‘Negroland’: Memoir highlights challenges blacks still face

In her memoir, 'Negroland,' Margo Jefferson describes the hard won but tenuous position of upper echelon black families in the middle of the 20th century in Chicago.

'We were the third race,' she writes, 'We cared for our people — we loved our people — but we refused to be held back by the lower element. We did not love white people, we did not care for most of them, but we envied them and sometimes we feared and hated them. Our daily practice was suspicion, caution at the very least. Pre-emptive disdain.'

Jefferson, the child of a prominent physician and a socialite, recounts her younger years and the struggles to conform to — and then rebel against — the community standards that defined 'the colored elite.' She investigates how growing up in that environment continues to affect the ways in which she sees the world and interacts with friends, family members and strangers.

She is a masterful writer, unafraid to play with form and tone, asking her reader to follow her down various paths in order to more fully explore the terrain of her narrative. She is equally unafraid to call out and consider difficult questions:

'You grilled yourself: Do I still like — love — too many white writers, musicians, artists? Have I immersed myself enough in African history and culture? Do my principles show in my work? And principles notwithstanding, in my heart am I still a snob?'

Jefferson's story is, of course, a personal one, but her approach — informed by her vantage point in 'Negroland' — gathers up and inspects a wide swath of America and American history. Her story and her questions are burningly relevant, not just to the various communities of which she has been a part over the course of her life, but to our shared understanding of America and of each other.

Book reading

What: Margo Jefferson reads from 'Negroland'

Where: The Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St., Iowa City

When: Monday, April 18, 7 p.m.

Cost: Free