Allysons first book, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, published by Harvard University Press in 2014, examines the phenomenon of racial passing in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present. Elsie changed her name to Mona Manet and wrote Hughes a letter bearing no return address stating that she intended to cease being colored. When she committed suicide years later, only her white-appearing relatives showed up to claim her body, allowing Elsie to remain white, even in death.. Allysons first book, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, published by Harvard University Press in 2014, examines the phenomenon of racial passing in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present. It won two prizes from the Organization of American Historians, the Frederick Jackson Turner Award for the best first book in American history and the Lawrence W. Levine Award for the best book in American cultural history, as well as other honors. Hobbs said she realized while at Harvard that a university would be my professional home. The book was selected as a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice, a Best Book of 2014 by the San Francisco Chronicle, and a Book of the Week by the Times Higher Education in London. A Chosen Exilewon the Organization of American Historians Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for best first book in American history and the Lawrence Levine Prize for best book in American cultural history. His ruse worked and he and his wife became pillars of an all-white New Hampshire community. Married to Thyra in 1924, Albert graduated from medical school but couldnt get a job as a black doctor, and passed as white in order to gain entry to a reputable hospital. Stop walking like an old man, she scolded him. She has appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC and National Public Radio. Hobbs calls it nine to five passing, although it required the passer to leave home before sunup and not come back until after dark to avoid being seen in their black neighborhoods. She was also involved with the Association of Black Radcliffe Women, Harvard Arbitration Association,Harvard Black Register, First-Year Outdoor Program, intramural crew, Institute of Politics, and the Phillips Brooks House Association. ever waiting to be found just below the surface.. He wears a light-blue cashmere V-neck sweater over a neat button-down shirt and brown corduroy pants, classic gifts for Dad from previous Christmastimes. Allyson is currently at work on two books, both forthcoming from Penguin Press. I bought a flocked Christmas tree, just like the ones that my grandmother chose when my father was growing up. An uncle who was an artist and spent long hours talking to Hobbs about the creative process. Allyson Hobbs is an Associate Professor of United States History, the Director of African and African American Studies, and the Kleinheinz Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and she received a Ph.D. with distinction from the University of Chicago. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Here are some tips. Hobbss cousin was 18 when she was sent by her mother to live in Los Angeles and pass as a white woman in the late 1930s. From left: a portrait; Jean Toomer Papers: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; The Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library. Raising Freedom's Child: Black Children and Visions of the Future after Slavery (Book Review), Searching for a New Soul in Harlem: Allyson Hobbs on Racial Passing and Racial Ambiguity during the Harlem Renaissance, Conclusion: A Paradigm Shift in Fits and Starts. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. That was the bombshell, the offhand remark that plunged historian Allyson Hobbs, AM'02, PhD'09, into a 12-year odyssey to understand racial passing in Americathe triumphs and possibilities, secrets and sorrows, of African Americans who crossed the color line and lived as white. But we can follow the poignant instructions offered in Auld Lang Syne: to remember the past, the stories, the scenes, the settings, the friendships, and the family. Between the eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, countless African Americans passed as white, leaving behind families and friends, roots and community. Students' reflections on Allyson Hobbs' seminar, "On the Road: A History of Travel in Twentieth Century America," AMSTUD 109Q, The Great Migration, C-SPAN, "Lectures in History,"May 10, 2011. I think of my friends whose parents divorced when they were children or teenagers. She also has taught classes on Hamilton (the musical) and Michelle Obama. Many threads weave through A Chosen Exile, released last fall to glowing reviews: the meaning of identity, the elusive concept of race, ever-shifting color lines and cultural borderlands. So she never goes back, Hobbs says. Allyson Hobbs is an associate professor of American history and the director of African and African-American studies at Stanford University. Because theyre so much a part of the story. