Passed On: African American Mourning Stories, A MemorialPassed On is a portrait of death and dying in twentieth-century African America. Through poignant reflection and thorough investigation of the myths, rituals, economics, and politics of African American mourning and burial practices, Karla FC Holloway finds that ways of dying are just as much a part of black identity as ways of living. Gracefully interweaving interviews, archival research, and analyses of literature, film, and music, Holloway shows how the vulnerability of African Americans to untimely death is inextricably linked to how black culture represents itself and is represented. With a focus on the “death-care” industry—black funeral homes and morticians, the history of the profession and its practices—Holloway examines all facets of the burial business, from physicians, hospital chaplains, and hospice administrators, to embalming- chemical salesmen, casket makers, and funeral directors, to grieving relatives. She uses narrative, photographs, and images to summon a painful history of lynchings, white rage and riot, medical malpractice and neglect, executions, and neighborhood violence. Specialized caskets sold to African Americans, formal burial photos of infants, and deathbed stories, unveil a glimpse of the graveyards and burial sites of African America, along with burial rituals and funeral ceremonies. Revealing both unexpected humor and anticipated tragedy, Holloway tells a story of the experiences of black folk in the funeral profession and its clientele. She also reluctantly shares the story of her son and the way his death moved her research from page to person. In the conclusion, which follows a sermon delivered by Maurice O. Wallace at the funeral for the author’s son, Bem, Holloway strives to commemorate—through observation, ceremony, and the calling of others to remembrance and celebration. |
Contents
Whos Got the Body? The Business of Burial | 15 |
Mortifications How We Die | 57 |
The Ends of Days | 104 |
Funeralized The Remains of Our Days | 150 |
The Promise of Hope in a Season of Despair A Funeral Sermon by Maurice O Wallace | 189 |
Epilogue | 193 |
| 213 | |
| 223 | |
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Common terms and phrases
African American association Avery Bessie Smith Billie Holiday black bodies black church black community black death black funeral home black morticians burial buried Carolina casket cemetery century's ceremony Chicago child coffin color congregation cultural Dandridge's dead death and dying deceased died dramatic embalming Emmett Emmett Till event experience explained final friends funeral business funeral directors funeral parlor funeral service gathered grave gravesite Harlem hospital Jonestown killed knew lives Loewen look Louis LOUIS ARMSTRONG lynching Mama marker Mason memory midcentury morticians mortuary mother mourners mourning murdered narrative Negro NFDMA numbers occasion Ota Benga police practice preacher professional race racial recalled reported Richard Wright riot ritual Robert scene sing social South specific story suicide syphilis tion told Toni Morrison tradition Tuskegee twentieth century undertakers victims violence Vonderlehr vulnerable white funeral homes woman wrote York young
Popular passages
Page 5 - He died at eventide, when the sun lay like a brooding sorrow above the western hills, veiling its face; when the winds spoke not, and the trees, the great green trees he loved, stood motionless. I saw his breath beat quicker and quicker, pause, and then his little soul leapt like a star that travels in the night and left a world of darkness in its train. The day changed not; the same tall trees peeped in at the windows, the same green grass glinted in the setting sun. Only in the chamber of death...
Page 5 - the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line...