The Black Power Movement

When "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" was published in 1971, the Black Power Movement's influence was deeply felt among African-American artists and writers. This movement, spanning from 1965 to 1975, emerged from the Civil Rights movement, advocating for the dignity and equality of black Americans. However, the Black Power movement emphasized self-definition over integration and demanded both economic and political power in addition to equality. The movement was driven by protests against incidents like the 1966 shooting of Civil Rights leader James Meredith during his protest march across Mississippi. Shortly after, Civil Rights leader Stokely Carmichael called for Black Power, leading to the first National Conference on Black Power in Washington, D.C. that same year. Additionally, 1966 saw the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, which took a militant stance against police brutality and the dire conditions of black urban ghettos, which suffered from inadequate municipal services and crime rates up to 35 times higher than those in white neighborhoods.

While denouncing the unemployment, crime, and lack of facilities in black urban communities, these communities were also celebrated for their vibrant culture. By the early 1970s, Black Power had become a widespread call for black people to control their destinies through political activism, community control and development, cultural awareness, and the establishment of black studies and "Black Arts." Pride in African heritage and the cultural uniqueness of black communities in the United States, often encapsulated in the word "soul," was expressed in various forms, from "Afro" hairstyles to soul music and soul food. In sports, heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali embodied the self-assured attitudes of black pride. In the arts, black writers saw themselves as both inheritors and creators of a black aesthetic tradition. African-American writers like Toni Cade Bambara played a crucial role in fostering an awareness of a distinct African-American culture and folk tradition, emphasizing the collective and maintaining oral forms of expression. Bambara’s sympathetic depiction of Granny’s resistance to patronization and exploitation of her family is characteristic of the era's concerns, as is the focus she places on the storytelling roles of Granny, Cathy, and the narrator.

By the mid-1970s, organizations such as the Black Panthers, which were often targeted for police persecution and FBI surveillance, had been significantly weakened. In 1976, there were 4,000 black officials elected, a record number at the time, yet they still represented only 0.5% of all American elected officials. By the 1990s, African-Americans made up less than 2% of all elected officials. The economic situation for African-Americans worsened in the 1980s, with early 1980s recessions reducing black family income to just 56% of white family income—lower than it had been in 1952. This income disparity persisted into the 1990s. Despite these challenges, the cultural legacy of the Black Power movement, which emphasized black self-awareness and the celebration of African-American culture and identity, endured.

Black Women and the Women’s Movement

The Women’s Movement of the late 1960s in North America partly emerged in response to the radicalizing influences of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, as well as the antiwar movement. Many women became radicalized upon realizing they were treated as second-class participants within these movements. They examined their circumstances and advocated for radical changes, forming local organizations and national networks dedicated to women’s equality and rights. Women’s centers and consciousness-raising groups were established to address issues like sexual discrimination, harassment, spousal abuse, rape, and reproductive rights. Bambara’s depiction of strong, capable, and independent female characters in stories such as ‘‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird’’ challenged traditional notions of female roles. Her focus on the storytelling abilities of characters like Cathy, Granny, and the narrator highlighted women’s capacity to interpret reality effectively and their right to do so.

Black women, however, did not always align with the ideology of the predominantly white, middle-class women leading mainstream women’s groups. As Toni Cade Bambara illustrated in her anthology, "The Black Woman," black women often linked issues of sexual equality with those of race and class. In the black community, the fight for welfare rights and decent housing was also seen as a women’s issue. Additionally, many black women believed that educating and socializing the young was crucial for strengthening their communities and empowering future generations. ‘‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird’’ highlights the nurturing and educational roles of Granny and Cathy, whose stories convey lessons about personal and community values. Furthermore, while many feminist writers, both white and black, have been accused of vilifying men, Bambara’s story features a strong, positive black male character.

In ‘‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird,’’ a young black girl narrates an episode where two white filmmakers try to film her home and family despite her grandmother's objections.

Dialect

Toni Cade Bambara’s use of dialect has received significant praise from both readers and critics. Her knack for capturing the rhythms and language of rural Southern black speech has been compared to Mark Twain’s ability to depict the dialects of nineteenth-century American speech.