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. This is a different type of grief. Allyson Hobbs is an Associate Professor of United States History, the Director of African and African American Studies, and the Kleinheinz Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. In 2017, she was honored by the Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP with a Freedom Fighter Award. Allyson Hobbs is an associate professor of American history and the director of African and African-American studies at Stanford University, and the author of " A Chosen Exile: A History of. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Auld Lang Syne was not intended to be a holiday standard, but in 1929 the legendary bandleader Guy Lombardo (known as Mr. New Year) used it to connect two radio programs during a live performance at the Roosevelt Hotel, in New York. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and she received a Ph.D. with distinction from the University of Chicago. Nowhere to Run: African American Travel in Twentieth-Century America explores the humiliation and indignities as well as the joy, exhilaration, and freedom that African American motorists experienced on the road and To Tell the Terrible, which examines the collective memory of sexual violence among generations of black women. It was a very unique place that began as a labor-organizing school and later became a center for civil rights and nonviolence activism that trained leaders and Civil Rights icons like Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, she said. But I knew the sources were out there, because I knew there were stories like the one about this distant cousin of ours., Hobbs, who teaches American history at Stanford University, started by reading literature and going through the correspondence of Harlem Renaissance writers like Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen, picking out the gossip they exchanged about themselves and their acquaintances passing for white. Ellen Craft, a slave in Macon, Ga., successfully escaped to freedom in 1848 dressed as a white man, accompanied by her accomplice, her darker-skinned husband, who pretended to be her servant. Theyre often the ones who are describing the loss. Later she thought again of her distant cousin married to a white man in Los Angeles, unable to come home to the South Side as her father lay dying. But such was life for my father, growing up in Chicago back then. One story Hobbs tells is of Elsie Roxborough, a socialite who briefly dated Joe Louis and Langston Hughes, and who in 1937, after graduating from the University of Michigan, began passing as white to become a model. She doesnt know what became of the cousin in Los Angeles. Anyone can read what you share. The Johnstons maintained the pretense for more than a decade, until one day in the early 1940s, when Albert Jr., home from boarding school, made an unthinking remark about a colored student there, and his father said, Well, youre colored.. As racial relations in America have evolved so has the significance of passing. The car is cozy and my dad is singing again. Hobbs said she felt deeply honored to be chosen, and called the Class of 1997 the most wonderful group of people Ive ever known. The University of Chicago Magazine 5235 South Harper Court, Chicago, IL 60615 Phone: 773.702.2163 Fax: 773.702.2166 uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu, The University of Chicago Magazine (ISSN-0041-9508) is published quarterly by the University of Chicago in cooperation with the Alumni Association. She also has taught classes on, Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program in History, Joint Degree in Law and History (J.D./Ph.D), Stanford Environmental and Climate History Workshop, Storytelling Matters to Historian Allyson Hobbs, Stanford Historian Re-examines Practice of Racial 'Passing, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, Obama and the Paradigm Shift: Measuring Change, Neo-Passing - Performing Identity after Jim Crow, Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America - Allyson Hobbs, How to Build a Movement - Featured: Clay Carson, Estelle Freedman, Allyson Hobbs and Pamela Karlan, Sunday Reading: Racial Injustice and the Police-Collection of Essays with 2016 Essay by Allyson Hobbs, Becoming, by Michelle Obama: A pioneering and important work by Allyson Hobbs. Her tragedy once again feels like mixed fate. Where were the sources going to be? My father, who dreamed of attending the University of Chicago, took great pride in wearing the jacket. But by far the books most potent thread is about loss. Staggered by this nightmarish new reality, I am grasping for explanations for why my parents can no longer live together. I should be able to stanch the wound, but I cant. Try as I might, I cant relive my childhood or young adulthood in Morristown. "Storytelling Matters to Historian Allyson Hobbs,"The Stanford Dish, February 19, 2016, "Stanford Historian Re-examines Practice of Racial 'Passing,'"Stanford Report, December 18, 2013. I thought their bond was indestructible. His life was not an easy one. They would say, Well, I really dont know much about this relative or