Black Bourgeoisie: The Book That Brought the Shock of Self-Revelation to Middle-Class Blacks in America

274 Pages·1997·5.63 MB·English

by  E. Franklin Frazier

"Frazier is the touchstone; he catapulted me into thinking about his
representations of us."
- Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, author of I've Known Rivers
THE BOOKTHAT BROUGHTTHE SHOCK
OF SELF-REVELATION TO
MIDDLE-CLASS BLACKS IN AMERICA
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BLACK BOURGEOISIE
By E. Franklin Frazier
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Published by Simon & Schuster
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Copyright© 1957 by The Free Press, A Corporation
Preface copyright© 1962 by The Free Press, A Division of The Macmillan Company
Copyright renewed © 1985, 1990 by Thomas L. Jones
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.
First Free Press Paperbacks Edition 1997
FREE PRESS PAPERBACKS and colophon are trademarks
of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7
Library of Congr<'ss Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-83241-8
ISBN-IO: 0-684-83241-0
CONTENTS
PREFACE 1
INTRODUCTION 9
1. Negro Slavery and the Plantation 9
2. The Impact of Western Civilization 11
3. A Nation Within a Nation? 15
4. Purpose of the Present Study 23
Part I-The World of Reality
I. THE ROOTS OF THE BLACK BOURGEOISIE 29
1. Efforts of the Free Negroes
to Acquire Wealth 30
2. The Freedmen's Savings Bank 34
3. Independent Ventures in the Field of Banking 38
II. THE ECONOMIC BASIS OF MIDDLE-CLASS STATUS 43
1. Increasing Occupational Differentiation
of the Negro Population 44
2. Occupational Status and Incomes 47
3. Negro Business 53
ID. EDUCATION OF THE BLACK BOURGEOISIE 60
1. Northern Missionaries Follow
the Union Armies 61
2. Capitalism and Philanthropy 6.5
3. Piety, Thrift, and Respectability 71
4. From the Making of Men
to the Making of Money-Makers 78
)) v
Contents
IV. POWER AND POLITICAL ORIENTATION 86
I. Brotherhood and Power 87
2. "Service" and the Intelligentsia 95
3. Serving Two Masters 105
V. BREAK WITH THE TRADITIONAL BACKGROUND 112
1. Passing of the Gentleman and the Peasant 112
2. The Renaissance that Failed 119
3. Mobility and Money 124
VI. INFERIORITY COMPLEX AND QUEST FOR STATUS 130
1. A Chattel in an Alien Land 131
2. Half-a-Man in a White Man's Country 138
3. The Struggle for Status and Recognition 146
Part II-The World of Make-Believe
VII. NEGRO BUSINESS: A SOCIAL MYTH 153
1. Origin of the Myth 153
2. The Myth Becomes Institutionalized 155
3. Propagation of the Myth 157
4. The Myth and the Changing Status
of the Negro 167
VIII. THE NEGRO PRESS AND WISH-FULFILLMENT 174
1. The Romance of Urban Life 175
2. Achievements of the "Race" 179
3. Recognition of the "Race" 188
IX. "socmTY": STATUS WITHOUT SUBSTANCE 1915
1. Evolution of "Society" 196
2. The Gaudy Carnival .200
3. Playing Seriously 203
4. From Church to Chance 209
» Vl
Contents
213
X. BEHIND THE MASKS
1. The Mark of Oppression 213
2. Insecurities and Frustrations 216
3. Self-Hatred and Guilt Feelings 224
4. Escape into Delusions 229
CONCLUSION 233
NOTES 239
INDEX OF NAMES 259
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 263
»vii

PREFACE
This book first appeared in France as one of the studies in the
*
collection known as Recherches en Sciences Humaines. When the
French edition was published I expected that like so many social
science studies it would become lost on the shelves of university
libraries. It came as a pleasant suprise, therefore, to learn that it
attracted sufficient attention in the academic world for it to be
made the basis of the Maciver Lectureship award by the Ameri
can Sociological Society in 1956. When the English edition was
published in the United States in 1957, I was even more suprised
by the controversy which it aroused among Negroes and by the
unfavorable reactions of many whites.
The reaction of the Negro community is understandable
when one realizes the extent to which the book created the
shock of self-revelation. In fact, if one should undertake to con
ceptualize the reaction of the Negro community, the initial re
action-at least on the part of its more articulate leaders-was
one of shock. It appeared that middle class Negroes were able to
see themselves for the first time and, as they feared, in the way
they appeared to outsiders They did not challenge the truth of
the picture which had been presented so much as they were
shocked that a Negro would dare place on display their behav
ior and innermost thoughts. Their naive attitude towards their
behavior and outlook on life was strikingly revealed in the re
mark of a journalist whose publication had been drawn on for
much illustrative material in the book. When I met his criticism
of quoting materials by asking him if his publication was not a
reliable source of information, he replied that the facts in the
*Bourgeoisie Noire. Paris: Librairie Pion, 1955.
)) 1