From Emerson to King: Democracy, Race, and the Politics of Protest PDF
Preview From Emerson to King: Democracy, Race, and the Politics of Protest
From Emerson to King W. E. B. DU BOIS INSTITUTE Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Series Editor The Open Sore of a Continent A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis Wole Soyinka From Emerson to King Democracy, Race, and the Politics of Protest Anita Haya Patterson From Emerson to King Democracy, Race, and the Politics of Protest Anita Haya Patterson New York Oxford • Oxford University Press 1997 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1997 by Anita Haya Patterson Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Caraloging-in-Publication Data Patterson, Anita Haya. From Emerson to King : democracy, race, and the politics of protest / by Anita Haya Patterson. p. cm.—(W. E. B. Dubois Institute) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-0-19-510915-5 1. Afro-Americans—Intellectual life. 2. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882—Influence. 3. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882—Political and social views. 4. United States—Race relations. 5. Democracy— United States. 6. Afro-Americans—Civil rights. I. Title. II. Series: W. E. B. Debois Institute (Series) E185.86P29 1997 3O5-8'oo973—-dc21 96-38150 CIP 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Orlando Thus was a world sought for and found, Out of the Unknown sought for and found. —E. M. Roach, "Discovery" This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments A number of people have been important in the writing of this book. I am indebted to Sacvan Bercovitch, Elaine Scarry, Stanley Cavell, Barbara Johnson, Werner Sollors, and Larry Buell for their constructive criticism of the Ph.D. dis- sertation on which the book is based. Preston Williams, Bob Gooding-Williams, and Henry Louis Gates generously offered comments that helped me to improve the work. Time for research and writing was made possible in part by a Charlotte W. Newcombe fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, as well as a year at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Earlier versions of sections in the introduction and in chapters 7 and 8 appeared in The Massachusetts Review and Salmagundi. I am grateful to my parents, Arthur and Tomiko, for being there for me over the years. Finally, for his love and guidance in the art of living, I thank my husband Orlando. This page intentionally left blank Contents INTRODUCTION Reconciling Race and Rights 3 PART I OWNERSHIP ONE Defining the Public: Representative Men 11 TWO Property and the Body in Nature 24 THREE The Poetics of Contradiction: Religious and Political Emblems in "The American Scholar" 50 PART II POLITICAL OBLIGATION FOUR "Self-Reliance": The Ethical Demand for Reform 81 FIVE Locating the Limits of Consent in "Friendship" 99
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