that relative. Or, I dont know that much about my fathers side because this person passed as white and we never heard from them again, Hobbs says. I am mourning a family and people who are still alive. For her, rather, passing is an opportunity to consider deeper questions. A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life. She has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity. He saw race as superficial, a physical covering, and argued for an American identity that could not extricate its black elements from its white components. In this critically vigilant work, Hobbs refuses to accept any one identity as true. Toomer, in his resistance to being pigeonholed, comes across here as not so much self-loathing as ahead of his time. As her long-suffering mother puts it, How do you tell a child that she was born to be hurt?, To her credit, Hobbs isnt interested in reviving this tragic mulatto archetype. Im a white woman now. She was married to a white man; she had white children. Her endless patience was wearing thin, her natural gentleness was hardening, and she seemed uncharacteristically annoyed. Perhaps it was more beloved by him because he knew the sacrifices that his mother had made to buy it. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. She is a contributing writer to. Ill remember my bright pink bedroom with curtains that my mom made from Benetton sheets. Her work has appeared inThe New York Times,The New York Times Book Review,The Washington Post,The Nation,The Root.com,The Guardian,Politico,andThe Chronicle of Higher Education. Im bleeding out. She served on the jury for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in History. They cry as if these were their own parents. So most New Years Eve revellers just mumble or hum along. Their stately home served as the community hub, and there they raised their four children, who believed they were white. . Anyone can read what you share. I dont have to shuttle between two homes, I wont have to endure remarriages, I dont believe that I am at fault. In 2017, she was honored by the Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP with a Freedom Fighter Award. Hobbs traveled to the school the summer before her senior year. The house where I grew up our sanctuary for 40 years is falling apart and will be sold soon. She has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity at Stanford. edited by Grossman, J. R., Keating, A. D., Reiff, L. Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Office of VP for University Human Resources, Office of Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer, Graduate Research Seminar: U.S. History in the 20th Century, Graduate Research Seminar: U.S. History in the 20th Century Part II, Undergraduate Directed Research and Writing. I am sure you did not realize this when you made/laughed at/agreed with that racist remark. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. As this years chief marshal, Hobbs joins alistof illustrious alumni who have held the position, including former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith 94, who is this years featured Harvard Alumni Day speaker; astronaut Stephanie Wilson 88; Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter Linda Greenhouse 68; City Year co-founder Alan Khazei 83; former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan 86; and former Rhode Island Gov. Perhaps his suffering and hardships imbued his poetry with its signature passion and intensity. In 2017, she was honored by the Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP with a Freedom Fighter Award. She has appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC and National Public Radio. And well take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne. 'A Chosen Exile,' by Allyson Hobbs - The New York Times Nowhere to Run: African American Travel in Twentieth Century America explores the violence, humiliation, and indignities that African American motorists experienced on the road and To Tell the Terrible, which examines black womens testimonies against and collective memory of sexual violence. The Root named A Chosen Exile as one of the Best 15 Nonfiction Books by Black Authors in 2014., View details for DOI 10.1017/S1537781419000690, View details for Web of Science ID 000529084900011, View details for Web of Science ID 000431473400019, View details for Web of Science ID 000299143500019, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Stanford University (2008 - Present), AAAS/CCSRE Faculty Research Fellow, Stanford University (2014 - 2015), Postdoctoral Fellowship, Ford Foundation (2013 - 2014), Hoefer Faculty Mentor Prize, Stanford University (2013), Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, Stanford University (2013), The Graves Award, Humanities, Stanford University (2012), Clayman Institute for Gender Research Fellowship, Stanford University (2011 - 2012), Diversity Dissertation Fellowship Alternate, Ford Foundation (2011), CCSRE Junior Faculty Development Program, Stanford University (2010), Hoefer Faculty Mentor Prize, Stanford University (2010), St. Clair Drake Teaching Award, Stanford