Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois (review)

Gary Lemons’s Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois invigorates the critical discourse and terrain of black male feminism. Following paths carved out by Kalamu ya Salaam (“Revolutionary Struggle/Revolutionary Love” [1979]), Michael Awkward (Scenes of Instruction, A Memoir [1999]), and Mark Anthony Neal (New Black Men [2005]), Lemons does an excellent job of extending the concepts, rhetoric, and historical reach of the earlier black men who participated in feminism. He remarks that his book seeks “not only to reclaim [the] pro-woman writings of Douglass and Du Bois, but also to recognize the critically important dialogic dimensions of the womanist legacy each man bequeathed to every black male and all men of conscience across race/ethnic differences” (xiv). The dialogic dimensions that Lemons pinpoints serve to connect men with a humanist as well as a feminist/womanist inheritance. To understand the place of women over time and space is to recognize and appreciate their humanity—their value, their interests. We all benefit when we make this an imperative.

In the prologue and introduction to Womanist Forefathers, Lemons marks when and where he enters into the discussion of black men in feminism. He lays bare the terms, methodology, and critical trajectory of his text and, most importantly, articulates his position within the field. He thus situates himself in order to share with feminists/womanists, Douglass and Du Bois scholars, and other black men the rewards and dangers of men “doing” feminism. Lemons notes that “discovering the gender-progressive autobiographies of [Douglass and Du Bois] provided me a critical standpoint to begin writing about the condition of my mother as a working-class black female survivor of domestic violence. Moreover, their survival stories represented discursive road maps that aided me as I crafted a womanist writing space to address publicly the wounding effects of patriarchy in the lives of black men, in particular” (6). The reward here is being able to articulate the effects of patriarchy on women/mothers and black males, young and old. In doing so, Lemons, like Michael Awkward, can name, give voice to, and disrupt the physical, emotional, and psychological terrorism of patriarchy. This “textual exorcism” does double duty for those whose family lives have caught them up in violent, resentful Morrisonian “rememories”: it sheds much-needed light on the survivors’ experiences, and it liberates men from the psychic shackles of patriarchy and empowers them to stop the vicious cycle of abuse.

One of the attached dangers of such exorcism, however, as most feminists are well aware, is the “opportunistic self-aggrandizement” that might attend the androcentric “I.” Speaking for women is one of the issues that (black) male feminists have encountered in regard to knowing what is best for women. What remains, then, is a careful examination of personal and feminist/womanist landscapes to get at some “truths” of patriarchy and its detrimental effects. For Lemons, using what has been called “autocritography”—autobiography employed to express a critical concept— assists him in self-discovery and recovery. Yet it also discloses what Joy James dubs the “phallusy” of black male feminists—the uncritical unawareness of “any competing male-dominated self-interest.”

In chapter one, “A Recovered Past Most Usable,” Lemons offers a general history of “black male support for woman suffrage.” By juxtaposing the personal experiences, sociopolitical activism, and literary productions of leading figures with those of their contemporaries, Lemons provides a critical historiography of individuals, organizations, movements, and events. This chapter works well to construct a critical framework for understanding history’s usefulness for present-day male feminists.

In chapter two, “Frederick Douglass’s Journey from Slavery to Womanist Manhood,” Lemons details the ways in which Douglass participated in and problematized the woman suffrage movement. His advocacy for “Negroes” in general over Negro women complicated his activism for women’s rights because of his own racial, gendered, and political position. Even though Douglass campaigned for the rights of (white) women, his primary concern was...