to claim her body, allowing Elsie to remain white, even in death.. My fathers mother worked as a hairdresser. His ruse worked and he and his wife became pillars of an all-white New Hampshire community. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, Allyson Hobbs is an associate professor of American history and the director of African and African-American studies at Stanford University. As this years chief marshal, Hobbs joins alistof illustrious alumni who have held the position, including former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith 94, who is this years featured Harvard Alumni Day speaker; astronaut Stephanie Wilson 88; Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter Linda Greenhouse 68; City Year co-founder Alan Khazei 83; former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan 86; and former Rhode Island Gov. Because theyre so much a part of the story. Her grandmother died just as she was finishing A Chosen Exile, but the stories stayed with her. It was fascinating how many of the students really struggled, she says. Hobbs has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity at Stanford. They anticipated the punch lines of jokes that they already knew, sometimes bursting into laughter before the joke was complete. . Allyson Hobbs is elected Class of 1997's chief marshal Author, scholar and educator is a prominent voice on race, politics "My connection to Harvard is fundamental to who I am today," said Allyson Hobbs '97, who will serve as chief marshal. Following a tradition that goes back more than 120 years, Hobbs was elected by her classmates andwill play a number of ceremonial roles in celebration of their 25th reunion. Certainly there is increasingly a language for mixed identity. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. I think of my friends whose parents divorced when they were children or teenagers. Toomer argued eloquently for hybridity, but his idea never gained traction., Toomer failed to write anything of lasting impact after Cane. Indeed, Hobbs argues, in the postwar years, to pass as white was in many ways to choose mediocrity to sell ones birthright for a mess of pottage, as James Weldon Johnson put it at the end of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man., Hobbs tells the curious story of the upper-class black couple Albert and Thyra Johnston. It must be terrifying for them. After the publication of Cane, which celebrated Southern, rural black life, Toomer became reticent, even hostile to the notion that he was Negro, body and soul. . He wears a light-blue cashmere V-neck sweater over a neat button-down shirt and brown corduroy pants, classic gifts for Dad from previous Christmastimes. Allyson Hobbs is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at Stanford University. Between the eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, countless African Americans passed as white, leaving behind families and friends, roots and community. Although recent decades have witnessed an increasingly multiracial society and a growing acceptance of hybridity, the problem of race and identity remains at the center of public debate and emotionally fraught personal decisions. My gratitude for the opportunity to celebrate with my classmates, all in person, is boundless, and Im counting the days until we can all be together again on campus.. study predicted. I am an old man, he replied with a laugh. As the youngest of two children and the only boy in his family, my father was doted on, adored, and treasured. My fathers grandmother had served the white folks at dinner parties, so she took great pride in making her own celebrations equally special. And well take a cup o kindness yet, for auld lang syne. Allyson teaches courses on American identity, African American history, African American womens history, and twentieth century American history. In her histories of globalism, migration, families, and children, Tara Zahra reveals the fine cracks in foundational stories. Throughout the book, there are also those who refused to give up their blackness, despite straight hair and fair skin, who declined, as James Weldon Johnson famously worded it in the 1912 novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, to sell ones birthright for a mess of pottage. Robert Harlan, born to a slave woman and a white fathermost likely the masterin Kentucky, grew up in the same household as the white Harlan boys and later went on as a free man to make a fortune in the California gold rush. Allyson Hobbs, an assistant professor of American history at Stanford University, discussed research from her award-winning book, A Chosen Exile: A History on Racial Passing in American Life, at a Women's Studies Colloquium. The 1963 album Christmas with the Platters plays, and a dreamy version of Auld Lang Syne wafts through the living room. Allyson Hobbs is an associate professor of American history and the director of African and African-American studies at Stanford University. Her father was dying, she could never come back, she would never see her brothers again., Over the next decade or so while she worked on her dissertation and then the book, Hobbs