Short description:

This is the story of Dr. Geneva Smitherman, aka "Dr. G," the pioneering linguist often referred to as the "Queen of Black Language." As Dr. G enters her eighth decade, she seeks to share the meaning and purpose of a life of study and struggle and its significance for all those who seek racial and social justice today.

Long description:

This is the story of Dr. Geneva Smitherman, aka "Dr. G," the pioneering linguist often referred to as the "Queen of Black Language." In a series of narrative essays, Dr. G writes eloquently and powerfully about the role of language in social transformation and the academic, intellectual, linguistic, and societal debates that shaped her groundbreaking work as a Black Studies O.G. and a Womanist scholar-activist of African American Language.

These eleven essays narrate the development of Dr. G?s race, gender, class, and linguistic consciousness as a member of the Black Power Generation of the 1960s and 70s. In My Soul Look Back In Wonder, Dr. G links the personal to the professional and the political, situating the struggles, and successes, of a Black woman in the Academy within the historical experiences and development of her people.

As Dr. G enters her eighth decade, in this Black Lives Matter historical moment, she seeks to share the meaning and purpose of a life of study and struggle and its significance for all those who seek racial and social justice today.

A marvelous and moving account of the life and work of an extraordinary Black woman whose dynamic career has empowered generations of scholars and students. Add Smitherman?s book and life to those of other African American women who have contributed so much to creating a better society for all of us.

Darlene Clark Hine, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of History, Michigan State University, USA

Geneva Smitherman is a legendary intellectual and teacher! This powerful and beautiful memoir is a timely and needful force for our hearts, minds and souls in such a decadent time!

Cornel West, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor, Union Theological Seminary, USA

Queen G gave us the name "African American Language" but now she has given us African American life and boldness. No one does it like Queen G in sharing and celebrating Blackness in its full glory, stature, and struggle.

Sonja L. Lanehart, Professor of Linguistics and Affiliate Faculty, Africana Studies, University of Arizona, USA

Punctuated with an eloquent vernacular voice, Dr. G describes?a glorious succession of iconic scholarly milestones through her singular contributions that tirelessly championed Black linguistic liberation worldwide.

John Baugh, Margaret Bush Wilson Professor, Washington University, USA and Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Table of Contents:

List of Plates

Shout-outs

Chapter One Steppin Out on Faith

Chapter Two "When Do You Plan on Getting Married And Starting A Family?"

Chapter Three Quest for Knowledge and Liberation

Chapter Four Who We Be: The Language Wars In And Outside Of The Academy

Chapter Five Doin Battle In The Language Wars: Black Language And The Academy

Chapter Six Doin Battle In The Language Wars: Black Language And The Law

Chapter Seven Maintaining My Authentic Self

Chapter Eight The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Reparations and Affirmative Action

Chapter Nine African American Language and Literacy Program and Black Studies In The Twenty-First Century

Chapter Ten "What Is Africa To Me?": Longing And Looking For Home

Epilogue The Rhyming Tonal Semantics of History