Purchase
Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death
Belknap Press of Harvard University Pres
March 2010
On Sale: February 25, 2010
288 pages
ISBN: 0674036212
EAN: 9780674036215
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
From antebellum slavery to the twenty-first century, African
American funeral directors have orchestrated funerals or
“homegoing” ceremonies with dignity and pageantry. As
entrepreneurs in a largely segregated trade, they were among
the few black individuals in any community who were
economically independent and not beholden to the local white
power structure. Most important, their financial freedom
gave them the ability to support the struggle for civil
rights and, indeed, to serve the living as well as bury the
dead. During the Jim Crow era, black funeral directors relied on
racial segregation to secure their foothold in America’s
capitalist marketplace. With the dawning of the civil rights
age, these entrepreneurs were drawn into the movement to
integrate American society, but were also uncertain how
racial integration would affect their business success. From
the beginning, this tension between personal gain and
community service shaped the history of African American
funeral directing. For African Americans, death was never simply the end of
life, and funerals were not just places to mourn. In the
“hush harbors” of the slave quarters, African Americans
first used funerals to bury their dead and to plan a path to
freedom. Similarly, throughout the long—and often
violent—struggle for racial equality in the twentieth
century, funeral directors aided the cause by honoring the
dead while supporting the living. To Serve the Living offers
a fascinating history of how African American funeral
directors have been integral to the fight for freedom.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy