Womanist Forefathers

Gary L. Lemons is Visiting Professor of English at the University of South Florida and author of Black Male Outsider: Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man, also published by SUNY Press.

• AcknowledgmentsPrologue: Theorizing a Pro-woman(ist) Politics of Gender Justice before, during, and after "The Black Sexism Debate"Introduction: Black Men Writing Ourselves into Pro-woman(ist) Being(s) in the Name of the Black MaternalPart I: Reclaiming Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois as Womanist Forefathers 1. A Recovered Past Most Usable: Documenting the History of Black Male Gender Progressivism2. Frederick Douglass's Journey from Slavery to Womanist Manhood: Liberating the Black Male Self3. W. E. B. Du Bois: "The Leading Male Feminist of His Time" and "Most Passionate Defender"4. Novel for the "Darker Sisters": The Quest of the Silver Fleece and W. E. B. Du Bois's Vision of the (Quint)essential Black Woman(ist)Part II: Black Feminist "Sisters," "Brothers," and Fathers: Securing the Womanist Legacy 5. On the Power of Contemporary Black Feminist Profession6. "Brother"hood Called into Question7. A Vision of Pro-woman(ist) Masculinity for a "NewBlackMan(hood)"8. Hands-on Practice: Everyday Challenges of Pro-woman(ist) / Feminist FatherhoodEpilogue: "This is What a (Black Male) Feminist Looks Like"Time Has Brought about a ChangeNotesWorks CitedIndex

"Gary Lemons's Womanist Forefathers … invigorates the critical discourse and terrain of black male feminism … [it] comes highly recommended for anyone interested in black men doing feminism in the twenty-first century." — African American Review"Lemons provides a deep historical inquiry into black male feminist origins. No one has asked in quite as compelling a manner what qualities or experiences help to produce black men who see women's oppression as a devastating problem. Furthermore, his positioning of absent and problematic fathers as the origin of the investment in the mother that is then transformed into an abiding concern with women's rights is brilliant." — Michael Awkward, author of Scenes of Instruction: A Memoir