.' ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘ A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN'S 1 ccAEE-EEEEEEAAE EEALESEEC FICTION * ABOUT BLACK EEEEEE EN THE § * UNITED STATES TD DEER-MINE IF AND NOW A SAMPLING OF THESE STORIES FORTRAY SELECEEE SALIENT 7 : {if _. SHARED EXPEREENCES 0F BLACK PEOPLE":_":‘K,;;E‘«, Dissertation furthé Degree EfPth‘D.‘ ' ' MICHIGAN EEAEEUMVERW , , ., - _, ROSAUE ALMA 'KIAH ; ‘ ‘ ' 1957.6 ‘ “ ‘ ll/lI/llI/l/I/I/II/l/III/I/l/III/l/l/ll ‘ 10243 7963 LIBRA RY a . v K‘ 1"6 Nlic‘mgaa stat Universy N (O 00 This is to certify that the . ‘ ‘ thesis entitled A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN'S CONTEMPORARY REALISTIC FICTION ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES TO DETERMINE IF AND HOW A SAMPLING OF THESE STORIES PORTRAY SELECTED SALIENT SHARED EXPERIENCES OF BLACK PEOPLE presented by Rosalie Black Kiah has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. . Elementary Education —_ degree 1n ___.__ jgficCMz/VQ’: g- 4/0346 Major professor Date November 8, 1976 0-7 639 ABSTRACT A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN'S CONTEMPORARY REALISTIC FICTION ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES TO DETERMINE IF AND HOW A SAMPLING OF THESE STORIES PORTRAY SELECTED SALIENT SHARED EXPERIENCES OF BLACK PEOPLE By Rosalie Black Kiah The purpose of this study was to determine if and how selected salient shared experiences of Black people are portrayed in contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States for children twelve to fifteen years of age. The investigation was designed to find out if contemporary realistic fiction provides a source where the Black child may see her- or himself as a unique individual in terms of selected salient experiences shared by Black people in the United States and where a non-Black child might gain knowledge about and insight into the implications of selected salient experiences shared by Black people. The sample of the study consisted of thirty-five stories in twenty-five books. These books were published between 1964 and 1975. They were classified as contemporary realistic fiction with action that took place within the last twenty-five years. The focus was on Black people with the protagonist being Black. These books were award-winning books or written by authors who had received such awards in the past (before 1964) for books about Black people. Rosalie Black Kiah Based on the theories and findings gleaned from reports of sociological research, an instrument for use in the content analysis of the designated genre and titles was constructed to answer systematically the research questions generated for this study. Seven authors of children's contemporary realistic fiction about Black people examined the instrument. Their responses served to give greater credence to it for use in the content analysis. Reliability of the instrument was established by having four raters read the same story and independently carry out the content analysis on the story according to the instructions shown on the instru- ment. Two statistical procedures were used: The Holsti formula was used to determine reliability of the raters in checking items present or not present according to the salient shared experiences that were found in the story. The "t” test was used to assess the reliability of the instrument through the use of three "directional" categories: favorable, unfavorable, or neutral. A "t" of -4.9 was obtained at the .01 level. The research questions for this study were: 1. Can information about selected salient shared experiences of Black people be abstracted from sociological research reports and be utilized in the construction of a valid instrument for use in content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States? 2. In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the salient shared experiences of Black people or do they portray experiences that are universal to all people? Sub-Question (a): (l) In contemporary realistic fiction writ— ten about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization and Rosalie Black Kiah relationship of members of the family in a way that is unique to and characteristic of the salient shared experiences of Black people? (2) Is there a difference in how the protagonist regards (favorably, unfavorably, etc.) living in a home with (l) a single parent, (2) two parents, or (3) other heads of households (i.e., aunts and uncles, foster parents). Sub-Question (b): In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization, relation- ship and activities of the social world of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the salient shared experiences of Black people? Sub-Question (c): In contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the nature of work and the role that the world of work plays in the lives of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? Major Findings of the Study 1. Based on the data collected and analyzed for use in this study, it is possible to use information gleaned from sociological reports to design an instrument for use in content analysis of chil— dren's contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States. 2. More stories were shown to reflect experiences that are shared by all people than were found portraying salient shared experiences of Black people. 3. There were found twenty-eight stories out of thirty-five stories in this study that dealt with one of the compositional struc- tures of the family as delineated in the instrument. There was not found a majority that portrayed the relationship and organization of the: family as delineated in the instrument designed for this study. Rosalie Black Kiah 4. Stories that portrayed the organization, relationship and activities of the social world of Black people were limited to those that dealt with teenage gangs and organized behavior, which is not reflective of the Black community in general. Therefore, these stories did not portray this aspect of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people. 5. The stories that portrayed the world of work and the role work plays in the lives of Black people came closest to approximating this aspect of the salient shared experiences of Black people. Implications l. The findings and conclusions of this study indicate that writers are, for the most part, serving as "reporters" on the aspects of the salient shared experiences of Black people as they "see" them. 2. The data revealed that many of the stories had total focus on the familial aspects of the salient shared experiences of Black people. 3. The findings showed that many of the authors, both Black and White, are introducing social problems in their stories as a means of highlighting the salient shared experiences of Black people, but they are not developing the stories to the extent that the child will be able to gain from the experience. Rosalie Black Kiah Recommendations 1. Many more books could be used in the sample to conduct a larger study on the authenticity of the portrayal of the various aspects of salient shared experiences of Black people in the United States by non-Black writers. 2. This study should be of value to pre- and in—service teachers when selecting books which might present positive role models for the Black teenagers who would read these books. A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN'S CONTEMPORARY REALISTIC FICTION ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES TO DETERMINE IF AND HOW A SAMPLING OF THESE STORIES PORTRAY SELECTED SALIENT SHARED EXPERIENCES OF BLACK PEOPLE By Rosalie Black Kiah A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Elementary and Special Education College of Education 1976 ii ©Copyright by ROSALIE BLACK KIAH T976 DEDICATION To my patenta MflA. Ftonenee Hynbon Btaeh and the Kate thttam HOWand Btach, Sn. "Let gout fiatheh and mothen have joy: tet hen.who bone you exutt." PILOUQ/Lbb Z3: 25 To my huaband Joaeph "Be he etch on pace, htA heaet ta content, and a Amtte ta euea on hit 6aee." Stnaeh 26:4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are so many people who have contributed to the successful completion of this study until I am sure someone will be omitted. The oversight will come from the head and not from the heart. First and foremost, I express my most sincere and deep appreciation to the best major professor anyone could ever have, Dr. Patricia Jean Cianciolo. She has been my friend, my teacher, and a constant source of inspiration. I came to Michigan State University to study under her and I was not disappointed. Grateful thanks are due to my committee members. Drs. Donald Nickerson, James Snoddy, and Melvin Peters. Each has contributed in his own way to the success of this study. Thanks also goes to Dr. Shelia Fitzgerald who sat in on the defense of the dissertation for Dr. Snoddy who was out of the country during this time. For their helpful suggestions in the beginning and at different points throughout the study, I am indebted to Drs. Ruth Hamilton, Richard Thomas, and Mr. Gerald Bennett. To Dr. Marcia Carlyn in the Office of Research Consultation, I extend my deepest gratitude for her cheerfulness during times of confusion and frustration. A special thanks to Mrs. Grace Rutherford, my typist, for her expertise and suggestions. Finally, to all of my colleagues and friends at Norfolk State College, especially my Department Chairperson, Dr. Elaine P. Witty, I extend my thanks for their good wishes and encouragement. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES .......................... vii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ....................... 1 Purpose ........................ 1 Significance of the Study ............... l Need for the Study ................... 8 Assumptions Underlying the Study ............ 12 Research Questions ................... l6 Scope of Study ..................... 18 Definition of Terms .................. l9 Organization of the Study ............... 20 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................. 21 The Black Family .................... 22 The Social World .................... 35 Church ....................... 35 Mutual Aid and Fraternal Organizations ....... 38 Leisure—Time Activities .............. 39 The World of Work ................. 42 Summary ...................... 45 III. RESEARCH ON THE TREATMENT OF BLACK PEOPLE IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE .................. 46 IV. DESIGN AND PROCEDURES .................. 67 Analyzing the Data ................... 67 The Instrument ................... 67 Population and Sample ................. 73 Reliability ...................... 76 Procedure for Analyzing the Data for Content Analysis of Stories ................. 86 Summary ........................ 87 v Chapter Page V. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS ................... 113 Research Questions ................... 113 Research Question One ................. 114 Research Question Two ................. 119 Family Structure and Composition .......... 120 The Social World .................. 127 Summary ...................... 129 Attitudes of Protagonist to Black Family Experiences . . 130 Sub-Question (a) .................. 130 Sub-Question (a-2) ................. 135 Sub—Question (b) .................. 150 Sub-Question (c) .................. 158 Additional Findings .................. 161 VI. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . 165 Introduction ...................... 165 Purpose and Procedure ............... 165 Research Questions ................. 167 Summary of the Findings ................ 168 Research Question One ............... 169 Research Question Two ............... 170 Sub-Question (a) .................. 171 Sub-Question (b) .................. 174 Sub-Question (c) .................. 176 Conclusions ...................... 178 Additional Findings .................. 180 Implications ...................... 182 Recommendations .................... 185 Summary ........................ 187 Appendix A. LETTER TO AUTHORS, FOLLOW—UP LETTERS TO AUTHORS, QUESTIONNAIRE TO AUTHORS, AND REPLIES FROM AUTHORS . . . . 188 B. DIRECTIONS TO RATERS AND INSTRUMENT FOR RATERS ...... 201 C. PRELIMINARY BOOK LIST .................. 217 D. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS USED IN THE STUDY ....................... 222 E. FINAL INSTRUMENT ..................... 228 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................... 253 vi Table 4.1 4.2 LIST OF TABLES Interrater Reliability: Salient Shared Experiences Found in Teacup Full of Roses . ............. Rater Reliability for Items Present or in the Selection ........... Comparison of Principal Investigator's Raters' Ratings ..................... Comparison of Principal Investigator's Raters' Ratings Using a "t" Test . . . Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to Family Structure and Composition ......... Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to Frequent Contacts with Kin ............ Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to Kin Sharing Responsibility for Child-Rearing Practices ................. Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to the Black Woman ................. Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to Non-Conjugal Members ............... Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to High Achievement Orientation ........... Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to the "Black Church" ................ Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to Informal Groups ................. Frequencies and Percentages of Stories Made to the World of Work ................ Not Present Ratings and Ratings and and References and References and References Child—Care and and References and References and References and References Page 79 81 83 85 122 123 124 124 125 126 127 128 129 Table .10 .11 .12 .13 .14 .15 .16 .17 .18 .19 .20 Family and Household Composition and Effect on Protagonist ....................... One-Way Analysis of Variance for Mean Differences on Protagonist Attitude Toward Family Arrangement Frequent Contacts with Kin ................ Kin Share Responsibility for Child-Care and Child-Rearing Practices ................. Motherhood and the Black Woman .............. Non-Conjugal Members ................... High Achievement Orientation ............... The “Black Church” and Its Role ............. Leisure-Time Activities ................. The World of Work .................... Contingency Table Showing Observed and Expected Frequencies of Black Family Structure .......... viii 139 143 144 146 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Purpose In a pluralistic society where racial, cultural, and social diversities abound, each group eventually develops traditions and special interests. Within each group there is exhibited mutually shared experiences that are unique to and characteristic of people of relatively the same background. It is the sharing of these expe- riences that provides a cohesiveness, or feeling of togetherness to a particular group. These experiences become crucial or salient to the members of the group as they strive to maintain and preserve that which gives them a sense of worth and self-identification. The purpose of this study was to determine if and how selected salient shared experiences of Black people are portrayed in contemporary realistic fiction written about Black peOple in the United States for children twelve to fifteen years of age. Significance of the Study Perhaps one of the greatest values of fiction and nonfiction lies in the inspiration and sense of identity that it gives the reader. It has been stated that children learn to understand their social environment at the same time they are developing concepts of themselves. It has also been stated that literature is a transmitter of social values. Given these two assumptions, identity with and acceptance of one's group can be considered one of the goals of good literature. Identification with fictional characters in the literature has been said to be an almost universal experience for readers, but this affil- iation will only be of value if the role models are truthfully depicted and provide the Black child with models of his race of which he can respect and emulate. Identity and self—esteem of Black children has been the subject of a number of studies. Recently, Ward and Braun conducted a study on the self-esteem and racial preference in Black children. This team of researchers used an adaptation of the Clark and Clark doll test, using puppets instead of dolls (one Black and one White) to test sixty Black girls and boys between the ages of seven and eight. The group was equally divided between suburban and inner—city school children. The results in no way paralleled that of the Clarks'. Instead, Ward and Braun found that Black children growing up since 1963 rejected the White models in preference for the Black models. This led the re- searchers to conclude that various social changes, as well as social and political movements (i.e., “Black awareness movement") have been effective in causing these children to identify and adopt their own group as acceptable.1 1Susan H. Ward and John Braun, "Self-Esteem and Racial Preference in Black Children,‘l American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 42:644-647, July, 1972. Building a positive self-image can probably best be carried out in the home and school. Grambs describes the role of the school in aiding the child in seeing himself. The Negro child, from earliest school entry through graduation from high school, needs continued opportunities to see himself and his racial group in a realistically positive light. He needs to understand what color and race mean, he needs to learn about those of his race (and other disadvantaged groups) who have succeeded, and he needs to clarify his understanding of his own group history and current group situation. That these books provide a source of identification for the Black child is not enough. They must at the same time be truthful in their depiction of life styles that come out of mere survival in a society where Black people have been subjected to a history of oppression and domination. Tom Feelings warns that these life styles could lead to romanticizing misery and cloud the truth of the situation, thereby permitting Black people to become apathetic toward the true nature of the conditions in which they find themselves.3 Dr. Bernard Kramer, speaking at a conference on "Negro self- concept," lends support to Feelings' comments and states his own posi- tion on the content of books about Blacks. In this context, Dr. Kramer was referring to textbooks, but the same principle can apply to trade- books. He felt that textbooks dealing with the Negro in American life 2Jean D. Grambs, "The Self-Concept: Basis for Re-Education of Negro Youth," Negro Self-Concept: Implications for School and Citizen- ship, ed. William C. Kvaraceus et al. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 196 ). pp. 11-21. 3Tom Feelings, Black Pilgrimage (New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1972), p. 70. should contain portrayals of the Negro in the fullest sense-— historically, politically, socially, artistically, and educationally. This means facing up to the accomplishments of the Negro in American life. It also means facing up to the question of segregation and racism.“ In the past few years, there has been an outpouring of Black- oriented books for children. More and more writers of fiction and poetry are offering to the Black child an alternative to his reading fare; also, the biographies and information books are well represented. In the introduction to the 1974 edition of The Black Experience in Children's Books, Barbara Rollock emphasized the value of making accessible literature which depicts the Black experience. For the Black child, whose knowledge of his traditions and culture for years has been limited by the scarcity of materials on his heritage, these books can give a sense of identity and a proper historical perspective of the struggles, hardships and successes of his people.5 Thompson and Woodard, acknowledging the fact that there is a bountiful supply of documentary materials, also saw the need for more realistic fiction that would address itself to the Black experience. The bulk of that literature which provides identification for Black children has so far been confined to the histories, biographies and autobiographies. To date, informational, 1*William C. Kvaraceus et al., Negro Self-Concept: Implications for School and Citizenship (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1965), p. 180. 5Barbara Rollock, comp., The Black Experience in Children's Books (New York: The New York Public Library, 1974), p. i. biographical, historical and scientifical books are far superior to the fictional works.6 Anne Pelowski states that many contemporary social studies and history books about Blacks are most significant because they offer the readers positive images with which they might identify and emulate. She states that "at least the Negro is given his rightful place and part in the making of this country, with great and small contributions just like those of other races and nationalities."7 She explains that the deluge of books about Blacks is due in part to the civil rights movement and the flow of federal monies. She emphasized that one unhappy result of this plethora of books about Blacks has occurred. In attempting to make up for past mistakes, some pub- lishers have gone to the other extreme of producing too high a proportion of made-to-order books about the Negro. With all best will in the world one cannot accept a number of these for the unrealistic depiction of the complex problems of the race issue.8 It is these "made-to-order" books about Blacks that have generated a great deal of controversy, particularly among segments of the Black community. The controversy deals with the invalid image of the Black experience. What these writers and others in the Black community have insisted is that books written about Blacks must include a Black 6Judith Thompson and Gloria Woodard, "Black Perspective in Books for Children," Wilson Library Bulletin, 44:416-424, December 1969. 7Anne Pellowski, The World of Children's Literature (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1968), p. 401. 8Ibid., p. 401. perspective if there is to be a correct and honest portrayal of the Black experience.9 In addition to helping the Black child build an image of self in a positive manner, literature might serve also as a vehicle for conveying information to the non-Black child about the struggles of people whose racial and cultural differences and backgrounds account for the uniqueness of their experiences. The non-Black child will receive information that will enable him or her to empathize with people whose culture and heritage are different from his or her own, while at the same time promoting a better understanding of and appre- ciation for the uniqueness of Black people that manifest itself both culturally and historically. The books about the diversity of Cauca- sian characteristics are plentiful. This same kind of diversity should be available for young people of all ethnic groups. When young people are provided the opportunities to understand, respect, and admire diversity, there will be no need to fear differences in color, ability, or life situations.10 If,indeed, aspects of the Black experience are not portrayed in these stories, writers and publishers must make every effort to 9Sharon Bell Mathis, "Who Speaks for a Culture?" in Reading, Children's Books, and Our Pluralistic Society, ed. Harold Tanyzer and Jean Karl (Newark, Dela.: International Reading Association, 1972), pp. 30-33. 1°Patricia J. Cianciolo, "What Can the Illustrations Offer?" in Reading Ladders for Human Relations, ed. Virginia Reid (5th ed.; Washington, 0.6.: American Council of Education, 1972), p. 31. include these experiences in their books if they are to truly represent the pluralistic nature of the American society and meet the needs of Black people while at the same time opening up avenues of understanding of Black people among non-Black people. The latter point was recom- mended at the Dartmouth Seminar in this manner: "The experience of life that literature provides enables a child to digest new thoughts, take in new feelings and adopt new attitudes."11 James Miller reported that the Dartmouth Conference participants appealed to teachers of literature to select books that incorporate diverse visions of life and beliefs about values as they embrace the issue of the pluralistic, open society. He suggests that these books be questioned, discussed, and explored with the students. An awareness of moral complexity, ambiguity, and paradox will be opened to the students, as was so strongly advocated by Miller and the Dartmouth Conference participants.12 Children will come closer to reality if they read literature that accurately portrays aspects of the salient experiences shared by Black people. To this researcher's knowledge, no one has ever really Specified aspects of the Black experience but instead dealt with it more as a collective term. Therefore, this investigation will provide for other researchers an instrument that delineates some of the characteristics that are salient and shared by most Black people. 11James R. Squire, ed., Res onse to Literature (Champaign, Ill.: National Council of TeacherS‘of English, I968), p. 57. 12Herbert J. Mueller, The Uses of English (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1967), p. 93. In a study that is related to that conducted by this researcher but one that is not at all similar, Maxine Fisher analyzed the activ- ities recurring in the daily lives of fictional Black children and noted that much sociological information is transmitted to children through literature. That is to say, aspects of setting, events, and characterization in fiction give the young reader a view of segments of society. She emphasized that literature is an important means of acquainting children with various ethnic groups.13 In light of this observation she urged that a study be conducted to compare images found in children's literature with sociological studies of Black Americans in order to determine the accuracy of the literary images. Such a study is included in this researcher's investigation. Need for the Study The literature of a people is reflective of the major concerns of that people. It springs from the experiences and collective events shared by the members of the group. The experiences may be positive or negative but together they make up events that the people in the group have lived through together and are experiencing daily. To distort or pervert these experiences in any way is a grave injustice to the group.1” 13Winifred Maxine Fisher, "Images of Black American Children in Contemporary Realistic Fiction for Children" (unpublished PhD disserta- ‘tion, Columbia University, 1971), p. 4. 1"Charles L. Sanders, "Reflections on the Black Experience," Black World, 20:75—79, August, 1971. Books about Black people are suddenly pouring forth at a phenomenal rate, after many years of omission. As is true of most literature, some of this contemporary literature about Black people is good and some is not. Black people are rejecting those books they believe besmirch their image as well as degrade their struggle for survival. They are seeking books that depict an image of Black people they can identify with and respect. There is a need for the present study because it provides a model or procedure for winnowing from the classroom those books that portray Black people inappropriately and it provides a model for identifying those books which offer the reader a true and positive image of Black people, an image that is appropriate for use in classrooms. Rae Alexander views the depiction of the Black experience in a growing number of children's books as portraying an image of Black Americans that is still one of the insidious influences that hinders the Black child from finding true self awareness.15 She came to this conclusion when evaluating Black and biracial books for children and creating a bibliography of recommended titles for children at pre— school through sixth grade level. In her evaluation, her major criterion was that, "no book would be listed if it was considered likely to communicate to either a Black or a White child a racist concept or cliché about Blacks."16 Her findings revealed that a 15Rae Alexander, "Children's Books and the Search for Black Identity," Interracial Digest (New York: Council on Interracial Books for Children, n.d.), 1:10-13. 16Ibid., p. 12. 10 number of stimulating and stirring stories were not included on the list because they were marred by racial slurs and failed to provide strong characters to serve as role models. These books were found to portray ghetto life as overwhelmingly negative; they abound with nega- tive stereotypes while offering no insights into the how's and why's of ghetto life; they diminished roles of Blacks as instruments of effecting change and they featured the eternal benevolence of Whites toward Blacks. A few titles which were excluded from her list for these reasons were Treasure of Green Knowe (Boston), The Nitty Gritty and The Mystery of the Fat Cat (Bonham), and It's Wings That Make Birds fly_(Weiner).17 Some of these titles have been highly recommended by major book reviewers. The same emphasis was apparent in a statement by Eugene Beard when he wrote on the responsibility of writers of books about or in- volving Black children. Beard contends that the contemporary writers of fictional books with interracial themes are obligated to give an unbiased and accurate portrayal of the Black child. He speaks of the emerging image of the child as being shaped by the "Black consciousness" movement, and exhibiting itself to the child by way of a model that is intellectually aggressive, competent, self—assertive, and self— achievement-oriented. This then is the image that Beard states must be portrayed in Black—oriented books. He insists that anything less than this kind of portrayal would be unacceptable.18 17Ibid., pp. 10-13. 18Eugene Beard, "From a Black Perspective,” in Children's Inter~ racial Fiction, ed. Barbara Jean Glancy (Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Teachers, 1969), pp. 116-124. ll Arnez, writing on "Racial Understanding Through Literature," infers that the writers of Black-oriented fiction can present positive and realistic accounts of the Black experience. By pointing out the similarities and differences in the life styles of the Negro, we hope to show that his behavior and cultural response arise from the situation in which he finds himself . . . that literature through its dramatic impact can inculcate in the reader certain sociological and anthropological insights which the reader may not glean from reading sociology or anthropology text.19 She lends support to that statement when she goes on further to assert that: From these insights, the reader should be able to move from the literary selection into meaningful discussions which can lead to an appreciation for the ethos of the Negro who, though different from others superficially, does share a common humanity of anguish, pain, desires and ambition.2° Considerable attention has been given to the credentials of the writers who seek to simulate the Black experience in their stories. Thompson and Woodard contend that: "the credentials of the writer who undertakes a book about Blacks must include a Black perspective based on an appreciation of the Black experience. 'Good intentions' are not enough."21 In light of the information presented, it becomes apparent that there is a need for the present study in order to provide educators with 19Nancy Arnez, "Racial Understanding Through Literature,“ English Journal, 57:56-61, January, 1969. 2°Ibid., p. 57. 21Thompson and Woodard, p. 416. 12 a systematic form for evaluating books that purport to simulate "shared salient experiences" of Black people. This researcher examined those sociological studies that reflected selected "shared salient experiences" of Black people as they dealt specifically with their institutional arrangements (i.e., the family, and the social world). Findings from these studies were used in an instrument to analyze the content found in the contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States, written for children between the ages of twelve and sixteen to determine if these selected "shared experiences" are portrayed in the stories and to assess the accuracy of the portrayals of these specific shared experiences. Assumptions Underlying the Study This study is based upon the following assumptions: 1. There is a difference between the Black experience and the universal experience. 2. Contemporary realistic fiction can be used to provide the reader with images of a variety of life—styles similar to his as well as those that are different from his. 3. Contemporary realistic fiction aids the reader in responding more favorably to those situations, issues, and events involving Black people because it gives an intimacy and immediacy to his personal frame of reference. 4. Contemporary realistic fiction can aid the reader in gaining the world-view perspective. 13 The researcher will elaborate briefly below on the assumptions dealing with contemporary realistic fiction as a means of giving additional focus to the problems under investigation in this study. It is assumed in this study that contemporary realistic fiction can be used to provide the reader with images of a variety of life- styles similar to his own as well as those that are different from his. Images, according to Carolyn Gerald, are mirrors of some aspects of reality. Man defines himself and the world in terms of others like him. He discovers his identity within a group and cannot judge himself unless he sees a continuity of himself in other people, things, and concepts.22 Literature should therefore provide this experience for the child. In pointing up the importance of reading literature, McGuire views it as important to people because they wish to and can see their own lives in it. He further contends that it should become important to them whether they are immediately engaged in its ideas or not.23 Both Gerald and McGuire have focused on one of the major values of good literature. Being able to see oneself and being able to identify with the book characters in the literary selection is of primary importance when reading literature. Following closely on this thought, Kerber states that, "it is through literature that a child gets a chance to 22Carolyn F. Gerald, "The Black Writer and His Role," The Black Aesthetic, ed. Addison Gayle (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1971) pp. 370-373. 23Richard L. McGuire, Passionate Attention: An Introduction to Literary Study (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1973), p. 35. 14 be a participant, to be really ip_the lives of others as well as his own 1121+ The findings of this study should be of value to educators and librarians as they select new literature for their classrooms and libraries that purport to foster a positive self-concept for the child. It is also assumed in this study that contemporary realistic fiction aids the reader in responding more favorably to those situa— tions, issues, and events involving Black people because it gives an intimacy and immediacy to his personal frame of reference. Providing children with books that mirror their own world has become a current trend in today's fiction. Alvin Poussaint views this as both a positive and a negative trend. He asserts that the inclusion of positive models in books for minority children will only do part of the job unless the negative content that pervades the reality of the children's lives is also dealt with. To this point he writes: "There is a need for chil- dren's books that not only reflect the reality of the ghetto experience, but explain the causes and take the onus for the conditions off the minority child and his parents.”25 G. Robert Carlsen indicates that there are five different satisfactions that are derived from literature: unconscious delight, vicarious experience, seeing oneself, philosophical speculations, and 21'James Kerber, "Understanding Oneself and Others Through Literature," in Reading Ladders for Human Relations, ed. Virginia Reid (5th ed.; Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1972), p. 12. 25Alvin Poussaint, "New Values Challenge Old Assumptions," Interracial Books for Children's Bulletin, 7:2-4, 1976. 