Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1952-08-22
ABOUT BOOKS

Doubleday q Co, $50 pp., 1915
The tragic biography Of n Negro
WOmaR's Fight 20 surSivr
Here lS the tragic story Of Miss
Leeha Whitfield, whose earliest
recollection Of childhood was the
Iynehing OF her father on a plan
tHtion In Mississippi on a trump
ed-up charge which later was
proven false.
Rock Bottom In the true story,
unfortunately Of Miss Whitfield
from her childhood In Mlssissippi
until her present attempts TO exc
out an existence In Harlem. say
unfortunate because II records
the life Of Negroes who are forced
10 live as q little more than ami
mails in this 20th century.
Miss WhltfisIda autobiography
IL divided into four parasitic
plantation period. l9lb-i927: the
wandertims. l927-IS3s; the muck.
I93s-I939. and the big muck,
1889 10 mid-century.
The story In shocking and de-
presslve. and many will doubt It's
authenticity. They will say things
like this do mob happen today.
even in the deep south. One Of the
great values OF this book In that
II poignantly reminds this type
Of person. who perhaps In secure
In his northern home and has been
eating too high on the hog" that
there In still much 10 be done In
the way Of race relations In both
the North and the South.
The plantation period concerns
the life Of Miss Whitfield from
the time Of her birth until she
was II years old and forced TO
flee from her squalid home on q
Mississippi plantation In the face
Of unwelcome attentions Of a son
Of the plantation owner. AZ this
time she could neither read nor
write.
She leaves. not knowing where
she In going, but determined TO
head North, a place her father
used 10 refer 10 as silver II not
gold" During this wander time
she acquires the r,idimcntH Of an
education. gets married, and has
q child. This occurs In Virginia
Al this point the readers heart
will pour out 10 Miss Whitfield
who only adds more trouble 10
her already heavily burdened
shoulders when her husband turns
out 10 be a useless scoundrel.
When things become too hard
To bear. abe packs up and leaves.
AZ this point, II In difficult TO
understand why abe doesn't head
north since she now can read and
write Instead abe heads south and
ends up In Florida In the Muck"
where life for Negroes In at Its
worst.
Here colored people live an In
slavery days In reading this part
OF the novel. one gets the impress
sion that once you enter the
Muck" In In impossible to leave.
This In aubstantiAted when several
Negroes attempt 10 purchase tic
keta away only to have tho ticket
agent cali their boss who then
has them sent hack TO him. How
ever when Miss Whitfield de-
cideS 10 leave, she simply bitches
rides in q series Of trucks until
she reaches the North.
when she arrives In Harlem.
the Zig Muck. she finds that
life here is truly not gold, but II
Ia silver compared To the south.
The story II good and worth
reading. even though Oppressive
Many sensitive persons might
find II a bit raw, but they will
want 10 read Il. II covers about
all the areas OF NeGro-whlte re
iationa In the south.
Earl Conrad. the author. In n
long time crusader against racial
pre- udice, lie has written many
novels concerning the Negro, One
Of hIs latest Is Scottsboro Boy,
written with Haywood Patterson,
one OF the Scottsboro Boys,
lie has served on the staff Of
the New York Journal American
worked a. q feature writer on
Negro questions for PM, For
three years he managed the New
York bureau Of the Chicago De-
fender James J. Force.
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