Case 7: 1915-1929

Case 7: 1915-1929

In 1915 D. W. Griffith's infamous film Birth of a Nation was released. It was during this period that W. E. B. Dubois strongly encouraged black writers to create books specifically for black children. In response The Brownie's Book, a children's version of the NAACP magazine, was published during the 1920s, featuring a variety of stories and articles. Most children's books, however, resembled those written after the turn of the century.

Sources:

Murray, Gail Schmunk. American Children's Literature and the Construction of Childhood. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998.

Fahs, Alice. The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861 - 1865. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Books:

1. Altsheler, Joseph A. Before the Dawn, a Story of the Fall of Richmond. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1903. Williamson Collection PS 3501 L85 B44 1903.

2. Nicholson, James W. Stories of Dixie. New York: American Book Company, 1915. Louisiana Collection F374 N62.

3. Tomlinson, Everett T. Prisoners of War; a Story of Andersonville. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915. Williamson Collection E 612 A5 T66.

4. Curtis, Alice T. Yankee Girl at Shiloh. Philadelphia: The Penn Publishing Company, 1922.
Williamson Collection PS 3505 U838 Y266.

5. Sandburg, Carl. Abe Lincoln Grows Up. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1928.Williamson Collection E457.3 S23 1928.

6. Brownie's Book, July 1920. Photograph courtesy of the Schomberg Center for the Study of Black Culture.

Blue and Gray for Boys and Girls Home Case 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

United States Civil War Center, LSU Libraries Special Collections, 2002