University (2010), Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Department of History, Stanford University (2007 - 2008), Diversity Dissertation Fellowship, Ford Foundation (2007), Von Holst Prize, Lectureship in History, University of Chicago (2006), Trustee Fellowship, University of Chicago (2000 - 2006), Advisory Committee Member, African and African American Studies, Committe-in-Charge Member, American Studies Program, Core Affiliated Faculty, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Researcher, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Faculty Affiliate, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Faculty Advisor, Masters in Liberal Arts Program, Member, Transnational, International, and Global History Initiative, Department of History Urban Studies, Advisory Board, Spatial Legacy Academy, East Palo Alto, CA, Faculty Advisor, Mellon-Mays (2010 - Present), Pre-Major Advisor, Department of History, Stanford University (2010 - 2011), Expert Reviewer, Bedford/St. Stanford, CA 94305-2024%20history-info [at] stanford.edu ()target="_blank"Campus Map, Understanding the past to prepare for the future, Ph.D., University of Chicago, History (2009), A.B., Harvard University, Social Studies (1997), Allyson Hobbs is an Associate Professor of United States History, the Director of African and African American Studies, and the Kleinheinz Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. In her histories of globalism, migration, families, and children, Tara Zahra reveals the fine cracks in foundational stories. (now Secretary of Commerce) Gina M. Raimondo 93. All rights reserved. Like gay characters, mulattoes always pay for their existence dearly in the end. I regret any discomfort my presence is causing you, just as Im sure you regret the discomfort your racism is causing me., To be black but to be perceived as white is to find yourself, at times, in a racial no mans land. Its a story weve of course read and seen before in fictional accounts numerous novels and films that have generally portrayed mixed-race characters in the sorriest of terms. Stanford Historian Allyson Hobbs has written a history of racial passing in America, "A Chosen Exile." "There's probably a time when we all engaged in some form of passing," she said. It was, as Allyson Hobbs writes, a chosen exile, a separation from one racial identity and the leap into another. The book was also selected as a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2014, a Best 15 Nonfiction Books by Black Authors in 2014 by The Root, a featured book in the New York Times Book Review Paperback Row in 2016, and a Paris Review What Our Writers are Reading This Summer Selection in 2017. I drift into my own misty reveries: a childhood when the excitement of Christmas would not let me sleep; years later, watching my brother-in-law assemble elaborate and exquisite floral centerpieces as his generous gift to us; the games played; the joy and laughter before my sisters illness and untimely death, at thirty-one; even the hectic but happy balancing act of celebrating two Christmasesone with my family and one with my husbands familybefore our marriage collapsed, four years ago. He remained close to the other Harlans but never tried to take on their whiteness. She has appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC and National Public Radio. One of the difficulties in writing a history of passing is that its a phenomenon, Hobbs acknowledges, intended to be clandestine and hidden, to leave no trace. Which is why, in part, passing has remained the territory of fiction and literary criticism. In June, she will lead the alumni parade as part ofHarvard Alumni Dayand host aspecial luncheon in Widener Library, where University leadership convene with a small group of alumni leaders and other dignitaries, including the Harvard Medalists and theAlumni Day featured speaker. Alumni will be able to reconnect in person for Harvard Alumni Day, reunions, and other alumni programs across the campus, after the pandemic kept many from visiting for two consecutive years. Hobbsis an associate professor in Stanford Universitys Department of History,director of African and African American studies,and a Kleinheinz University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Fraziers dissertation, The Negro Family in Chicago, became a groundbreaking text in the field. Ellen Craft, a slave in Macon, Ga., successfully escaped to freedom in 1848 dressed as a white man, accompanied by her accomplice, her darker-skinned husband, who pretended to be her servant . Her work has appeared in. And like her first book, it also began with ambient anecdotes and a family story. After emancipation, many African Americans came to regard passing as a form of betrayal, a selling of ones birthright. My fathers grandmother had served the white folks at dinner parties, so she took great pride in making her own celebrations equally special. Allyson Hobbs is an associate professor of history and director of African and African-American studies at Stanford. Allyson Hobbs is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at Stanford University.