15 aesthetic experience. He asserts that none perhaps is of greater merit than the other. On the satisfaction of seeing oneself in literature, he writes: Perhaps a reader has to read autobiographically for a period in order to overcome his own provincialism and read on a human scale. Though we glorify individuality and our own uniqueness, we find comfort in discovering that we are not alone, that others live and feel as we do, that someone, an author has understood us.26 Patricia Cianciolo points out the advantages and disadvantages of books based on the principle of familiarity or comfortable recogni- tion. She contends that while the literature should not transcend the external limits of the child's own experiences, his view of life should not be subjected to narrowness and provincialism due to the overworking of familiarity or comfortable recognition.27 This study assumes that contemporary realistic fiction can aid the reader in gaining the world view perspective. Literature mirrors for the child the whole gamut of human life and human experiences. It is a reflection of society and parts of society. Jean Karl writes that the reader of fiction: can see, if his own prejudices will allow, a view of life that may be wider than his own, that does not condemn him for being what he is but rather makes him feel that there is a place for him as he is--in the world as it exists-~and that he is not alone in his dreams and his failures.28 26G. Robert Carlsen, "Literature Is," English Journal, 42:23—27, February, 1974. 27Patricia J. Cianciolo, “A Recommended Reading Diet for Children and Youth of Different Cultures," Elementary English, 64:779«787, November, 1971. 28Jean Karl, "Contemporary Children's Literature," Reaching Chil- dren and Young People Through Literature, ed. Helen W. Painter (Newark, Dela.: International Reading Association, 1971), p. 3. 16 Rainwater maintains that from the child's point of view, the household is the world, he is socialized within the family; therefore, his view of the world is interpreted in terms of his particular experiences and the manner in which his family views their place in the world.29 Engdahl writes on the role that literature can play in focusing on views of the world. They (adolescents) need novels with a fresh out- look on all cultures: ours, theirs, others of this planet, and those of hypothetical worlds. The viewpoint or outlook of the novel should be concerned with a perspective on the universe and on the future. This is what I believe today's young people are seeking.3° The present study should aid teachers, librarians, parents, and others who bring children and books together in selecting books that will help the Black child feel good about himself, while at the same time imparting infor- mation to the non-Black child that will enlarge upon and extend the capacity of his experiences. Research Questions 1. Can information about selected salient shared experiences of Black people be abstracted from sociological research reports and be utilized in the construction of a valid instrument for use in content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States. 29Lee Rainwater, "Crucible of Identity: The Negro Lower—Class Family," Daedalus, 95:172-216, Winter, 1966. 3°Sylvia Engdahl, "Do Teenage Novels Fill a Need?" English .Journal, 64:52, February, 1975. 17 2. In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the salient shared experiences of Black people or do they portray experiences that are universal to all people? Sub-Question (a): (1) In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization and relationship of members of the family in a way that is unique to and characteristic of the salient shared experiences of Black people? (2) Is there a difference in how the protagonist regards (favorably, unfavorably, etc.) living in a home with (l) a single parent, (2) two parents, or (3) other heads of households (i.e., aunts and uncles, foster parents)? Sub-Question (b): In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization, relationship, and activities of the social world of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the salient shared experiences of Black people? Sub-Question (c): In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the nature of work and the role that the world of work plays in the lives of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? 18 Scope of Study 1. Information gleaned from sociological research reports were used to delineate aspects of salient shared experiences of the family and social world. 2. The books in this study were limited to those that are classified as contemporary realistic fiction written for young people of approximately twelve to sixteen years of age. 3. Consideration was restricted to fiction bearing a publi- cation date between 1964 and 1975, with the former date being an important date in the history of Black people (i.e., the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act). No poetry, drama, historical fiction, fantasy, biographies, or factual books will be used in this study. 4. The protagonist had to be Black and the main action of the story had to focus on Black people. 5. Only those books that had received significant literary awards or were written by authors who had received such awards in the past years (before 1964) for books about Black people were considered. 6. The action in these stories had to take place in contem- porary times. This action should have paralleled the publication date but not have preceded the last twenty-five years. 7. Text of the stories was used to gather the data. Illus— trations were not considered as a means for gathering data. 19 Definition of Terms Salient shared experiences is defined as those dominant beliefs, values, cultural and institutional arrangements, i.e., those shared by the majority of the Black population. The salient shared experiences in this study have been identified as the family and the social world. Universal experiences is defined as those events that are identifiable to all mankind regardless of race, creed, national origin, or ethnic affiliation. Contemporary realistic fiction is defined as that body of literary writing with a recent setting (within the last twenty-five years) and depicting events that could actually happen. Sigpificant literary awards are defined as prizes, plaques, medals, scrolls, or other citations that are given by national orga- nizations or agencies to the author for literary achievement in fiction. "Black church" as used in this study refers to an organizing category that represents a wide range of institutional complexities. Reference is also limited to the traditional "Negro church," which served as the center of the free Black community. World of work is used in this study with reference to those activities people engage in to make a living. Fictive kin relations refers to those relationships which are maintained by concensus between individuals and in some contexts can last a lifetime.31 31Carol Stack, All Our Kin (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1974), pp. 58-59. 20 Interim institutional arrangements constitutes the survival ethos which Black people resort to when faced with a heritage of oppression and domination and are forced to develop various institutions to help survive and cope in a hostile society. Organization of the Study Chapter I has stated the problem to be investigated, the significance of the study, the purpose, the research questions, and terms used in the study. Chapter II and III will present a review of pertinent literature in two major areas: sociological studies about Black people and research pertaining to the image or treatment of Black people in literature for children and youth. Chapter IV will deal with the procedure used to determine the sample and to collect the data for the content analysis. Chapter V will present and analyze the data gathered for the study. Chapter VI will provide a summary of the study with appropriate conclusions and recommendations for other researchers. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The study of Black life and culture has for a number of years found its way into the sociological literature. Black people comprise 11.3 percent of the total population of this country and represent its largest and most visible minority group. Among the groups that compose the pluralistic society in the United States, in the main, Blacks are unique insofar as they differ almost entirely from these other groups by being the only ones whose presence in America was compelled by circumstances and forces far beyond their control and not of their own volition.1 Social scientists and sociologists have collected, organized, and classified data on Black peOple and their experiences in the United States in an attempt to describe accurately the current conditions and problems of Black life and Black institutions and their historical antecedents. The purpose of this chapter is to review the sociological literature relating to some of the theories and studies that deal spe- cifically with major Black institutions, i.e., the family and aspects 1Chukwuemeka Onwubu, "Black Ideologies and the Sociology of Knowledge: The Public Response to the Protest Thoughts and Teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X" (unpublished PhD dissertation, Michigan State University, 1975), p. 47. 21 22 of the social world. It is from the information found in the sociological literature review that the instrument designed for use in the present study will be based. The Black Family Because Blacks comprise the largest and most visible minority group in the United States, the study of Black family life has received extensive study from social scientists. Because the history of Black people is by far more uncharacteristic of other ethnic groups in this country, there is a uniqueness that characterizes this group. Bil- lingsley notes more specifically three facts that stand out above all others. The first is that Negro people came to this country from Africa and not from Europe . . . the second, they came in chains and were consequently uprooted from their cultural and family moorings . . . and third, they have been subjected to systematic exclusion from participation and influence in the major institutions of this society even to the present.2 A major portion of the sociological literature focuses upon the "problems" of Black family life and its deviation from middle-class norms. Clearly these investigations for the most part have been con- fined to descriptions and analysis of the lower-income stratum of the Black community with little or no attention given to the emerging middle-class families or even “stable" poor Black families.3 More 2Andrew Billingsley, Black Families in White America (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968), p. 37. 3Robert Staples, Introduction to Black Sociology (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976), pp. 113-114. 23 recently, however, examinations of recent sociological literature reveals that more attention is being given to the organization of the Black family as a means of meeting the important functions of the Black community. Moreover the external forces that contribute to a greater number of the "problems” that exist in these families are receiving careful attention.” The literature which focuses on Black family life will usually give a description of the historical periods of interest as a means of providing a backdrop or giving a general understanding of the contem- porary developments. Perhaps the most definitive study on Black family life is found in the writings of the late sociologist, E. Franklin Frazier. Of special importance is his book entitled, The Negro Family in the United States which has become a classic study on the subject and the basic reference work on the history of the Black family. Many sociologists and historians find it necessary to trace Black family life back to the African continent in an effort to demon— strate the special origin of the Black family. Admittedly so, "the common heritage of all Black families in America is their African 5 It is on the African continent that the Black American heritage." population originated. It was from the shores of the African continent that countless numbers of Africans were torn apart from their families l'Ib1'd., p. 114. 5Mitchell A. Green, “Impact of Slavery on the Black Family: Social, Political, and Economic," Journal of Afro-American Issues, 3 and 4:343, Summer/Fall, 1975. 24 and friends to be transplanted in a country that was new and alien to them in all ways. The kinship group, which bound together the African family by blood ties, together with the common interest of corporate functions, were soon to be changed. The elaborate legal codes and court systems that regulated the family behavior of individuals was radically changed under the system of slavery. But as Staples noted, ”What did not change . . . was the importance of the family to African people in the New World.”6 Frazier approached the study of the Black family from the early development of the plantation system and traced it through to contem- porary times and mass migration of Negroes to the cities of the North. His stated objective was to simply analyze the known economic and social factors in the American environment which offer a sufficient explanation of the past development and present character of the Black family.7 The slave trader it was noted, had only an economic interest in the slaves; the Negro was a mere utility. But as Frazier writes: Where master and slave had to live together and carry on some form of cooperation, the human nature of the slave had to be taken into account. Consequently, slavery developed into a social as well as an economic institution . . . the lives of the white master class became intertwined with the lives of the black slaves.8 6Staples, p. 115. 7E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro in the United States (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1957), p. 307. 8E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Familypin the United States (New York: The Citadel Press, 1948),p 36D. 25 The literature substantiates the fact that slavery had its greatest and most dilatory effect on the Black family. As Billingsley has noted: In the United States, the slave husband was not the head of his household, the white owner was the head. The family had no rights that the slave owner was bound to respect . there was wholesale disregard for slave family integrity.9 Green further attested to this disregard for the slaves and their families as he observed: A few masters arbitrarily assigned men to women who had reached the age of childbearing, but ordinarily they permitted slaves to pick their own mates and only required them to ask permission to marry. Having obtained their master's consent, the couple might begin living together without further formal- ity; or their master might pronounce them man and wife in a perfunctory ceremony . . . there was a complete absence of legal foundation, sanction, and protection of marriage as an institution among the slaves . . . the recognition of the black family was purely a matter of individual judgement or caprice on the part of the master.1° As far as the stability of the slave family was concerned, there are some who assert that few attempts were made to hold families together and if these attempts were made, it was to the slave owner's benefit or convenience.11 There are slave accounts of families that were split up when the slave father was sold to another owner. The same literature also provides information that accounts in part for the slave cabins that were female—headed as a result of the slave—father 9Billingsley, p. 60. 10Green, p. 345. 11John Clarke Henrik, "The Black Family in Historical Perspec— tive," Journal of Afro—American Issues, 3 and 4:340, Summer/Fall, 1975. 26 being separated from his family. Furthermore, on large plantations, the majority of the male slaves were used in the fields, domiciled separately, and moved about as they were needed.12 Consequently, the female slaves usually found themselves as heads of households without benefit of husbands and often burdened with the heavy responsibilities of her own household as well as that of the white owner. The male slave was systematically denied the traditional role of husband and father and not recognized as head of the household by the white master and as such was unable to exercise his full potentials as a male. Frazier describes his interest in his children as "adventitious.” The slave father was compelled to acknowledge the mother's primary interest in the children as well as her authority in the household.13 Historically, marriages among slaves were not recognized legally and sustained unions were unlikely. Paternal relations were not recog- nized by the law, hence legally there was no such thing as the father of a slave. The slave father was denied his paternal responsibilities, with these being undertaken by the mother and the white master, who also was legally head of the slave household. The slave husband (father) was at most his wife's assistant, companion, and sex partner.1' Emancipation found the Black families almost completely unprepared for the responsibilities that came with freedom. The 12Stuart A. Queen and Robert W. Habenstein, The Family in Various Cultures (3rd. ed.; Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1967), p. 315. 13Frazier, The Negro in the United States, p. 309. ll'Green, p. 347. 27 marriages that were somewhat "stable" under the slavery system were easily broken as men tried to find ways of maintaining their families. There are accounts of how men wandered about seeking land for farms or work. Many men migrated northward in search of opportunities, their families soon to follow. As Queen and Habenstein observed: The magnitude of the problem can be appreciated when one recognizes the crisis facing a slavery-disorganized people . upheavals caused by mobility, exchange of rural for urban environment, economic survival, the need to gain social accept- ance, and to develop a positive self-image.1 The end result of the experience of slavery and the unprepared- ness for emancipation have caused some social scientists to conclude that Black family life is pathological (i.e., "disorganized," "deviant," and "abnormal"). This argument is most pronounced in Daniel Patrick Moynihan's publication, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (commonly known as The Moynihan Report). Moynihan's major contention is that "at the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family."16 A great deal of contro- versy has beset The Moynihan Report much of which centers around the poor methodology employed in the formation of his conclusions.17 Most of the studies conducted after the publication of ng_ Moynihan Report usually have been the result of some desire to react 15Queen and Habenstein, p. 318. 16Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (Washington, D.C.: U.S., Department of Labor, Office of Planning and Research, March, 1965), p. 5. 17William Ryan, "Savage Discovery: The Moynihan Report," ng Nation, 22:380-384, November 22, 1965. 28 to and/or challenge his findings.18 Lee Rainwater's study, which parallels The Mpynihan Report, has been considered the first empirical study of Negro family life that utilized any systematic approach.19 Where the two reports differ, however, is that in the Rainwater study, the generalizations of the findings dealing with monumental Black family disorganization is not aimed at the entire Black population, rather he focuses on the Black lower-class family. The Moynihan Report appears not to make any class distinctions. Rainwater interviewed residents of the Pruitt-Igoe Housing projects in St. Louis and discovered some distinctive characteristics of Black families from various economic levels. He reports: Negro households have a much higher proportion of rela- tives outside the mother-father-children triangle than is the case with whites. In the case of the more prosperous Negro families this is likely to mean that an older relative lives in the home providing baby-sitting services while both husband and wife work and thus further climb toward stable working or middle-class status.2° This Black kinship network has been well represented in the sociological literature. Many of the studies have dealt with the extensiveness and cohesiveness of it. In the Billingsley study, Black Families in White America, three general categories of social structure are noted: primary or nuclear families, those that are 18See Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1976). 19Robert Staples, "Research on the Negro Family: A Source for ‘Family Practitioners," The Familnyoordinator, 18:205, July, 1969. 20Lee Rainwater, "Crucible of Identity: The Negro Lower—Class Family," Daedalus, 95:181, Winter, 1966. 29 confined to husband and wife and their own children; extended families, those that include other relatives or in-laws of the family head, sharing the same household with the nuclear family members; and augmented families, those that include members not related to the family head but who share the same household living arrangement with the nuclear family. His study revealed that roughly two-thirds of all Black families are nuclear, a quarter are extended and a tenth are augmented.21 Hays and Mindel conducted a study on Black kinship bonds in an attempt to compare and explain the differences in extended family cohesion of Black and White families. They used the data from a sub- sample of a larger study and matched twenty-five pairs of Black families and White families in terms of sex, socioeconomic status, and marital status. The findings showed that the extended kin network is a more salient structure for Black families than for white families. The study further showed that (1) Black families received more help from more extended kin in child-care than Whites, (2) Black extended families are more supportive materially, socially, and emotionally in times of crisis, and (3) more Black families have kin other than their own children living in their household than do Whites.22 21Billingsley, p. 16. 22William C. Hays and Charles H. Mindel, "Extended Kinship Relations in Black and White Families," Journal of Marriage and the Family, 35:51—57, February, 1973. 3O Staples observed that parakinship ties appear to be a facilitating and validating agent of Black life in the United States. It is not uncommon to find among the Black families, "play uncles and aunts, etc."23 Carol Stack lends support to this statement by refer- ring to these parakin or nonblood relatives as "fictive kin relations." She states that fictive kin grow out of the condition when friends more than adequately share the exchange of goods and services. Such special friendships are maintained by common consensus and may in some cases last a lifetime.2“ Black womanhood, and more specifically Black motherhood, has received a great deal of attention in the sociological literature. In the main, much of the attention has centered around the concept of "Black matriarchy" (related terms: matri-centered, matrifocal). Many of the social scientists, in an attempt to describe and analyze the so-called "matriarchal Black family," have found it necessary to look at the broad sociohistorical factors that relate to the role of the Black woman within the family and the "slave community" in order to put her in perspective. Although reliable empirical data are limited and much of what is available consist of varying opinions and slave accounts,25 Green points out that the typical slave family pg§_ matriarchal in form. He writes: 23Staples, Introduction to Black Sociology, p. 125. 2"Carol Stack, All Our Kin (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1974), pp. 58-59. 25Staples, Introduction to Black Sociology, p. 116. 31 Insofar as the family was concerned it involved responsibilities which traditionally belonged to women: housecleaning, preparing food, making clothes and rearing children. The mother was the mistress of the cabin and head of the family . . . she developed a spirit of independence and a keen sense of personal rights, as well as a strong character. This dominant trait in the women caused the relationship between the sexes to be reversed. Black men and women have tended to live in somewhat different worlds, under slavery and even after emancipation.26 The powerlessness of the slave father to maintain and protect his family (described on pages 26—27 of this paper) has had a crippling consequence on the relations of Black men and women to this very day.27 The conditions set by the slave system forced the slave mother to take on the basic responsibilities toward the family that were denied the slave father. Being denied his biological role and subjected to the economics of slavery, the slave father could be sold and separated from his family leaving the mother with the task of caring for the children as well as carrying out the household responsibilities. Thus, there developed between the mother and her children, strong, affectional ties. This devotion to her children and their reliance upon her has led to the female being considered the "most important, dependable, and dominant figure in the slave family.28 This devotion of the slave mother to her children which had its origin in Africa and carried over into slavery and beyond, has been a subject for research by social scientists. Bell interviewed 202 26Green, p. 346. 27Billingsley, p. 61. 28Frazier, The Negro Family in the United States, p. 49. 32 lower-class Black women in Philadelphia, who were mothers of at least two pre-school age children with the purpose of discovering the relative importance of marital versus parental roles for Black women. The data suggested that lower-class Black males viewed both marriage and parental roles as having minimal importance. However, for the woman, although the marriage role was of little importance, the parental role was viewed as highly significant. This led the researchers to conclude that for the Black women tested, there was more status and importance attached to being a mother than there was to being a wife.29 Staples critically analyzed and summarized the research and theory on Black families in the last ten years and lent support to the Bell study.30 Another large area of Black family study is that which focuses on the effects of "Black matriarchy" on the Black family, and if indeed Black families can be classified as "matriarchial." Many of the con- temporary studies on the subject have generated mainly as a result of "The Tangle of Pathology" thesis advanced by Moynihan, who, while acknowledging the impact of slavery on the Black family structure, failed to recognize the strength and resilence of the Black woman. The premise of his thesis was that the Negro community has been forced into a matriarchal structure which is not in keeping with a society 29Robert Bell, "The Related Importance of Mother and Wife Roles Among Black Lower-Class Women,“ in The Black Family: Essays and Studies, ed. Robert Staples (Belmont, Ca1if.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., Inc., 1971), pp. 248—255. 3°Robert Staples, "Toward a Sociology of the Black Family: A Theoretical and Methodological Assessment," Journal of Marriage and the Family, 33:131, February, 1971. 33 that assumes male leadership both publicly and privately. Also that Black Americans are placed at a disadvantage because this situation reinforces and perpetuates itself over the generations resulting in such "problems" as: poor educational attainment of Black males, unemployment, delinquency, etc.31 Joyce Ladner, who is credited for having done the most definitive study of the Black woman, contends that the highly func- tional role that the Black female has played historically, has led to erroneously labeling her as a matriarch and that this stereotyping has had an injurious effect on both Black women and men.32 The implications of the female-dominance label carries with it the accusation that the Black woman has emasculated the Black male, that she is strong and capable of carrying on the bulk of the family responsibilities with no help from the male. Ladner points to the confusion between the terms dominant and strong: All dominant people must necessarily be strong but all strong people are not necessarily dominant. . . . It could indeed be argued that much of the "strength" of the Black woman comes as a result of the sustained support she receives through her male partner. Very often it is he who, although economically insecure, provides her with the emotional sup- port that allows her to continue to deal with the harsh realities of her existence.33 TenHouten provided sound empirical evidence in his investigation of Black families in Los Angeles with data that refuted the Moynihan 31Moynihan, pp. 29-31. 32Joyce A. Ladner, Tomorrow's Tomorrow: The Black Woman (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1971), p. 41. 33Ibid., pp. 46-47. 34 thesis of the female-dominance in Black families as opposed to the patriarchal or equilitarian White families. In direct opposition to the Moynihan thesis, the researcher found that male dominance was higher in families of lower socioeconomic status and lower in families of higher socioeconomic status; he also found that middle class Whites were lowest in male dominance of the total group. On conjugal decision- making, there was no consistent differences by race; however Black husbands outranked Whites for choice of doctor and amount of money spent on food. The study also confirmed an earlier point that while Black wives appeared more powerful in their parental roles, Black hus- bands did not show up to be powerless or submissive in either their conjugal or parental roles.3“ In an attempt to "strip away" the myths and stereotypes that have risen around Black families, Robert Hill conducted a study on the family structure in the Black community. He analyzed data collected by the nation's most reliable and standard sources: The U.S. Census Bureau and the Labor Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Using this data analysis, he was able to identify five salient traits which characterize the strengths of Black families. He lists these as: strong kinship bonds, strong work orientation, adaptability of family roles, strong achievement orientation, and strong religious orientation. Of these traits Hill admits: 3"Warren 0. TenHouton, “The Black Family: Myth and Reality," Psychiatry, 33:145—173, 1970. 35 Although these traits can be found among white families, they are manifested quite differently in the lives of Black families because of the unique history of racial oppression experienced by Blacks in America.35 The Social World me Next to the family, the church is one of the most important institutions in the Black community. It has been described as "most significant and outstanding in the arsenal constituting the Black American's technique for survival and mode of adaptation.”36 History has shown that the Black church served as the social, cultural, and religious center of the Black community. It is the only truly powerful organization nationally that is primarily controlled by the Black people themselves. In the Black church can be found people from all socioeconomic levels. This observation is made by Staples when he writes: The janitor can elevate his self-esteem via his role as a superintendent of the Sunday school. The domestic servant can gain appreciation by serving as leader of the church choir and the railroad porter could achieve a sense of importance and prestige in his role as a senior deacon.37 The first attempt at christenizing Blacks took place during slavery in the seventeenth century, a move on the part of the slave- holders aimed at justifying slavery via the teachings found in the 35Robert 8. Hill, The Strengths of Black Families (New York: Emerson Hall Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 4. 36Onwubu, p. 52. 37Staples, Introduction to Black Sociology, p. 167. 36 New Testament while at the same time controlling the threat of rebellions and insurrections by stressing obedience as a Christian virtue.38 But it was not until the mid-eighteenth century that a large number of Blacks who were slaves and freedmen, became converted to Christianity.39 The Baptist and Methodist missionaries were the two denomina— tions that converted the mass of the slave community to Christianity, with the Baptist claiming the largest number of converts. Today, this still holds true, the Baptist Church (The National Baptist Conference, U.S.A., Inc.) has a membership of 5,500,000, the fifth largest religious congregation in the United States.”° The Black church carries on multifaceted functions, one of which is aiding in strengthening and stabilizing the family. Scanzoni studied the role the church played in the lives of Black youths who grew up in homes where both parents were highly involved with and psychologically identified with, religious structures and values. Fathers were reported as attending church at least once a week on 55 percent of the total responses. Mothers attending church were shown to exceed this with total responses at 81.2 percent. The 38E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Church in America (New York: Schocken Books, 1964), p. 10. 39113101., p. 23. “°Doris E. Saunders, ed., The Ebony Handbook (Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., 1974), p. 355d. 37 researcher concluded that children from these homes would quite likely tend to share these same kinds of values and behaviors."1 The religiousness of Black people was further substantiated in a 1963 study by Brink and Harris. A random sample of Blacks nationwide revealed that 96 percent of all those questioned professed a faith.”2 Walker views the other functions of the Black church as being the center for interpersonal relations, for communications, for recreation and a forum for potential political leaders."3 The political leadership as a component of the Black church was the subject of a study by Winston. In his study, the Black minister emerged as an influential and powerful person in the Black community. Writes Winston: This has often been achieved by (1) supplying a congre- gation with information on political candidates, (2) encour- aging qualified Blacks to enter the political arena, (3) pressuring white politicians to modify their positions and provide for the interest of Black constituents or to suffer the effects of a Black block vote against them, or (4) simply organizing and supporting voter registration drives.”“ “1John H. Scanzoni, The Black Family in Modern Society (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1971), pp. 51-52. ”ZWilliam Brink and Louis Harris, The Negro Revolution in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964), p. 100. “3Harry Walker, “The Nature and Characteristics of the Negro Community," The Journal of Negro Education, 19:222, Summer, 1950. “”Joseph Parque Winston, "Black Power: Some Components of the Concept as Seen in the Negro Church" (unpublished MA thesis, Michigan State University, 1970), p. 132. 38 More than half (47 percent) of respondents in a nationwide poll agreed that the ministers in their churches were doing much for the cause of Black people."5 Mutual Aid and Fraternal Organizations The next largest organization in the Black community, but not comparable to the church, first by nature of its nonsecular role, and second because of its membership, would probably be the mutual aid and fraternal organization, and the Greek letter societies. Historically, these societies grew out of the church and were influenced by the spirit of Christian charity. The major objective of the mutual aid societies was to "support one another in sickness, and for the benefit of their "“6 Studies also show that these mutual widows and fatherless children. aid societies represented the genesis for Black insurance companies."7 The fraternal organizations (lodges as they were commonly known) also provided for economic aid in time of stress as well as providing for a decent burial. However they had many latent benefits. They offered moral support that had once been provided only by the family in the form of a special sacred type of brotherhood, they emphasized love and charity as mutual obligations between men, and they gave men who were without purpose status and self—esteem."8 ”sBrinks and Harris, p. 101. l'G‘Frazier, The Negro Church in America, p. 35. l'7Ib1'd. ”BFrazier, The Negro in the United States, p. 378. 39 The Greek letter societies, being more socially oriented, have brought to the Black community many educational, social, and charitable projects. They have for many years awarded college scholarships to nonmembers and sponsored national essay and speech contest together with other educational as well as social activities. The Black soror- ities and fraternities, composed of college-educated Black, also serve as training ground for leadership in the community."9 Sororities and fraternities have continued to gain status and respect in the Black community as more and more young Blacks are continuing their memberships after graduation and transferring to graduate chapters within their home communities. The older mutual aid societies and fraternities are not as appealing as they once were, but many of them continue to serve the Black community in their original way. Leisure-Time Activities In the main, Black Americans are working-class people. The concerns with making a living as well as those problems associated with economic security of the family to a large extent determine the type and quality of leisure-time activities of Blacks. The youth of the group suffer particularly because of the fact that the adults have neither the time, finance, nor human resources to provide facilities or leisure-time activities.5° “9Robert Gillard, "Alpha to Omega: A History of Black Frater- nities and Sororities," The Black Collegian, 5:42—46, November/December, 1974. 