The casual and conversational tone of ‘‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird’’ allows the narrator to ‘‘speak’’ directly to us in her own voice. Her figurative language communicates the story’s themes as effectively as any plot action. When the twins ask Granny about the man who was going to jump off the bridge, the narrator describes: ‘‘And Granny just stared at the twins till their faces swallow up the eager and they don’t even care any more about the man jumpin.’’ This image of the boys’ faces ‘‘swallow[ing] up the eager’’ succinctly conveys a complex psychological process. Similarly, Bambara’s skillful dialogue enables readers to ‘‘hear’’ her characters’ words, providing deeper insight into their motivations and values. When Granny responds to the filmmakers’ compliments about her ‘‘nice things,’’ she says: ‘‘‘I don’t know about the thing, the it, and the stuff. . . . Just people here is what I tend to consider.’’’ The structure of Granny’s words reflects the rhythm of her speech, and the narrator’s note that she ‘‘speaks with her eyebrows’’ helps readers visualize her. Bambara’s ability to capture her characters’ language in such specific and rich detail allows readers to grasp the story’s themes almost entirely through the characters’ words.

Point of View

‘‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird’’ is narrated from the perspective of a young child. In the short story collection Gorilla, My Love, which includes ‘‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird,’’ ten out of fifteen stories are told from the viewpoint of young, female narrators. These narrators are often imaginative and intelligent, yet many also exhibit significant vulnerability and insecurity. The narrator of ‘‘Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird’’ recognizes that both her grandmother and Cathy are more perceptive and have a deeper understanding of the world than she does. However, the use of a child’s perspective, reflecting her age, race, and rural Southern background, offers readers a unique advantage. We experience the events through her consciousness, and her straightforward yet insightful narration allows us to explore the complex issues in the story through her subtle, questioning, and poignantly innocent eyes.

1970s: The Equal Rights Amendment, aimed at amending the Constitution to secure women's rights, particularly regarding equal pay for equal work, becomes a focal point of political debate.

1990s: Women persist in their efforts for political, social, and especially financial equality with men in the United States. Despite having comparable education and experience, women still earn on average only 75% of what men earn for the same work.

1970s: The broad civil rights movement of the early 1960s transitions into more radical racial politics following the deaths of Malcolm X (1967) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968). This shift includes the emergence of the Black Power movement, figures like Angela Davis, and the Black Panther Party founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. These more militant Black Power organizations face government investigation and infiltration, leading to their decline.

1990s: The Black Power tradition persists with the public presence of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Alternative approaches to social integration and minority advancement emerge, highlighted by the growing popularity of multicultural education.

1970s: A comprehensive range of government-guaranteed services for the poor, known as entitlements, is established to ensure a minimum standard of living for all American citizens, continuing the reforms of the 1960s.

1996: President Bill Clinton signs the Welfare Reform Bill, which limits recipients to five years of benefits and ends the federal guarantee of a sustainable income through food stamps, medical assistance, and cash grants.

1970s: Judges begin to interpret Civil Rights legislation as mandating full racial integration of public schools. Efforts to integrate schools often lead to violence, such as in Boston in 1974, or the exodus of middle-class whites from public schools and mixed-race neighborhoods.

1990s: Debates over the quality and fairness of education continue. Many school districts remain segregated despite twenty years of integration efforts. New education reform proposals include school choice, school vouchers, home schooling, charter schools, and a federal guarantee of access to higher education.

Sources

Hargrove, Nancy D. ‘‘Youth in Toni Cade Bambara’s Gorilla, My Love,’’ in Southern Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1983, pp. 81-99.

Vertreace, Martha M. ‘‘Toni Cade Bambara,’’ in American Women Writing Fiction, edited by Mickey Pearlman, University Press of Kentucky, 1989, pp. 155–157.

Further Reading

Bambara, Toni Cade. ‘‘How She Came by Her Name,’’ in her Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions, Pantheon Books, 1996, pp. 201-245. This collection of Bambara’s later works includes an interview where she discusses her early career as a writer and essayist.

Burks, Ruth Elizabeth. ‘‘From Baptism to Resurrection; Toni Cade Bambara and the Incongruity of Language,’’ in Black Women Writers, edited by Mari Evans, Doubleday, 1984, pp. 48–57. Burks explores what she perceives as the spiritual potency of Bambara’s language use.

Morrison, Toni. ‘‘City Limits, Village Values: Concepts of the Neighborhood in Black Fiction,’’ in Literature and the Urban Experience, edited by Michael C. Jaye and Ann Chalmers Watts, Rutgers University Press, 1981, pp. 35-43. Morrison examines the significance of urban environments in the works of numerous African-American authors, including Bambara.

Robinson, Lillian S., ed. Modern Women Writers. Continuum, 1996. A collection of critical essays on contemporary women writers, featuring a comprehensive section on Toni Cade Bambara.