Book

Ain't you got a right to the tree of life?: The people of Johns Island, South Carolina -- their faces, their words, and their songs

University of Georgia Press • Athens • Published In 1989 • Pages:

By: Carawan, Guy, Carawan, Candie, Yellin, Robert, Raim, Ethel, Joyner, Charles W., Reagon, Bernice Johnson.

Abstract

This work is an oral record of sea island life, based on the community's recollection of its history. These memories reach back from 1988 to the turn of the century. The source describes in detail the thoughts and feelings, joys and fears of African-Americans' first experiencing the civil rights movement. It tells of the early days on the island when sharecropping and 'living out of the creek' were the primary means of subsistence. It tells of medical care based exclusively on herbal remedies, and of log houses daubed with pinestraw and mud. In these pages the islanders speak of the Moving Star Hall praise house where religious 'shouts', carried well into the night, raised the spirits of the participants in a time of extreme poverty and social injustice. This source also presents much material on the development of the citizenship schools on the island, and on their founding organizers, Septima Clark and Esau Jenkins. The work concludes with a discussion of the enormous changes that have taken place on Johns Island from the 1960s, (when the last edition of this book was published), to the present time, not only in civil rights and educational development, but in many other aspects of the culture as well.

HRAF PubDate

2000

Region

North America

Sub Region

Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures

Document Type

Book

Evaluation

Creator Types

Folklorist

Sociologist

Document Rating

5: Excellent Primary Data

Analyst

John Beierle ; 1990-1991

Field Date

1959-1988

Coverage Date

1878-1988

Coverage Place

Johns Island, South Carolina , United States

Notes

[by] Guy Carawan, recorded and edited by Guy and Candie Carawan ; photographs by Robert Yellin, et al. ; music transcribed by Ethel Raim ; preface by Charles Joyner ; afterword by Bernice Johnson Reagon

'Brown Thrasher books'

Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-239)

LCCN

89004846

LCSH

Sea Islands/Gullahs