About this item
Romare Bearden (1911-1988) , one of the most prolific, original, and acclaimed American artists of the twentieth century, richly depicted scenes and figures rooted in the American South and the Black experience. Bearden hailed from North Carolina but was forced to relocate to the North when a white mob harassed his family in the 1910s. His family story is a compelling, complicated saga of Black middle-class achievement in the face of relentless waves of white supremacy. It is also a narrative of the generational trauma that slavery and racism inflicted over decades. But as Glenda Gilmore reveals in this trenchant reappraisal of Bearden's life and art, his work reveals his deep imagination, extensive training, and rich knowledge of art history.Gilmore explores four generations of Bearden's family and highlights his experiences in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Harlem.
About the Author
Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore is Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale University. Her most recent book, These United States: The Making of Modern America, 1890 to the Present, was co-authored with Thomas Sugrue. Her previous works include Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy, Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950, Who Were the Progressives? , and Jumpin' Jim Crow: Southern Politics from Civil War to Civil Rights. Gender and Jim Crow won the James A. Rawley Prize in 1997 for the best book in race relations and the Frederick Jackson Turner for the best first book by an author, both given by the Organization of American Historians. It also won the Julia Cherry Spruill Prize, awarded by the Southern Association for Women Historians and Yale University's Heyman Prize. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950 (2008) was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and a Notable Book of 2008 by the American Library Association. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Bogliasco Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute, among others.
