I was flipping through a box of books in a far back corner of the auction house, something I normally do when there are boxes and boxes of books for sale. I’m always on the hunt for books with an African American theme, and sometimes they are buried beneath and among other books.
The boxes contained books that were mostly from two centuries ago. Tucked among them was the spine of a book with the title “Parasols is for Ladies,” but my eyes breezed right over it because I had no interest in reading about women and their umbrellas.
Finally dispensing with the box, I decided to pull out ‘Parasols.’ What a surprise I found when I saw the image on the torn and dusty dust jacket: three little African American girls in blue, yellow and pink dresses with ruffles on the hems and collars.
I was ecstatic, although I could see from the title that the book was written in dialect and that I might not be so excited once I started reading it. The little girls, though, were sweetly and non-stereotypically drawn – there wasn’t a red lip on the cover – so I was hoping that the illustrations inside would be the same.
I opened the book and came upon a layout of the girls’ community in Arkansas – with pen drawings of their home, school, church and neighbors’ houses. The illustrations gave them a place in the world, a sense of family and connectedness like any other children. I’m not sure if this was what the author Elizabeth Ritter and illustrator Ninon MacKnight had in mind, but I was impressed.
The book tells the story of the three Jones sisters Gennie (short for Genesis, who was born first), Nolie (short for Magnolia, born on the day the first magnolia bloomed) and Rellie (short for Israella, named after her father Israel since he didn’t have a boy child, and the youngest). The drawing of their mother Mammy Lou fit the stereotype of an overweight black woman wearing a kerchief.
In a store window, the girls spot three parasols in the same colors as their dresses but they don’t have any money to buy them. Then they and their family figure out a way to save up the money.
‘Parasols’ was published in 1941 by the John C. Winston Co. of Philadelphia at a time when books written by white authors about black children were rife with stereotypes. For decades, books like “Little Black Sambo” and the Nicodemus series had defined how black children were portrayed, and many white authors picked up on those depictions.
In a 2006 paper on the images of blackness in children books, Kathleen Collins of the Suzzallo Allen Library at the University of Washington wrote:
“‘Parasols Is for Ladies (1941)’ is marred by the exaggerated illustrations and uneducated speech of its main characters. The 1946 Caldecott Medal winner “The Rooster Crows,” which for the most part portrayed attractive white children, included illustrations of black children with “great buniony feet, coal black skin, and bulging eyes” … until, under criticism, the publishers elected to eliminate those pages entirely in the 1964 edition.”
Meanwhile, though, African Americans had been and were producing books to counteract those stereotypes. In the 1920s, W.E.B. Du Bois published a magazine “The Brownies Book” that offered positive stories about black children living their lives as other children did. Carter G. Woodson’s Associated Publishers did the same, employing African American artist Lois Mailou Jones as an illustrator. And there were many others, including Langston Hughes and his First Book series.
I found MacKnight’s illustrations much tamer than most that I’ve seen in books about African American children from that era. In both color and black and white, the illustrations showed the sisters as cute little girls, and even the father was normally drawn. She held to the stereotype, though, with the mother.
Ritter used “correct English” in telling the story in third person, but settled on dialect when the girls and their parents spoke. It diminished the impact of the book for me, and would do the same for a number of people. The dialect, in fact, was hard to read.
The author had “always been deeply interested in the colored folk of Arkansas,” according to Ritter’s bio on the back flap of the book, “their quaint superstition, their homely remedies, their primitive customs and the poetry of their speech. Three little colored girls swinging along Little River Road in Marked Tree, each carrying a brightly colored parasol, were the originals of Gennie, Nolie, and Rellie.”
Ritter was born in a small town in Kansas, and became acquainted with the South when her husband was stationed in Georgia during World War I, according to the book jacket. They moved to Marked Tree, AK, when it was barely a town. She taught music lessons to keep herself occupied and pay for the piano she had bought.
She wrote at least one other children’s book with African American characters – “You Never Can Tell,” published in 1947 by Grosset & Dunlap in New York. It is the story of two brothers named Peas and Beans – who also live in Arkansas – who try to figure out how to get a mule. The book is “illustrated with non-racist color and black and white lithos by Marion Holland,” according to the Aleph-Bet Books website.
MacKnight (whose named was also spelled McKnight in various references) was born in Australia and came to this county in 1929, according to the book jacket flap. She illustrated her first children’s book here in 1936 (she had created drawings for a song book about animals in London before coming to America). I found on the web several books that she had illustrated, including “Olga of Norway (1936),” “Maria and Carlos of Spain (1936)” and “Kala of Hawai (1936)” all written by another author. She was chosen to illustrate ‘Parasols,’ the dust jacket said, because of her “charming style.”
At the auction, I hung around through table after table of minor stuff before the books came up for bids. There were about eight boxes, and one other bidder wanted the same box as me. He held up his bid card and kept it aloft as we bidded back and forth past $100 and then close to $200 (yes, even I got caught up in the bidding but I wanted that book). I finally backed down and he paid the price for the box.
Fortunately, though, he had no interest in ‘Parasols,’ and graciously sold it to me for a small price. The book was being offered for sale on the web for $170 to $625, but I have no intention of selling it. It’s mine for keeps.
I met Elizabeth during a summer camping adventure with my parents at a “Motor Court” in St. Joseph, Michigan when I was about 6. She was camped for the summer in a house trailer with many animals lounging around her dwelling, including a goat! As I stood, fascinated by the goat, Elizabeth came outside to chat. She asked if I liked to read and told her I did. Then she wondered if I got any children’s magazines and I replied, “Jack & Jill.” She asked, “Do you have a favorite story & I announced proudly, “The Three Parasols,” but said I had to get home quick to read the 3rd & final installment of a 3-month series that was coming out soon.
