To Serve the LivingFor African Americans, death was never simply the end of life, and funerals were not just places to mourn. In the "hush harbors" of the slave quarters, African Americans first used funerals to bury their dead and to plan a path to freedom. Similarly, throughout the long - and often violent - struggle for racial equality in the twentieth century, funeral directors aided the cause by honoring the dead while supporting the living. To Serve the Living offers a fascinating history of how African American funeral directors have been integral to the fight for freedom. |
Contents
1 | |
1 From Hush Harbors to Funeral Parlors | 15 |
2 The Colored Embalmer | 46 |
3 My Mans an Undertaker | 79 |
4 A Funeral Hall Is as Good a Place as Any | 112 |
5 The African American Way of Death | 156 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
A. G. Gaston activists African American funeral Alabama American funeral directors August began Birmingham black business black community black funeral directors boycott bury campaign cemetery century Chicago Defender civil rights movement Colored Embalmer Company Coretta Scott King corpse dead death deceased Diggs Director and Embalmer economic Emmett Till fight funeral business Funeral Directors Association funeral hall Funeral Home funeral industry funeral parlors funeral service Georgia hearses History hush harbors INFDA Jackson Jim Crow King’s leaders Malcolm X Malcolm X’s man’s an undertaker Martin Luther King MFSA Miller Mississippi Mitford modern civil rights mourners NAACP Nashville National Funeral Director Negro Funeral Directors neral NFDA NFDMA NNBL NNFDA notes to pages organization Park Parks’s Pittsburgh Courier political President race racial segregation Reed SCLC Scott King Selma serve the living Shortridge Shuttlesworth slave funerals University Press W. E. B. Du Bois Washington white funeral directors York Young