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Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African American Family
Born into a relatively privileged family, Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman  earned a reputation as a maverick in her lifelong home of Orangeburg, South Carolina, a semirural community where race and class were very much governed by the Jim Crow laws. Educated at Nashville’s Fisk University, Zimmerman returned to Orangeburg to teach school, serve her community, and champion equal rights for African Americans and women.

Kibibi V. Mack-Shelton offers a vivid portrayal of the kind of black family seldom recognized for its role in the development of the African American community after the Civil War. At a time when “separate but equal” usually meant suffering and injustice for the black community, South Carolina families such as the Tatnalls, Pierces, and Zimmermans achieved a level of financial and social success rivaling that of many white families.

Drawing heavily on the oral accounts of Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman, Mack-Shelton draws the reader into the lives of the African American elite of the early twentieth century. Her captivating narrative style brings to life many complicated topics: how skin color affected interracial interactions and class distinctions  within the black community itself, the role of education for women and for African Americans in general, and the ways in which cultural ideas about family and community are simultaneously preserved and transformed over the span of
generations.

Refreshing and engaging, Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear is a fascinating biography for any reader interested in a new perspective on small-town black culture in the Jim Crow South.
 

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Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African American Family
Born into a relatively privileged family, Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman  earned a reputation as a maverick in her lifelong home of Orangeburg, South Carolina, a semirural community where race and class were very much governed by the Jim Crow laws. Educated at Nashville’s Fisk University, Zimmerman returned to Orangeburg to teach school, serve her community, and champion equal rights for African Americans and women.

Kibibi V. Mack-Shelton offers a vivid portrayal of the kind of black family seldom recognized for its role in the development of the African American community after the Civil War. At a time when “separate but equal” usually meant suffering and injustice for the black community, South Carolina families such as the Tatnalls, Pierces, and Zimmermans achieved a level of financial and social success rivaling that of many white families.

Drawing heavily on the oral accounts of Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman, Mack-Shelton draws the reader into the lives of the African American elite of the early twentieth century. Her captivating narrative style brings to life many complicated topics: how skin color affected interracial interactions and class distinctions  within the black community itself, the role of education for women and for African Americans in general, and the ways in which cultural ideas about family and community are simultaneously preserved and transformed over the span of
generations.

Refreshing and engaging, Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear is a fascinating biography for any reader interested in a new perspective on small-town black culture in the Jim Crow South.
 

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Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African American Family

Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African American Family

Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African American Family

Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African American Family

Overview

Born into a relatively privileged family, Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman  earned a reputation as a maverick in her lifelong home of Orangeburg, South Carolina, a semirural community where race and class were very much governed by the Jim Crow laws. Educated at Nashville’s Fisk University, Zimmerman returned to Orangeburg to teach school, serve her community, and champion equal rights for African Americans and women.

Kibibi V. Mack-Shelton offers a vivid portrayal of the kind of black family seldom recognized for its role in the development of the African American community after the Civil War. At a time when “separate but equal” usually meant suffering and injustice for the black community, South Carolina families such as the Tatnalls, Pierces, and Zimmermans achieved a level of financial and social success rivaling that of many white families.

Drawing heavily on the oral accounts of Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman, Mack-Shelton draws the reader into the lives of the African American elite of the early twentieth century. Her captivating narrative style brings to life many complicated topics: how skin color affected interracial interactions and class distinctions  within the black community itself, the role of education for women and for African Americans in general, and the ways in which cultural ideas about family and community are simultaneously preserved and transformed over the span of
generations.

Refreshing and engaging, Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear is a fascinating biography for any reader interested in a new perspective on small-town black culture in the Jim Crow South.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781572337206
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Publication date: 11/26/2010
Edition description: First Edition, First Edition
Pages: 200
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Kibibi V. Mack-Shelton held the former Tyler and Alice Haynes Endowed Chair of American Studies at the University of Richmond. She currently teaches at the University of Maryland--Baltimore County and is author and editor of numerous scholarly publications, including History and Women, Culture and Faith: Selected Writings Of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Volume 2.

Table of Contents

Foreword Hayward Farrar Jr. Farrar, Hayward, Jr.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Prologue

Early Black Carolinians

Early Black Orangeburg

Southern Black Families

Chapter 1 Ancestors: The Pierces and Tatnalls, 1860s-1910

Introducing Grandfather Pierce 1

Introducing Grandmother Tattnall 5

The Pierce-Tattnall Union 8

Chapter 2 Jello: The Girl, 1910-1929

Child Rearing 13

Education 23

Chapter 3 Gerry: The Young Adult, 1929-1933

College Days 37

Love and Sex 40

Courtship and Marriage 45

Chapter 4 Gerry: The Mother, 1933-1960s

Gerry and Zin 77

Love, Work, and Marriage 86

Child Bearing and Rearing 91

Conclusion 113

Epilogue: Mrs. Z: Lady Maverick, 1960s-2010

Old Clubs, New Clubs 115

Beloved St. Paul Episcopal 117

Accolades for a Lady Maverick 119

Appendix. Population Statistics: South Carolina and Orangeburg 121

Tatnall-Pierce-Zimmerman Family Tree 123

Notes 125

Bibliography 153

Index 165

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