Pre-Owned My Face Is Black Is True : Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations

& #8220; My face is black is true but its not my fault but I love my name and my honest in dealing with my fellow man.& #8221; < br> Callie House (1899)< br> < br> In her groundbreaking new book, My Face Is Black Is True, historian Mary Frances Berry resurrects the forgotten life of Callie House (1861-1928), ex-slave, widowed Nashville washerwoman and mother of five who, seventy years before the civil rights movement, headed a demand for ex-slave reparations. < br> < br> House was born into slavery in 1861 and sought African-American pensions based on those offered Union soldiers. In a brilliant and daring move, House targeted $68 million in taxes on seized rebel cotton (over $1.2 billion in 2005 dollars) and demanded it as repayment for centuries of unpaid labor.< br> < br> Dr. Berry tells how the Justice Department, persuaded by the postmaster general, banned the activities of Callie House& #8217; s town organizers, violated her constitutional rights to assembly and to petition Congress, and falsely accused her of mail fraud; the federal officials had the post office open the mail of almost all African-Americans, denying delivery on the smallest pretext. Berry shows how African-American newspapers, most of which preached meekness toward whites, systematically ignored or derided Mrs. House& #8217; s movement, which was essentially a poor person& #8217; s movement. Despite being denied mail service and support from the African-American establishment of the day, Mrs. House& #8217; s Ex-Slave Association flourished until she was imprisoned by the Justice Department for violating the postal laws of the United States; suddenly deprived of her spirit, leadership and ferocity, the first national grassroots African-American movement fell apart.< br> < br> Callie House, so long forgotten that her grave has been lost, emerges as a courageous pioneering activist, a forerunner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. My Face Is Black Is True is a fascinating book of original scholarship that reclaims a magnificent heroine.