5°Virgil Clift, "Recreational and Leisure-Time: Problems and Needs of Negro Youth," The Journal of Negro Education, 19:333—340, Summer, 1950. 40 The deferment of leisure-time activities was revealed in a study by Sikula and Lemlech as they looked at the basic personality profiles and value differences between Black and White teachers. In conducting the study, the researchers took into consideration the variations in life experiences of the two groups. The survey consisted of eighteen individual values. Important to the present study was the fact that Black teachers ranked "pleasure" fifteenth among the eighteen values on the list, while "family security" ranked number one. The researchers interpreted this to mean that Blacks are willing to forego pleasure if by working hard they can attain a comfortable life and security for their families. The study also revealed that Blacks ranked equality, courage, honesty, independence, intelligence, and self-control high on their list of values.51 Because the parents are involved in providing for family comfort and security, the children in many cases are left to provide their own form of recreation. For many of the teenagers, this usually consists of congregating on street corners or sitting on steps, talking about sports, clothes, the opposite sex, dancing, singing, etc. "The street" serves as a social institution and is an important factor in the Black community. Lewis, in his study Blackways of Kent, describes this "idling complex" or "public idling" as essentially a male pattern in the Black community that is characteristic of all age groups and an important source for social interaction. "Public idling,‘I may consist 51John P. Sikula and Johanna Lemlech, "00 Black and White Teachers Have Different Values?" Phi Delta Kappan, 57:263, May, 1976. 41 of being "on the Block" described by Lewis as sitting on the curb, store steps, or house steps, or congregating in a commercial establish- ment such as a tavern, a pool hall, sandwich shop, etc.52 Himes studied various aspects of the Negro teenage culture with 334 students in Durham, North Carolina. In looking at gang activity in the Black community, eleven out of 334 students who replied to the questionnaire admitted that they belonged to gangs. He observed that considering the large role that "the street" plays in the Negro teenage culture and the large amount of interpersonal aggression that exist, fighting gangs are not characteristic of the Negro teenage tradition except in specific slum areas of great cities. Writes Himes: The low-prestige youths tend to participate habitually in loose, fluid, shifting bands. Such bands appear to lack regular leaders, well—defined membership and clear organiza- tion. . . . I would not consider this a gang since the com- position of the group is constantly changing though some few individuals are always the same.53 Curtis studying Black gang behavior in a large northern metropolitan area writes: The balance of evidence from this time period suggests that model non—white street gang engaged in non-delinquent behavior over most of its operating hours. When delinquent acts were committed, they usually involved minor theft. When serious violent crime was committed, it was most likely robbery. The gang specializing in assaultive violence was seldom seen in any case and was of short duration.5” 52Hylan Lewis, Blackways of Kent (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The Uni- versity of North Carolina Press, 1955), pp. 68-72. 53James Himes, "Negro Teen-Age Culture," in Issues in Adolescent Ps cholo , ed. Dorothy Rogers (New York: Appleton—Century—Crofts, 1969), pl.” 534. 5"Lynn A. Curtis, Violence, Race and Culture (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1975), p. 53. 42 The World of Work Probably the activity that Blacks participate in most readily is work. Work is a major indication of one's well being, status, and future outlook. Blacks were brought to this country for that reason and have continued to participate in the labor forces. Essentially, Blacks are wage laborers with almost 98 percent of the Blacks earning their living through employment by others for wage income, or by gov- ernment transfer payments, or by income from self-employment in marginal Black enterprises.55 Unemployment and underemployment has always been a critical concern for Blacks. Perhaps the segment of the Black population that is most affected by this situation is the Black youth. Traditionally for Blacks, there is no such stage as "care-free" adolescence. Black youth at an early age are foced into the labor forces in order to help supplement the family income or in some cases maintain their own households.56 The literature and statistics attest to the severity of the unemployment problem among Black youths. It has been reported that 65 percent of America's Black teenagers are unemployed and that if the economy does not improve in the near future, a whole generation of young 55Lloyd L. Hogan, "A Black Paper: The Economic Prospects of Black Americans at Bicentennial," The Black Collegian, 7:60, March/ April, 1976. 56Robert Staples, "To Be Young, Black and Oppressed," The Black Scholar, 7:2-3, December, 1975. 43 Blacks will enter the adult world in the 1980's without ever having held a job.57 The problems of forced idleness among Black youths and remedies for the problem were the subjects for a task force that studied the job crisis among the Black youths. Recommendations made by the task force were that there be: regulation of aggregate demand, manipulation or elimination of minimum wages, better training and education for employment, trainingpprograms and job creation, and combating discrimination.58 The politics of unemployment was explored in an analysis of unemployment and underemployment among Black youths. In 1975, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. cited the statistics which showed that 1,650,000 Black youths 16 to 19 years of age could not find jobs. His major thesis was that consideration must be given to the overall un- employment problem, that from this, specific problems can be resolved within the context of the larger problem. His analysis dealt primarily with the current federal government and what it could do to cutback on the jobless rate among Blacks in general and more specifically, Black youths. Conyers stated that a probable solution would be the serious consideration by the Congress of the "Full Employment Act," which he considers is the best vehicle for putting youth to work. 57Ibid., p. 3. 58The Job Crisis for Black Youth, Report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Employment Problems of Black Youth (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971), pp. 97-135. 44 In reacting to the effect that unemployment has on the Black and the poor, Conyers contends that, "unlike the gentle rain, unemployment does not fall on everyone equally. It falls first on the poor, longest on the Black, and hardest on Black youth."59 In the introduction to a compiled bibliography on Black youth, one that consists of 189 books, newspaper articles, and journals, Ernest Kaiser states that Black youth have been highly unemployed for ten years or more. As in the Conyers study, he cites the U.S. Department of Labor statistics figures which showed that the rate of unemployment in 1975 for Black youth was 41 percent, the National Urban League, however conducting their own survey, placed it more at 50 percent or higher. The figures cited by the Department of Labor are somewhat misleading and inaccurate in that they do not include the great number of Black youth who have left the job market in frustration. In this group are the underemployed, those who simply gave up their hopes of finding suitable and self-sustaining work. Kaiser's recommendation for the economically depressed Black youth is an all-out campaign that would put pressure on educational administrators to create programs in the schools for preparing young people for jobs that actually exist in the outside world. After this, he would recommend that the federal government appropriate millions of 59John Conyers, Jr., "The Politics of Unemployment: Lost—- Another Generation of Black Youth," Freedomways, 15:153-160, Summer, 1975. 45 dollars for job training and jobs for Black and White youth throughout the country.6° Many strategies and proposals have been suggested to alleviate the unemployment that exists among Black youth, some have been cited above. Projections to the end of the decade suggest the Black employ- ment will show a moderate increase from the level experienced in 1975. Yet, this moderate increase can still be expected to be accompanied by_ a relatively high rate of Black unemployment. Since the youth are hardest hit by unemployment, it is further projected that an ever increasing number of idle Black youths will have no long-range prospects for jobs.61 Summary In this chapter the sociological literature relating to the theories and studies that focus on the Black family and their social institutions have been examined and discussed. Chapter III will examine and discuss research pertaining to the treatment of Black people in children's literature. 6°Ernest Kaiser, I'Black Youth: A Bibliography," Freedomway, 15:228-241, Summer, 1975. 61Hogan, p. 62. CHAPTER III RESEARCH ON THE TREATMENT OF BLACK PEOPLE IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE The last ten to twelve years have seen notable changes in the field of children's literature as it relates to racial and ethnic groups. The mid-sixties saw an increase in the quantity of books that featured Black people as opposed to only a handful of titles prior to the 1960's.1 A number of factors are said to have contributed to this sudden attention that was now being given to the country's largest and most visible minority group, with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act being a major one. There is, however, the speculation that the effects of the Black awareness movement together with its penetration on the nation's consciousness may have in no small measure attributed to the sudden outpouring of books about Blacks. The economic or profit-making aspect must not be overlooked as a motivating factor. With this deluge of books about Black people, also came the problem of accurate and authentic portrayals of the group, or more aptly, the treatment of Blacks in children's books. A representative number of studies have been done on the image of Blacks in the liter— ature both in text and trade books. This chapter will include those 1Lee Bennett Hopkins, "Negro Life in Current American Children's Literature," Bookbird, 1:12, 1968. 46 47 studies that deal with the treatment and/or image of Black pe0ple in children's literature together with some of the controversy surrounding the invalidation of the Black experience in these books. Although the text book and the trade book are different kinds of reading materials, the findings from studies that deal with the treatment of Blacks in the textbooks are pertinent to the present study because the schoolbook has been regarded as an important part of the socialization process.2 Usually, the first text the child reads and indeed the basic tool for learning to read in other areas is the basal reader.3 Teaching children to read, and especially Black children has been one of the ”great problems" in the schools today with volumes of research and studies being done in this area. Reading success is said to require being able to relate past experiences to the material that is being presented for the first time in order to make the necessary associations with the new experiences. The basal reader, to accomplish this goal, should present experiences familiar to children and with which they can identify.” Collier evaluated twenty-five multi-ethnic basal readers published after 1960 and before May, 1965 with two major considerations: 2Juel Janis and Phyllis Franklin, "Storytellers and Gatekeepers," in Black Image: Education Copes with Color, ed. Jean Grambs et a1. (Dubuque, 1a.: Wm. C. Brown Company, Publishers, 1972), p. 3. 3Dolores J. Dantzler, Blacks in Basal Readers (Lauringburg, N.C.: Earl's Press, 1973), p. 9. “Marilyn Collier, "An Evaluation of Multi—Ethnic Basal Readers," Elementary English, 44:152, February, 1967. 48 (l) the content of the readers as instructional materials with which Negro children, particularly those of the Negro and other non-Caucasian ethnic groups, may identify, and (2) the content of the readers as instructional material with which culturally disadvantaged children, particularly those of the Negro and other non-Caucasian ethnic groups may identify. The books used in the study were for use in the primary grades. Using a list of seventy-two questions as the criteria for evaluation of readers, certain observations were made when the re- sponses to the questions were tabulated. The ten organized categories were as follows: race, neighborhood, family, occupations, clothing, childhood, school, miscellaneous topics, identification with characters, fppmap, and content. Pertinent to the present study, were Collier's observations concerning the family. She observed that a rather limited picture of family life was presented in the basal readers. There was no variation of family members; consequently none of the series contained families with only one parent or with a step-parent. Large families with four or more children were not shown and only one story showed an extended family with a relative living in the home. Only one story showed an infant in the family.5 Considering that these are first steps toward providing multi-ethnic basal readers, Collier concluded by stating: There have been many problems in preparing these books . more improvements are needed in order for multi-ethnic basal readers to meet the needs of culturally disadvantaged children and non-white children in all communities.6 51b1d.. pp. 154-155. 6151a., pp. 153—157. 49 While Collier confined her investigation to those basal readers designed for use in the primary grades, Dantzler investigated those for use in grades three, four, five, and six, and representing six publishers. The major purposes of her study were: 1. To find the extent to which basal readers contain stories pertaining to Blacks. 2. To find whether the themes implied and stated in basal texts are those that Blacks want. 3. To find the Black heroes in basal readers and whether or not these are the preferred heroes of the population of Blacks sampled in the study. She used the questionnaire technique with a population of 400 adult respondents from ten states to solicit responses concerning character- ization, plot/theme, treatment, or development and famous Black Americans in five basal reader series. Notable findings from the study indicated (1) that basal readers stories tell children about a Black character but not necessarily the way Blacks would like for the stories to be told, and (2) that basal reader series have not adequately portrayed Blacks. She cites the percentage of stories pertaining to Blacks in basal readers found in her study to be 5 per— cent as compared with ll.3 percent of the actual population of Blacks in the United States. Another major finding was that the history of Blacks in basal readers was found to be synonymous with the history of the United States and its treatment of Blacks in textbooks, especially history textbooks.7 7Dantzler, pp. 8—12. 50 In order to arrive at some measurements of how the Black man was being portrayed in reading, geography, socio-civics and health texts approved by the State Department of Education for classroom use in a large, southern metropolitan school district, Allen made a content analysis of forty-two of these texts. The investigation covered such aspects as: (1) the number of illustrations of Blacks, (2) roles in which Black people were being portrayed, (3) the treatment of Blacks in the text-narrative, (4) identification of implied or stated deroga— tory and subtle statements, and (5) the encouragement of the ideals of democracy. The Allen study examined texts that were currently being used in grades one through eight and many of the findings supported both the Collier and the Dantzler studies. Of notable importance to the present study are the findings that showed only sixteen of the forty-two texts (26%) adequately treated the "cause and effect" of the Black American's circumstances as being different from that of his white counterpart. Further, fifteen texts (36%) examined completely ignored the Black man; he did not appear in these books at all.8 The trend is moving in the direction of making wider inclusions of Blacks and other minority groups in an integrated, non—superficial fashion in textbooks and supplementary materials being used in public schools with the purpose being to foster better aVan S. Allen, "An Analysis of Textbooks Relative to the Treatment of Black Americans," Journal of Negro Education, 40:1414143, Spring, 1971. 51 understandings among people.9 The Collier, Dantzler, and Allen studies give evidence to the fact that although some improvements have been made toward the inclusion of Blacks in the textbooks, for the most part, there still exist many inadequacies. Textbooks are not the only source of reading materials that may be studied to determine the image of Black people. Children's trade books are another source.10 Eight years ago, Dorothy Sterling conducted a survey of more than sixty books in search of a response to her query, "Are there enough books that present honestly the Negro experience in the United States?" The books in her study covered the gamut of literary types. She began with an analysis of early books and carried the analysis through to contemporary selections, and in so doing, she recommended and suggested books which presented the Black experience in the United States honestly and mentioned others that were less honest in their portrayals. Her findings showed that between 1960 through 1966 approx- imately twelve thousand children's trade books were published; of that number, she estimated that between eighty and one-hundred-twenty dealt with the Negro past and present in the United States. At best the total output of books about Blacks for young people to her data was 1 percent. Also her findings revealed that only 2.8 percent of the 9Nelson H. Harris, "The Treatment of Negroes in Books and Media Designed for the Elementary School,’I Social Education, 30:437, April, 1969. loDaVld K- Gast, "Minority Americans in Children's Literature," Elementary English, 44:12, January, 1967. 52 current output of books for young people are concerned with the most burning issues of our time such as: urban crisis, alienation, hunger, and war.11 Social problems and current issues in children's books satisfies one of the major reading interest for teenage readers. It is during this stage of their development that teenagers become interested in the social problems of society such as organized crime, pollution, and race-problems, to name a few.12 Kraus examined junior novels about Blacks from the earliest publications in the 1950's to the present time. He was concerned with the manner in which race relations and racial strife was handled in adolescent fiction. His findings revealed that adolescent novels published about racial strife during the 1950's "opted for accommoda- tion." "Pulling oneself up by the bootstraps" would grant acceptance by the dominant culture. However, after 1966 things began to change and as high as 19.5 percent of the recommended fiction and nonfiction books contained some concern for racial strife. He observed that of the novels of the sixties, some were told from the point-of—view of the Black protagonist and thus provided a valid portrayal of values and life styles of Black. He observed that these novels for the most part did not sell well in many sections of the country. He cited these sections as being highly conservative sections of the United States. 11Dorothy Sterling, "The Soul of Learning," English Journal, 56:171-172, February, 1968. 1213. Robert Carlsen, Books and the Teen-Age Reader (New York: Bantam Books, 1971), p. 210. 53 Kraus recommended that teenage readers especially non-Black teenagers, read a wide range of books in order to get a clearer understanding of the nature of the problem of racial strife.13 A similar study examining the junior novel and race relations was conducted by Small. Using a sample of eight junior novels that dealt with race relations, he looked at five aspects that have appeared in these eight novels and similar ones over the last fifteen years, those aspects were: a controlling message, a contrived plot, weak characterization, sentimental tone, and distorted pictures. He con- cluded that the relative handful of junior novels dealing with Black— White relations, unfortunately, become so bound up with their authors' concern for the moral message that they overlook the important elements of plot, characterization, and tone until what is left are books about Blacks that are poorly presented and stereotyped. Many of these novels are unrealistic and simplistic in their solutions to race problems.“+ Black-White relationships were one of the aspects studied by Broderick as she conducted a historical and critical literary analysis of the image of Black children in children's fiction. Her sample con- sisted of sixty-four children's books published between 1827 and 1967. Though her study pre-dates the Kraus and Small investigations, little 13W. Keith Kraus, "From Steppin' Stebbin to Soul Brothers: Racial Strife in Adolescent Fiction" (paper presented at the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of Conference on English Education, Colorado Springs, March 20-22, 1975), pp. 6-15. ERIC Document ED 103 902. 1"Robert Small, "The Junior Novel and Race Relations," Negro American Literature Forum, 8:189, Spring, 1974. 54 notable changes have taken place. Broderick noted in her study that prior to the 1945 publication of Call Me Charley, no book in her sample contained a Black-White conflict situation. With few exceptions, her investigation revealed that all Whites were shown to be benevolent and kind toward Blacks. The attitude that showed up most in her analysis was that "quality white folks" are not mean to Black people. The unrealistic and simplistic solutions found in the Kraus and Small studies were again confirmed in Broderick's study. In describing this simplicity, Broderick writes: In such plots, the Black character moves out of the Black world and meets in the white world one bigot. Some disaster, of varying levels of intensity, occurs and the Black proves himself adequate to the challenge presented. This action on the part of the Black then leads either to reformation of the bigot or to his becoming neutralized. End of problem.15 Deane investigated the treatment of Blacks in fiction series by analyzing such popular ones as "Sue Barton,“ “Tom Swift," "The Bobbsey Twins," and ”The Hardy Boys.” His investigation revealed that the negative stereotypes still persist. The Negro was never presented as bad in these stories, so of course he could never really be good. There was never any character development; the Negro was never pre- sented as a "real person, rather as a "century old cliche." Aside from the elimination of certain unpleasant descriptive terms and the 15Dorothy M. Broderick, Image of the Black in Children's fjgllpp_(New York: R. R. Bowker, 1973), p. 179. 55 removal of the heavy dialect, Deane concluded that not much had changed in these series books.16 Following through on the commonly held belief that the ''bulk of the literature in the United States reflects white upper—middle- class culture,"17 Lukenbill examined 220 authors to find out who writes children's books. His study showed that only 3 percent of the writers of children's books are Black. According to his data, it appears that children's authors are White, married with some college education and mostly living in the northeast or west of the United States. They have children and their families are primarily middle-class; they can be identified with the higher—prestige occupations. The researcher con- cluded that given these facts that until and unless there is an infusion of different cultures and values, that books written for children will probably remain conventionally oriented and institutionalized.18 Augusta Baker contends that the traditional image of the Black in children's literature is changing. She examined children's books beginning with the mid-thirties when this experience was primarily described in plantation stories and moved through to the more con- temporary description of Black life and the experiences of Black people 16Paul C. Deane, "The Persistence of Uncle Tom: An Examination of the Image of the Negro in Children's Fiction Series," The Journal of Negro Education, 37:144-145, Spring, 1968. 17Carlsen, p. 208. 18W. Bernard Lukenbill, "Who Writes Children's Books?" Journal of Communication, 26:97-100, Winter, 1976. 56 in the books of the 1960's and 1970's. The 1960's and 1970's found Blacks serving as consultants, reviewers, editors, and best of all, authors and illustrators. Of major concern in her study was that books about Black people should provide positive identification for Black children. She feels that the whole range of Black life should be reflected in children's books that portray Black people.19 Writing from the Black perspective has received a great deal of attention in the last decade as more and more books are appearing that address themselves to the contemporary life styles of Black people. Many of these books have been written by Black authors and although this may be new in the field of children's literature, Black authors have been around for quite sometime. Millender confirmed this in her investigation on the treatment of Black Americans in history textbooks, where she presents evidence of Black authors producing outstanding literature in America as early as 1849.20 Richardson conducted an overview of Black children's books from pre-1954 to the present. Her study focused on the development of Black-oriented books written by Black authors. The major thesis in her study was that both in terms of subject matter and style, the greatest growth in the last five years has been in the area of crea— tivity. She attributed this "turn for the better'l to the Black writers 19Augusta Baker, "The Changing Image of the Black in Children's Literature," The Horn Book Magazine, 51:88, February, 1975. 20Dharathula M. Millender, "Selecting Our Children's Books: Time for Some Changes," Changing Education, 1:11-12, Fall, 1966. 57 who are as she stated, "more attuned to the minds of the readers in their audience" and thus providing models in their stories for self- identification and emulation. Some of the aspects of these books cited are those books that will enable the child to know better his own strength and power to bring about change. She cites also that these books by Black writers contain stories that uphold a vision of hope for the reader while underscoring the need for aggressive action when wrong is being done, rather than passively accepting it.21 More and more Black writers and critics are challenging the credentials of those non-Blacks who write books about Black people. Many of these challenges come in the form of content analysis of the books written by the non-Black writers. One such challenge was offered by Rae Alexander as she examined children's books that purported to give the child a sense of identity. In the main, the ten books listed in her analysis were shown to do very little to help the Black reader's self-image which led the writer to conclude: In considering the constructive potential of books for children, one does not ask that they be antiseptic in por- traying harsh realities . . . but one does ask that authors play a positive role in helping Black children to foster a healthy self-image. One hopes . . . that all authors—-both Black and white-—will increasingly foster awareness and sensitivity in the young readers.22 21Judy Richardson, "Black Children's Books: An Overview," The Journal of Negro Education, 43:399, Summer, 1974. 22Rae Alexander, "Children's Books and the Search for Black Identity," Interracial Digest, 1 (New York: Council on Interracial Books for Children, Inc., n.d.), pp. 12—13. 58 Mathis challenged the true—false messages in books for young Black readers in a study when she examined books written by both Black and White authors. Her objective for the analysis was to point out those books that are "laden with vivid self-hatred-producing images." Her study consisted of eighteen children's books published between 1965 and 1974. These books covered historical as well as contemporary fiction. Of this number, fourteen were found by Mathis to contain "racist false propaganda messages." Her contention was that non-Black writers “have distorted facts" and perpetuated "time-honored stereotypes."23 Carlson tested for stereotypes found among Negro characters when she compared their treatment in children's literature in the periods 1929-1938 and 1959-1968. Her study was made to see if Black characters were appearing with increasing frequency in the two periods and if their portrayals had been more individualized and culture free. To test the stereotype theory, she used eighteen books from the 1929-1938 period and thirty-five books from the 1959-1968 period from her total sample of 545 books. She used a scale that measured the role of Blacks in children's literature on four levels: Level I: caricature, Level II: stereorype, Level III: individual with a race problem, Level IV: individual with a universal problem. By assigning points for each level, one, two, three, four points, respectively, she found that Level II: stereotype, had fourteen total points in the 23Sharon Bell Mathis, "True/False Messages for the Black Child," Black Books Bulletin, 2:12-19, Winter, 1974. 59 period from 1929-1938 while the period 1959-1968 showed only five total points which led her to the conclusion that the earlier books showed more cases of negative stereotyping of book characters than the later period. The later period, however, was found to have a reduction in the percentage of books that featured Black characters. Level IV was found to have only one point in 1929—1938 period, while the 1959- 1968 period had a total of twenty-seven points showing individuals with universal problems.2“ The Carlson study furnished information on negative stereotyping in books over a two—period span, but a critical look at her scale for evaluation showed that the identifiable characteristics for Level I: caricature and Level II: stereotyping were not that far apart and that these characteristics could have easily been interchanged. The studies reviewed thus far have, for the most part, dealt with general aspects about Black people and/or the universal experiences had by Black people. The present study will be examining junior novels about Black pe0ple between the ages of twelve and sixteen to determine if and how a selected sampling of these stories portray salient shared experiences of Black people. In her study, Fisher investigated the image of Black children found in contemporary realistic fiction written for children between the ages of eight and fourteen. The search for images focused on the 2"Julie Ann Carlson, "A Comparison of the Treatment of the Negro in Children's Literature in the Periods 1929—1938 and 1959-1968" (unpublished PhD dissertation, The University of Connecticut, 1969). 60 activities recurring in the daily lives of fictional Black children, participation of the character in informal and formal social institu- tions and associations, the attitudes, values and goals attributed to the characters by authors of children's books. Her study included forty children's books classified as contemporary realistic fiction and categorized under six headings: home and family life, school experience, recreation, community services and participation, religion, and emotional life. Her data showed that: (1) the fictional Black children were found living in all sections of the United States, with one—fourth living in New York. There was a varied range of parents' occupations. (2) Education was valued as a means of getting ahead. (3) Recreation activities varied with the age of the child and the community. (4) Interaction between the main character and the community varied. Acceptance by the community was sometimes a factor in the plot. (5) There were references to religion in half of the books with a varying amount of involvement in church activities. (6) The main characters' career plans, personal development, and reactions to situations unique to Black children were major aspects of the emotional lives of the children in the selected fiction. Frequent problems of loneliness and rejection were found.25 Although Fisher stated that her investigation would focus on contemporary realistic fiction, she failed 25Winifred Maxine Fisher, "Images of Black American Children in Contemporary Realistic Fiction for Children" (unpublished EdD disserta- tion, Columbia University, 1971). 61 to designate her time period, consequently books used in her sample were as dated as 1945 and as current as 1968. Many things have changed in thirty-one years. As far as these books fostering positive self-concepts for Black readers, Fisher takes this position: It may be that the books that do not emphasize blackness build positive self-concepts for Black readers if the Black characters have a sense of self-worth that is conveyed to the reader . . . the unspoken feeling of self-esteem may benefit a Black child as much as a book that always reminds him of the problems of his race.26 This may account in part for the reason that of the forty books sampled, only four were written by Black authors with each of these authors having two titles on the list. The book that bears the 1945 publication date is one of the four. One of Fisher's recommendations was that a comparison be made of images found in children's literature with sociological studies of Black Americans in order to determine the accuracy of the literary images. Such will be one of the focuses of the present study. The Fisher study was significant to the present study because it was the only one reviewed that dealt with the everyday lives of Black people Of the studies that were reviewed, none were found that attempted to compare literary images with images found in sociological studies and reports. Brown conducted a study using research reports from child development as the basis for comparing the characteristics of fictional young Black adolescents as portrayed in Black junior novels with the personalities and life styles of the young Black adolescent found in child development studies. 26Ibid., p. 103. 62 Using ten randomly selected Black junior novels published between 1962 and 1972, she measured the frequency and intensity of derived concepts of Black adolescents as found in these books. Her findings revealed that there could be identified in the ten randomly selected books, concepts dealing with the personalities and life styles of the young Black adolescent. Further, when realistic ratings of the novels were done by nineteen judges, a dichotomy existed. There were found five of these books that were rated as high-realistic and five that were rated as low-realistic. This finding was of significance to the present study because it showed that books lacking ghetto or poverty motifs need not be classified as unrealistic. In discussing her findings, she warned of the limitations in measuring realism through the qualitative means, noting that in her study, when her instrument was applied to some of her books, the total rating obtained tended not to give a complete indication of a novel's degree of real- ism.27 This information will be of value to this researcher when designing the instrument for this study. Noble studied the attitudes toward three basic institutions-- the home, the church, and the school-~and how these attitudes are expressed explicitly or implicitly in children's contemporary realistic fiction. Her random sample of books consisted of 125 realistic fiction books for children between the ages of nine and fourteen. This 27Estelle Woodland Brown, "Emerging Concepts of Social- Developmental Tasks of the Young Black Adolescent in Ten Selected Black Junior Novels" (unpublished EdD dissertation, Temple University, 1974). 