Finding Martha's Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island
Nelson, author of a fierce, candid memoir (Volunteer Slavery) and a steamy, funny novel (Sexual Healing), offers an intimate look at Martha's Vineyard, where generations of African-Americans have lived, worked and played, year-round or for a summer. She provides a brief history of the African-American presence on the island, which dates back to the 1700s, and reflects on her own nearly five-decade love affair with the place. Oak Bluffs and other Vineyard resort communities, she says, became havens for African-Americans who felt "insulated from many of the racial assumptions and expectations... that at the least intruded upon and at the worst defined many of our lives off-island." Nelson lets island residents provide an oral history: Doris Pope Jackson recalls how, in 1903, her grandfather bought a summer house that soon turned into a thriving inn; Vernon Jordan reflects that for many years, "the Vineyard was the only [vacation] spot for successful black people." Others weighing in on what the Vineyard means to them include Yale law professor Stephen Carter (The Emperor of Ocean Park) and novelist Bebe Moore Campbell. Personal and celebratory, Nelson's book is a tribute to a picturesque little island and a reminder of the importance of "a community of similar souls." Photos.(May)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.