News - March, 2008
SSCC
Recognizes Women’s History Month -
Portrayals of
notable African American women Harriet Tubman and Zora Neale Hurston
by Women in History Group
(HILLSBORO) -
Actresses from the Women in History troupe return to Southern State
Community College’s central campus to portray African American
historical figures Harriet Tubman and Zora Neale Hurston on Tue.,
Mar. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Edward K. Daniels Auditorium. The event is
free and open to the public.
Considered one
of the foremost abolitionists in American history, Harriet Tubman
had freed hundreds of slaves during her lifetime. Born as Araminta
“Minty” Greene to slaves Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, she would
later call herself Harriet. Tubman endured great hardship in her
youth. As a slave, she did not have access to nor was she permitted
to have an education. She was “loaned out” to other plantations and
suffered malnourishment and cold exposure from checking muskrat
traps in frigid rivers at age five. As a young adolescent, she was
struck in the head by her overseer when she tried to help a fellow
slave who had tried to escape. The assault caused permanent damage
as Tubman suffered from recurring narcoleptic seizures for the rest
of her life.
Tubman had
dreamed of freedom for most of her young life and, in 1849 when she
was about 30, she escaped from her captors and fled to Pennsylvania.
She found work as a cook and laundress and after saving some money,
immediately began working with a local abolitionist group and
organizers from the secret network known as the Underground
Railroad. Working with other abolitionists, Tubman undertook many
hazardous missions, journeying to the South to lead slaves up north
to freedom. As her reputation grew among slaves, she earned herself
the nickname “Moses.” Later, she was given the title “General”
Tubman by militant abolitionist John Brown for her bravery.
Throughout her
life, Tubman worked to advance African Americans, caring for wounded
black soldiers, raising money for freedmen’s schools, helping
destitute children, and transforming her family’s home into the Home
for Aged and Indigent Colored People in 1868. Believing the right to
vote was vital to preserving African Americans’ freedom, Tubman took
up the suffragist cause in the late 1800s and was a delegate to the
National Association of Colored Women’s first annual convention.
Unlike Tubman,
Zora Neale Hurston was born a free woman. She was raised in
America’s first incorporated black community, Eatonville, Florida.
Her hometown would form the backdrop for several of her writings in
which she glorified it as a utopian society where African Americans
could enjoy a life, separate from white society and its prejudices.
Another
difference between the two women was their education. While Tubman
was denied an education, Hurston was afforded not only an elementary
education, but received an undergraduate degree in anthropology from
Barnard College in 1928. During the early decades of the 20th
century, Hurston became an influential force of the Harlem
Renaissance. The group consisted of young African American writers
whose mission was to uplift the black race through literature and
the arts. Her beliefs were controversial as she did accept the
racial struggle as being the goal of all African Americans.
Hurston enjoyed
some fame early in her writing career. Some of her first works
appeared in black literary magazines and her first novel “Jonah’s
Gourd Vine” received critical success. She would also gain praise
for her second book “Mules and Men,” but what would be considered
her greatest work came in 1937 with the publishing of “Their Eyes
Were Watching God.” Hurston would not regain the critical acclaim
achieved with this novel. Her later works saw some success while
others were considered failures. Hurston’s final years were lived in
poverty and obscurity.
While she died
amidst controversy, Hurston has been recognized for her literary
contributions in America. According to The Journal of Blacks in
Higher Education, “her work now transcends African-American,
American, and women’s studies” (Autumn 2002). So lasting is
Hurston’s influence that, according to the Journal, her
hometown of Eatonville sees more than 100,000 tourists each year for
the Zora Neale urston Festival.
Women in History
is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education of all people
through the dramatic re-creation of lives of notable women in U.S.
history. These entertaining, historical re-enactments will include
monologues in authentic period costume and are sure to please
audiences of all ages.
For more
information about the Women in History event, please contact
Southern State Community College at 800-628-7722.
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Sources:
Harriet Tubman. Information retrieved March 4, 2008 from
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/tubm-har.htm.
“The Queen of
Harlem Renaissance: Her Works Were Lost, But Not Forever.” The
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (Autumn 2002): 52-3.
Zora Neale
Hurston. Information retrieved March 4, 2008 from
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zor.htm. |
