Negroland: A Memoir
by Margo Jefferson, Granta, £12.99
In this beautifully evoked narrative of her childhood and youth in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s, with its potent mixture of irony and wistfulness, Margo Jefferson shows what it means to have grown up as an African American. Actually, Jefferson repudiates that phrase as “strictly for official discourse”, stating that as a writer, a journalist and a critic, she “grew up as a Negro and usually calls herself black”.
The book makes entire sense of Michelle Obama’s stirring speech in support of Hillary Clinton’s nomination as the Democratic candidate when she reminded viewers that the White House was built by slaves – that is, her ancestors. Recalling this shocking history, one can understand why the title is deliberately challenging, describing “a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty”.
