Project proposal for Fall 2023 Introduction to Public History Seminar.
Questions:
How does Fannie Barrier Williams articulate the unique challenges faced by African American women within the broader context of American womanhood? How do we address these issues and bring it to the attention of the outside community of African Americans? More specifically African American women?
Abstract:
Fannie Barrier Williams was an African American women’s activist who wrote many essays throughout her life pertaining to the issues and her thoughts on African American’s faced with racial injustice and racial injustice with them living in the Jim Crow south. An essay that she wrote was named “The Colored Girl” and her thoughts on the idea of American womanhood and how this American womanhood was posed mainly for white women and viewed differently by society, in a negative way when it came to Women of color. a question to ask that would further expand this whole idea would be, how does Fannie Barrier Williams articulate the unique challenges faced by African American women within the broader context of American womanhood?
Now, how do we address these issues and bring it to the attention of the outside community of African Americans? More specifically African American women? When looking around the Fannie Barrier Williams building, there isn’t much explaining who she is, why she’s important, and why the building was renamed after her. I think that having a display of her would be a great starter to bring people in, teach people of her of why she is important and then lead people to want to know more about her. On the anniversary of the building name change from Liberal Arts to The Fannie Barrier Williams building there she should be maybe an open lecture event where a speaker comes in and talks about Williams, her life, her importance, why the building was renamed after her, and to bring light to the people within the community who may not know about her historical background and why she is importance to the community of African American Women. This would be a great event for students of color especially females because they have such an inspirational figure to look up to who had great achievements and changed a lot of the history for America when it comes to racial injustice.
Narrative:
For a project like this, there would have to be research done on Williams to be displayed within the hallway of FBW building and, in a spot, where it catches the eyes of audiences and maybe that would be somewhere where you fist walk into the building so it’s in a spot where people first see it. To start, there should be a timeline of her life, her achievements, and her activist life with a sub timeline showing racial events that were also happening throughout history at the same time. There should also be displays of each event that Williams participated in and explain what significance they have for women of color locally and nationally. Alongside this, should be some important quotes from her essays and with each segment from her essay, there should be a thought provoking question such as the one stated previously and make it appeal to the audience and make them think further beyond what they know academically and think for locally, think with and outside perspective of the eyes of African American women, and think of what the Campus has to offer within these questions. As well as the lecture, there should be a person teaching this lesson who knows about Williams and know the local history as well to present why the building was renamed and why Williams should be a more honorable and recognized women for the college and the community. The students of Brockport and even within the outside community can go learn outside of what is academically known and learn bout Williams who takes part in a more local history, and it should appeal to the people living within the are to want to learn more and know more about their community rather than the brief knowledge that is taught in schools. The speaker should even represent what Williams is showing, which would be an African American Women orally speaking the history of Williams and then displaying questions for the audience to think of and questions that could relate to people within the audience.
A lot of what we see in more modern times based on movements regarding African American women show impacts of previous history. For example, The Combahee River Collective of the 1970s was a Black Lesbian led movement that brought to light the issues within the white feminist movement and the civil rights movement and how they still ignored African American Women. Barbara Smith, who was an American lesbian feminist and who also played a role within the collective, described a similar idea to Williams and this comparison between how society views white women and African American Women. She uses the term “pure white women”, and it is basically different wording for Fannie Barrier Williams and her idea of American womanhood and how society views white women in a positive light but when it comes to women of color they are ignore or not accepted within this idea. Smith states within the book, How We Get Free, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “Their status as, you know, ‘pure white women’ is instrumental, and has been instrumental, in lynching and other forms of racial violence. Their status also was the absolute opposite of what our status was as Black women.” (37, How we get Free). There is such a strong comparison between Fannie Barrier Williams and Barbara Smith with their ideas of how African American Women are viewed even between 1905 and the 1970s. Fannie Barrier Williams explains in her essay, “The Colored Girl”, she explains, “Has the colored girl the heart, spirit, and subtle tenderness of womanhood? Such a question would be impertinent in an age where human life meant something too sacred to be loved or scorned, according to color” (64, The New Women of Color).
Workplan:
A work plan that could be very beneficial for this project would be having this event every year on the anniversary of the buildings renaming and appeal it to history majors and the Brockport community to visit and learn more about local historical figures. The event, much like other Brockport campus events within the history department, they usual have food, drinks, and a chance to mingle and chat with different people. So, after the lecture with a speaker, there can be an opportunity to meet the speaker and ask questions regarding the lecture. To add more appeal, there can be volunteers from local historical houses to also answer questions about where Williams grew up and the local history surrounding the life of Fannie Barrier Williams.
Consultants:
A great consultant for this project to bring more light to the more local aspect and how the community relates to Fannie Barrier Williams would be Dr. Rozeen Bailleul-Lesuer. She is the curator for the Morgan-Manning House. She would be included within the event stated before and to help relate more of the Brockport history and Brockport College history to Fannie Barrier Williams. The only thing issue that this proposal has would be drawing in an outside audience that is students of SUNY Brockport. How can this project get out to the community and want to make people learn more about their local history? Well for starters, it can be brought up to high school students. For the students who may make their future college career at Brockport and who want a path within history, they can have the opportunity to see this lecture within the Fannie Barrier Williams building and learn more about where most of their future history classes may be. Another idea would be simple but may bring in more people, by posting flyers throughout local stores, just like we do on campus for events, it may interest more people and spread the word better.
Concerns:
With a proposal like this, it would bring light to the issues that Fannie Barrier Williams was trying to bring attention to within her essay the “The Colored Girl” and to have people think more deeply about the main question, how does Fannie Barrier Williams articulate the unique challenges faced by African American Women within the broader context of American Womanhood and to add on how does an issue like this fit into more modern times?
Bibliography:
“Combahee River Collective: A Black Feminist Statement.” Off Our Backs 9, no. 6 (1979): 6–8.
Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. 2017. How We Get Free : Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books.
Barrier Williams, Fannie. The New Woman of Color : The Collected Writings of Fannie Barrier Williams, 1893-1918, ed. and Mary Jo Deegan. Dekalb, Ill., Northern Illinois University Press, 2002.
