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.