Straight Talk
This portrait of Esther Popel Shaw 鈥�19 and daughter Patricia hangs in the National Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery until Feb. 28 as part of the The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise photo exhibit.
by Sharon O鈥橞rien
January 2, 2010
A few years ago I was talking with some students at the Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women. We reflected on Zatae鈥檚 story as the first woman to graduate from Dickinson. Suddenly it occurred to me that she was white.
鈥淲ho was the first African-American woman to graduate from Dickinson?鈥� I asked. None of us knew. Here was an untold story: Could we find out?
The students did research in the archives and read up on the history of African-American women in college. I took a most unscientific approach to our project; college records did not indicate the race of students, so I looked through the yearbooks, scanning photographs to see if any of the female students looked black, well aware that an African American could also 鈥渓ook white.鈥�
In the 1919 yearbook I came across the photograph of Esther Popel 鈥�19, the first woman student, as far as I could tell, who 鈥渓ooked black.鈥� An ambiguous photograph wasn鈥檛 sufficient evidence, so, along with the students, I tried Google. A long shot鈥攚hy would Esther Popel, whoever she was, have a virtual presence? 鈥淓ven if she鈥檚 on Google,鈥� a student observed, 鈥渢hat probably won鈥檛 tell us anything about her race.鈥�
We gathered in front of the computer as I typed in her name. 鈥淲ow,鈥� a student said. 鈥淎mazing.鈥� Esther Popel had several entries. Key words: 鈥淧oet of the Harlem Renaissance,鈥� 鈥渁nti-lynching poem,鈥� 鈥渃ontributor to The Crisis,鈥� 鈥渇riend of Langston Hughes.鈥� Our first known African-American woman graduate was an important part of black literary and political history. We needed to make her part of our history and to discover what stories she had to tell us. She had died in 1958, but her poems could speak to us.
Esther Popel was born in 1896 in Harrisburg, Pa. She commuted to Dickinson and thought well enough of her college experience to encourage her daughter to apply in the 1940s. She published her first book of poems, A Forest Pool, in 1934. These early poems were derivative and generic, resembling the lyric poems churned out by many other poets during the early 20th century. The subject matter was the beauties of nature, the rhymes predictable, the tone wistful. Any of Popel鈥檚 poems could have appeared in Willa Cather鈥檚 book of poems April Twilights. The narrators are indistinguishable because they are both imitating A.E. Houseman.
Fifteen years later, now married, Esther Popel Shaw was publishing in the important African-American journals sparked by the Harlem Renaissance and what has been termed the 鈥渓ong civil-rights movement.鈥� She was part of African-American literary circles that included Langston Hughes; she now had a community of like-minded poets and had found her voice and her subject matter鈥攔ace and racism were central themes in her work.
Her writing was bold, confident, at times angry. Her poems were political and powerful. She wrote about the central paradox of American history: the contradiction between American ideals of equality and freedom and the realities of black experience鈥攕lavery, oppression, segregation in Jim Crow America. She challenged her white readers and affirmed her black readers.
In one of her most powerful poems, 鈥淔lag Salute,鈥� she juxtaposed the Pledge of Allegiance to a scene of lynching so that her readers could see the difference between American ideals and black experience. Just as daring, she called upon her readers to ask, Are black people American citizens? Or is 鈥淎mericanness鈥� another 鈥渨hites only鈥� province?
And were black people able to be angry about injustice and violence, or did their yearning to be accepted as American citizens prevent them from seeing and feeling the horrors of lynching?
