A Refugee from His Race: Albion W. Tourgée and His Fight against White Supremacy by Carolyn L. Karcher (review)
- A Refugee from His Race: Albion W. Tourgée and His Fight against White Supremacy by Carolyn L. Karcher
In this important and engaging study, Carolyn L. Karcher adds to the extensive scholarship on Albion W. Tourgée and the struggle for racial equality after the Civil War. Karcher concentrates on the period between the publication of Tourgée's novel Pactolus Prime in 1890 and his death in 1905. Karcher's extensive use of Tourgée's private correspondence and personal papers brings new depth and insight to Tourgée's relationships with figures such as Ida B. Wells, Harry C. Smith, Charles W. Chesnutt, and T. Thomas Fortune. The book is not a conventional biography but is instead organized around detailed analysis of major events during the last decade-and-a-half of Tourgée's life. Karcher argues that Tourgée's activism demonstrates the need for historians to reconceptualize the struggle for racial equality "as an alliance between African Americans and the progressive whites who joined them in fighting against [End Page 715] racism" (p. 334). Although she is unconvincing on this point, Karcher does show extensive correspondence between Tourgée and ordinary African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South and suggests the need for new assessments of the National Citizens' Rights Association, the civil rights organization Tourgée founded in 1891.
A Refugee from His Race: Albion W. Tourgée and His Fight against White Supremacy is organized in seven chapters. Chapter 1 summarizes Tourgée's military service during the Civil War, his activities in North Carolina during Reconstruction, and his novels A Fool's Errand, by One of the Fools (1879) and Bricks Without Straw: A Novel (1880) before examining correspondence between Tourgée and several prominent African Americans. Although intended to provide context, the chapter suffers from weak framing and moves abruptly into analyzing Tourgée's relationships with Wells, Fortune, Louis A. Martinet, and others. Subsequent chapters examine topics such as Tourgée's novel Pactolus Prime, his "A Bystander's Notes" column in the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, his antilynching activism, and his role in the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case. The book closes with a chapter on Tourgée's service as U.S. consul to Bordeaux and a brief afterword.
Karcher, a professor emerita of English, American studies, and women's studies at Temple University, is at her best writing about Tourgée's published work and correspondence. Her analysis of Pactolus Prime and Tourgée's "Bystander" columns is incisive and full of insight, and her discussions of Tourgée's relationships with figures such as Wells, Chesnutt, and Martinet are lively and illuminating. These strengths, however, are countered by a weak narrative and limited context. Karcher's decision to rely heavily on Tourgée's personal correspondence is understandable given its extent and value, but at times Karcher writes more about her sources than the history they relate.
Despite these criticisms, A Refuge from His Race is a valuable study of Tourgée's post-Reconstruction activism. It does not dispel the image of Tourgée as a "lone hero" in the struggle for racial justice but suggests the validity of Karcher's contention that a credible assessment of Tourgée's significance will elevate his standing among scholars (p. 334). Regardless, Karcher's book merits attention. Its vivid portrayal of the efforts that Tourgée and his many collaborators made to arrest the tide of white supremacy during the nadir of American race relations is well worth the price of admission.