63 consisted of twenty-five books for each year from 1965-1969. Out of this total sample, five were to be found in this present study. Using the technique of "content assessment," Noble used the entire book as a sampling unit. Using the passages from the books, she attempted to answer the questions raised in her study that would enable her to describe the treatment of the home, the church, and the school in contemporary realistic fiction for children. Of interest to the present study was her findings on Black families. In a total of twenty-eight books portraying Black and White families, who were lower—middle and lower class, nine White families and five Black families were found to be lower-middle class. Nine White families and five Black families were found to be lower class. When books portraying White and Black families were separated, a different picture was seen: ten Black families were found as primary families. Of these, five were lower-middle class and five were lower class. Black families portrayed in the stories in this sample were of two classes: lower-middle or lower.28 Unlike the present study, the Noble study looked at attitudes of all the book characters. In the present study, only the effect of the family setting on the protagonist will be considered. Two studies were found that dealt with the aspect of sociology textbooks and their portrayals of the Black family. In the first study, 28Judith Ann Noble, "The Home, The Church and The School As Portrayed in American Realistic Fiction for Children 1965-1969" (unpublished PhD dissertation, Michigan State University, 1971). 64 Peters analyzed the treatment of the Black family in college sociology text. The purpose of the study was to compare how a number of textbooks in family sociology treated the Black family. It was found that some were much more accurate in their portrayals than others, while there were only a few that met the criteria established for the study. In the study, Peters stated that in choosing a text on the Black family, two factors must be considered: (1) look for myths and (2) look for authenticity. She stated that Black authors should be included in sociology text on the family and that illustrations should be representative of a cross section of Black families. She also discussed the Black scholars and their relative exclusion from social science journals and textbooks. Included in the study was an instrument for evaluating the Black family in sociology textbooks, also included was a recommended list of acceptable texts dealing with Black families.29 A number of these sources were used in the present study. A second study conducted by Issel, described a method for evaluating the reliability of descriptions for social institutions in novels. The_researcher feels that those who teach American History and American Studies must face the problem of evaluating the reliability of novels as documents of social institutions. Writes Issel: 29Marie Ferguson Peters, "The Black Family--Perpetuating the Myths: An Analysis of Family Sociology Textbook Treatment of Black Families," The Familleoordinator, 23:349-357, October, 1974. 65 A teacher should not recommend a novel to his students as a social document solely on the basis of its realism or autobiographical nature. He should also be able to judge its reliability . . . the extent to which the descriptions of social institutions in the novel agrees with or fails to agree with the description based on non-fictional evidence.30 Using a Black-oriented adult novel, Native Son by Richard Wright, Issel outlined four steps that the teacher may use to evaluate the reliability of descriptions of social institutions. He stressed that biases in the novel should be identified by the teacher and explained to the students. These steps recommended by Issel are: (1) literature search, (2) the choice of categories, (3) examination of the literature, and (4) examination of the novel.31 Summary The review of the literature indicates that while there has been an increase in the quantity of books for and about Black people in the United States, the quality is still inadequate in some cases. Both text and trade books are guilty on this account. Stereotypes found in pre-196O books may still be found in some of the more recent ones as was indicated in the study by Mathis. Baker views the change in the image of Blacks in children's books as a long overdue occurrence, while Richardson attributes this to the phalanx of Black writers who 30William H. Issel, “A Method for Evaluating the Reliability Descriptions of Social Institutions in Novels," The Social Studies, 59:204, October, 1968. 31Ibid., p. 205. 66 are writing "the truth.“ Race relations in junior novels began to show some improvement during the sixties, however, Kraus and Small see room for still more improvement. The junior novel with major Black characters may still have to prove itself in some circles according to the Kraus study. The absence of ghetto life and the poverty motif is no basis upon which to rate a novel as unrealistic, according to the Brown study. Alexander calls upon both White and Black writers to provide books that will increasingly foster aware- ness and sensitivity in the young Black reader as well as non-Black readers. This chapter has reviewed studies that dealt with the treat- ment of Blacks in children's literature and some of the controversy surrounding the invalidation of the Black experience in children's literary selections. CHAPTER IV DESIGN AND PROCEDURES The purpose of this study was to determine if and how selected salient shared experiences of Black people are portrayed in contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States for children between the ages of approximately twelve to fifteen. This chapter will describe (1) the methods used to create and to check the reliability of the instrument, (2) the procedures utilized for obtaining the sample of stories for the content analysis aspect of the study, and (3) the procedures utilized for collecting and analyzing the data. Analyzing the Data The Instrument The construction of an instrument that would systematically answer the research questions found in the present study was essential and of major significance to this study. Such an instrument was designed by the researcher. The instrument was based on the theories and findings gleaned from reports of sociological research. Findings obtained from examination of the related literature are reported in Chapter II. This researcher limited her examination of the sociological research studies to two areas; namely, the family and the social world 67 68 which includes the world of work. The instrument designed for this study, therefore, is limited to these two categories. To this end, statements and phrases that revealed salient shared experiences of Black people in the family setting and the social world were carefully extracted from sociological studies and placed in the "direction" category. Expressions of attitudes are usually categorized by the analyst as favorable, unfavorable, and generally include a third category, neutral.1 The three-category model of directional analysis was utilized in designing the instrument for the present study. As the statements and phrases were extracted from the socio- logical studies and placed under the broad headings of either The Family or The Social World, each was assigned a code number in its respective category for later use in analyzing the data. The following shows an example of the coding for one of the areas under The Family, but the complete instrument is on page 88. THE FAMILY 1. People present in home span generations. .1 parent(s)-child(ren) .2 parent(s)-child(ren)-elderly relative(s) .3 parent(s)-child(ren)-grandchildren .4 1 1 l l 'absorbed' or informally adopted children 1Richard W. Budd, Robert K. Thorp, and Lewis Donohew, Content Analysis of Communication (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967), p. 45. 69 The Family category consisted of seven major themes or assertions together with subdivisions where applicable. The IIEEE major heading was: People present in home span generations. This included four subcategories of family structure and composition, namely, (1.1) parent(s) and child(ren); (1.2) parent(s), child(ren), and elderly relative(s); (1.3) parent(s), child(ren), and grandchild(ren); and the final subcategory (1.4) 'absorbed' or informally adopted children. The pegppg major heading with subcategories under The Family was: Frequent contacts are made with kin other than those living in the home. There were seven subcategories of kin-relations listed under this heading; these were: (2.1) all siblings and parents not living in the home; (2.2) parents-in-law plus siblings-in-law; (2.3) all grandparents; (2.4) uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal); (2.5) cousins; (2.6) spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses; and (2.7) fictive kin relations (or those not related by marriage or birth). The rplrg major heading with subcategories under The Family was: Kin share responsibility for child care and child-rearinglprac- IIEEE: There were also seven subcategories listed under this heading. These included: (3.1) all siblings and parents not living in the home; (3.2) parents-in-law plus siblings-in-law; (3.3) all grandparents; (3.4) uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal); (3.5) cousins; (3.6) spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses; and (3.7) fictive kin relations (or those not related by marriage or birth). The fpgrlr_major heading in The Family group was: Motherhood is an honorable status. Under this were three subcategories; namely, 70 (4.1) it symbolizes belongingness; (4.2) it symbolizes strength; and (4.3) it symbolizes stability. The Black woman is strong but not domineering whether the husband (father) is present in the home or not was the fifth major heading. The sixth major heading was: Non-conjugal members (be they relatives or friends) are available to retain and insure the survival of the family through financial and/or emotional support. The seventh and final major heading under The Family stated High achievement orientation for childrenlrypifies the attitudes of their parents and/or significant others. The subcategories under this heading were: (7.1) education; (7.2) economic status; and (7.3) social status. Under The Social World category, there were three major headings accompanied by the appropriate subdivisions. The first major groupings consisted of the interim institutional arrangements which were the formal groups in the Black community (i.e., the Black church and the mutual aid and fraternal organizations). Subcategory 1.1 dealt with the "Black church" as the strongest social institution next to the family. The “Black church" and its role in furnishing the channel for religious and social expression was subcategory 1.2. This sub- category was further broken down to consist of the church's role in furnishing a (1.21) center for interpersonal relations; (1.22) center for communications; (1.23) center for recreation, and (1.24) center 71 for physical and psychological escape from pressures. Subcategory 1.3 was: the "Black church" provides the most influential political leadership in the Black community. The mutual aid and fraternal organizations, as the most important non-church organizations was subcategory 1.4. Subcategory 1.41 was: the mutual aid and fraternal organizations furnish a channel for social expression. This subcate- gory was further divided to read as follows: they serve as a (1.411) center for interpersonal relations; (1.412) center for communications; (1.413) center for recreation; and (1.414) center for physical and psychological escape from pressures. Subcategories 1.42 dealt with the role of the mutual aid and fraternal organizations in providing econom- ical assistance in the Black community in such areas as educational scholarships and dispersal of life insurance policies. The role of the mutual aid and fraternal organization in influencing political leadership was subcategory 1.43. The §eppp§_major heading for The Social World category was: Leisure-time activities or informal groups. Subcategory 2.1 was: "The street" is a social institution frequented by people of all ages where behavior and display of emotions runs the gamut from sociability to aggression and is definitive of many interpersonal relationships. Subcategory 2.2 was identified as "Leisure-Time Activities" including hanging around in large groups but the composition of the group is constantly changing although some few individuals are always the same. Subcategories 2.3 and 2.4, respectively, read: teenagers tend to 72 participate habitually in loose, fluid shifting bands, lacking regular leaders, well-defined membership and clear-cut organization; organized gang behavior is part of the teenage tradition only in specific "blight- stricken" areas of large urban areas. Gangs were further discussed in subcategory 2.5 which read that fighting gangs are not characteristic of the Negro teenage culture except in large urban areas. The lplrg_major heading under The Social World category was The world of work. The two subcategories that were identified here were (3.1) the world of work is restricted to the Black adult community. (Black youth are usually unemployed or underemployed); and (3.2) in- volvement in the world of work replaces other social and recreational activities for Black adults and subsequently Black youth. There were a total of forty-five items describing salient shared experiences of Black people in the United States identified for use in the instrument designed for the present study. In order to measure the frequency or the presence or absence of the different themes that were extracted from the sociological studies, the instrument was designed to provide the checking ”present" or "not present“ to each theme under The Family and The Social World. Checking "present" also constituted checking, favorable, unfavorable, or neutral. The checked category was then documented with the textual passage(s) and pagination(s) to justify the choice made. 73 Population and Sample To obtain a sample of junior novels for analysis, the following sources were used in the search for titles: "Adult Books Significant for Young People," American Library Association, Chicago, Illinois, 1964-1965. "Best Books for Young Adults," American Library Association, Young Adults Services Division, Chicago, Illinois, 1967-1975. Carlsen, G. Robert, Books and the Teen-Age Reader. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1971. Koblitz, Minnie, ed., The Negro in Schoolroom Literature. New York: Center for Urban Education, 1966. "Notable Children's Books," American Library Association, Chicago, Illinois, 1964-1975. Reid, Virginia, ed., Reading Ladders for Human Relations. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1972. Rollins, Charlemae, ed., We Build ngether. Champaign, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1967. Rollock, Barbara, ed., The Black Experience in Children's Books. New York: The New York Public Library, 1974. Root, Shelton L., Jr., ed., Adventuring With Books. New York: Citation Press, 1973. The Booklist and Subscription Books Bulletin. Chicago: American Library Association, September 1964 to August 1975. The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Chicago: University of Chicago Graduate Library School, September 1964 to August 1975. These sources were consulted because they are the resources used by most librarians, teachers, and children's literature personnel in their selecting of children's books. The first step was to identify 74 those books that met the following criteria: (1) classified as contemporary realistic fiction, that is, the story featured action that took place in contemporary times (within the last twenty-five years); (2) written for young people of approximately twelve to fifteen years of age; (3) published between 1964 and 1975; (4) not historical or biographical fiction, fanciful fiction, factual writing, or poetry; (5) the story or action focused on Black people with the protagonist being Black; and (6) award-winning books or were written by authors who had received such awards in the past years (before 1964) for books about Black people. From these sources, seventy-nine titles were located that met the first five criteria (see Appendix C). To ascertain whether any of these titles met the sixth criteria (i.e., were award-winning books or were written by award—winning authors who had previously written books about Black people in the United States), the researcher used: Epil; dren's Books: Awards and Prizes, edited by Christine Stawicki, 1974. Twenty-five of the seventy-nine titles were found which met all six criteria for the study. The list of books included on the content analysis aspect of this study are as follows: Bonham. Frank. Cool Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1971. . Durango Street. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1965. . Hey, Big Spender! New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1972. 75 . Mystery of the Fat Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1968. . The Nitty Gritty. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1968. Childress, Alice. A Hero Ain't Nothinngut a Sandwich. New York: Coward, 1973. Fox, Paula. How Many Miles to Babylon? New York: David White Co., 1967. Graham, Lorenz. North Town. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1965. Whose Town? New York: Thomas V. Crowell Co., 1969. Greene, Bette. Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe. New York: Dial Press, 1974. Guy, Rosa. The Friends. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1973. Hamilton, Virginia. M. C. Higgins, The Great. New York: Macmillan Co., 1974. The House of Dies Drear. New York: Macmillan Co., 1968: . The Planet of Junior Brown. New York: Macmillan Co., 1971. Zeely. New York: Macmillan Co., 1967. Hunter, Kristin. Guests In the Promised Land. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968. The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968. Jordan, June. His Own Where. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1971. Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. New York: Harper and Row, 1967. Mathis, Sharon Bell. Listen For the Fig Tree. New York: The Viking Press, 1974. 76 . Teacup Full of Roses. New York: The Viking Press, 1972. Myers, Walter. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. New York: The Viking Press, 1974. Rodman, Bella. Lions In The Way. Chicago: Follett Publishing Co., 1966. Wagner, Jane. gll, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1969. Weik, Mary Hays. The Jazz Man. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1966. It should be noted here that Kristin Hunter's book Guests In the Promised Land contains eleven short stories. Therefore, twenty-five books but thirty-five stories were used in the content analysis aspect of this study. Reliability Once the sample was identified, the next procedure was to establish a degree of reliability using the instrument designed for the present study. Budd, Thorp, and Donohew have stated that reliability need not be difficult to establish-~it means simply that investigators using the same techniques on the same materials will get substantially the same results.2 In order to assess the reliability of the instru- ment, the following procedures were used. Four raters (the principal researcher and three instructors of children's literature, all of whom have taught undergraduate and/or graduate level courses in children's literature) were used in the reliability study. The names of the raters were: Michelle Johnston, Constance Meyerle, and Denise Storey. 2Ibid., p. 66. 1 l l/ 77 Using the instrument designed for this study, the raters independently carried out the content analysis upon completion of a selected novel, namely Teacup Full of Roses, by Sharon Bell Mathis, one of the titles from the sample--it was assumed by the principal investigator to be representative of the entire sample. The instrument consisted of a cover sheet that contained the definitions of the "directional" terms used and a set of instructions on how to execute the instrument (see Appendix B), The instructions to the raters were to mark as designated, as many of the aspects included in the instrument listing salient shared experiences of Black people that they found in the literary selection. They were to indicate whether the salient shared experiences were present or notlpresent in each case. If a shared experience was present, the raters were to indicate whether the author implies that the protagonist is favorably, neutrally or unfavorably effected. The front of the sheet provided spaces for the rater's name and the title and author of the novel being analyzed. A chart was used to show item-by—item how each rater marked the aspects of the instrument as being "present" or "not present" in Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis. There were four raters including the principal investigator. Of the forty—five items listed on the instrument, the results were as follows: there were a total of twenty-six items in the family category and nineteen items under the social world. Using 'X' to designate present and "O" to represent ppt present, the pringlpal investigator marked six present and twenty not 78 present, Rater A marked seven present and nineteen not present, Rater B marked four present and twenty-two not present, and Rater C marked four present and twentyytwo not present (see Table 4.1). Salient shared experiences found in the Social World were tallied in this manner: the Principal Investigator marked four present and fifteen not present, Rater A marked three present and sixteen not present, Rater B marked six present and thirteen not present, Rater C marked three present and sixteen not present. Table 4.1 shows the results of the item-by-item rating done by each rater. The data from this chart were placed in a formula offered by Holsti3 to determine the reliability of two raters. The same formula could be extended for n raters. 2(51,2) C1+C2 R: C],2 represents the number of category assignments both (all) raters agree on and C1+C2 is the total category assignments made by both (all) raters. Extending the formula to n raters enabled the researcher to determine the reliability for the first procedure in the set of instructions on the instrument (i.e., identifying those aspects of the salient shared experiences present or not present in the story). Of the forty-five items listed in the instrument, all four raters agreed that 82.2 percent of the items were either present or ppt_ present in Teacup Full of Roses (see Table 4.2). 3151a., p. 68. 79 Table 4.1 Interrater Reliability: Salient Shared Experiences Found in Teacup Full of Roses Principal Rater Rater Rater Categories Investigator A B C THE FAMILY 1. People present in home span generations 1.1 parent(s)-child(ren) O X 0 O 1.2 parent(s)-child(ren)-elderly relative(s) X X X X 1.3 parent(s)-child(ren)-grandchildren 0 X X 0 1.4 'absorbed' or informally adopted children 0 X 0 0 2. Frequent contacts are made with kin other than those living in the home. 2.1 all siblings and parents not living in the home 0 O 0 0 2.2 parents-in-law plus siblings-in—law 0 0 0 0 2.3 all grandparents 0 0 0 O 2.4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) O 0 0 O 2.5 cousins O O O 0 2.6 spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses 0 0 0 0 2.7 fictive kin relations (those not related by marriage or birth) 0 0 O 0 3. Kin share responsibility for child care and child-rearing practices. 3.1 all siblings and parents not living in the home 0 O 0 0 3.2 parents—in-law plus siblings-in-law 0 O O O 3.3 all grandparents O 0 0 0 3.4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) O O 0 O 3.5 cousins 0 0 0 O 3.6 spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses O 0 O 0 3.7 fictive kin relations (those not related by marriage or birth) 0 O O O 4. Motherhood is an honorable status 4.1 it symbolizes belongingness X 0 0 X 4.2 it symbolizes strength 0 0 O O 4.3 it symbolizes stability 0 O O O 5. The Black woman is strong but not domineering whether the husband (father) is present in the home or not. X X 0 0 6. Non-conjugal members (be they relatives or friends) are available to retain and insure the survival of the family through financial and/or emotional support X 0 0 O 7. High achievement orientation for children typifies the attitudes of their parents and/or significant others. 7.1 education X X X X 7.2 economic X X X X 7.3 social status 0 O O O 80 Table 4.1--Continued Categories Principal Investigator Rater A Rater B Rater 1.21 1.22 l 1.24 1.41 1.411 1.412 1.413 1.414 1.42 THE SOCIAL WORLD Interim Institutional Arrangements (Formal Groups) The "Black church" is the strongest social institution next to the family The "Black church" furnishes the channel for religious and social expression. center for interpersonal relations center for communications center for recreation center for physical and psychological escape from pressures The “Black church" provides the most influential political leadership in the Black community. The mutual aid and fraternal organizations are the most important non-church organizations. They furnish a channel for social expression. center for interpersonal relations center for communications center for recreation center for physical and psychological escape from pressures They provide assistance (i.e., life insurance, educational scholarships, etc.) economically. They exercise political leadership influence. 0 0 000 CO C) 000 O 0 COO 0 000 OO O 0 000 OO 0 000 O 0 COO OO 0 OOO NN —‘. Leisure-Time Activities (Informal Groups) "The street” is a social institution frequented by people of all ages where behavior and display of emotions run the gamut from socialibility to aggression and is definitive of many interpersonal relationships. “Leisure—time activities" for teenagers include hanging around in large groups but the composition of the group is constantly changing although some few individuals are always the same. Teenagers tend to participate habitually in loose, fluid, shifting bands, lacking regular leaders, well—defined membership and clear-cut organization. Organized gang behavior is part of the teenage tradition only in specific "blight stricken” areas of large urban cities. Fighting gangs are not characteristic of the Black teenage culture except in large urban areas. The World of Work. The world of work is restricted to the Black adult community (Black youth are usually unemployed or underemployed). Involvement in the world of work replaces other social and recreational activities for Black adults and subsequently Black youth 81 Table 4.2 Rater Reliability for Items Present or Not Present in the Selection R = 4((31.2,3,4) RaterA+RaterB+RaterC+RaterD R: 4(37) 45+45+45+45 -118- o R - 1 0 — 82.24 where 4 = number of raters 37 = number of items all raters agreed upon 45 = number of items all raters rated In order to assess the reliability of the instrument through the use of the three "directional" categories: favorable, unfavorable, and neutral, as these categories related the effect the identified salient shared experiences had on the protagonist, the following procedure was used. 1. Ratings by the principal investigator were compared with ratings by the other three raters using one book, Teacup Full of Roses. 2. These ratings were possible: 'F = Favorable, U = Unfavorable, and N = Neutral. Each of these ratings were assigned a numerical value as follows: F = 1, N = 2, and U = 3. 82 3. Each rating done by the principal investigator was compared with the other rater's ratings of that particular passage to see how much agreement there was between ratings. A numerical difference between the two ratings was determined. There were a total of fourteen pages used for rating where the principal rater and the other raters cited the same passage(s). These fourteen pages were found in six of the categories describing the salient shared experiences of Black pe0ple. With F==1, N==2, and U==3, the numerical difference was established. On the items where the principal investigator and another rater agreed, the difference between their ratings was quantifiably represented as 0. Where there was disagreement as with an unfavorable (3) minus a neutral (2), the numerical difference was rated at one. The difference between an unfavorable (3) and a favorable (1) would be two as in (7.1) on page 83 (see Table 4.3) where the principal rater rated favorable (l) and the rater C rated unfavorable (3). There was a rating of one—half when in (5), pp. 37 and 11, the principal rater and rater C rated unfavor- able (3) showing 0 or no difference; however, rater A rated neutral (2) which meant subtracting neutral from both unfavorable ratings resulting in one-half. There was a final total of twenty—three categories showing numerical differences. Table 4.3 shows the results of the comparison of the principal rater's ratings and the rater's ratings (see Table 4.3). 4. A "t" test was used to see if the difference between the principal investigator's ratings and the other raters' ratings were significantly less than would be expected by change. Using the formula 83 Table 4.3 Comparison of Principal Investigator's Ratings and Raters' Ratingsa Page Principal Rater Rater Rater Average Categories Nos. Investigator A B C Difference THE FAMILY 1. People present in home span generations 6 1.2 parent(s)-chi1d(ren)-e1der1y 10 F C F c F NR 0 relatives 37 F O F NR 0 F 0 76 F 0 F NR 0 F 15 u Q u n | NR 0 72 U 0 U NR 0 U 4. Motherhood is an honorable status 4.1 It symbolizes belongingness 76 U NR NR C U 0 5. The Black woman is strong but not domineering whether the husband (father) is 37 U l N NR 0 U 1/2 present in the home or not. 11 U l N NR 0 U 1/2 7. High achievement orientation for children typifies the attitude of their parents and/or significant others. 7.1 education 73-4 U (1 NR U 0 U 0 75 F NR NR 2 U 2 86 0 NR NR 0 u 0 THE SOCIAL WORLD 2.1 The "street“ is a social institution frequented by people of all ages where behavior . . . interpersonal 20 F O F O F NR 0 relationships 19 N l U NR NR 1 3. The world of work 3.2 Involvement in the world of work replaces other social and recreational activities 35 F 0 NR F 2 U 1 Total 5 aTotal number of pages used = 14; total number of categories used = 6; and number of numerical categories averaged (n==23). bKey: F = 1; N = 2; and u = 3. In: to compute "t", the following procedure was performed: R'was obtained by dividing 23 (the total for the numerical categories averaged) by 6 (the total number of categories used); the average was computed at .26. Mu (u) was computed at .89, with a standard deviation of .62. The degree of freedom was 22 and the alpha level was set at .01. Since "t" was less than -2.3, "t" was found to be significant at the .01 level (t = -4.9) (see Table 4.4). 5. A "t" of -4.9 was obtained which was significant at the .01 level. It was therefore concluded that the difference between the principal investigator's rating and the other rater's ratings were significantly less than would be expected by chance. Such strong agreement between ratings were adequately reliable. Further, the aspects contained in the instrument enabled the raters to do a content analysis and agree on items. In the actual study, only the principal investigator's ratings were used. Because the instrument was found reliable, it could be used in a content analysis to determine the presence of these shared salient shared experiences in any other children's literature selections. Budd, Thorp, and Donohew caution that assigning direction Statements and judging the strength of words are two operations that may'present the investigator and his coders with a greater challenge Table 4.4 Comparison of Principal Investigator's Ratings and Raters' Ratings Using a "t" Test t:L-__E 5 /H' where: §'= .26 u=.89 s = .62 n = 23 _ —.63 = .63 Therefore, t — —]§f- _—762——- “7:; 4.796 t = -4.9 Since t < -2.3, t was significant at the .01 level. than simply counting the number of times an item appears.3 These assignments are indicators of certain attitude values and as such require a greater amount of judgment on the part of the rater. This fact was evidenced in the present study by 82.2 percent agreement on items checked present or not present in the literary selection read by four raters. Variations in agreement on passages became apparent when Selections and coding of the passages were required. It was suggested by the raters that perhaps a fourth “direction" category be added to K 3Ibid., pp. 66-67. 86 the three existing categories to provide for statements that could not be accommodated in the three on the instrument. Fox speaks of an additional category that is a combination of favorable and unfavorable materials connected by a word or phrase that gives a clear-cut reversal of feeling. He terms this category mixed.“ Therefore, in the present study, the term mlrgg_was added to the instrument and used in the content analysis of the sample. The new directional category was also added to the cover sheet of the instrument which consisted of definitions and examples of the three terms used for direction. The revised instrument, complete with changes, appears on pages 88 to 112. Procedure for Analyzing the Data for Content Analysis of Stories In conducting the content analysis aspect of this study, this researcher followed the following steps. First, each book was read in its entirety to capture the essentials of the story (i.e., theme, char- acterization, plot, etc.). A second reading was done to identify those salient shared experiences that were found to be present in the story. As these experiences appeared in the stories, they were recorded on the instrument under the appropriate category. If, for example, the story contained a home where there was found the father, the mother, and the children, the appropriate category would be 1. People present 1'David J. Fox, The Research Process in Education (New York: HOlt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1969), p. 653. 87 in home spanlgenerations. The appropriate subcategory would be 1.1 parent(s)-child(ren). A third reading was required to serve as a final check and to record any passages that may have been overlooked. After all thirty-five stories had been read and the salient shared experiences appearing in each story were recorded under the appr0priate categories on separate copies of the instrument (i.e., an individual copy of the instrument was used in recording each story's content); index cards were used to record the data by code number. The researcher was then able to compile a summary sheet of the categories, thus providing for a systematic method for answering the research questions found in Chapter I. Summary This chapter has presented the procedure used for collecting and analyzing the data. A description of how the sample was obtained and the methods used to check the reliability of the instrument was also discussed. A copy of the revised instrument follows in this chapter. Chapter V will present the findings of the study. 88 DIRECTIONS TO READERS This is an instrument which will be used to analyze the content of contemporary realistic fiction written about Black pe0ple in the United States, to determine if and how a sampling of these stories portray selected salient shared experiences of Black people. PLEASE READ THROUGH ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS FIRST BEFORE BEGINNING THE ANALYSIS 1. Mark with an "X" where designated, as many of the aspects included in the instrument listing salient shared experiences of Black people which you find in the literary selections. a. Indicate whether the salient experiences are present or not present in each case. If a shared experience is present, indicate whether the author implies that the effect on the protagonist or main character is favorable, unfavorable, mixed: or neutral. EXAMPLES: Lois knew she was loved because her mother always told her so. (Favorable effect on the protagonist, Lois.) Barbara knew her mother liked her sister best because she was always praising her for everything she did, while she never gave Barbara any praise. (Unfavorable effect in the pro- tagonist, Barbara.) A mixed response is one that contains both a favorable and unfavorable response with a word or phrase linking the two capable of changing it either way. (Consider: Flo knew the job was going to be hard, but she also knew the pay was good.) If the presence of the experience does not affect the pro— tagonist to a significant degree, then indicate neutral. This will be determined in the context of the story. 2. Indicate the page number(s) on which passage(s) appear where the author implies or states directly how the shared experience has effected the protagonist. (Indicate also the first three words and the last three words of the passage[s].) 89 SALIENT SHARED EXPERIENCES OF BLACK PEOPLE TITLE OF BOOK AUTHOR NAME OF RATER 9O FAMILY 1. People present in home span generations. 