A Southern Family in White and Black: The Cuneys of Texas PDF
Preview A Southern Family in White and Black: The Cuneys of Texas
0 Texas A&M Southwestern Studies S A outhern Family in White & Black 0 Douglas Hales Texas A&M University Press • College Station Copyright © by Douglas Hales Manufactured in the United States of America All rights reserved First edition The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, .-. Binding materials have been chosen for durability. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hales, Douglas, ‒ A southern family in white and black : the Cuneys of Texas / Douglas Hales.—st ed. p. cm.—(Texas A & M southwestern studies ; no. ) Includes bibliographical references and index. ––– (alk. paper) . Cuney family. . Cuney, Norris Wright, – . . African Americans—Biography. . Racially mixed people—United States—Biography. . African American politicians—Texas—Biography. . Texas—Politics and govern- ment—–. . Texas—Race relations. . Cuney, Philip Minor, b. . . Cuney-Hare, Maud, –. . Texas—Biography. . Austin County (Tex.)— Biography. . Title. . Series. . . .''—dc List of Illustrations, vii Preface, ix Acknowledgments, xiii . Philip Cuney: Politician and Slaveholder, . Norris Wright Cuney: Labor and Civic Leader, . Political Education, – , . New Leader of the Party, . Party and Patronage, . Maud Cuney: Education and Marriage, . Maud Cuney-Hare: Musician, Director, Writer, . Conclusion, Notes, Bibliography, Index, Norris Wright Cuney, Mrs. Norris Wright Cuney, Lloyd Garrison Cuney, Maud Cuney-Hare, In Ralph Ellison criticized what he saw as scholarly misperceptions of African American history and culture: “Prefabricated Negroes are sketched on sheets of paper and superimposed upon the Negro commu- nity; then when someone thrusts his head through the pages and yells, ‘Watch out there, Jack, there’s people living under here,’ they are all fl shocked and indignant.” Ellison’s remarks re ected the state of black his- tory and the demands of many involved in the civil rights movement of the s. African Americans no longer accepted second-class citizen- ship, racial stereotypes, or their exclusion from American history books. fi By the late s and early s, colleges and universities nally heeded the demands of black activists and began developing courses on African American history and black studies programs. Since then, perceptions of African Americans and their history have radically changed and have fi ff had a signi cant e ect on the scholarly understanding of American history. One aspect of the black experience that historians have only recently begun to explore is the African American elite of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The majority of these people were the mulatto descendants of white antebellum planters or northern free blacks. This book explores the lives of Philip Minor Cuney, a white planter and Texas politician; Norris Wright Cuney, his mulatto son and successful leader of the Republican party in Texas; and Maud Cuney-Hare, the daughter of Wright Cuney and a noted concert pianist, musicologist, and author. Wright Cuney and his daughter represent two types of African Ameri- can elites. Coming out of slavery as an educated mulatto, Wright Cuney clearly had advantages over other black freedmen. His light complexion, education, and background allowed Cuney to become a member of a small black political leadership during Reconstruction. Afterward, Cuney continued in this role but also became part of a growing black middle- class. Like many other middle-class African Americans, he assumed a larger role within the black community by pursuing the social betterment
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