suffered her own series of losses as people close to her diedthe aunt who told her the story about the cousin and three first cousins who were like brothers and sisters to Hobbs. One of the best birthday presents anybody ever gave me was a calling card by the conceptual artist Adrian Piper. This collaboration never fails to fill me with joy., She called writing her thesis about the Highlander Folk School, nestled in the mountains of Tennessee, transformative. But my mother wasnt joking. Ive been perseverating over my parents mortality for years. Internal Mail Code: 2152 Allyson Hobbs, AM02, PhD09. Lombardo brought in the new year with the song for almost fifty years, from the stock market crash in 1929 to his last performance, during the countrys bicentennial, in 1976. In 2017, she was honored by the Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP with a Freedom Fighter Award. There was a time when families got dressed up for holidays. All rights reserved. The marriage is over now. You know, we have that in our own family too. That was the bombshell, the offhand remark that plunged historian Allyson Hobbs, AM02, PhD09, into a 12-year odyssey to understand racial passing in Americathe triumphs and possibilities, secrets and sorrows, of African Americans who crossed the color line and lived as white. Allyson Hobbs 97, whose award-winning writing, scholarship, and teaching tackle the history and lasting impact of race in the U.S., will serve as this years chief marshal of alumni, the Harvard Alumni Association announced today. Despite the tradition of activism by black women, white women have often played the protagonists in the history of sexual violence, and black women have been relegated to the supporting cast. She served on the jury for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in History. Lombardo died in 1977. I berate myself for such a nave hope. Since 1899, the 25th College Reunion class has been charged with selecting a chief marshal based on criteria that include success in ones field as well as service to both the University and the broader society. I drift into my own misty reveries: a childhood when the excitement of Christmas would not let me sleep; years later, watching my brother-in-law assemble elaborate and exquisite floral centerpieces as his generous gift to us; the games played; the joy and laughter before my sisters illness and untimely death, at thirty-one; even the hectic but happy balancing act of celebrating two Christmasesone with my family and one with my husbands familybefore our marriage collapsed, four years ago. Building 200, Room 113 My father cant go back to the Chicago of the nineteen-fifties. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. And our cousinand this was the part of the story that my aunt really underscoredwas that our cousin absolutely did not want to do this, Hobbs says. A Chosen Exile has been reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, Harpers, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Boston Globe. I was really struck reading these family histories and seeing all these examples of people who could barely tell the stories of their families., Thats when she began to see loss as part of the narrative. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. When Hobbs joined Harvards Black Student Association, she was able to connect to the Black community at Harvard socially and intellectually.. I wonder if my parents marriage would have survived if my sister Sharon hadnt died from breast cancer at 31 in 1998. Its the early nineteen-fifties, and he sits by the radio with his family, looking at the frosted Christmas tree with bubbly lights. Martins African American History textbook (2010 - 2010), Co-organizer, Globalizing Black History: IntellectualsConference, Stanford University (2010 - 2010), Faculty Sponsor, United States History Workshop for Graduate Students, Stanford University (2008 - Present), Faculty Advisor, ''Voices'' public service and social action organization of undergraduate African American women, Faculty Lecturer, Ernest Houston Johnson Scholars Program, Researcher, Black Metropolis Research Project Chicago, IL (2004 - 2007), Member, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Member, Immigration and Ethnic History Society, Member, Organization of American Historians, Member, Social Science History Association, Member, Southern Association of Women Historians, Member, Western Association of Women Historians, Member, Vivian Harsh Research Collection at Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Chicago, IL, Ph.D., University of Chicago, History (2009), A.B., Harvard University, Social Studies (1997), AFRICAAM 54N, AMSTUD 54N, HISTORY 54N (Win), Violence in the Gilded Ages, Then and Now, HEAVEN COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE COUNTRY (Book Review). Remember that, Joyce? he asks my mother. My sister died one year after my future husband and I graduated from college. Fraziers dissertation, The Negro Family in Chicago, became a groundbreaking text in the field. The authors father in 1943, at age three. She was a master of improvisation, the original mother of invention. Hobbsis