1.1 parent(s)-child(ren) NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.2 parent(s)-chi1d(ren)-e1derly relative(s) NOT PRESENT PRESENTTI FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE lMIXED NEUTRAL 91 1.3 parent(s)-child(ren)-grandchildren NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.4 'absorbed' or informally adopted children . NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 92 2. Frequent contacts are made with kin other than those living in the home. 2.1 all siblings and parents not living in the home NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.2 parents-in-law plus siblings-in—law NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE “UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 93 2.3 all grandparents NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE ”UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 94 2.5 cousins NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.6 spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 95 2.7 fictive kin relatives (those not related by marriage or birth) NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE ‘UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3. Kin share responsibility for child care and child- rearing practices. 3.1 all Siblings and parents not living in the home NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 96 3.2 parents-in-law plus siblings-in-law NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3.3 all grandparents NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 97 3.4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3.5 cousins NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE NOT FAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 98 3.6 spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses NOT PRESENT: PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3.7 fictive kin relations (those not related by marriage or birth) NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 99 4. Motherhood is an honorable status. 4.1 it symbolizes belongingness NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 4.2 it symbolizes strength NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE NOT FAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 100 4.3 it symbolizes stability NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE NOT FAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 5. The Black woman is strong but not domineering whether the husband (father) is present in the home or not. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE NOT FAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 101 6. Non-conjugal members (be they relatives or friends) are available to retain and insure the survival of the family through financial and/or emotional support. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 7. High achievement orientation for children typifies the attitudes of their parents and/or Significant others. 7.1 education NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 102 7.2 economic status NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 7.3 social status NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 103 SOCIAL WORLD l. Interim Institutional Arrangements (Formal Groups) 1.1 The "Black church" is the strongest social institution next to the family. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.2 The "Black church" furnishes the channel for religious social expression. 1.21 center for interpersonal relations NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 104 1.22 center for communications NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.23 center for recreation NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 105 1.24 center for physical and psychological escape from pressures NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.3 The "Black church" provides the most influential political leadership in the Black community. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 106 1.4 The mutual aids and fraternal organizations are the most important non-church organizations. 1.41 They furnish a channel for social expression 1.411 center for interpersonal relations NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE NOT FAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.412 center for communications NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE NOT FAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 107 1.413 center for recreation NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.414 center for physical and psychological escape from pressures NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 108 1.42 They provide assistance (i.e., life insurance, educational scholarships, etc.) economically. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.43 They exercise political leadership influence. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 109 2. Leisure—Time Activities (Informal Groups) 2.1 "The street" is a social institution frequented by people of all ages where behavior and display Of emotions runs the gamut from sociability to aggression and is definitive of many interpersonal relationships. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.2 "Leisure-time activities" for teenagers include hanging around in large groups but the composition Of the group is constantly changing although some few individuals are always the same. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 110 2.3 Teenagers tend to participate habitually in loose, fluid shifting bands, lacking regular leaders, well-defined membership and clear-cut organization. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE "U'FAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.4 Organized gang behavior is part of the teenage tradition only in specific "blight stricken" areas of large urban areas. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE ‘ UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 111 2.5 Fighting gangs are not characteristic of the Black teenage culture except in large urban areas. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3. The World of Work 3.1 The world of work is restricted to the Black adult community (Black youth are usually unemployed or underemployed). NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 112 3.2 Involvement in the world Of work replaces other social and recreational activities for Black adults and subsequently Black youth NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL *Indicate page number(s) and quote(s) where the passage(s) indicating the effect on the protagonist is found. CHAPTER V ANALYSIS OF RESULTS The data presented in this chapter were collected by using a sample Of twenty—five books (thirty-five stories) of contemporary real- istic fiction genre written about Black peOple in the United States. It was the purpose of this study to determine if and how this sampling Of the stories in these books portray salient shared experiences of Black people. Two major research questions and three sub-questions were formulated to guide the treatment of the data. Research Questions 1. Can information about selected salient Shared experiences Of Black people be extracted from sociological research reports and be utilized in the construction of a valid instrument for use in content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the lJnited States? 2. Are a majority of the stories found in contemporary inealistic fiction about Black people and identified for use in this study those that portray the salient shared experiences of Black people or'éare they those that portray experiences that are universal to all People? 113 114 Sub-Question (a): (1) In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization and relationship of members of the family in a way that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? (2) Is there a difference in how the protagonist regards (favorably, unfavorably, etc.) living in a home with a (l) single parent, (2) two parents, or (3) other heads of household (i.e., aunts and uncles, foster parents)? Sub-Question (b): In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization, relationship and activities of the social world of Black people in a manner that is unique to and char- acteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? Sub-Question (c): In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the nature of work and the role that the world of work plays in the lives of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? Research Question One Can information about selected salient shared experiences of Black people be extracted from sociological research reports and be utilized in the construction of a valid instrument for use in a content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States? 115 The sociological research reports cited in Chapter II as well as those studies considered as the bases for construction of the instrument for the present study, reflect the scholarly writings and research of women and men who by their many publications and/or reputations in the area of Black sociology have emerged as outstanding resource persons in the field. After reading the sociological research reports about Black people in the United States, the researcher selected two general areas of focus: The Family and the Social World. Forty- five experiences were identified as being salient and shared by Black people in these two combined areas. To ascertain even to a greater degree that these aspects gleaned from the sociological studies were actually salient shared experiences of Black people in America and that they could adequately be used in constructing a valid instrument for use in content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States, the researcher proceeded in the following manner. A modi- fication of what Budd, Thorp, and Donohew describe as the "jury method" of validation, where experts are asked to judge relevant parts of the methodology or measuring technique was used.1 Therefore, in the present study, the twelve experts were identified as authors of children's books about Black people. Some stories by these authors were also being considered for use in the study. Two methods of contacting the authors were used: interviews and questionnaires. The selected authors were 1Budd, Thorp, and Donohew, p. 69. 116 each sent letters explaining the nature of the study together with a request for an interview to discuss those salient shared experiences of Black people identified for use in the instrument (see Appendix A). The request for personal interviews was honored by three of the authors (Sharon Bell Mathis, Kristin Hunter, and Bette Greene).2 So the questionnaire method was tried. The authors were each sent a cover letter and a copy of those aspects that were included on the instrument. For each theme or asser- tion, the validators (authors) were asked to check those themes which they believed were ggt_salient shared experiences of Black people and to react to the instrument and the project as a whole. The following authors responded to the questionnaire: Arnold Adoff, Alice Childress, Eloise Greenfield, and John Steptoe. 0f the remaining five authors, the responses and no responses were varied. Mary Weik and Paula Fox were unable to participate. Walter Myers and Julius Lester's letters were returned marked, "moved, left no forwarding address," and Virginia Hamilton failed to respond to the original request, but responded indirectly through her husband, Arnold Adoff. The intended purpose of asking these authors to respond to the contents of the instrument was not that these authors would validate it. Validation was not a major problem here since the themes and the 2Sharon Bell Mathis, telephone interview, August 13, 1976; Kristin Hunter, on-site interview, Camden, New Jersey, July 28, 1976; and Bette Greene, telephone interview, September 9, 1976. 117 assertions were gleaned from sociological research reports.3 Rather, the personal reactions of the authors (validators) served merely to add a greater degree of credence to the aspects of the instrument because of the reputations these authors hold in the area of children's literature together with the fact that their books about Black people have received literary recognition. Some of the reactions to the questionnaire (items included in the instrument) and the project in general are entered below. The complete correspondences are found in Appendix A. Arnold Adoff. In response to the aspects of the instrument and the study, he said that it is "one of much potential value . . . because so little has been done in this area, in terms of books for children and young people." There were some areas of the instrument on which he did not disagree but had questions and reservations. These were the activities of teenagers in inner-city as well as the ghetto. He also questioned the items pertaining to the role of the "Black church." He made reference to the varied life styles of Blacks in the United States and questioned "the kind of lumping" shown on the instrument. Alice Childress. Ms. Childress returned her questionnaire immediately upon her return from California where she was working on the film version of A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich. 0f the forty-five items listed on the questionnaire, Ms. Childress checked four--two from the family category and two from the social world. She agreed with the remaining forty-one and suggested an additional 3Bernard Berelson, Content Analysis in Communication Research (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press Publishers, 1952), p. 71. 118 item to read: "Black heads of households are generally under-employed and unable to independently support their children." Eloise Greenfield. Ms. Greenfield stated, "I am in agreement with the contents of your instrument . . . and look forward to seeing the results of this very interesting study." John Steptoe. He responded vehemently to the fact that this researcher did not make direct reference in her instrument to mani- festations of imposed oppression on salient shared experiences of Black people and also he chastised the researcher for what he inter- preted as her complacency and apathy. "The fact is that the so-called salient racial characteristics are all part and parcel of the very stigmas that oppress us. Detriment also avails itself to all. As long as we define ourselves as the intrinsic other, we will remain crippled by this mental disclassification, disqualification." Sharon Bell Mathis (telephone interview). "Your project seems vwarthwhile. Your instrument looks good because I sincerely believe tfluit books written for and about Black people should tell of the Black experience and Black point-of—view. They should tell the truth." Kristin Hunter (personal on-site interview in her New Jersey home). "Many of the aspects of your instrument have not been experi- enceeci in my own life, not in my own family. I have, however, been on the 'fficinges of them, seen them in other Black people. I can therefore agree with what you have identified." Bette Greene. She emphasized that she did not feel qualified t0 YTaéict to the instrument because she was not Black. Her contact with 119 Black people have been limited. Her only knowledge about what experiences might be salient and shared of Black people could only come from what she observed and she did not feel this was an adequate basis for responding to the validity of this instrument. Therefore, she felt that her_reaction would serve no meaningful purpose and declined to offer a response in writing. It could be concluded, however, from the responses that the authors agreed that these salient shared experiences could possibly be used in designing an instrument for content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States. The socio- logical research reports added the required validity, while the authors added credibility. The test of reliability by the four raters also bore out the fact that the aspects included in the instrument were such that the raters were able to do a content analysis of the selected literary piece. Therefore, the instrument used to conduct the content analysis aspect of this study may be declared valid and reliable. Research Question Two Are a majority of the stories found in contemporary realistic fiction about Black people and identified for use in this study, those that portray the salient shared experiences of Black people or are they (portraying experiences that are universal to all people? After reading each of the thirty-five stories identified as those that met the criteria for the study, the researcher found the following frequencies and percentages apparent: Each of the four 120 categories of the family structure were found in twenty-eight (80%) of the thirty-five stories portraying families composed of parent(s)- chi1d(ren). Only one (2.85%) story, The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou by Kristin Hunter, of the twenty—eight stories portrayed a home where there was found the parent(s)-child(ren)-grandchild(ren). There were three (8.57%) of the stories that portrayed parent(s)-child(ren)- elderly relative(s); these were: JLI, by Jane Wagner, A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich by Alice Childress, and Teacungull of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis. Six (17.4%) of the stories presented households where children were 'absorbed' or informally adopted. Family Structure and Composition The highest total references cited in the family category were to be found in the 1.1 parent(s)-child(ren) subcategory where the researcher cited ninety-seven references in which this kind of experience was portrayed as having direct bearing on the protagonist. There were a total of thirty-four children in the stories where these homes were portrayed. The highest number of children in any home being four, and the fewest number was one. This was to be contrasted with the single story found in the subcategory 1.3 parent(s)—child(ren)- grandchild(ren) where there were nine children in the household. This story was The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou (Hunter). Louretta, the protagonist reflects on a large family. It was not that Louretta didn't love her Momma and her seven brothers and sisters. . . . But with nine of them-— no, ten—-in a five room house, there were no corners to smwe(p N. 121 Not unlike other stories of family life, these children were found to love their brothers and sisters, as was expressed by Beth in Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe by Bette Greene. I danced a circle around her. My own little brother. figjssgoing to be fun to take care of and fun to play with A similar sentiment was expressed by Thomas in The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. Thomas could sit in front of his brothers, carving an image out of'pine, and they would jump and roll all around him. When the carving was finished, the twin for whom it was made would grab it and crawl off’with it. Thomas never need say, and never once were the twins wrong in knowing what carving was for which boy. They were fine brothers, Thomas knew (p. 14). Children in these family settings thought their mothers were pretty as was expressed in M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton. She had about the most pretty face in all the world, M. C. was sure (p. 112). Of'all the times he was alone with her he never got used to how pretty she was (pp. 126—127). The protagonist, for the most part, in these stories portrayed universal experiences such as sibling rivalry, parental preference, first love infatuations, etc. Table 5.1 contains the frequencies and percentages of the stories that made reference to family structure and composition. 122 Table 5.1 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to Family Structure and Composition Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Categories Thirty-Five of Stories References 1. People present in home span generations 1.1 parent(s)-child(ren) 18 51.42 97 1.2 parent(s)-child(ren)- elderly relative(s) 3 8.57 23 1.3 parent(s)-child(ren)- grandchild(ren) l 2.85 7 1.4 'absorbed' or informally adopted children 6 17.14 15 Egg, Frequent contacts with kin other than those living in the house were found to occur in three (8.57%) of the stories. In The Nitty .EEiEEX by Bonham, the uncle made frequent visits to the family; in Zeely_by Hamilton, the niece and nephew visited the uncle on his farm; and in The Contender by Lipsyte, frequent Sunday visits were made to an aunt in another section of the city. Table 5.2 shows the frequencies and percentages of stories where references were made to frequent contact with kin. Aunts and uncles were shown to participate in child-care and child-rearing practices by kin were found in two (5.71%) of the stories read, namely The Contender by Lipsyte and His Own Where by Jordan. No other relatives were shown sharing this responsibility in the stories read, except in incidents where the children were 'absorbed' or 123 Table 5.2 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to Frequent Contacts with Kin Categories Number of Stories Out of Thirty-Five Percentage of Stories Number of References NM #00“) NM 050‘! Frequent contacts are made with kin other than those living in the home. all siblings and parents not living in the home parents-in-law plus siblings- in-law all grandparents uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) cousins spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses fictive kin relations (those not related by marriage or birth) informally adopted into the household. In such cases, this would place the protagonist in the category (1.4) which dealt directly with 'absorbed' or informally adopted children. percentage is found in Table 5.3. concerning the role of Motherhood and the Black woman. shows this tabulation. This frequency and Explicit references were made in three (8.57%) stories each Tab1e 5.4 These three stories were Teacup Full of Roses and Listen for the Fig Tree by Mathis and "Debut" from Guests in the Promised Land by Hunter. 124 Table 5.3 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to Kin Sharing Responsibility for Child-Care and Child-Rearing Practices Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Categories Thirty-Five of Stories References 3. Kin share responsibility for child-care and child-rearing practices. 3.1 all siblings and parents not living in the home -- -- -- 3.2 parents-in-law plus siblings- in-law -— —— -- 3.3 all grandparents -- -- -- 3.4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) 2 5.71 2 3.5 cousins -- -- -- 3.6 spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses -- -— —- 3.7 fictive kin relations (those not related by marriage or birth) -- -- -- Table 5.4 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to the Black Woman Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Category Thirty-Five of Stories References 5. The Black woman is strong but not domineering whether the husband (father) is present in the home or not. 3 8.57 6 125 Non-conjugal members. Four (11.42%) of the stories portrayed non-conjugal members exercising their roles in the survival of the family. This aspect was displayed in Listen For The Fig Tree by Mathis, The Jazz Man by Weik, Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis, and His Own Where by Jordan. The frequency and percentage showing the references made to non-conjugal members may be found in Table 5.5. Table 5.5 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to Non-Conjugal Members Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Categories Thirty-Five of Stories References 6. Non-conjugal members (be they relatives or friends) are avail— able to retain and insure the survival of the family through financial and/or emotional support. 4 11.42 7 High achievement orientation. The second largest percentage and frequencies were the fifteen (42.85%) stories that dealt with achievement orientation. Within this category, the subcategory, education, was referred to in ten (28.57%) of the stories. A specific reference for this category was made by Isaac Brooks to his son Joe in Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis. I think Mattie's coming to your graduation, but I won't make it. . . . I”m going to sit here and remember how proud of'you I am. I know, Pop (p. 91). 126 The universal question asked by all children was also to be found in How Many Miles to Babylon? by Paula Fox. This question was: Why do I have to go to school? James, the protagonist in the story pondered over the question. He supposed Stick didn't go to school either. Why did he_have to go? There was no point asking himself that ques- tion. He knew why. His aunts made him go. His Aunt Grace told him how proud his mother would be when she came back from the hospital and saw all the good marks he was going to get someday, and heard the teachers say what a fine boy he was (p. 100). Table 5.6 shows the frequencies and the percentages of stories and references made to high achievement orientation. Table 5.6 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to High Achievement Orientation Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Categories Thirty-Five of Stories References 7. High achievement orientation for children typifies the attitudes of their parents and/or significant others . 7.1 education 10 28.57 24 7.2 economic status 3 8.57 6 7.3 social status 2 5.71 2 127 The Social World The "Black church" (formalgroups). Three (8.57%) of the stories portraying the social world referred to the "Black church" and its role next to the family. There were seven (19.98%) of the stories that made reference to the church's role as a channel for religious and social expression. References made to the "Black church" and its role are presented in percentages and frequencies in Table 5.7. Table 5.7 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to the "Black Church" Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Categories Thirty-Five of Stories References 1. The "Black church" is the strongest social institution next to the family 3 8.57 5 1.2 The "Black church” furnishes the channel for religious and social expression 1.21 center for interpersonal relations 1 2.85 l 1.22 center for communications 2 5.71 2 1.23 center for recreation 1 2.85 1 1.24 center for physical and psychological escape from pressures 3 8.57 5 Informal groups. The “street" as a social institution was referred to in four (11.42%) of the stories, with the same percentage of stories showing leisure-time activities to including hanging around in large groups. 128 Three (8.57%) stories were found that contained references to organized gang behavior, while eight (22.85%) actually showed fighting gangs in some form. These frequencies and percentages are found in Table 5.8. Table 5.8 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to Informal Groups Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Categories Thirty—Five of Stories References 2. Leisure—time activities (informal groups) 2.1 "The street" as a social institution 4 11.42 6 2.2 "Leisure-time activities" 4 11.42 6 2.3 Teenage participation in leisure time activities 1 2.85 2 2.4 Organized gang behavior 2 5.71 2 2.5 Fighting gangs 8 22.85 23 The world of work. There were eight (22.85%) of the stories that dealt with the world of work in the Black community, while two (5.71%) dealt directly with involvement in work as it replaces social and recreational activities. Table 5.9 shows the frequencies and percentages of stories and references made to the world of work. Absent from the thirty-five stories were those that made ref- erence to the political leadership role of the Black church and the role of the mutual aid and fraternal organizations in the Black community. 129 Table 5.9 Frequencies and Percentages of Stories and References Made to the World of Work Number of Stories Out of Percentage Number of Categories Thirty-Five of Stories References 3. The world of work 3.1 The world of work is restricted to the Black adult community. (Black youth are usually unemployed or under- employed.) 8 22.85 23 3.2 Involvement in the world of work replaces other social and recreational activities for Black adults and sub- sequently Black youth. 2 5.71 5 Summary The family received the most coverage with all types listed appearing in the stories (twenty-eight or 80%). The family was followed in next highest frequencies by high achievement orientation with fifteen (42.85%) of the stories. Education was referred to in ten (28.57%) of the fifteen stories. All people share the family experience in some form; here the stories gave an accurate reflection on this aspect of the instrument. Since children spend a major portion of their time in school and considering the publication dates (school integration), it was not unusual that education and school would be adequately covered in these stories. 130 The church, the mother, the kinship bonds were only given fleeting attention and did not effect the protagonist to any sig- nificant extent; therefore, there was insufficient data to establish a basis for responding positively to the question of the universal experience portrayed rather than the salient shared experiences of Black people. Attitudes of Protagonist to Black Family Experiences Sub-Question (a) (1) In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black pepple in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization and relationship of members of the family in a way that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? (2) Is there a difference in how the protagonist regards (favorably, unfavorably, etc.) living in a home with a (1) single parent, (2) twqpparents, or (3) other heads of house- hold (i.e., aunts, uncles, foster parents)? All thirty-five stories read made references to the family structure and composition. Attitudes expressed by the protagonist toward family members were varied within the family structure. There were ninety-seven references cited for the subcategory l.l parent(s)- child(ren) in the major category 1. People Present in Home Span Genera- tions. Forty—three (44.32%) references showed the protagonist favorably effected. In The Jazz Man by Mary Weik, Zeke expresses happiness at having his family all together and the favorable effect it has on him. 131 After that the two of them, Zeke and his Daddy, would sit in the dark and listen to the Jazz Man playing. And Zeke's Mama, when she came in late and bumped the groceries dbwn on the kitchen table, would kick off her high—heeled shoes and sit and listen too. So then there were the three of them sitting there in the dark, close together, listening, and Zeke was as happy as any boy could be (p. 14). Favorable expressions toward both parents were found in this category of stories as well as toward one parent. Thomas expresses his attitude in both ways in The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. He felt so good sitting there in the new kitchen, in the new house, with his mother and father (p. 95). Expressing the favorable effect his father has on him, Once, when they had a minister back home, he would often stop by on Sunday to listen to Thomas' father and to have a cup of coffee. Thomas felt very proud of those times (p. 109). In some references one parent was favored over the other and the effect on the character was determined by which parent was involved in the interaction. In Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff by Walter Myers, Stuff's feelings toward his mother are favorable. My mother came in after a while and sat on the edge of the bed. She gave me a poke in the side and she kept nudging me with her knuckles until I had to laugh and then she kissed me on my forehead and went out. She's okay. My father's okay too, in his way. But she's okay in a way you can deal with (p. 147). There were cited twenty-five references or 25.77 percent of the total ninety-seven references under 1.1 parent(s)-child(ren) that indicated that the protagonist was unfavorably effected in this house- hold. The negative attitudes were focused on fathers in many cases. In The Friends by Rosa Guy, Phyllisia's attitude is negative throughout 132 the story. The story begins with the protagonist setting the tone for the hostility that is to continue throughout. Galvin is my father. Ta myself I use his first name, as a sign of'disrespect (p. 6). It was Calvin, of’course, who would force me to go. But I wasn't going. Anyway I hated Galvin. I hated him just as I hated the children and the school and the teacher (p. 16). Anyway, my father likes Ruby better. He's crazy about her. But he hates me. we hate each other (p. 69). Disinterest on the part of the parents were reasons for some negative attitudes. In The Nitty Gritty by Frank Bonham, such an expression is made by Charlie towards his father. His father was drinking a can of'beer befare the television set when he dragged in. Callie was on the telephone, and Buster and his mother were in the kitchen. "Where's your uncle?" Roscoe Matthews said. I could come in at 4:00 a.m., Charlie thought, and he wouldn't give a nickle where I'd been (p. 148). The same protagonist in the same story expressed the unfavorable effect received by him from both his parents. Charlie sighed. Get on Charlie’s back, everybody, he thought, there's plenty of'room. His mother worked days, his father nights. Between 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., they were both there to go after him as a team (p. 16). Eight (8.25%) of the stories showed the household composition as having a neutral effect on the characters, while there were found mixed reactions twenty-one (21.64%) times in the stories. Mixed reaction to the family was expressed by Stuff after his first brush with the law in Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. 133 we went on home and I told my father, and he said that I was learning what the world was all about. I don't think so though. Because the people I like most, Clyde and Scan and Gloria and Kitty, aren't like that. Neither are my parents but sometimes my father seems a little mean (p. 93). David in North Town by Lorenz Graham does not reveal his feelings one way or the other as he begins to come to grips with his father's illness. If it should be too bad for his father, he would indeed have to take his place as the man of the family. He would have to meet responsibility (p. 164). M. C. Higgins, in M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton, is noncommital when asked if he liked his father. "You don't like him?" the girl said. "Maybe I shouldn't ask." But she waited. He thought for a moment, years and years of'his father. walking, hunting with him. At the table, on the porch. "Nothing to do with liking,” he said finally. "Him and me," it's a feeling-—But I like the mountains. In homes where there were parent(s)-child(ren)-e1derly relatives, there were twenty-three references cited in only three books: J41, by Jane Wagner, A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich by Alice Childress, and Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis. The protagonist was favorably effected eleven (47.83%) times in the three stories. The effect was unfavorable ten (43.48%) times. In one ref- erence (4.34%) the protagonist was portrayed neutrally (J41, by Wagner) and a mixed response was recorded one (4.34%) time in the same book. An unfavorable effect in A Hero Ain't Nothing_But a Sandwich by Alice Childress is expressed by the thirteen year old portagonist. 