Shaw published other powerful poems on racial injustice in literary journals intended for black readers. In the years after World War II she addressed audiences of white women, straightforwardly describing white supremacy and black oppression and invited her white audience to join with blacks in fighting social injustice. In a talk she gave to the Lawrenceville, N.J., Woman鈥檚 Club she called upon her audience as mothers who could work to dismantle racism through the models they showed their children. 鈥淣o child is born prejudiced,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat he becomes, how he develops is the responsibility of the adults around him, who shape and mold his life by the attitudes and examples they reveal in his presence.鈥�
During the 1940s, Shaw expected that 暗网禁区 had addressed the 鈥淎merican Dilemma鈥� of race, encouraging her daughter Patricia to apply. Patricia was accepted but received a letter saying, 鈥淲e will arrange for you to live with a nice Negro family in town.鈥� She could not live in the women鈥檚 dormitory, as this was a 鈥渨hites only鈥� space. Dickinson鈥檚 policy of racial segregation was not unusual at the time, and it continued for almost 20 years. Patricia and Esther were outraged. 鈥淚 was so mad at Dickinson,鈥� Patricia told me in a phone conversation several decades later. 鈥淚 had wanted to go, but of course I wasn鈥檛 going to put up with that. So I went to Howard.鈥�
We at Dickinson should be proud of Esther Popel Shaw and make her story part of our history. In doing so, we can celebrate her achievement as a poet of the Harlem Renaissance and a spokesperson for racial equality. At the same time we need to acknowledge the racism that created the 鈥渨hites only鈥� dormitory life and take a look at the ways in which our institution even now can foster white privilege. I think about the growth in diversity at our college over the last 10 years and the proliferation of courses addressing race issues in the United States, the development of programs like Crossing Borders and the Mosaic on Social Justice, and the recent founding of an Africana-studies program. I wonder what Esther Popel Shaw would think of this.
Let us honor Esther鈥檚 legacy and hear her words. Let us teach Esther鈥檚 poems and her writings on race. Let us keep working toward racial equality and social justice.
We can鈥檛 invite Esther to come to Dickinson. But we can invite Patricia Shaw Iversen, the young woman who received the insulting letter, now a feisty woman in her 80s. And we can ask her to bring her children, Esther鈥檚 grandchildren. For Dickinson is part of their family history, just as their stories are part of ours. Let us exchange stories.
Esther would like that.
Sharon O鈥橞rien, the James Hope Caldwell Professor of American Cultures, was an early advocate of women鈥檚 studies, which began as a certificate program at Dickinson in 1991. On Feb. 18 she is speaking on Esther Popel Shaw鈥檚 place in literary history as part of the Women at 暗网禁区: 1884-2009 celebration.
Flag Salute
By Esther Popel Shaw 鈥�19
(Note: In a classroom in a Negro school a pupil gave as
his news topic during the opening exercises of the morning,
a report of the Princess Anne Lynching of October 18, 1933.
A brief discussion of the facts of the case followed, after
which the student in charge gave this direction: pupils, rise,
and give the flag salute! They did so without hesitation!)
鈥淚 pledge allegiance to the flag鈥�
鈥淭hey dragged him naked
鈥淭hrough the muddy streets,
鈥淎 feeble-minded black boy!
鈥淎nd the charge? Supposed assault
鈥淯pon an aged woman!
鈥淥f the United States of America鈥濃��
鈥淥ne mile they dragged him
鈥淟ike a sack of meal,
鈥淎 rope around his neck,
鈥淎 bloody ear
鈥淟eft dangling by the patriotic hand
鈥淥f Nordic youth! (A boy of seventeen!)
鈥淎nd to the Republic for which it stands鈥濃��
鈥淎nd then they hanged his body to a tree,
鈥淏elow the window of the county judge
鈥淲hose pleadings for that battered human flesh
鈥淲ere stifled by the brutish, raucous howls
鈥淥f men, and boys, and women with their babes,
鈥淏rought out to see the bloody spectacle
鈥淥f murder in the style of 鈥�33!
鈥�(Three thousand strong, they were!)
鈥淥ne Nation, Indivisible鈥濃��
To make the tale complete
They built a fire鈥�
What matters that the stuff they burned
Was flesh鈥攁nd bone鈥攁nd hair鈥�
And reeking gasoline!
鈥淲ith Liberty鈥攁nd Justice鈥濃��
They cut the rope in bits
And passed them out,
For souvenirs, among the men and boys!
The teeth no doubt, on golden chains
Will hang
About the favored necks of sweethearts, wives,
And daughters, mothers, sisters, babies, too!
鈥淔or ALL!鈥�
Published January 2, 2010