an associate professor in Stanford Universitys Department of History,director of African and African American studies,and a Kleinheinz University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. He laughs as he describes the suit that he wore, with a skinny tie, when they were first married, my mothers fancy dresses, and the special holiday outfits purchased for my older sisters and brother. Here are some tips. Fierce in her conviction that the past has much to teach us, Allyson is an example of the countless Harvard alumni who are shaping our world, like all of the chief marshals before her.. Sarah Jane, a character in Douglas Sirks 1959 remake of the film Imitation of Life, denies her black mother in her attempt to be seen as white. Her plan in part is to follow the Green Book. Flooded by my own sorrow and heartbreak, I found solace in my parents marriage: They were unbroken; their bond was indestructible. Allyson is currently at work on two books, both forthcoming from Penguin Press. My father, who dreamed of attending the University of Chicago, took great pride in wearing the jacket. That story opens Hobbss book, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life (Harvard University Press, 2014), a lyrical, searching, and studious account of the phenomenon from the mid-19th century to the 1950s. What did she feel like when she hung up the phone? Hobbs asks. (Photography by Jennifer Pottheiser). The New York Times Sunday Book Review of 'A Chosen Exile", 450 Jane Stanford Way Those are the only fragments of that story that I have, Hobbs says. The Root named A Chosen Exile among its Best 15 Nonfiction Books by Black Authors in 2014., 2023 Cond Nast. Is it possible that it might be easier to live without each other by choice, to break that once indestructible bond now, rather than to wait until it is broken cruelly, against their will? She teaches courses on American identity; African American history; African American womens history; American road trips, migration, travel and mobility; and twentieth-century American history and culture. An annual travelogue called The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide helped African Americans navigate their journeys with listings of tourist homes, hotels, boarding houses, restaurants, beauty shops, barbershops, nightclubs, and service stations where they would be welcomed. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. All rights reserved. I did what I had watched my mother do for years: I hung garlands and big red bows on every doorway. When historians have taken on the subject, Hobbs points out, they have generally paid far more attention to what was gained by passing as white than to what was lost by rejecting a black racial identity. Hobbs, on the other hand, insists on seeing the history of passing as a coherent and enduring narrative of loss. We hear from the black family left behind. Events will be simultaneously live-streamed for those who cannot attend in person. Her first book, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, published by Harvard University Press, in 2014, won two prizes from the Organization of American Historians: the Frederick Jackson Turner Award for the best first book in American history and the Lawrence W. Levine Award for the best book in American cultural history. We read about the individuals who looked white but consciously chose not to pass who, when given the choice, opted for black life and community. Both of Hobbss parents came to Chicago as children during the Great Migration, her mother from New Orleans and her father from Augusta, Georgia. It is also to be perpetually aware of both the primacy of race and the bankruptcy of the race idea, as Allyson Hobbs, an assistant professor of history at Stanford University, puts it in her incisive new cultural history, A Chosen Exile., Hobbs is interested in the stories of individuals who chose to cross the color line black to white from the late 1800s up through the 1950s. Many threads weave through A Chosen Exile, released last fall to glowing reviews: the meaning of identity, the elusive concept of race, ever-shifting color lines and cultural borderlands. That was the bombshell, the offhand remark that plunged historian Allyson Hobbs, AM'02, PhD'09, into a 12-year odyssey to understand racial passing in Americathe triumphs and possibilities, secrets and sorrows, of African Americans who crossed the color line and lived as white. She is a contributing writer to The New Yorker.com and a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The phrase Auld Lang Syne translates to times gone by, and, while Americans expect to hear this song every New Years, few know what the Scottish lyrics actually mean. 25, 2016)A young Chicago girl awoke one summer morning in August in anticipation of the Bud Billiken Parade - the longest-running African American . Like gay characters, mulattoes always pay for their existence dearly in the end. He is dressed in his finest clothes. Allyson Hobbs is an Associate Professor of United States History, the Director of African and African American Studies, and the Kleinheinz Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. Every