134 . . then they notify my Gramma and she blabbin' it all over to my mother and Butler, then they jumpin' in it. I’m the only one cool, cause if‘I'wassen, I woulda tole the principal, the teacher, the social and the whole world that my stepfather ain't married to my mother no kinda way. . . (p. 15). The elderly aunt in Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis has a favorable effect on Joe. "And of course, there's the aunt." Jae smiled. "She can see the whole world in a little pouch she keeps with her. I love Aunt Lou, because she's strong. They think she's crazy, but she's not. She really knows things (p. 37). The one story title that portrayed parent(s)—child(ren)- grandchild(ren) was found to have a total of seven references, of which two (28.57%) were found to be both favorable and unfavorable on the part of the protagonist. There were no cases of a neutral effect, but there were three (42.85%) references in the mixed category. A specific reference for the mixed category and the effect it has on the protagonist is from The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou. When Arneatha’s baby, Cara Lee, was born, she'd just taken it calmly and started raising it like one of her own. Still, with Mbmma taking care of the baby, Arneatha was free to get dressed up and go out on dates and have as much fun as she ever had. Of course Arneatha had been fbrced to drop out of school. One thing Louretta was sure of'was that she would finish school (p. 9). In many of the stories where the protagonist is 'absorbed' or informally adopted, the effect on the protagonist was found to be favorable. Of the fifteen references made, ten (66.66%) were favorable, one (6.66%) was unfavorable, and two (13.33%) were neutral and mixed, respectively. Children in these home usually stated explicitly their 135 favorable expressions. In "Mom Luby and the Social Worker," from Guests in the Promised Land by Hunter, this expression was found: Puddin' and I been livin' with Mbm Luby three years, ever since our mother died. We like it fine (p. 111). From Hey, Big Spender by Bonham, He winked at Breathing Man, meaning, What a woman! and See you later. As a matter of’fact, he would have grown up on a sidewalk or in an orphanage himself, if his aunt had not taken him in years ago after his mother died and his old man split (p. 15). From How Many Miles to Babylon? by Fox, the effect of living with the aunts has a neutral reference in this section of the story. His mother had spent that night standing next to the window looking into the street. After that he had not seen his father again, and when he asked his mother about him she had said, "Gone, gone, gone. . ." just like that three times. Then they had moved in with the three Aunts, who were not really his Aunts but his father’s (p. 24). The majority of the children who were 'absorbed' or informally adopted were taken in by relatives. None were taken in by outsiders according to the data collected in these stories. Table 5.10 shows the composition and structure of households represented in the stories together with the effect these households had on the protagonist. Sub-Question (a—2) Is there a difference in how the protagonist regards (favorabLy, unfavorably, etc.),living in a home with a (1) single parent, (2) two parents, or (3) other heads of household (i.e., aunts and uncles, foster‘parents)? .‘a'o “.. .' 136 .mmwgopm mo amass: esp mmumUVUcw mumxowgn cw emnszz n .wmmpcmocma mg» mmpmowucw mummzpcmcma cw emasszm flog m_ Amm.m_vm Amm.mevm Aom.ov _ Ame.oovo_ cazscego nuances x—Fwecowc_ Lo .umngomno. 4.? h_a A Amw.~evm o “Am.mmvm Rem.mmvm Acagve_weuu=wam -Acwcvupwguufimvpcoemq m.p And mm Aem.ev _ Aem.ev _ Awe.mevo_ Amw.~ev__ Amva>_pe_ac xpgau_a -AcmcvvazuuAmvpcmcma N.F nflm_gkm A¢©.PNV_N Amm.mv w Ask.mmvmm eflmm.eevms Acaavepe;U-Amvp=maeg _._ meowpmemcmm :mam mac; cw pcmmwea mFQoma ._ mmucwcmewm umxwz Pmcpzwz mFDmco>mmca mFcho>ma mmwcommpmo emcee op.m mFamH pmwcomwpocm co “ommmm use cowpwmanoo UFocmmzo: new xfiwswa 137 To test this research question, a one-way analysis of variance was used. The independent variable was the type of family structure as to its composition (i.e., single parent, two parents, or other heads of household). The dependent variable was the average attitude score for the protagonist which ranged from 1.0 (favorable) to 3.0 (unfavorable). The average attitude score for the protagonist was obtained by summing the number of favorable, unfavorable, mixed, and neutral references made toward the family in each story. These averages were then put into individual cells in order to use in the analysis of variance. An F statistic of .46 was obtained which is not larger than F2’25(.05) = 3.39. Therefore, it was concluded that there is no significant difference in how the protagonist regards (favorable, unfavorable, etc.) living in a home with a (1) single parent, (2) two parents, or (3) other heads of household (i.e., aunts and uncles, foster parents). The results are shown in Table 5.11. Table 5.11 One-Way Analysis of Variance for Mean Differences on Protagonist Attitude Toward Family Arrangement Family Arrangement N Mean MSB MSW F One parent 7 1.74 .1247 .2716 .46 Two parents 15 1.74 Others 6 1.51 138 Frequent contacts with kin. There were found three (8.57%) of the stories that made reference to frequent contacts made with kin other than those living in the home. Three (60%) of the five references were made in which the protagonist was favorably effected while the effect was mixed in two (40%). No references were found to indicate that the protagonist was either unfavorably or neutrally effected by these visits. A frequent visit from an uncle in The Nitty Gritty by Frank Bonham has a favorable effect on the entire family. These references are tabulated in Table 5.12. The Matthews home jumped when Uncle Baron arrived on one of his visits. He told tall tales, roughhoused with the kids, and talked to Charlie man to man-~even made a happy human being out of his father for a couple of’weeks UP- 23). Two stories made reference to kin sharing in the responsibility for child-care and child-rearing. The effect on the protagonist was favorable in one story and unfavorable in the second. There was to be found one reference each. In His Own Where by June Jordan, Buddy was not in favor of moving in with his aunts and uncles while his father was confined to the hospital. (Table 5.13 shows the tabulation for this category.) His relatives asked the same thing and discussed where he should move. Assume that he should move out of'the house he and his father put together like their lives until now. Move! He will not move among the dailies, wall paper, headboard beds, and extra chairs that scatter through the houses of his relatives. He will not move. It is a home they made. Not very clean in the usual way. But beautifal and fall of'what they absolutely need for everyday. Full and free from stuff’just lying and lying around (p. 16). 139 .mmeOpm we Logan: mgu mmpmuwucw mpmxuwcn cw amassz a .mmmpcmogma use mmamowvcw mommgpcmcma c? consazm Agpc_a co mmmwgcme >3 ummewL poc wmocpv meowumeL sex m>wuowe n.m .- - 1- - -1 mwmzoam .mmcwpawm m:_a mmcwpnwm m_wm=oam o.~ - 1- -1 1- - mcvmzoo m.~ gram 8% o 0 use: 2058.8 van Pmccmpmsv mpcsm new mmpocz v.~ -1 1- -1 1- 1- mpcmcmaucmgm F—w m.N .- -1 - - - zap-:w1mmcwpnwm m:_a gap-cw-pcmcoa N.m 1- -1 11 11 - mac; meg :_ mcw>w— po: mpcmcma new mchinm PFm _.~ mac; use cw mew>wp omen» cusp cmcpo :wx gee: mums mew mpompcou pcmzcwca .N mmocmcmemm umxwz _mcp:mz mpnmco>mica mpnwco>ma mmwcommpmo Pmpop cwx new: mpowucoo pcmzcmca N~.m mpnmh 140 .mmwcopm $0 amass: mgp mmpmuwucw mpoxumcn cw cmnszz a .mmmpcwucwa esp mmpmueucw mummgpcmcma cw gmnsszm Aspcwn Lo mmmwgems xn ummemL po: mmogpv meowmemL :mx m>wpuww mmmzoam .mmcwpnwm mzpa mm:w_nwm m.mm=oam mcwmzou Achcmpma vcm Pmccmpmsv macaw new mmpucs muzmemaucmgm ppo 3m—1cw-mchPQem m:_a zap-:w1mpcmcwa wee; one cw m:?>?_ uo: mpcmgma new mmcw_nwm _Fm .mmowpumca newemmg1cpwgu use memo -vfivco Lo; xpWPwnwmcoamme memcm cwx mmocmcmwmm _opoe waxes Fmgpzmz mpnmco>mec= mrnmgo>ma mmecoamumo amoebaeaa meeamam-e_e;o new mamu-e_e;o toe mp.m mfiomh spleenwmcoammm aceem sax 141 Alfred found his cousins spending their time with kin favorable as reflected in a short reference in The Contender by Robert Lipsyte. In late July, Aunt Pearl went to Elversen's summer house and left the girls in Queens with Dorothy and Wilson. The apartment seemed large and empty. Now he could sleep late on Sundays. sometimes he slept right through the day, getting up only to eat and doze in front of the television set (p. 64). Mother or mother figures were found in all of the stories; however, there were found to be only four (11.42%) stories where the effect was favorable or unfavorable to some significant degree. Be- longingness was cited in all four of the four stories with two favorable references, two unfavorable, and one mixed. In The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou by Hunter, Louretta made the following statement concerning the naturalness of her mother's role: ”Mbmma," Louretta said, "the baby won’t eat any more. She isn't hungry.” "Give her to me, then,” Momma said, and held out her strong brown arms that seemed made for holding babies (p. 26). This is contrasted with the unfavorable effect on the protagonist in Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis. Mbst of’all, don't let Momma throw you. She means you no harm, she loves you. But don't wait to hear her say it. She won't. And then again, she does, in her way. I think you know, by now, to see it when it comes. Her love, I mean. She just happens to have a favorite, it’s as simple as that (p. 76). As in the category on motherhood, the Black woman was mentioned very seldom in these stories. There were to be found only three (8.57%) of the stories where her role was presented with a total of six refer- ences. She had an unfavorable effect on the protagonist in one instance, 142 a mixed effect in one reference, and a neutral effect in four references. Table 5.14 contains the tabulations on motherhood and the Black woman. A few excerpts from these references on the Black woman appear below. From Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis, Then, there’s a father who let's his woman run his life. And a mother who's convinced she's got to run it (p. 37). "Maybe you could knock Momma down Pop," he said. "Knock her down if she comes through the door wrong. Maybe you're too gentle and she can't use it" 0p. 11). From Guests In the Promised Land by Kristin Hunter, Her mother always answered, “If that's all I did we'd still be on relief," and he would shut up with shame over the years when he had been laid off repeatedly and her day work and sewing had kept them going. Now he had steady work, but she refused to quit, as if she expected it to end at any moment (p. 52). Non-conjugal members. In four stories, references were made to non-conjugal members' supporting the family financially and/or emotionally. There were found seven references in this category. In three (42.85%) of these references, the protagonist was favorably effected. There was one (14.28%) reference each that showed unfavorable or neutral effect on the protagonist. The effect was unfavorable and mixed in The Jazz Man by Weik and favorable and mixed in Listen For the Fig Tree by Mathis. This made two (28.57%) references where the role of the non-conjugal members had a mixed reaction on the protagonist. (These tabulations are shown in Table 5.15.) For the most part, these non-conjugal members were non-relatives, with one entry that showed the 143 .mmeOHm $0 amass: as» mmmeTucw mpmxomcn cw amassz n .mmmwcmocwa one mmpmowucw mommgpcmema cw consazm flmgo o Amo.o_v_ Amm.mmvm 0 so: to mac; one cw pcmmwcg we Atonemev ucmnmac ms“ gmcumgz mcwemmcwEou yo: pan acogum m? case: xowpm one .m m_u_ o o o AOOPVF aprVQmum mmeponszm aw m.¢ HFHF o o o AooFVF :pmcmgpm mmNPFonexm we N.¢ nmvum AONVP o Acevm mfioevm mmmcmcwchPmn mmeponezm a? _.e mzpmum mpnmgoco; no we coocemcuoz .e mmucmcwemm uwxwz —mcp:mz mpnmeo>mwcs mpnmco>aa mmwgommpwu _muoh case: xome use use cooccmgpoz vp.m mpnwh 144 .mmwcoum mo amass: esp mmpmowucv mpmxomgn aw gmnszz n .mmmpcmucma one mwpmuwucw mummcucmema cw consazm ameum Amm.mmvm mm.¢_v_ Awm.e_vp mflmm.mevm peoaazm choprEm Lo\vcm meocwcwm gmzoccu xpwEmm ms» mo Fm>w>gsm ecu mczmcw use :wmpwg op anmPVm>m mam Amvcmwgw Lo mm>mum~mc xmgp mnv memnEwE _mm:n:oo-:oz .o mmucmcwmmz umxwz _mcp:mz m_amgo>m$:= mPQmLo>ma xcommpmu Pepe» mewoemz Pmmzwcoo-coz m_.m mpnmh 145 support coming from relatives. This was found in His Own Where by June Jordan where Buddy's father is in the hospital and Buddy is by himself. His relatives, and even sometimes his mother far away in Barbadoes, they all send him, send Buddy food money and money far clothes. Treat him like a little man (p. 50). Muffin is favorably effected by the friends who help her and her mother in Listen For the Fingree by Sharon Bell Mathis. Her father was gone (dead) and things were different. Now when she needed a kind of’father she had Mr. Willie Williams--her father's "growing-up buddy." And she had Mr. Dale. Next to her mother, Mr. Dale was the best-- not counting Ernie. Ernie never talked much anyway. The only person who really talked to her was Mr. Dale 0p. 31). High achievement orientation (frequencies, percentages, and attitudes). There were found a total of fifteen (42.85%) of the stories that made reference to the parent's attitude toward high achievement, educationally, economically, and in social status for their children. Nine (37.5%) of the twenty-four references to edu- cation had a favorable effect on the protagonist. Economic status had its greatest percentage in the unfavorable category where there were six entries, three (50%) having an unfavorable effect on the protag- onist. Social status was a nebulous category with only two entries, one each in the mixed and neutral categories. Table 5.16 contains the frequencies and percentages for high achievement orientation. Specific references to economic status may be found below. In the first story, economic status has an unfavorable effect on the 146 .mmwgopm yo amass: as» mmpmowncw mpmxumgn aw emaszz a .mmmpcmugwa one mmpmuwccw mommcucmgma cw emaszzm mug N Aoo.omv_ Aoo.omvp o o mapmam _mw00m m.u mmg m o Aom.m_v_ Aoo.omvm Am.mmvm mzuwpm oweocoom N.n nmo_gem Amm.mmvm A~¢.__Ve Asm.wv m mAm.~mvm cowemuzum P.“ .mcmguo pcmowmwcmwm Lo\u:m mpcmgma gems» eo macspwppa we“ mm_cwa»b cweu_e;o com cowpmpcmwco pcmew>wwsum saw: .N mmocmgwmmm umx_z Pmcpzwz mpnmco>mmcz wpamgo>ma mmeeommpmo Page» comumpcmwco u=m5m>wwco< saw: m_.m m—nmb 147 protagonist because it is also unfavorably effecting educational achievement. From Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis, As smart as Davey is, he won't be able to go to any college unless he gets a full scholarship. You understand I mean a full one. There's money in the bank, but Momma doesn't think of'it in terms of Davey, and Davey knows it 0p. 86). In the second story, the father's proposal to match funds encourages the child to save and the effect is portrayed as favorable. From §g§t_ Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff by Walter Myers, I had fourteen dollars, seven that I saved by working in the A 8 P in the afternoons after school and seven that my father gave me. He said that if I wanted a new mouthpiece (which I did) then I would have to come up with seven dollars. The seven dollars was actually from four days of carrying packages for people from the A & P (p. 88). High achievement orientation for children as it pertained to social status and parental attitude was found in two stories. There was a feeling of neutrality on the part of the protagonist in the reference cited. In "Debut" from Guests In the Promised Land by Hunter, "It is a battle," her mother said firmly. "It starts tonight and it goes on for the rest of’your life. The battle to hold your head up and get someplace and be somebody. we've done all we can for you, your father and I. Now you've got to start fighting some on your own." She gave Judy a slight smile; her voice softened a little. You'll do all right, don't worry. Try and get some rest this afternoon. And don't mess up your hair. "All right, Mother," Judy said listlessly (pp. 51-52). There were twenty-four references made toward education and parental attitudes in ten stories. In five of the ten stories, the protagonists made references to continuing on to college. Two of the ten stories dealt directly with school integration. Significant others 148 featured in the encouragement of the protagonist in two stories. References from these two stories follow. Alfred, in The Contender by Lipsyte, was encouraged to stay in school by his friend James. While James could be considered a "significant other," the effect was mixed on Alfred's part. James tried to talk him into staying in school, "can't get a good job without that piece of’paper, Alfred." James was going to be an engineer, and build things. Alfred could help him. Never happen now. I quit school and after all that talk, James quit four months later (pp. 8-9). In The Nitty Gritty by Bonham, Mr. Toia, the teacher, tried to encourage Charlie to stay in school and thus fulfill his hopes and dreams in spite of the lack of concern on the part of his family. Charlie finds the teacher's influence a favorable one. Charlie wanted to say more about appreciating the teacher's interest in him and all, but he was embarrassed to put it in words. He decided he would write him a nice letter and tell him these things. It was always easier to write a thing than to say it, he thought (p. 116). Summary of data on the family. All seven major areas under the family were dealt with to some degree in the stories read. All of the aspects included in the instrument were not covered with references from the stories and therefore the uniqueness of Black people in the family organization could not be adequately assessed. There was no significant difference found in how the protagonist regards (favorably, unfavorably, etc.) living in a home with (1) a single parent, (2) two parents, or (3) other heads of household (i.e., aunts, uncles, and foster parents). 149 Motherhood and the Black woman received relatively few favorable entries. The book character of the Black woman was not given a significant role in the plot, nor was her personality developed to any significant depth. The strong kinship bonds were not evidenced in the stories with only three (8.57%) of the stories showing any frequent contacts with other kin outside of the home. Relatives were shown to share in child care and child-rearing practices in only two stories, with a single entry being gleaned from each book. Non—conjugal members were shown to exercise their roles in the survival of the family in four stories, while seven entries were to be found with this aspect. Three (42.85%) of the references were favorable with unfavorable and neutral each sharing one (14.28%) reference each. High achievement orientation for children by parents and significant others was varied. There were found more references to education than to economic and social status combined. Education as an attitude of the parents and/or significant others was found to be favorable with the protagonist nine (37.5%) times that the reference was cited. While the protagonist tended to be mixed in his effect eight (22.85) of the twenty-four times the reference appeared. Eco— nomic status and social status tended to be of little significance as indicated by the six references in four stories for economics and the two references in the two stories for social status. 150 The answer to the question, do a mpjority of the stories used in this studypportray the organization and relationship of members of the family in a way that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared exppriences of Black people, is up, This answer is based on the gathered data where it was found that a majority of these stories are not portraying those salient shared experiences of Black family life. The Contender by Lipsyte was the only story of the thirty-five found to contain a total of four out of the seven aspects identified as being salient and shared by Black people. The attitude displayed by the protagonist in the story was, for the most part, favorable. Following are the aspects and the category numbers of the family found in The Contender: - He lived with his aunt and cousins (1.4); . On Sundays they regularly visited his other aunt in another section of the city (Queens, New York) (2.4); . The aunt from Queens took care of the minor cousins in her household when the aunt's job called for her being out of town. The aunt from Queens would check on Alfred daily by telephone (3.4); and . Alfred's friend James was his "significant other," who encouraged him to stay in school (7.1). Sub-Question (b) In contemporary realistic fiction written about Black pepple, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organiza- tion, relationship, and activities of the social world of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? 151 It was found that seven (28.0%) of the thirty-five stories read contained some reference to the church. All of the churches mentioned in the stories were Protestant and predominantly Black churches. The two denominations mentioned by name were the Baptist and the Methodist churches. The role of the "Black church" as the strongest social institution next to the family was only found in three (8.57%) of the stories. There were five references made in these stories about the role of the church. The House of Dies Drear by Hamilton contained one (20%) reference that was favorable and one (20%) that was neutral, while three mixed references were found in the area. One reference was found in The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou by Hunter and two others were found in Whose Town by Graham. Two of the seven stories, North Town and Whose Town (both by Graham) were about the same family who had moved from the South to the North. The attitudes of the protagonist toward the church were either favorable, neutral or mixed at different times during the course of the stories. Negative attitudes were not to be found in any of the refer- ences that dealt with the church. Table 5.17 shows the frequencies and percentages of attitudes toward the "Black church" and its role. In those stories where the reference was made to church or church—related activities, there was found one or both parents in attendance regularly. Attendance at church in some of the stories \Mas not a regular thing. David in Whose Town by Graham discusses liis mixed feelings toward church attendance. 152 .mwwgopm we amass: esp mmpmuwucw mumxumgn cw Lucasz .mmmpcmogma one mouse a Pun? mommcucmgwa cw emasszm mmHm AONVP o o Aomv e mxammmca seem wamumw Fmowmo— -o;u>ma use Fmowmxga cow Lmucmo ¢N._ m_u_ o o o Aoo_v_ coepamcoaa toe caucus mN._ mmum o Aomvp o Aomv P mcowumue:=EEou com L8.ch NN._ HPHF o o o Aoopvp meowumpmg pacemgmagmpcw Lo; Lmucmu ~N._ . .cowmmmgaxm meuom ucm mzowmmeL com —mcceco use mosmwcezw zsoeagu xomFmg one N._ gangm Acevm Ao~v_ o mfiomv _ .s_wsst ms» op pxm: corpsumumcw Fawoom ummmcocum as» we =socago xumpm= one ._ mmucmgwmmm uwxwz nguamz wpnmgo>mmcz wpnmco>ma mmwgommumo Pouch m_om mpH ecu =cuasgu compo. age N_.m spank 153 David had avoided going to church lately. For a while he had served as a junior deacon; he had ushered and helped to take up collection. Now he was a member of First Baptist Church but one of the many who seldom attended. He had also sung in the choir for a short time, but that duty required regular Thursday night attendance for rehearsal. He had to drop it 0p. 2l5). Five references were made to the Black church as being the center for physical and psychological escape from pressures. These five references were found in three stories namely: Lions in the Way by Rodman, Listen For the Fig Tree by Mathis, and The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou by Hunter. Four of the references toward the role of the church were favorable, while one (20%) was mixed. Louretta in The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou experienced this feeling: Louretta was appalled. She felt that this sort of religion was very undignified and not at all proper at a funeral. She herself’would never indulge in such antics in church. But a minute later, she was astonished to find that she was on her feet and that one of the voices screaming, "Yes Lord!" was hers. In one story, the church picnic furnished the recreation for the community. Although not a powerful reference, this reference showed that the protagonist had a favorable regard for the church's role as a center for recreation. This reference to the church is from Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe by Bette Greene. I broke right in. Quiet! Now next month the Old Rugged Cross Church has their yearly picnic, and I've been thinking that we oughta challenge the Tiger Hunters to a relay race (p. 73). In one story, the "Black church" served as the center for meeting friends and also for interpersonal relations. In North Town by Graham, the Williams family find the church to be the place to start Ineeting people when new in town. 154 "Yes, " David said, adding that they had joined the First Baptist Church and made some friends there. Leisure-time activities (informal groups). The"street" as a social institution was referred to in four (11.42%) of the stories. These titles are: Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis, Planet of Junior Brown by Hamilton, The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou by Hunter, and Hey, Big Spender by Bonham. In Hey, Big Spender, the protagonist is a great admirer of the old man who is always sitting in a chair in front of the pool hall, as is shown in this reference. The thought of’the old man's chair sitting empty before the pool hall dismayed him. In his mind, Breathing Man was sort of'medicine man, message center, preacher, and grand- father (p. 6). 0f the six references made to the "street," three (50%) references were considered favorable and one (16.66%) reference was mixed. In Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis, Joe expressed the favorable effect the street has on him. But outside, the street didn' t need fixing. It was wonderful, Joe thought. He could almost forget the things that worried him. But not quite (p. 20). There were found seven references in four stories (11.42%) referring to leisure time activities. These four stories were: Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff by Myers, Cool Cat by Bonham, Mystery of the Fat Cat by Bonham, and North Town by Graham. The storybook characters appeared not to be effected one way or the other as was evidenced by the high number of references under neutral. Specific references to leisure time activities were found in Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. 155 It was almost another week when we heard from Carnation Charley again. It was after practice and most of'the guys were just sitting around the center drinking Cbkes or playing Nok—Hockey. . . (p. 155). From North Town by Graham, David began to spend'more and more of'his freetime at carver Community Center. He had gone there first with some boys from his block on a Friday evening for Teen-Time Club. When they arrived, a record would be put on and a few couples would be dancing. Most of the time, though, the boys just stood around and talked about sports or jazz or the girls across the room (p. 64). Organized gang behavior was referred to in three (8.57%) of the stories. 0f the six references made to this aspect, four (66.66%) were favorable references and two (33.33%) were unfavorable references. Guests In the Promised Land by Hunter provides one of the favorable references as described by the book character in "The Pool Table Caper." At fourteen, I'm the youngest KOng and the newest. Took me two years building my rep to get in the gang. I had to waste four cats twice my size before String and sunshine would even look at me. And now I was in, I still had to watch my step or get kicked out. I didn't want that to happen. The gang meant too much to me (p. 30). Organized gangs and fighting gangs were located in three urban areas: Washington, Los Angeles, and New York City. The five books by Frank Bonham were the ones that addressed themselves to gang behavior. Table 5.18 includes the references and percentages for leisure time activities. Summary of data on the social world. Only seven (20%) of the stories in the sample made some reference to the "Black church." There were a few examples that could be used for analysis, but they were not very powerful. 156 .mmwcopm eo Logan: ecu mmpmoequ mpmxumcn c? cmnssz a .mmmpcmucma mg» mmmewucw mommcgcmgma cw cmnszzm fimumm Ams.omv~ Amm.~_ve Amo.©mvm Ask._mvm macaw ocepemcu m.N ”Nam o o “mo.omvm Amm.mmv_ Low>egaa mesa uwNecsmLo s.~ fl_um o o o Aoo.oo_vm mmwb_>epoe asap mesmemF cw cowumawowpcma mmmcmmh m.m fiego o Amm.move o Amm.mmvm malpe>_puw aseb-masm_abz N.N ameue Aeo.o_v_ Amm.mmvm o wfioo.omvm coupspepmcw Fmeuom m we zpmmcpm one: P.m mmocmgmmwm uwxwz chpzmz mFQmLo>mmcz mpnmco>ma mmwgommuwu _zpoe mmvuw>wpu< weep-mcamemo mP.m mPQMH 157 No mention was made in any of the books about the political role played by the church. Most references were found in the area that dealt with the church as a center for physical and psychological escape from pressure. There was no mention made of the mutual aid and fraternal organizations. Leisure-time activities and the "street" were referred to in four (11.42%) stories each with both experiences being regarded by the protagonist as favorable. Teenagers were shown to participate in loose, fluid, shifting bands in one story, Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff by Myers. There were only two references made to this aspect of teenage leisure time and both were favorable. Organized gang behavior and fighting gangs appeared in a total of nine stories. Several of these stories made reference to both aspects. Five of these stories were written by the same author and featured the same characters in each of the five stories. The social world was not portrayed in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient experiences of Black people according to the data collected from these stories. The ref- erences in the books did not lend themselves to describing those aspects delineated in the instrument that were identified as being salient and shared experiences of Black people. There was not found a majority of the stories that portrayed the salient shared experiences; however Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff by Myers came closest to approximating the Black teenage culture. 158 Sub-Question (c) In contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the nature of work and the role that the world of work plays in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the salient shared experiences of Black pe0ple? Eight stories were found that made reference to the world of work in the Black community. There were twenty-three references for this category. Of this number of references, eleven (42.82%) were favorable, four (17.39%) were unfavorable, one (4%) was neutral, while the protagonist had mixed reactions seven (30.43%) times. The protag- onist worked as store clerk, gardeners, life guards, plant laborers; they worked the night shift and the afternoon shift. Their attitudes toward work are reflected in a few references below. Whose Town by Lorenz Graham is a story that demonstrates the protagonist's attitude toward work. With the closing of school, children spilled into the streets. High school boys and girls scrambled for the few jobs available. David considered himself lucky. Many of his friends had nothing to do during the summer (p. 178). This reference is contrasted with a reference from Durango Street by Frank Bonham. He decided the thing to do was to get a heavy job this summer, if he could find work at all. When a black boy found work, of course it was going to be heavy: no problem there (p. 27). Then there was the reference made in Whose Town by Lorenz Graham about the unemployed. 159 David remembered having heard, "Last to be hired, first to be fired.” How he heard people say, "Last called back will be the man that is black" (p. 135). Involvement in the world of work as a replacement for other social and recreational activities were found in two-stories, Lions In The Way by Rodman and Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis. There were five references made to this aspect of the instrument. Two (40%) of the references were favorable, one (20%) reference was neutral, and two (40%) references were mixed. In Lions In The Way by Bella Rodman, Robby discusses why he must sacrifice his social and recreational activities. There was no in-between choice-—a colored boy either struggled to the top or he had nothing. He was set to go for the jackpot, even though he would need not one job, but three all at once, to earn enough for college. He was willing to give up everything for medical school—- sports, dating, even the smallest pleasure (p. 62). Table 5.19 presents the references, number of stories, and percentages for the world of work. Summary of data on the world of work. Of the stories that dealt with the world of work, eight (22.85%) focused on the restriction of Black youth in the world of work. There were twenty-three references cited in the eight stories, eleven (47.82%) were favorable references, four (17.39%) were unfavorable, and one (4.34%) was netural. Teenagers appeared eager for work and were portrayed doing a variety of jobs. Involvement in the world of work and the manner in which it replaces other social and recreational activities were cited in two stories with five entries. Both teenagers were considering higher education as a goal and began preparing themselves financially by working hard and foregoing social and recreational activities. 160 .mmwsoum mo Lessos esp mopeoeusw mpexoess s? guesszs .mmepswosmo esp mmueowusw mommspsmseo s_ sensoze E: 80.8: 80.8: o 30.8: .52; xoepm xpusmzoemosm use mupzue xoepm so» moepw>wpoe Pesowpemsoes use Fewoom Lmspo mooe_oos xsoz mo upsoz esp sw usmso>~o>sH N.m omwgmm Ams.omve Asm.sv_ Amm.n_vs eAmm.nov__ Auexoposesmus: so uozoFQEess xppeam: use spec» sue—mv .xuwszseoo “Foue xoe_m esp op uopowspmos we xsoz wo u—soz use _.m moosesmwom umxwz Feupooz opseco>ewsu mFQeso>ea mowsomopeu pepoh xsoz mo upgoz use mp.m mpaeh 161 In responding to the question, do a majority of the stories used in this stupyportray the nature of work and the role that the world of work plays in the lives of Blackpeople, the answer would be based on the eight stories that made reference to the world of work. Based on the data collected from these eight stories and the socio- logical studies, the Black teenager and his place in the world of work was approximated in these stories. Eight is by no means a majority, however, these books did portray that aspect of the world of work. Additional Findings Other findings that resulted from the study are enumerated as follows. 1. After tallying the data, it was revealed that out of thirty-five stories in the study, fifteen stories were found to contain four or more of the major aspects of the salient shared experiences. These titles and authors are: Bonham, Frank. Durango Street. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1965. . The Nitty Gritty. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1968. . Hey, Big Spender! New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1972. . Mystery of the Fat Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1968. . Cool Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1971. Graham, Lorenz. North Town. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1965. ' 162 Whose Town? New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., ““T§6§I Hunter, Kristin. Guests In the Promised Land. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968. Jordan, June. His Own Where. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1971. Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. New York: Harper and Row, 1967. Mathis, Sharon Bell. Listen For the Fig Tree. New York: The Viking Press, 1974. Teacup Full of Roses. New York: The Viking Press, 1972: Myers, Walter. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. New York: The Viking Press, 1974. Rodman, Bella. Lions In The Way. Chicago: Follett Publishing Co., 1966. 2. According to the 1970 census data, 68 percent of the Black families in the United States are husband-wife families, 27 percent are headed by females, and 5 percent of the families are male-headed house- holds. In order to test whether a similar distribution of family structure and composition was found in the sample of stories used in the present study, the chi-square test for goodness—of—fit was used. There were found twenty-eight of the thirty-five stories that mentioned various family structures. Of these twenty-eight stories, fifteen of them made reference to husband-wife households, twelve made reference to female-headed households while only one story made refer- ence to a male-headed household. The observed and expected frequencies 163 in each of these three categories is shown in the following contingency table (Table 5.20). Table 5.20 Contingency Tab1e Showing Observed and Expected Frequencies of Black Family Structures Husband-Wife Head Female-Head Male-Head E1 = 19 E2 = 8' E3 = 1 01 = 15 02 = 12 03 = l A test statistic T was used to compare observed and expected frequencies and is given by C (0... E.)2 T = J 3 where: c = 3 i=1 Ej N = 28 Ej = oj” T = 2.842 df = 2 a = .05 with a two-tailed chi-square test T = 2.842 > 4.303. 1'W. J. Conover, Practical Non-Parametric Statistics (New York: -John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1971), p. 187. 164 Therefore it was concluded that the distribution of family structure and composition found in the sample of books was not significantly different than the distribution of family structure and composition found in the real world. This finding showed that the authors in this study are close to accurate when writing about the composition and structure of Black families. CHAPTER VI SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to present a brief summary of the study, to present the conclusions and implications arrived at on the basis of the analysis of the data, and to suggest recommendations for further study. Purpose and Procedure The purpose of this study was to determine if and how selected salient shared experiences of Black people are portrayed in contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States for children twelve to fifteen years of age. The investigation was designed to find out if contemporary realistic fiction provides a source where the Black child may see her- or himself as a unique individual in terms of selected salient experiences shared by Black people in the United States and where a non—Black child might gain knowledge about and in- sight into the implications of selected salient experiences shared by Black people. - The sample of the study consisted of thirty-five stories in twenty-five books. These books were published between 1964 and 1975. 