Her delighted response was that it was she who wrote the book that Jack & Jill had altered the title and published as a 3-part series called “The Three Parasols”.
I responded cheerfully, “Then you must know what happens next, don’t you?!” She wouldn’t tell. SoI decided that she would have to become my best friend for the summer & maybe she’d give in and tell?
We did became great friends. She insisted on knowing my middle name, which I refused to share. I had been named Mary Treat after my mother & I hated it because all of my friends had such pretty girl names & I was stuck with my mother’s maiden name. At 6 that was a very big deal!
Elizabeth insisted on knowing my name because, as she proclaimed, “Where I come from in the South, EVERYBODY has a middle name, so I must know yours.
I finally agreed to share the initial letter “T.”
She shouted, “Ah Ha. I know what it it is. It’s Teapot!” And for the rest of the summer my name was Mary Teapot.
When our short vacation ended and we returned to our home in Chicago, we raced to a book store and bought the book Elizabeth had entitled, PARASOLS IS FOR LADIES. Later we returned to the campsite and she autographed my copy along with a loving note. We resumed our friendship & I learned all about Marked Tree, Ark, her family and the names of all of her animals. A photo of the two of us is still pasted in my book. I really loved her. We corresponded for a long time.
Years later, when my own children began reading, they found my cherished copy of PARASOLS IS FOR LADIES and loved it, just as I had. I wanted to share with Elisabeth, so took a chance a letter from me in Wisconsin might make it to a place called Marked Tree, Ark and to my old friend.
It arrived and she mailed a pleased response to the fact that my children were enjoying her book. Naturally, her letter brought me up to date on the family and animal names. She penned another thank you for writing and concluded, “You must be a very nice person to take time for such letters.”
I still cherish her.
This book was my favorite and my sister’s childhood book. Took it out from the library many many times. My sister always looked for it at sales. She finally found it. I’m 69. My sister 72.
I am an 80 year old white woman from Memphis TN. I remember this book and loved it. Many years later I tried to find it but did not have a title. I just remember 3 little girls in 3 pretty dresses wanted parasols. Tried just now and here it was! Thanks for the memory!
Parasols is for Ladies was a childhood favorite and a birthday gift when I was five (1947).
I thought I had this book in my collection from childhood but it may have been left in my SC grandmother’s home years ago. I grew up in a NC home with many beloved “colored people” as they were politely referred to at that time. My SC grandmother also had beloved help and my favorite was “Little Florence” who Rocked and sang to me ancient songs. Many times they brought a daughter or granddaughter to play with me, an only child. We were all one big family that shared memories of good and bad times. I loved them and felt loved in return. I have continued that legacy with the employees of our family. Only one is now left and we are both seventy-six years old. I visit her often as she has congestive heart failure as did her mother who was employed until she could no longer continue. We share the same values and respect of times past. We share stories of our children and grandchildren. I am so grateful for Our Delores and her beautiful spirit and all those before her.
There was a copy of this book at my grandparents house in eastern NC. My grandmother had been a principle and she always had a lot of books at their house. I’m 56 years old now so this was quite a long time ago. This book was one if my favorites. I remember the contrast of color illustrations and the black and white ones. The color ones were so saturated but since the girls were trying to get the parasols because they matched their dresses it made sense. I remember the vernacular and the story of snipping some hairs from the dogs tail and burying it under the porch so he wouldn’t run off. I wish I had that copy of the book. I remember my grandmother reading me Stuart Little and their collection of Miss Minerva books as well.
My great aunt gave me a copy of this book among others that had been discarded at the elementary school where she taught in Battle Creek, Michigan in the early 1960’s. I read it often to my little sister who is eight years my junior. She was around ten when I took her to the county fair where we found a little black and white puppy that had been abandoned. We took the puppy home and she named it “Fleabite” after the dog in “Parasols”. Like the mother in the book, we clipped off the tip-hairs of the dog’s tail and put them under the doormat. The dog never wandered away from home. The dog lived to be about twenty. I have always looked for another copy of the book but was unable to even find it on the internet until today. The book is well-written and has a very good moral of the story that children today need to learn. Hopefully I’ll someday find another copy of the book.
I am a 76 year old white woman born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1937 and later growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas. I can’t remember where I first came across Parasols for Ladies, but I loved it and have tried to find an affordable copy on eBay, where I have bought a number of favorite books from my childhood. I found that some of the books–Diddie, Dumps, and Tot was one–were terribly racist, something I never realized when I first read them as I was growing up white in the deep South in the 1940s. I never thought of Parasols as using racial stereotypes. My own beloved mother was as plump as the girls’ mother, and she never seemed stereotypical to me. The book will always be one of my childhood favorites.
Hi Elizabeth. The little girls in the book were sweetly drawn and it is a lovely story. The depiction of the mother, though, really was a caricature. As you said, you were a child and you loved the story. But the writer and illustrators were subliminally offering a particular message through their portrayal of the mother.
Sherry
I grew up knowing the author (Elizabeth Ritter) in Marked Tree , Arkansas. The Ritter famiy sponsored my family from a DP camp. She always spoke of her book (Parasols is for Ladies). The reason I am writing is that I finally received a copy of the second printing and I will cherish it.
My Sister and I had a copy of Parasols is for Ladies when we were young girls. We grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and our Grandmother gave us that book! At first we thought it was ugly, but when we started to read it, we found it fun to read, we read it often, we still to this day recite our favorite passage:
“I like the pink,pink, pink I like the yellow, yellow, yellow, I like the blue, blue, blue”.
My Sister’s favorite color is Pink and mine is Blue and we both like Yellow
Unfortunately since we had to move so many times to survive, we lost our book, but we never loose our pleasure rhyme from it.
Just me Sd