BOOK REVIEW

Kate Dossett: Bridging Race Divides: Black Nationalism,Feminism, and Integration in the United States1896–1935: A Book ReviewFlorida: The University Press of Florida, 2008, Pp. 268.Hardcover $59.95

Angela Jones

Published online: 16 May 2012

J Afr Am St (2013) 17:399–401DOI 10.1007/s12111-012-9222-5

A. Jones (*)Farmingdale State College, State University of New York, 2350 Broadhollow Rd, Memorial Hall, Rm124, Farmingdale, NY 11735, USAe-mail: Jonesa@farmingdale.edu

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Kate Dossett astutely exposes the patriarchal ways in which historians have tradi-tionally explored pan-African thought and offers a postmodern revision of club-women's history. The author masterfully demonstrates how African Americanclubwomen strategically navigated racist waters by utilizing multiple discourses intheir public campaigns, namely by blending integration, black nationalism, andfeminism. African American political thought is often narrowly constructed. Dossett'suse of postmodern theory to interrogate the binary construction of African Americanpolitical thought and activism is exceptional. The author forces the reader to questionthe utility of examining all African American figures through the Washington and DuBois paradigm and/or the black nationalism vs. integration dichotomy. This limitedperspective does not allow us to appreciate the complex ways activists utilizedmultiple discourses to advance their causes.

Bridging Race Divides is an impressive historical analysis; packed with extensivearchival data, Bridging Race Divide's thorough methodology was one of its greateststrengths. The author presents extensive archived materials including: private papers,correspondence, organization records, public speeches, newspaper reports, and nov-els in order to buttress the book's claims. Dossett makes three important argumentsbased on copious evidence. First, black female activists confronted the false dichot-omy between black nationalism and integration in their everyday lives. Their publiccampaigns and writings combined demonstrated that activists did not have to strictlybelong to one of these ideological camps. But rather, they strategically utilized bothdiscourses to struggle against American racism. Second, Dossett exposes the way in

which the history of black nationalism has been discursively embedded with sexismby historians. Black women played a pivotal role in the development of blacknationalism. In fact, they worked to merge feminism into black nationalism anddemonstrate how, without women as strong political allies, the movement stood nochance. Finally, the work of female black activists in the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth century helped develop black feminism.

Kate Dossett reinterprets the history of the clubwomen's movement. Dossettanalyzes the work of Margaret Murray Washington, Nannie Helen Burroughs, andMary McLeod Bethune. Dossett challenges the commonly held assertion that theclubwomen's movement, particularly the National Association of Colored Women,was bourgeois, conservative, and that they placated to patriarchy. Pan-Africanism, asfound in the Garvey Movement or the Pan-African Congresses, emerged in partbecause of clubwomen's pan-African programs and campaigns. The author debunksthe idea that pan-Africanism was the result of the efforts of select male leaders such asMarcus Garvey with ease.

Clubwomen challenged patriarchy; they called for suffrage and for women to bevalued wage earners. Women incorporated various discourses in their public fights.For example, Bethune, director of Negro Affairs for Roosevelt's New Deal Programsand as leader of NACW, strategically utilized integrationist, black nationalist, andfeminist discourses in political action. Interestingly, again, drawing from postmod-ernism, we learn that in public interaction, the performance of multiple identities isoften necessary to acquire desired outcomes. These women became masters atwearing different hats. If black women seemed to favor integration, it was generallyamongst white female activists, in order to gain monetary support from them. BlackYMCA activists often defended their separate branch but realized the importance ofmaintaining involvement with the overwhelmingly white national branch. Historicalnarratives of the period seem to focus on the unwilling white women who did notwant to work with these black activists. However, what we miss is that black femaleactivists did the same. Dossett exposes a misconception in the historical record.African American activists, specifically black clubwomen, did not all want integra-tion. In this case, they utilized integration when dealing with white women in theYMCA in order to get resources to fund their separate branch, cultivate their ownautonomy, and further a black nationalist program.

Successful activists became masters at the art of skillfully utilizing multiplediscourses and multiple public performances to gain their aims. Women activistshad to skillfully learn the art of performing two roles, a private identity and a publicone. Dossett examines Amy Jacques Garvey and uncovers the ways she strategicallyutilized her double consciousnesses to advance her cause. Amy Jacques Garvey hadto perform well in the private sphere as a seemingly good wife to Marcus Garvey. Shealso had to be a good leader in public. Garvey was not simply acquiescing to aprescribed gender norm of the good wife; she exploited it. She utilized her privaterole or identity to make advances in the public sphere. Again, this is importantbecause it highlights the way activists must strategically perform multiple identitiesin public to gain support for their agendas.

Dossett examines how Madam C.J. Walker and her daughter A’Lelia built aneconomic empire around beauty goods and in turn helped to redefine black woman-hood/femininity. This section represents the weakest of the author's arguments. I am

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not convinced, as the author suggests that Madam Walker's efforts to fund raceprojects or employ black women was out of humanitarian concerns or obligationsto the movement. Dossett argues that Walker attempted to bring feminism into blacknationalism; by challenging the way “black womanhood was marketed and received,not only by black men and white society but by black women themselves. Walker'slegacy is not a fulfillment of the American dream, but rather a demonstration of howblack Americans could work together to overcome their differences, could protest thewrongs inflicted on them by white Americans, while coming together in economic,political, and cultural ways to improve their own lives (148).” Dossett may minimizethe role of Walker's wealth in granting her the opportunity to be so influential in racialpolitics and amongst male race leaders. Her power, influence, and motivation (as acapitalist) may have had more to do with money than the author is willing to admit.Nonetheless, none of these criticisms minimizes the author's argument that blackwomen, through cultural production and public activism, created strategies in whichthey manipulated black nationalism, feminism, and integration, in order to foster racepride, economic empowerment, political agency, and were pivotal to the movement tobring about racial justice.

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