165 166 They were classified as contemporary realistic fiction with action that took place within the last twenty-five years. These stories were not historical and biographical fiction, fanciful fiction, factual, or poetry. The focus was on Black people with the protagonist being Black. These books were award-winning books or were written by authors who had received such awards in the past years (before 1964) for books about Black people. Based on the theories and findings gleaned from reports of sociological research, an instrument for use in the content analysis of the designated genre and titles was constructed so as to answer systematically the research questions generated for this study. Reliability of the instrument was established by having four raters (the principal investigator and three others) read the same story (Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis) and independently carry out the content analysis on the story according to the instructions shown on the instrument. Two statistical procedures were used: The Holsti formula was used to determine the reliability of the raters in checking items present or not present according to the salient shared experiences that were found in the story. The results of the test indicated that the raters agreed on thirty-seven of the forty-five items as being present or 82.2 percent agreement between raters. The "t" test was used to assess the reliability of the instrument through the use of the three "directional" categories: favorable, unfavorable, or neutral. A "t" of -4.9 was obtained at the .01 level. It was 167 therefore concluded that the difference between the principal rater's rating and the other raters' ratings were significantly less than would be expected by chance. Thus the instrument was declared reliable. Research Questions The research questions for this study were: 1. Can information about seleCted salient shared experiences of Black people be abstracted from sociological research reports and be utilized in the construction of a valid instrument for use in content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States? 2. In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the salient shared experiences of Black people or do they portray experiences that are universal to all people? Sub-Question (a): (1) In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the Stories used in this study portray the organization and relationship of the members of family in a way that is unique to and characteristic of the salient shared experiences of Black people? (2) Is there a dif- ference in how the protagonist is regarded (favorably, unfavorably, etc.) between (1) single-parent stories, (2) two-parent stories, or (3) other heads of households (i.e., aunts and uncles, foster parents) stories? 168 Sub-Question (b): In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization, relationship, and activities of the social world of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the salient shared experiences of Black people? Sub—Question (c): In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the nature of work and the role that the world of work plays in the lives of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? A review of the literature revealed no other studies dealing specifically with salient shared experiences of Black pe0ple in the United States as portrayed in contemporary realistic fiction for chil- dren. Nor did the review of the literature reveal that anyone used the same procedure (examination of reports of sociology research studies) to construct a valid instrument for a content analysis of any liter- ature about selected salient experiences shared by Black people. Summary of the Findings Following is a summary of the findings that resulted from an analysis of data collected for the study. 169 Research Question One Can information about selected salient shared experiences of Black people be abstracted from sociological research reports and be utilized in the construction of a valid instrument for use in content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States? Information gleaned from sociological research reports, in the areas of The Family and The Social World were collected and compiled to form a list of forty-five experiences that were identified as being salient and shared by Black people. To confirm even to a greater degree that these aspects gleaned from the sociological studies were actually shared salient experiences of Black people in the United States and that they could adequately be used in constructing a valid instrument for use in content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States, this researcher asked twelve authors of children's books about Black people in the United States to react to the forty-five experiences listed. Two methods of contacting the authors were used: interviews and questionnaires. The twelve selected authors were each sent letters explaining the nature of the study together with a request for an interview to discuss those salient shared experiences of Black people identified for use in the instrument. The request for personal interviews were honored by three authors: Kristin Hunter, Bette Greene, and Sharon Bell Mathis. Four other authors responded to the question- naire by mail. These authors were: Arnold Adoff, Alice Childress, Eloise Greenfield, and John Steptoe. Of the remaining five authors, 170 the responses or no responses were varied. Mary Weik and Paula Fox were unable to participate. Walter Myers and Julius Lester's letters were returned marked "moved, left no forwarding address" and Virginia Hamilton failed to respond to the original request, but responded indirectly through her husband, Arnold Adoff. None of the authors totally rejected the instrument though some of the items on the instrument evoked questions. The authors also made additions and suggestions to the list. It was concluded then, that the selected salient shared experiences that the researcher had identified in the area of The Family and The Social World, from the sociological studies, could possibly be used validly in designing an instrument for content analysis of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States. Research Question Two In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the salient shared experiences of Black people or do they portray experiences that are universal to all people? Of the forty-five aspects identified as being salient and shared by Black people in the United States, twenty—six were found in the thirty-five stories read. The family received the most coverage with all family types listed in the instrument also appearing in the stories, for a total 0f twenty-eight (80%) of the stories making references to the family. 171 High achievement orientation was the second largest group of experiences where references were found. There were fifteen (42.85%) stories out of thirty-five stories with a total of thirty-two references. Within this total of stories with references to high achievement orientation, ten (28.57%) stories of the thirty-five made direct references to education. Other aspects of the instrument such as the Black church, the "street," and the world of work, were all given fleeting attention and did not show an effect on the protagonist to any significant extent. Absent from the thirty-five stories were those stories that made ref- erence to the political leadership role of the Black church and the role of the mutual aid and fraternal organizations in the Black com- munity. The references made to the aspects of the family and education were insufficient to establish a basis for responding positively to the question of whether the salient shared experiences of Black people were portrayed or whether these were experiences universal to all people. Sub-Question (a) In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black peqple, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization and relationship of members of the family in a way that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black_people? Family. All thirty-five stories read made reference to some aspect of the family structure and composition as delineated on the instrument. Attitudes expressed toward family members varied within 172 the family group. Of the eighteen (51.42%) stories that made reference to homes where there are found parent(s)-child(ren), five were single or one-parent households with one of the stories portraying the single parent as the father. Three stories portrayed the simple extended family, where there was found parent(s)-child(ren) and elderly relatives. One (2.85%) story showed parent(s)-child(ren) and grand- children, while six (17.14%) showed children who were 'absorbed' or informally adopted into the home. Frequent contacts with kin. There were found only three (8.57%) stories that made reference to frequent contacts made with kin other than those living in the home, with a total of five references gleaned from the stories. Three (60%) of the references were found to have a favorable effect on the protagonist while two (40%) indicated mixed reactions. A mother or mother figure was found to be in all the stories while only four (11.42%) stories made reference to her presence in the home and the family as being of any significant importance. Belonging- ness as an honorable status of motherhood was cited a total of five times in four (11.42%) of the stories with two (40%) of the references being split between favorable and unfavorable. One (20%) story showed a mixed reaction. The Black woman was mentioned very seldom in these stories as being strong; instead she was most frequently portrayed as being domi- neering and argumentative. There were three (8.57%) stories in which she was given any significant role in the development of the plot and 173 in these three stories there were six references made about her. Five of the references (83.33%) showed her as having an unfavorable effect on the protagonist, while one (16.66%) showed her role or effect as neutral. Non-conjugal members. In four (11.42%) stories out of the thirty-five read references were made to non-conjugal members supporting the family financially and/or emotionally. 0f the seven references made in these four stories, three of the references (42.85%) had a favorable effect on the protagonist. For the most part these non-conjugal members were non—relatives such as male friends of the family. High achievement orientation. Parents were found to vary in their attitudes towards their children's future. Most of the references found in this category were those pertaining to education as a factor influencing their future. Fifteen (42.85%) of the thirty-five stories showed parental attitudes toward high educational achievement for chil- dren to be mostly favorable. There were cited a few cases of extreme disinterest on the part of parents in their children's educational achievement. Significant others such as teachers and peers played major roles in some of the stories by encouraging the protagonist to achieve. The seven major areas under the family were referred to by the authors. To respond to the question of whether a majority of the stories portrayed those salient shared experiences of Black people would have to be answered pg_in light of the data collected. The authors tended not to address themselves to aspects of the salient 174 shared experience that would open up avenues for explanation or that would call for research to prove authenticity. Safe attitudes were displayed by the protagonist. Surface actions that did not lend themselves to revealing differences were brought out in the stories that dealt with the family category. Whether the protagonist lived with a single parent, two parents, or aunts, uncles, or foster parents did not measure significantly the way he regarded these household arrangements. Sub-Question (b) In the contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people, do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the organization, relationship and activities of the social world of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black pepple? Only seven (20%) of the thirty-five stories read contained some reference to the church or church-related activities. All churches mentioned in the stories were Protestant and predominantly Black churches, with one unrelated reference made concerning a minor char- acter who was a member of the Catholic church. The two denominations mentioned by name were the Baptist and the Methodist churches. The attitudes of the protagonists were either favorable, neutral, or mixed at different times during the course of the stories. Lacking in the stories that made reference to the church was the religiousity that is salient and shared by most Black people. The adults in the stories were 175 portrayed as passive in their attitudes toward the church as the children. In one story, Lions In the Way (Rodman), the opportunity for the Black minister to emerge as a strong leader in the civil rights movement was sidestepped by the author and overshadowed by the actions and "bravery" of the white minister. When emotion and physical or psychological release was displayed in reference to the church, the main characters were first permitted to examine their actions before giving into their feelings, Lions In the Way (Rodman), The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou (Hunter), and Listen For The Fig Tree (Mathis). By and large, the church in these stories only portrayed universal or "traditional" church roles. Mutual aid and fraternal organizations were not referred to in any of the thirty-five stories. Teenagers were found to enjoy hanging around in large groups during leisure time with four (11.43%) of the stories citing references where the protagonist was favorably effected. The same number of stories, but different titles found the protagonist to find "the street" to be of an advantage or a favorable place to socialize. Organized gangs both permanent and of short duration were to be found in three large urban areas: Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and ldashington, D.C. Five books by the same author on gang behavior were fkaund in the sample. The same teenage characters were used in all the b()0k$ by this author. 176 Of the salient shared experiences listed under the heading of leisure time activities, the teenage activities described in the stories nearly approximated those delineated in the instrument. The "Black church'I was not referred to in the stories to an adequate extent to make an assessment on the attitude of the protagonist. The social world components were not well represented in the stories and assessment of the effect on the protagonist was limited. Sub-Question(c) In contemporary realistic fiction written about Blackpeople do a majority of the stories used in this study portray the nature of work and the role that the world of work plays in the lives of Black people in a manner that is unique to and characteristic of the selected salient shared experiences of Black people? The world of work in the Black community was presented in eight stories. The protagonists held a variety of jobs. They worked as store clerks, gardeners, life guards, shoeshine boys, and plant laborers. They worked the night shift as well as the after school shift. They showed themselves to be steady workers as well as willing workers . There were two (40%) stories that portrayed the involvement iii work as replacing social and recreational activities. This aspect crf the salient shared experience of Black people was exhibited by Joe iILpTeacup Full of Roses (Mathis) and by Robby in Lions In The Way (Rkadman). There was only one story, Whose Town (Graham), that 177 acknowledged unemployment by way of "lay-offs" in the Black community. The same author (Lorenz Graham) permitted the protagonist to experience apprentice practices, however, there was little or no development of the issues in the story. None of the stories addressed themselves to the vocational and on-the-job training programs that have been estab— lished to help alleviate unemployment of youth. One protagonist was compelled to miss an excessive amount of time from school in order that he might work to supplement the family income. True as this may be, the protagonist was portrayed as viewing this obligation as unfavorable. This was due, in part, because he desired to go to school and throughout the story, his parents did not make any concessions toward him taking a job after school hours nor would they listen to his side of the issue. The Social World included three major headings: the interim institutional arrangements (formal groups), leisure-time activities (informal groups), and the world of work. In the first category, the formal groups, the Black church was inadequately depicted. The many and varied roles of the church were diminished until all that was portrayed was the traditional or universally held role of g_church, that of ministering to the spiritually downtrodden. The "lodges" were not mentioned. Leisure-time activities closely approximated the "real world" that teenagers tend to engage in. There was, however, the over- emphasis on gang organization and fighting gangs as depicted in several of the books. Perhaps the eight stories that represented the world of work came closest to portraying that particular aspect of the salient shared experiences of Black people. Although not a majority, this 178 single group of stories did an impressive job of expressing moods, attitudes, and conditioning toward this aspect of the Black experience. Conclusions The major conclusions with reference to the portrayal of selected salient shared experiences of Black people in contemporary realistic fiction were as follows. 1. The Black families represented in these stories were rural, mountain, and urban dwellers, with more than half dwelling in cities. There were working mothers and non-working mothers. Mother or mother figures were found in all of the stories. In only a few stories was her image portrayed as one having positive significance. In those where she was portrayed as being significant, she was portrayed as being domineering and argumentative. Absent from the stories was the warmth and devotion that the Black mother displays towards her family. Interestingly enough, the three stories in which the mother was por- trayed as playing a significant role in the life of the protagonist were all written by Black females. 2. The proportion of 'absorbed' or informally adopted children in the stories were just about in keeping with the sociologists' figures of 15 percent. 3. The review of the sociological research gave a subtantially higher degree of importance to kinship bonds than was displayed in the stories. However, of the few that made reference to kinship bonds, the attitudes shown by the protagonist were favorable toward the role of kin in the Black family. 179 4. The value of education as a means to realizing a secure future appeared to be consistent in the stories as a major emphasis of Black families. While parents in the stories were mixed in their attitudes toward their children's academic achievement, the studies indicate that Black families tend to place a high degree of emphasis on this aspect of achievement for their children. Economic and social status did not show up as frequently in the stories which may be due in part to the fact that the two are dependent to some degree upon each other. Advancement or higher achievement in these two areas by way of a higher education was usually expressed as desirable by the protagonist. But support or encouragement of these ambitions and goals in all but a few cases were not explicitly stated by the parents. 5. When one considers that the Baptist church, which is the largest in membership among Blacks, and that the book characters were for the most part portrayed as Baptist, it would be expected that an adequate quota of stories would be presented with this aspect as a focus. The attitudes towards the church and its leading role in the Black community was ignored to a great extent in the stories. 6. Mutual aid and fraternal organizations, which reflect the first self-help organizations in the Black community, were not in any of the stories. The "lodges" as they are known, though somewhat not as popular as they once were, still hold a role of prominence in some rural and urban cities. 7. The teenagers for the most part were portrayed as ”adolescents" and as such were only concerned with adolescent 180 problems. Few of the stories made the distinction between the adolescent and the "Black adolescent," as he searches for his identity in a society that makes distinctions. There was only one story where physical discipline was used by a parent, this was in North Town by Lorenz Graham. In none of the other stories did the teenage protag- onists present a problem to their parents. 8. Perhaps the most realistic portrayals were the stories in which the protagonist was involved in the world of work. The authors were able to capture the feelings and moods of young Black teenagers in their quest for gainful employment. Additional Findings Other findings that resulted from the study are enumerated as follows. 1. After tallying the data, it was revealed that out of the thirty-five stories in the study, fifteen stories were found to pertain to four or more of the major aspects of the salient shared experiences of Black people. These titles and authors are listed in Chapter V. Of this group, six of the authors have received significant literary awards for the stories used in this study. These are: (a) Frank Bonham for Durango Street, (b) Lorenz Graham for Whose Town, (c) Kristin Hunter for The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou and Guests In The Promised Land,1 June Jordan for His Own Where, Robert Lipsyte for The Contender, and Walter Myers for Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. 1A collection of eleven short stories with a composite of the aspects. 181 2. Aspects of the salient shared experiences included in these stories are listed under the two main categories as follows (the arabic numerals reflect their positions in the instrument devised by this researchers): FAMILY: People present in home span generations: parent(s)-child(ren) parent(s)-child(ren)-elderly relatives 'absorbed' or informally adopted children . . . . de N High achievement orientation for children typifies the attitudes of their parents and/or significant others. education .2 economic status —J Kin share responsibility for child-care and child-rearing practices. .4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) OWCAJOOVN Non-conjugal members (be they relatives or friends) are available to retain and insure the survival of the family through financial and/or emotional support. SOCIAL WORLD: 2.3 Teenagers tend to participate habitually in loose, fluid, shifting bands, lacking regular leaders, well-defined membership, and clear-cut organization. 2.4 Organized gang behavior is part of the teenage tradition only in specific slum areas of large urban areas. 2.5 Fighting gangs are not characteristic of the Negro teenage culture except in large urban areas. 3. The World of Work 3.1 The world of work is restricted to the Black adult community. (Black youth are usually unemployed or underemployed.) 3.2 Involvement in the world of work replaces other social and recreational activities for Black adults and subsequently the youth. 3. Another interesting finding was that the authors of books used in this study nearly approximated the structure and composition of the Black family as recorded by the U.S. Census reports. 182 Implications It was the purpose of this study to find out if contemporary realistic fiction provides a source where the Black child can see her- or himself as a unique individual in terms of the selected salient shared experiences. To say that, collectively, the stories in this study all failed to authentically portray those aspects of the salient shared experiences as delineated on the instrument designed for use in the present study would be a grave injustice to the authors. This point was brought out in the additional findings of this study when there were found fifteen stories that portrayed four or more of the salient shared experiences identified in the instrument. What is being said is that children's books that purport to be about Black people must portray these shared experiences as a whole with authenticity. In the main, the findings of this study suggest that the authors of the books used in this study did not portray these experiences with authenticity. The implications of the findings and conclusions of this study indicate that writers of children's contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States for the most part are serving as"reporters"on the aspects of the salient shared experiences of Black people as they "see" them. Basically, the authors are saying that all people regardless of their race, national origin, or ethnic affiliation experience many of the same universal experiences. The Black experience is not as simplistic as that. The Black experience expands the world of 183 experiences which in many ways influences our experiences in the United States. Black people have a whole normative world and as such should be represented this way in the literature about Black people. Many of the authors of the stories included in the present study tended to totally focus on the familial aspects of the salient shared experiences of Black people. The Black family is a very impor- tant institution in the Black community, but Black people do not just exist in the family. What the data revealed was that those stories having total focus on the family, presented a very restricted, very institutionalized way of portraying the salient shared experiences of Black people. Another important consideration that comes out of this study is that the writers are consistently writing about the deplorable, ugliness of ghetto life. Absent from these stories are the causes behind these conditions. What is implied here is that more writers need to present both sides of the issue, thereby presenting the "big picture," which would not result in "blaming the victim." Writer Frank Bonham is not presenting a resource where the Black child can see himself and his people presented in a positive way. The Bonham books abound with stories on organized gang behavior and fighting gangs, an aspect that is not totally representative of the Black community. Perhaps the child that Bonham patterns his protagonists after are those that he observes in his work at the half-way house in the Los Angeles-Watts area. Further, he wages an all out war on 184 the Black male in most, if not all, of his stories. They are portrayed as absent fathers, hustlers, or uncles, who are not to be trusted and fathers who show no interest in their children. These stories in no way provide for the Black child good male role models. There is little or no doubt that the popularity or exploitation found in the Bonham books has caused the Black child to read them in search for literature that purports to be like him only to find that this is not the truth but one of the many misrepresentations found in stories about Black people and Black life styles. One book in the study that provides a good model for teenage boys, because of its duality of purpose, is The Contender by Robert Lipsyte. The book seeks to provide a source of identity for adolescent boys, while at the same time addressing itself to the specific problems of being Black and adolescent in a society where things and people are defined in certain ways. Another implication evidenced in the findings is that the writers of books about Black people in this study do not appear to be knowledgeable of many of the main interim institutional arrangements in the Black community. Interestingly enough, two of the respondents (one Black and one White) to this researcher's questionnaire, checked the item on the importance of the "Black church" in the Black community as not being a salient shared experience. Sociological reports indi- cate that it is an important institution in all segments of the Black community. 185 It was also implied in the findings that many of the authors, Black and White, are introducing social problems in their stories as a means of highlighting salient shared experiences of Black people, but they are not developing them to the extent that the child will be able to gain from the experience. This was evidenced in A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich by Alice Childress. Benji experiments with drugs and goes through all the manifestations that accompanies it. However, the story ends without a resolution. This also applies to Black writers who are removing themselves as far away from the Black lifestyle as possible and writing upgui_ rather than £9 and fur Black children. In North Town and whose Town by Lorenz Graham, the protagonist is permitted to view racial strife through a telescope although he is totally involved in the events of the story. The writers have the protagonist maintain a safe distance, lest piper_readers will be offended. Perhaps the overshadowing implication to be found in these books is that they are award-winning books and as such they must maintain a certain amount of safety. This is then one of the limi- tations of the study, choosing books that were in some way limited. Recommendations 1. Many more books could be used in the sample to conduct a larger study on the authenticity of the portrayal of the salient shared experiences of Black people in the United States by non-Black writers. 186 2. Using the instrument designed for this study, a similar study could be done using a random sample of all junior novels about Black people in the United States. 3. This study should be replicated using stories for Black children of a younger age to ascertain whether attitudes are reflective of age among Blacks. 4. The procedures used by this researcher to develop her instrument might be used as a model to construct an instrument for use in a content analysis of salient shared experiences of other minorities and cultures. 5. A study could be done on two or three authors who write contemporary realistic fiction about Black people to compare the portrayals of the characters in their stories with that of the characterizations in the real world. 6. A study could be done on the writings of a single author who writes stories about Black people or any minority group to determine the uniqueness and/or similarities with regards to aspects of the image that the author is portraying about that group of people. 7. This study should be of value to pre— and in-service teachers who are teaching Black teenagers as they select books for these children that present positive role models. 8. This study should be of value to authors who are writing books about Black people, as they begin to develop their ideas and themes. There are in the instrument forty-five different experiences or categories that can be developed into stories to portray with more authenticity the salient shared experiences of Black people. 187 9. The instrument used in this study can be built upon and expanded to include a breakdown in the family category to perhaps include single parents and homes where the heads of the household are uncles and aunts. A more sophisticated and revised design of the instrument may be found in Appendix E. Elma This chapter has presented the summary, conclusions, implications, and recommendations of this study. The major categories of the instrument delineating the salient shared experiences as they pertained to the family and the social world were summarized through an analysis of the data collected in these areas. Finally, implications and recommendations for further study were presented. APPENDIX A LETTER TO AUTHORS FOLLOW—UP LETTERS TO AUTHORS QUESTIONNAIRE TO AUTHORS REPLIES FROM AUTHORS 188 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION EAST LANSING - MICHIGAN . 48824 DEPARTMENT or ELEMENTARY AND SPECIAL EDUCATION For my doctoral dissertation in Children's Literature at Michigan State University, I am conducting a study of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States to determine if and how a sampling of these stories portray selected Black experiences. My major professor is Dr. Patricia J. Cianciolo. As a means of giving credibility to the contents of the instrument that I have designed for use in the study, I plan to conduct interviews with a sampling of the authors of award-winning books about Black people in order to solicit their responses to the instrument. I would very much like to interview you and get your personal reactions to those aspects of the Black experience which I have included in my instrument. The interview should take no more than twenty minutes. If you agree to serve as one of my validators, I would like to meet with you in your home community anytime during the month of July. How- ever, I will attend the American Library Association Conference in Chicago, on July 17-22. If you are planning to attend this conference too, I will be willing to meet with you there instead at your convenience. Enclosed is a stamped, addressed postcard. Let me hear from you as soon as possible. Sincerely yours, Rosalie B. Kiah Graduate Assistant Children's Literature 189 Dear Mrs. Kiah, I would/would not (circle one) be willing to meet with you for the brief interview at a designated place in my home community on 3 3 5 date time place telephone no. I would/would not (circle one) be willing to meet with you for a brief interview during the American Library Association Conference 071 g 3 date time place Signature MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ‘90 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION EAST LANSING - MICHIGAN - 48824 DEPARTMENT or ELEMENTARY AND SPECIAL EDUCATION For my doctoral dissertation in Children's Literature at Michigan State University, I am conducting a study of contemporary realistic fiction about Black people in the United States to determine if and how a sampling of these stories portray selected salient shared experiences. My major professor is Dr. Patricia J. Cianciolo. As a means of giving credibility to the contents of the instrument that I have designed for use in the study, I plan to ask authors of award-winning books about Black people to respond to the items on the instrument. I would very much like to get your personal reaction to those aspects of the Black experience which I have included in my instrument. If you agree to serve as one of my validators, I would be most grateful if you would take a few minutes from your busy schedule to react to the question— naire. Enclosed is a stamped, addressed envelope. Please complete the questionnaire as soon as possible, sign it and return it to me. Execution of the questionnaire should take no more than twenty minutes. I will be de- lighted to send you a copy of the summary of this study when it is completed. Sincerely yours, Rosalie B. Kiah Graduate Assistant Children's Literature Enclosure 191 Dear I am a Black college professor on leave from Norfolk (Va.) State College trying very hard to complete my dissertation for the Ph.D. I have been an admirer of yours for quite sometime, using your books with my undergraduates in Children's Literature and following your ideologies of better books for Black children. Won't you please take a few minutes to react to my instrument? I will be ever grateful for your assistance and assure you that there will be no misrepresentation of your responses. Sincerely, Rosalie B. Kiah (This insert accompanied the questionnaires to authors who were Black) 192 Telephone: 914-472-5100 BRADBURY PRESS, INC. 2 Overhill Road, Scarsdale, N.Y. 10583 July 12, 1976 Ms. Rosalie B. Kiah Michigan State University Dept. of Elementary and Special Education East Lansing, Michigan 48824 Dear Ms. Kiah: I'm taking the liberty of answering your kind letter to Paula Fox because she is out of the city until September and is, therefore, not going to be available for interviewing this summer. With all good wishes on your most interesting sounding project, I am, Yours sincerely, {-.» C;. .-( 1.3, ( ,C;,,,i -_ . t ‘ 1r '- Richsrd W. Jackson“ Vice-President and Editor-ia-Chief RWJ:PF 192 Telephone: 914-472-5100 BRADBURY PRESS, INC. 2 Overhill Road, Scarsdale, N.Y. 10583 July 12, 1976 Ms. Rosalie B. Kiah Michigan State University Dept. of Elementary and Special Education East Lansing, Michigan 48824 Dear Ms. Kiah: I'm taking the liberty of answering your kind letter to Paula Fox because she is out of the city until September and is, therefore, not going to be available for interviewing this summer. With all good wishes on your most interesting sounding project, I am, Yours sincerely, " ' ‘ f (" '. ¢.