Black Americans have kept and published diaries for more than 150 years, chronicling their experience in the moment and using the powerful conventions associated with the diary form—privacy, honesty, confiding in a trusted audience—to create a stark picture of lived experience under racism. Diaries by African American women document personal experiences within social contexts of injustice—and show how their own actions make history. These stories offer evidence that apparently new developments like the Black Lives Matter movement, white fragility exposure, and intercultural dialogue practices have long roots in the past.
Author: Paula Vene Smith
Paula Vene Smith is a professor of English at Grinnell College. She teaches literature and writing, including courses on the diary. Her work appears in the Washington Post, Salon, The Conversation, Autobiography Studies, and the Journal of Modern Literature (forthcoming in 2023).