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  • Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglas and W. E. B. Du Bois
  • Melvin G. Hill (bio)
Lemons, Gary L. Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglas and W. E. B. Du Bois. Albany: SUNY Press, 2009.

Gary L. Lemons posits the distinctive idea of a black maternal presence in the literary canon of Frederick Douglas and W. E. B. Du Bois, both of whom, as he reminds us, were actively involved in the woman suffrage movement beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. In Womanist Forefathers, Lemons focuses on the “amazing body of work on female equality and women’s rights that has yet to be fully mined for its political relevance to contemporary dialogue about the relationship between patriarchy, manhood, and fatherhood in black communities” (6). Womanist Forefathers aims to “theorize, recover, and reclaim the [End Page 1108] history of pro-womanism articulated by black men [that] offers a large critical framework to think about black male identity vis-à-vis sexism, patriarchy, and white supremacist notions of manhood” (4). As Lemons presents it, there is a distinctive link between both the black maternal and the black male pro-womanist.

Womanist Forefathers effectively argues two specific and important points: Douglass and Du Bois were indeed pro-womanist thinkers, as is demonstrated in their literary works and their political and social affiliations; also, there are connections between these two early pro-womanist thinkers and contemporary pro-feminist black scholars. While Lemons provides a bravura analysis of Douglass and Du Bois’ pro-womanist production, he creates a framework in which to insert himself as part of this pro-womanist discourse demonstrating that his experiences as a black male have been strongly marked by patriarchal power, but equally inspired by a black maternal presence. Lemons contends that the challenges of antisexist manhood and fatherhood provided an examination of his relationship to feminism. He reaffirms that “becoming a pro-womanist/feminist man not only necessitates commitment to ending sexism as an ongoing political project but also requires unrelenting struggle against patriarchy and female oppression through daily practice” (10).

Womanist Forefathers is divided into two parts and consists of eight chapters. Part One, “Reclaiming Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois as Womanist Forefathers,” accurately situates Douglass and Du Bois’ womanist discourse within the framework of women’s suffrage. Chapter One, “A Recovered Past Most Usable: Documenting the History of Black Male Gender Progressivism,” maps a historical sketch of black men who were active participants in the women’s suffrage movement, and demonstrates that Douglass and Du Bois were major components for women’s concerns during their respective times. Chapter Two, “Frederick Douglass’ Journey from Slavery to Womanist Manhood: Liberating the Black Male Self,” and Chapter Three, “W. E. B. Du Bois: ‘The Leading Male Feminist of His Time’ and ‘Most Passionate Defender of Black Women’,” respectfully offers a compelling case for men as pro-womanist thinkers who were acutely aware of the challenges women faced—particularly black women. Douglass, with his concerns for his black sisters, alerted that “there is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so destructive as slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters strangers to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded my father in mystery [emphasis mine]” (Douglass 157). And for Du Bois, the “black women question” was forever part of his consciousness and the principle foundation of his pro-womanist thinking, as seen in The Crisis (1915): “Every argument for Negro suffrage is an argument for woman’s suffrage; every argument for woman’s suffrage is an argument for Negro suffrage; both are great movements in democracy” (285). Du Bois continues his feminist standpoint by declaring in his 1920 essay “The Damnation of Women” that “to no modern race does its women mean so much as to the Negro nor come so near to the fulfillment of its meaning” (173). Here, Du Bois readily defends black womanhood and promotes black women liberation.

In Chapter Four: “Novel for the ‘Darker Sisters’: The Quest for the Silver Fleece and W. E. B. Du Bois’ Vision of the (Quint)essential Black Woman(ist),” Lemons offers a compelling argument for the motivation of Du Bois’ first...

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