~~( 1‘ to {I \ 9v-"(f'4 Q t", W ‘ Richard W. Jackson"i Vice-President and Editor-in-Chief RWJ:PF 193 166 Second Avenue New York, N.Y. 10003 July 20, 1976 Mrs. Rosalie Kish 300 Erickson Hall East Lansing, Mich. 48824 Dear Mrs. Kish: I am sorry that I could not arrange for an interview at the time you name, as I shall be out of town for the next few months. IZZWCIWL Mary Hays Weik 194 Eloise Greenfield 83‘0 Buchanan St. NE 0 Wash” D.C. 20017 195 DIS 0 I PRESS ARNOLD ADOFF BOX 293 YELLOW SPRINGS. OHIO 45387 ASS C ATED 513-767-1834 16 September 1976 Dear Ms.KiahI Just found your material and am returning same.I have questions and reservations about the whole project because of the xtremely different and diffuse ways Blacks ive in this countr ...the multépligaty of attitudes and lfferences epe ing on location and family background,etc.For examplenvhere do you place flecks of Carib- background. But this is not to be your concern.This is, after all. your project...and one of much potential value...because so little has been done in this area, in terms of books for children and young people. I suppose. in the end. Amerika and Amerikan editors and pubnishers and librarians and teachers,etc. and even many Amerikan Blacks do the same kind of "lumping” that you find necessary to organize your study...so,press on.... 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APPENDIX B DIRECTIONS TO RATERS INSTRUMENT FOR RATERS APPENDIX B DIRECTIONS TO RATERS This is an instrument which will be used to analyze the content of contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, to determine if and how a sampling of these stories portray selected salient shared experiences of Black people. PLEASE READ THROUGH ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS FIRST BEFORE BEGINNING THE ANALYSIS 1. Mark as designated as many of the aspects included in the instrument listing salient shared experiences of Black people which you find in the literary selections. a. Indicate whether the salient shared experiences are present or not present in each case. If a shared experience is present, indicate whether the author implies that the protagonist or main character is favorably or unfavorably effected by that shared experience. EXAMPLE: Barbara knew her mother liked her sister best because she was always praising her for everything she did, while she never gave Barbara any praise. (Unfavorable effect on the protagonist, Barbara.) Lois knew she was loved because her mother always told her so. (Favorable effect on the protagonist, Lois.) If the presence of the experience does not affect the pro- tagonist to a significant degree, then indicate neutral. Indicate the page number(s) on which passage(s) appear where the author implies or states directly how the shared experience has effected the protagonist. (Indicate also the first three words and the last three words of the passage(s). 201 202 SALIENT SHARED EXPERIENCES OF BLACK PEOPLE TITLE OF BOOK AUTHOR NAME OF RATER 203 4prFwL >PLmUquAcwcvvFMgoaAmvpcmcma N.— *qummma Hzmmmma Hoz Acmcvc~_;uuamvpcmcwa F.P .mcowpmgmcmm swam mac; cw pcmmmga mfiaoma .— >4HzwF no: mucmgma ucm mmcw—nwm Fpm P.N .mmzo; mg» cw mcv>wp omega cusp cmguo :wx saw; mums wLm mpompcou “concoct .N 205 4_.u.u_d_. N.N *Hzmmmma Hzmmmma Hoz mcwmsoo m.N 4flh¢b u4mw_ uo: mpcmgwa vcm mmcw~nwm ppw F.m .mmowpuoga newcomg-upwcu new menu up_cu com xpwpwnwmcoammg mgwcm cwx .m 207 4<¢F=mz msmdu rkzmmmma Hzmmmma Hoz 2.05.6me :wv— m>wpuw$ N.m *hzmmmma Mmemmm hoz mcwmzou m.m 208 4<¢H3mz m4mnu rkzmmmmm khzmmuma Hzmmmma Hoz Mzmmmma Poz spw_wamom ma~w_onssm ow m.s .mzpmpm mpnmcoco; cm mw wooscmcpoz .¢ mmmmcwmco—mn mmNMFoasxm pp _.< 209 4<¢M2wz 4<¢H2mz m4m_>gzm asp mgamcw vcm :wmpwc op m_nm_wm>m mew Amncmwgm co mm>wpmpmc mega wnv mgmasms Pmmzncooucoz .m ahzmmmma Hzmmmma Moz .uo: so use; mcp cw ucwmmca mw Acmcummv ccwnmsg mg» Locumgz mcwgmmcweou no: pun meospm mw cmeoz xumpm mgh .m 210 4_Pmuwsocouw .zp_mcowumuanmg cowpmgcwwco ucmsm>mwgum saw: .N le 4mm khzmmmma shzmmmxa hzmmmmm Moz Hzmmmma hoz mcowumowczEEoo Low mecwu mm.— mcowuwme chomLmamecw Low Lmucwu FN.P .cowmmmgaxm FmMUOm new m:o_mw—mg com szcmgo mnp magmwcczm zcoszzu xum~m= mgp N.F M<¢M2mz msmogq zcuszzu xoapmz msp m._ 4n# m4mwvcv 30m meow gmaogqu onwmcmgu z—pcmpmcou mw masogm mgp yo cowpwmanoo mg» pan mazogm mmcm_ cw ucaocm mcwmcm; muzFucw zmmwuw>wpom wswp-mgzmwm4= N.~ ahzmmmma .lw2mmmmm hoz .mawcmcowpmpmg _mc0mgmagmucw acme mo w>_pwcw$mu mw new cowmmmcmmm op maMFMnmwoom EoLM pzsmm mgp was; mcowposm mo xmpamwu new cow>mcmn mews: mwmm —Pm mo m_aown zn uwpcmzcwgm cowpzppumcw _mMoom m mw =ummspm mg»: _.N Amazocw FmELomch mmwpv>wpo< mswkumcam_04 .N 4<¢h=mz m4mmgwn mama umecmmLo ¢.N 4<¢h2mz m4m_uom Pacomwmmgumc ucm meoom ngpo mmumpamg xgoz we uFLoz mg» cw pcmEm>Po>cH N.m khzmmmmm Hzmmmmm Hoz A.cmxo_asmugmn== so uonFaemca appmsm: mew gaze» xum—mv .xumczssou ppzum xumpm asp op empowgpmwg mw xgoz mo upgoz msh p.m xgoz Mo cpgoz @2H .m APPENDIX C PRELIMINARY BOOK LIST APPENDIX C PRELIMINARY BOOK LIST Adoff, Arnold, ed. Brothers and Sisters; Modern Stories by Black Americans. New York: Macmillan Co., 1970. Armstrong, William. Sounder. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1969. . Sour Land. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., l97l. Baker, Charlotte. Cockleburr Quarters. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., l972. Ball, Dorothy Whitney. Hurricane: The Story of Friendship. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1964. Bartusis, Constance. Shades of Difference. New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1968. Bennett, Jack. Mister Fisherman. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., l965. Blume, Judy. I ie's House. Scarsdale, New York: Bradbury Press, Inc., 970. Bonham, Frank. Cool Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., l97l. . Durango Street. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1965. . Hey, Big Spender! New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1972. . Mystery of the Fat Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1968. . The Nitty Gritty. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1968. Broderick, Dorothy. Hank. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1966. Brown, Margery N. That Ruby. Chicago: Reilly and Lee Company, l967. 217 218 Childress, Alice. A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich. New York: Coward, 1973. Christopher, Matthew. No Arm in Left Field. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1974. Clymer, Eleanor. Luke Was There. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1973. Coles, Robert. Dead End School. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, T968. Colman, Hila. Classmates by Request. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1964. The Happenings at North End School. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1970. Danska, Herbert. The Street Kids. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1970. Erwin, Betty K. Behind the Magic Line. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969. Fair, Ronald L. Hog Butcher. New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1966. . Many Thousand Gone. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1965. Fitch, Lynn. Mark Will Ward, A Black Family in the City. Mankato, Minn.: Creative Educational Society, l972. Fitzhugh, Louise. Nobody's Family Is Going to Change. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., 1974. Fox, Paula. How Manpriles to Babylon? New York: David White Co., 1967. Gaines, Ernest. A Long Day in November. New York: Dial Press, Inc., l97l. Gault, William Campbell. Backfield Challenge. New York: E. P. Dutton, l967. Glasser, Barbara. Bongo Bradley. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1973. Graham, Lorenz. North Town. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1965. 219 Whose Town? Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1969. Grau, Shirley Ann. The Keepers of the House. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1964. Greene, Bette. Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe. New York: Dial Press, Inc., l974. Greenfield, Eloise. Sister. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, l974. Guy, Rosa. The Friends. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., l973. Hamilton, Virginia. M. C. Higgins, the Great. New York: Macmillan Co., 1974. The House of Dies Drear. New York: Macmillan Co., l968. The Planet of Junior Brown. New York: Macmillan Co., l97l. Zeely. New York: Macmillan Co., l967. Hass, Benn. The Troubled Summer. Indianapolis: Bobbs—Merrill Co., l966. Hentoff, Nat. Jazz Country. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1965. Hunter, Kristin. Guests in the Promised Land. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, l968. The Survivors. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, l975. Jackson, Jessie. Tessie. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., l968. . The Sickest Don't Always Die the Quickest. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., l97l. Jordan, June. His Own Where. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, l97l. Klaperman, Libby M. A Different Girl. New York: Lion Press, l964. Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., l967. 220 Livant, Rose A. Julie's Decision. New York: Ives Washburn, Inc., 1969. Mather, Melissa. One Summer in Between. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1967. Mathis, Sharon Bell. Listen For the Fig Tree. New York: Viking Press, Inc., 1974. Sidewalk Story. New York: Viking Press, Inc., l969. Teacup Full of Roses. New York: Viking Press, Inc., l972. The Hundred Penny Box. New York: Viking Press, Inc., l975. Means, Florence. Us Maltbys. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., l966. Meriwether, Louise. Daddy Was a Numbers Runner. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., l970. Merrill, Jean. The Toothpaste Millionaire. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1964. Murphy, Barbara. Home Free. New York: Delacorte Press, l970. Myers, Walter. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. New York: Viking Press, Inc., l974. Neufeld, John. Edgar Allan. New York: S. C. Phillips, Inc., l968. Parks, Gordon. Choice of Weapons. Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1966. Randall, Florence. The Almost Year. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1971. Rinkoff, Barbara. Member of the Gang, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., l968. Rodman, Bella. Lions In the Way. Chicago: Follett Publishing Co., l966. Slote, Alfred. The Biggest Victory. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., l972. Snyder, Zilpha Keatly. The Egypt Game. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1967. Sorensen, Virginia. Around the Corner. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, l97l. 221 Sprague, Gretchen. A Question of Harmony. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, l965. Stolz, Mary. A Wonderful, Terrible Time. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1967. Tanner, Louise. Reggie and Nilma. New York: Ariel/Farrarr, Straus and Giroux, Inc., l97l. ' Wagner, Jane. 941, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, l972. Walker, Mary Alexander. Year of the Cafeteria. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1971. Walter, Mildred Pitts. Lillie of Watts Takes a Giant Step. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1972. Weik, Mary Hays. The Jazz Man. New York: Atheneum Publishers, l967. White, Edgar. Children of the Night. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepherd Company, l974. Williams, Edward G. Not Like Niggers. New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1969. APPENDIX D ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 0F CHILDREN'S BOOKS USED IN THE STUDY APPENDIX D ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN‘S BOOKS USED IN THE STUDY Bonham, Frank. Cool Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 197l. The teenager and the world of work are the focuses of this story as Buddy Williams and his friends initiate a hauling service to earn extra money. Organized gang behavior is also highlighted. . Durango Street. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1965. Rufus Henry has only been released from the forestry camp two days when he finds himself in trouble with the Gassers, an organized fighting gang. He has been warned by his parole officer to stay out of trouble and away from gangs, but Rufus knows the only way to survive in the Durango Housing Project is to join a gang. He moves on to become headman of the Moors. Fighting gangs are the central focus of this story. . Hey, Big Spender! New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1972. Cool Hankins is selected by Breathing Man to distribute a half-million dollars to needy people in the community. One adventure leads to another as Cool goes about his appointed task. References made to family life and the world of work in the story. . Mystery of the Fat Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., l968. When fire destroys the Dogtown Boys Club, Buddy Williams and three of his friends look toward the inheritance that will come to the Boys Club as a resource for rebuilding the club. This inheritance can only be collected after the death of a rich, fat cat. They begin to put together evidence that will prove that the fat cat is dead and has been replaced by another cat. Adventures abound. Many references to family unity are made as well as references to leisure-time activities for youth. 222 223 . The Nitty Gritty. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1968. The hopes and dreams of Charlie Matthews go unnoticed by his mother and father, but not by his teacher, Mr. Toia. Frequent visits by his Uncle Baron are always well received by Charlie who plans to travel with his uncle the next time he comes to visit the family. Family life and kinship bonds are highlighted in this story. Childress, Alice. A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich. New York: Coward, 1973. Drug abuse and social conditions are the major focus of this story as Benjie Johnson, thirteen, is portrayed as a teenage heroin addict. The story is told from Benjie's view— point as well as from his parents' and others around him. There is some focus on family life. Fox, Paula. How Many Miles to Babylon? New York: David White Graham, Company, 1967. James Douglas lives with his three elderly aunts in Brooklyn. He has been with his aunts since he and his mother moved in after his daddy went away. Not long after they moved in with the aunts, his mother went to the hospital, but James fantasizes that she has gone to Africa. On one of his make— believe expeditions, James is captured by three indigent boys who steal dogs and claim rewards for them. They hold James captive and force him to help them steal the dogs. There are references to family life made in the story. Lorenz. North Town. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965. David Williams and his family move to North Town from the south after several unpleasant experiences with prejudice and violence. They find that the differences are not that very great in the north. This is a very moving story of family life and the world of work as David becomes head of the house during his father's prolonged illness. Whose Town? New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, l969. Racial tension is the theme of this story as David Williams and his friends are attacked by a group of young white boys at a carry-out restaurant. Family strength and unity are high— lighted in the story. 224 Greene, Bette. Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe. New York: Dial Press, l974. The universal experience of the "first crush" is the theme of this story. Beth Lambert likes Philip Hall and does every- thing in her power to get him to return the feeling. Events begin to change at the yearly picnic sponsored by the Old Rugged Cross Church. Family life is stressed in this story with most of the action taking place around the farm. The setting is in rural Arkansas. Guy, Rosa. The Friends. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, l973. Fourteen—year-old Phyllisia Cathy has just moved to Harlem from the West Indies. Her adjustment to school is slow, coupled with the problems of coping with her strict father. She is befriended at school by Edith, a very slovent, unkept girl. At first Phyl refuses Edith's friendship, but eventually she comes to rely on it. The universal experience of friendship is the theme of this story. Family problems are highlighted in this story as the protagonist is permitted to develop her own personality. Hamilton, Virginia. M. C. Higgins, the Great. New York: Macmillan Co., l974. Family life is the theme of this story as an Ohio hill boy tries to come to a decision about the future of his family and their home. Family unity is stressed throughout the story with an unusual relationship existing between father and son. The House of Dies Drear. New York: Macmillan Co., l968. Thomas SmallTs father has a college teaching position in a town in Ohio and has bought an old house that once served as an Underground Railroad Station. Set in contemporary times, this is a suspenseful story of the Small family and their experiences in Dies Drear's old house. The Black church receives attention in the story together with emphasis on the strong family ties. The Planet of Junior Brown. New York: Macmillan Co., l97l. The major theme of this story is survival. Buddy, a street child," befriends obese Junior Brown. After several traumatic experiences with his mother and his piano teacher, Junior col- lapses. It is at this point that Buddy takes him to one of his "planets," an underground hideout for homeless children. The message is friendship and brotherhood and although the boys are Black, the author does not give the story a racial undertone. The "street" is highlighted in this story as unwanted and mis- understood children band together to help each other. 225 Zeely. New York: Macmillan Co., 1967. Eleven-year-old Geeder and her brother spend the summer on their uncle's farm. It is when Geeder finds a photograph of a Watutsi Queen in an old magazine that she is decidedly sure that Zeely Tayber, the girl on the next farm is a direct descendant of this Queen. This is the story of how Geeder is brought face-to-face with her African heritage. Hunter, Kristin. Guests In the Promised Land. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, l973. A collection of eleven short stories that tell of the experiences of Black teenagers and the way they cope with their environment. The stories run the gamut from domineering mothers to rival street gangs. The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968. Louretta Hawkins is torn between militancy and moderation in this story of Black life in the ghetto and the effect it has on the youth. Pride in heritage, gang behavior, family life, and the church are highlighted in this story. Jordan, June. His Own Where. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, l97l. The focus of this story is on the universal experience of being in love. Buddy and Angela are in love. They turn their backs on society and begin to live their lives together in an abandoned house in the cemetery. A few references are made about kin share responsibility for child-rearing as Buddy finds himself on his own with his mother gone and his father in the hospital. Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., l967. Alfred Brooks is a high school drop-out who has to make a decision between going straight or joining a gang. He lives with his aunt and his cousins in a Harlem apartment and works in a grocery store. This is a story of identity and survival and how nonconjugal members aided Alfred in making his decision. Visiting kin frequently is stressed in this story as Alfred, his cousins and his aunt visit an aunt in Queens on a regular basis. 226 Mathis, Sharon Bell. Listen For the Fig Tree. New York: The Viking Press, 1974. This is a family story that centers around Marvina Johnson, a Black sixteen—year-old blind girl, and her widowed mother. The story takes place during the Christmas holidays which marks the year-old murder of Marvina's father. Her mother turns to drinking in her grief and Marvina is torn between remaining at home with her mother or attending her first Kwanza, an African harvest celebration. Nonconjugal members are also highlighted in this story. Teacup Full of Roses. New York: The Viking Press, l972. This is a family story about three brothers: Joe, Davey, and Paul. Joe, the middle son, is emotionally the strongest. He dropped out of school to help Davy the youngest to get through high school and on to college. Davey is the youngest brother. He is smart and good at basketball. Paul, the oldest of the three boys, has just been released from the hospital after nearly dying from an overdose of drugs. Of the three boys, Paul is the mother's favorite. She makes no pretense about it as the events of the story unfold. An elderly aunt and an invalid father complete the composition of the household. Myers, Walter Dean. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. New York: The Rodman, Viking Press, 1974. Francis "Stuff" Williams, who is now eighteen, tells about the time when his family first moved to ll6th Street. In this story, he recalls the friendships he made, the adolescent joys and grief, the "hanging around" on the steps or at the club and the coming of age he did during the five years he lived in Harlem. The story tells of the teenage life styles of Harlem youngsters as well as the families of these adolescents. Bella. Lions In the Way, Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, l966. Eight Black students enroll in previously all—white Fayette High School. This story is about the week-long events that changed the entire composition of the community. Although the main focus is on segregation in education, there were references made to the families of the Black students as well as to the Black church. 227 Wagner, Jane. J41, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, l969. Christmastime in Harlem is the setting of this story. It could be very well classified as an animal story because of the experiences of J.T. with a sick alley cat. J. T. is a troubled little boy with only one person who really seems to understand him; that person is his grandmother who is visiting him and his mother during the holidays. There is a fleeting glimpse of family life, but the central focus is on J. T. and his affection for "Bones," the cat. Weik, Mary Hays. The Jazz Man. New York: Atheneum Publishers, l966. The scene is Harlem and the protagonist is a young boy who doesn't go to school because he is ashamed of his limp. He sits instead all day in front of his window. The house across from his has a new tenant, a piano player, who provides entertainment for Zeke and his parents. The story begins with a very happy family but mid-way through the story, the scene changes as Zeke is abandoned, first by his mother and then by his father. Nonconjugal members help him begrudgingly. The story ends as it begins with both parents back together again with Zeke. APPENDIX E FINAL INSTRUMENT 228 DIRECTIONS TO READERS This is an instrument which will be used to analyze the content of contemporary realistic fiction written about Black people in the United States, to determine if and how a sampling of these stories portray selected salient shared experiences of Black people. \ PLEASE READ THROUGH ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS FIRST BEFORE BEGINNING THE ANALYSIS 1. Mark with an "X” where designated, as many of the aspects included in the instrument listing salient shared experiences of Black people which you find in the literary selections. a. Indicate whether the salient experiences are present or not present in each case. If a shared experience is present, indicate whether the author implies that the effect on the protagonist or main character is favorable, unfavorable, mixed, or neutral. EXAMPLES: Lois knew she was loved because her mother always told her so. (Favorable effect on the protagonist, Lois.) Barbara knew her mother liked her sister best because she was always praising her for everything she did, while she never gave Barbara any praise. (Unfavorable effect on the protagonist, Barbara.) A mixed response is one that contains both a favorable and unfavorable response with a word or phrase linking the two capable of changing it either way. (Consider: Flo knew the job was going to be hard, but she also knew the pay was good.) If the presence of the experience does not affect the pro- tagonist to a significant degree, then indicate neutral. This will be determined in the context of the story. 2. Indicate the page number(s) on which passage(s) appear where the author implies or states directly how the shared experience has effected the protagonist. (Indicate also the first three words and the last three words of the passage[s].) 3. Check the effect (favorable, unfavorable, mixed, neutral, or appropriate) which applied most generally to the major categories where indicated. SALIENT SHARED EXPERIENCES OF BLACK PEOPLE TITLE OF BOOK AUTHOR PUBLISHER AND PUBLICATION DATE 229 230 FAMILY 1. People present in home span generations. l.l parent(s)-child(ren) jL. .Lr CHECK ONE: TWO PARENTS , NOT PRESENT FEMALE HEAD PRESENT* MALE HEAD FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL l.2 parent(s)-child(ren)-elderly relative(s) CHECK ONE: TWO PARENTS NOT PRESENT FEMALE HEAD PRESENT* MALE HEAD FAVORABLE _UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 231 1.3 parent(s)-child(ren)-grandchild(ren) CHECK ONE: THO PARENTS NOTERESENT FEMALE HEAD PRESENT* MALE HEAD FAVORABLE; UNFAVORABLE? MIXED NEUTRAL l.4 'absorbed' or informally adopted children CHECK ONE: RELATIVES NOT PRESENT éAUNTS-UNCLES) PRESENT* TER PARENTS FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL NOT APPLICABLE 232 2. Frequent contacts are made with kin other than those living in the home. 2.1 all siblings and parents not living in the home NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.2 parents-in-law plus siblings-in-law NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 233 2.3 all grandparents NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNEAVORABEE_ MIXED NEUTRAL 2.4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 234 2.5 cousins NOTTPRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.6 spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 235 2.7 fictive kin relations (those not related by marriage or birth) NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL wHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? ""“" UNFAVORABLE "“'MIXED ”‘““‘NEUTRAL _ NOT APPLICABLE 3. Kin share responsibility for child care and child-rearing practices. 3.1 all siblings and parents not living in the home NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 236 3.2 parents-in-law plus siblings-in-law NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3.3 all grandparents NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL W 237 3.4 uncles and aunts (maternal and paternal) NoT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABEE—— “‘NFAvoRABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3.5 cousins NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 238 3.6 spouse's siblings plus siblings' spouses NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 3.7 fictive kin relations (those not related by marriage or birth) NOT PRESENT NOT APPLICABLE PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 239 4. Motherhood is an honorable status: 4.1 it symbolizes belongingness NOTPRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 4.2 it symbolizes strength NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 240 4.3 it symbolizes stability NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL NOT APPLICABLE 5. The Black woman is strong but not domineering whether the husband (father) is present in the home or not. NOT PRESENT NOT APPLICABLE PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 241 6. Non-conjugal members (be they relatives or friends) are available to retain and insure the survival of the family through financial and/or emotional support. NOT APPLICABLE CHECK ONE: NOT PRESENT PRESENT* rFAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? "“‘ UNFAVORABLE "' MIXED ““'NEUTRAL 7. High achievement orientation for children typifies the attitudes of their parents and/or significant others. 7.l education NOT PRESENT PRESENT?E FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 242 7.2 economic status NOT PRESENT PRESENT? FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 7.3 social status NOT PRESENT NOT APPLICABLE PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 243 SOCIAL WORLD l. Interim Institutional Arrangements (Formal Groups). l.l The "Black church" is the strongest social institution next to the family. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL l.2 The "Black church" furnishes the channel for religious social expression. l.2l center for interpersonal relations. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 244 1.22 center for communications. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.23 center for recreation NOT PRESENT; PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 245 l.24 center for physical and psychological escape from pressures NOT PRESENT PRESENT¥* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 1.3 The "Black church" provides the most influential political leadership in the black community. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE _____MIXED NEUTRAL NOT APPLICABLE 246 l.4 The mutual aid and fraternal organizations are the most important non-church organizations. l.4l They furnish a channel for social expression l.4ll center for interpersonal relations NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL l.4lZ center for communications NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 247 l.4l3 center for recreation NOT PRESENT FPRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL l.4l4 center for physical and psychological escape from pressures NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 248 l.42 They provide assistance (i.e., life insurance, educational scholarships, etc.) economically. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* I FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL l.43 They exercise political leadership influence. NOT PRESENT NOT APPLICABLE PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 249 2. Leisure-Time Activities (Informal Groups) 2.l "The street" is a social institution frequented by people of all ages where behavior and display of emotions runs the gamut from sociability to aggression and is definitive Of many interpersonal relationships. NOT PRESENTT’ PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 2.2 "Leisure-time activities" for teenagers include hanging around in large groups but the composition of the group is constantly Changing although some few individuals are always the same. NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 250 2.3 Teenagers tend to participate habitually in loose, fluid, shifting bands, lacking regular leaders, well-defined membership, and clear-cut organization. NoT‘PRESENT‘ PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE‘ MIXED NEUTRAL 2.4 Organized gang behavior is part Of the teenage tradition only in specific "blight stricken" areas of large urban areas. NOT PRESENT NAME OF URBAN AREA PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 251 2.5 Fighting gangs are not characteristic of the Black teenage culture except in large urban areas. NoT PRESENT NAME OF URBAN AREA PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEuTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL NOT APPLICABLE 3. The World of Work. 3.1 The world of work is restricted to the Black adult community (Black youth are usually unemployed or underemployed). NOT PRESENT PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL 252 3.2 Involvement in the world of work replaces other social and recreational activities for Black adults and subsequently Black youth. NOTEPRESENT' NOT APPLICABLE PRESENT* FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL WHICH EFFECT APPLIED MOST CHECK ONE: FAVORABLE GENERALLY THROUGHOUT? UNFAVORABLE MIXED NEUTRAL *Indicate page number(s) and quote(s) where the passage(s) indicating the effect on the protagonist is found. BIBLIOGRAPHY 777 , . ._7 7 LALL_____rLF ,7 —v—————————__———v——-——G.—-—— 7+7 7 ,7 wmfi'C—QMW‘OH‘VW—f" ~ * . ... __._._ ;. '..' BIBLIOGRAPHY Children's Books Bonham, Frank. Cool Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 197l. . Durango Street. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1965. . Hey, Big Spender! New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., l972. . Mystery of the Fat Cat. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., l968. . \The Nitty Gritty. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc. 1968. Childress, Alice. A Hero Ain't NothingBut a Sandwich. New York: Coward, l973. Fox, Paula. How Many Miles to Babylon? New York: David White Co., 1967. Graham, Lorenz. North Town. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., l965. Whose Town? New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., l969. Greene, Bette. Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe. New York: Dial Press, 1974. Guy, Rosa. The Friends. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1973. Hamilton, Virginia. M. C. Higgins, The Great. New York: Macmillan Co., l974. The House of Dies Drear. New York: Macmillan Co., 1968. The Planet of Junior Brown. New York: Macmillan Co., 197l. Zeely. New York: Macmillan Co., 1967. 253 254 Hunter, Kristin. Guests In the Promised Land. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968. Jordan, June. His Own Where. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 197l. Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. New York: Harper and Row, l967. Mathis, Sharon Bell. Listen For the Fig Tree. New York: The Viking Press, l974. Teacup Full of Roses. New York: The Viking Press, 1972. Myers, Walter. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. New York: The Viking Press, 1974. Rodman, Bella. Lions In the Way. Chicago: Follett Publishing Co., l966. Wagner, Jane. .QLI- New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., l969. Weik, Mary Hays. The Jazz Man. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1966. Professional Books Alexander, Rae. "Children's Books and the Search for 'Black Identity,'" Interracial Di est. New York: Council on Interracial Books for Chderen, nc., l975. - Beard, Eugene. "From a Black Perspective," Children's Interracial Fiction, ed. Barbara Jean Glancy. Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Teachers, l969. Bell, Robert. "The Related Importance of Mother and Wife Roles Among Black Lower-Class Women," The Black Family: Essays and Studies, ed. Robert Staples. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., Inc., 197l. Berelson, Bernard. Content Analysis in Communication Research. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1952. Billingsley, Andrew. Black Families in White America. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: ’Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. 255 Brink, William and Louis Harris. The Negro Revolution in America. New York: Simon and Schuster, T964. Broderick, Dorothy M. The:lmage of the Black in Children's Fiction. New York: R. R. Bowker Company, l973. Budd, Richard W., Robert K. Thorp, and Lewis Donohew. Content Analysis of Communication. New York: Macmillan Co., 1967: Carlsen, G. Robert. Books and the Teen-Age Reader. New York: Bantam Books, l97l. Carlson, Ruth Kearney. "Ten Values of Children's Literature,“ Children and Literature, ed. Jane Catterson. Newark, Dela.: International Reading Association, l970. Cianciolo, Patricia J. "What Can the Illustrations Offer?" In Reading Ladders for Human Relations, ed. Virginia Reid, 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Council of Education, 1972. Conover, W. J. Practical Non-Parametric Statistics. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1971. Curtis, Lynn A. Violence, Race and Culture. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, l975. Dantzler, Dolores J. Blacks in Basal Readers. Lauringburg, N.C.: Earl's Press, 1973. Feelings, Tom. Black Pilgrimage. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., l972. Fox, David J. The Research Process in Education. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1969. Frazier, E. Franklin. The Negro Church in America. New York: Schocken Books, 1964. . The Negro Family in the United States. 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