Scholar addresses race, gender in American history

Joy James, a professor of humanities at Williams College in Massachusetts, spoke Tuesday about the stories of black women in America’s history in a lecture titled “Women and Political Imprisonment: From Rosa Parks to Ramona Africa.”

If you weren’t able to make it, here’s what you missed.

More than political violence

James told the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a black woman who was arrested during the civil rights movement for attempting to register to vote. When she tried to pull her dress down after it began riding up her hips, sheriffs insisted it be left alone.
“There was a sexual dimension to the political violence,” James said. “The women here have stories that are not often told.”

What you may not know about Rosa Parks

James  also said Parks organized a movement against sexual exploitation of black women in the 1940s. People didn’t like it when Parks wrote a letter about an employer who attempted to rape her.
“There was a furor in mainstream civil rights,” James said. “There was a fear that releasing the letter would sully the image of Rosa Parks.”

Implications of these women’s stories

“What we see in these spheres that are so politicized ... is a possibility of re-writing the story of American democracy,” James said. “The trauma that came from these roles can also be part of our national story. It doesn’t have to be swept under.”

Ramona Africa

Africa was a member of the Move 9, a group of women in Philadelphia who advocated black liberation. The Move 9 had a house, James said, and when complaints about the women and their unruly children reached the police, the police dropped a bomb on the house and allowed it to burn to the ground. The only adult survivor of the 1985 bombing was Ramona Africa.

­— Kirsten Clark