year, as the hour grows late on Christmas night, my fathers eyes become misty. Try as I might, I cant relive my childhood or young adulthood in Morristown. This time, he is doing his best imitation of Sam Cooke: Its been too hard living, oh my/And Im afraid to die/Cause I dont know whats up there/Beyond the sky/Its been a long, a long time coming/But I know a change is gonna come/Oh yes, it will.. Its lacerations came without warning. Like A Chosen Exile, it also tells a story about identity, the uncomfortable territory of in-between, about leaving home and self behind and setting out into something unknown. Allyson is currently at work on two books, both forthcoming from Penguin Press. From left: A portrait of Ellen Craft disguised as a planter; Jean Toomer, circa 1932; Elsie Roxborough. She served on the jury for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in History. Allyson Hobbs is an associate professor of history and director of African and African-American studies at Stanford. To pass as white in the antebellum South was to escape the shackles of slavery. Hobbs earned her Ph.D. in American history from the University of Chicago. "Storytelling Matters to Historian Allyson Hobbs,"The Stanford Dish, February 19, 2016, "Stanford Historian Re-examines Practice of Racial 'Passing,'"Stanford Report, December 18, 2013. Her work has appeared inThe New York Times,The New York Times Book Review,The Washington Post,The Nation,The Root.com,The Guardian,Politico,andThe Chronicle of Higher Education. Theyre often the ones who are describing the loss. Later she thought again of her distant cousin married to a white man in Los Angeles, unable to come home to the South Side as her father lay dying. A Chosen Exilewon the Organization of American Historians Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for best first book in American history and the Lawrence Levine Prize for best book in American cultural history. The spectacular collapse of my parents marriage has been too much for me. Traveling from New Orleans to Nashville, she found that most of the places listed in the guide no longer exist. She has won teaching awards including the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, the Graves Award in the Humanities, and the St. Clair Drake Teaching Award. It is to feel like an embodiment of W. E. B. The moment when I was handed the keys to Highlanders archive was the moment when I knew I wanted to be a historian., Hobbs was extremely active outside the classroom as well, including participating in the Crimson Key Society and the First-Year Outdoor Program. I cling to my sister and childhood friends who remember the past. My father slowly takes off his glasses and dabs his eyes. Im bleeding out. Joe Christmas, the tormented drifter in William Faulkners Light in August, considers his blackness evidence of original sin (a.k.a. They seemed to grow even closer as our once large family became smaller and summer family reunions petered out. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Inside the Home of the New Years Eve Ball, A Hundred Years Later, The Birth of a Nation Hasnt Gone Away, Our Fifteen Most-Read Magazine Stories of 2015. Could a young relationship survive a tragedy like that? We two have run about the slopes, and picked the daisies fine; But weve wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne. miscegenation) and ends up castrated and murdered. A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Lifehas beenselected as: Winner, Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for Best First Book in American History (Organization of American Historians), Winner, Lawrence Levine Prize for Best Book in American Cultural History (Organization of American Historians), ANew York TimesBook ReviewEditors Choice, 2017 Summer Reading Lists for The Paris Reviewand Harvard University Press, Recommended Reading on "Racial Boundaries" by theNew York Times, ASan Francisco ChronicleBest Book of 2014, ATimes Higher EducationBook of the Week, The Root, Best 15 Nonfiction Books by Black Authors in 2014, 450 Jane Stanford Way When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Im a white woman now. She was married to a white man; she had white children. One story Hobbs tells is of Elsie Roxborough, a socialite who briefly dated Joe Louis and Langston Hughes, and who in 1937, after graduating from the University of Michigan, began passing as white to become a model. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. I wish I could hear the sounds of the crackling radio and join him, my aunt, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother around the dining table or next to the frosted Christmas tree. He saw race as superficial, a physical covering, and argued for an American identity that could not extricate its black elements from its white components. In this critically vigilant work, Hobbs refuses to accept any one identity as true. Toomer, in his resistance to being pigeonholed, comes across here as not so much self-loathing as ahead of his time. Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne? I am undone, untethered, dysfunctional. She felt close to their pain; she almost grieved with them. His life was not an easy one. But we can follow the poignant instructions offered in Auld Lang Syne: to remember the past, the stories, the scenes, the settings, the friendships, and the family. When my mother left our house in New Jersey, my father made two playlists for her with their favorite songs. That loss has always been a major, major part of my adult life. As she waded deeper into her research and the aching narratives found there, she began to identify with the people she read about. She doesnt know what became of the cousin in Los Angeles. She has served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in history and as a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. As a respected historian and storyteller, teacher, and scholar, and community-builder, Allyson Hobbs has spent her career helping us understand racial injustice, its complex human cost, and how its history is something that links and impacts all of us, said Vanessa Liu, HAA president. The labor that the farm required seemed to leave Burns with a heart condition that afflicted him later in life. But for every Elsie there is a Robert Harlan, light-skinned, straight-haired, who showed no interest in renouncing his blackness. She has appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC and National Public Radio. Known as the peasant poet, Burns fathered at least a dozen children, with several women,and after leaving the farm he spent most of his career compiling traditional Scottish folk songs that celebrate life, love, work, drinking, and friendship, using warm melodies and emotional chords. But such was life for my father, growing up in Chicago back then. Rich Murray, AB94, finds the stuff of life for beloved TV characters. Hobbs traveled to the school the summer before her senior year. As historian Allyson Hobbs explains in A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, scholars have traditionally paid far more attention to what was gained by passing as white than . Allyson Hobbs is an associate professor of American history and the director of African and African-American studies at Stanford University, and the author of " A Chosen Exile: A History of. Hobbss cousin was 18 when she was sent by her mother to live in Los Angeles and pass as a white woman in the late 1930s. Published continuously since 1907.AccessibilityPrivacy Policy, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide. He sits at the dining table after our holiday feast and stares off in the direction of the CD player, holding the remote in his hand. 2023 Cond Nast. She takes nothing at face value least of all the idea that the person who is passing is actually and truly of one race or the other. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Or, perhaps in their mid-80s after all of the joys, the stories, the sorrows, after all of the life that they have lived together my parents find this final act too frightening and too disorienting. She is a contributing writer to The NewYorker.com and a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. The Root named A Chosen Exile as one of the Best 15 Nonfiction Books by Black Authors in 2014., View details for DOI 10.1017/S1537781419000690, View details for Web of Science ID 000529084900011, View details for Web of Science ID 000431473400019, View details for Web of Science ID 000299143500019, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Stanford University (2008 - Present), AAAS/CCSRE Faculty Research Fellow, Stanford University (2014 - 2015), Postdoctoral Fellowship, Ford Foundation (2013 - 2014), Hoefer Faculty Mentor Prize, Stanford University (2013), Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, Stanford University (2013), The Graves Award, Humanities, Stanford University (2012), Clayman Institute for Gender Research Fellowship, Stanford University (2011 - 2012), Diversity Dissertation Fellowship Alternate, Ford Foundation (2011), CCSRE Junior Faculty Development Program, Stanford University (2010), Hoefer Faculty Mentor Prize, Stanford University (2010), St. Clair Drake Teaching Award, Stanford University (2010), Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Department of History, Stanford University (2007 - 2008), Diversity Dissertation Fellowship, Ford Foundation (2007), Von Holst Prize, Lectureship in History, University of Chicago (2006), Trustee Fellowship, University of Chicago (2000 - 2006), Advisory Committee Member, African and African American Studies, Committe-in-Charge Member, American Studies Program, Core Affiliated Faculty, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Researcher, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Faculty Affiliate, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Faculty Advisor, Masters in Liberal Arts Program, Member, Transnational, International, and Global History Initiative, Department of History Urban Studies, Advisory Board, Spatial Legacy Academy, East Palo Alto, CA, Faculty Advisor, Mellon-Mays (2010 - Present), Pre-Major Advisor, Department of History, Stanford University (2010 - 2011), Expert Reviewer, Bedford/St.
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