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News

Author embraces history

Literature professor urges people to keep history in mind, 
embrace heritage 

by SHEREE STUBBLEFIELD
The Daily Cougar

Renowned writer and editor Trudier Harris, professor of literature at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said history and heritage should be remembered and embraced at a reading of her memoir Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South on Tuesday.

She stressed to black audience members that there is nothing wrong with having pride in being a Southerner, despite the region's turbulent past.

"For me to deny (the South) is to deny all the people who make me who and what I am. My Southern background has not proven to be a deficiency," she said. 

Her Southern pride was one of the reasons she decided to write Summer Snow -- the other was in dedication to her mother who raised seven children alone after her father died. 

"I want readers of Summer Snow to hear the songs of appreciation," she said.

The reading was the highlight of a four-part series honoring Harris as part of both February's Black History Month and March's Women's History Month.

Harris said that women "should know (their) own history, know the sacrifices women made before you came along."

On black women's history specifically, she said their role in momentous events has often been under-emphasized.

"For black women, the civil rights era was (thought to be) a black man's time. We should lift (black women) out of from the masses, highlight them, giving them space history denied. We can't allow history to be lost again."

The reading invoked many laughs, thoughts and even audience participation when Harris invited all to join her in song to portray a traditional Sunday morning from the Southern Baptist church of her youth. 

UH English professor Elizabeth Brown-Guillory organized the event with assistance from the Mexican-American and Asian-American Studies Centers.

Brown-Guillory called Harris a "freedom runner" and a "pioneer" with deep care for students.

"Harris is a stellar example of a black woman who has transformed the academy while simultaneously giving back to women in her community for nearly 40 years," Brown-Guillory said. 

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