Passed On Death And Loss Sparknotes

African American reactions to death and loss can be traced to their African roots, their centuries of slavery, their commitment to Christianity, and their post-slavery treatment in American society. Among those to explore death and dying in twentieth-century African America is author Karla FC Holloway. In her book Passed On: African American Mourning Stories: a Memorial Collection, Holloway thoroughly investigated the myths, rituals, economics, and politics of African American mourning and burial practices, and found that ways of dying are just as much a part of black history as ways of living.
Holloway dug into the history of African American death through a series of interviews, archival research, and analyses of literature, film, movies, theater, and music. Through it, Holloway showed how the vulnerability of African Americans to untimely death is inextricably linked to how black culture represents itself and is represented. In dealing with grief and loss, African American researchers have primarily focused on the “death-care” industry—black funeral homes and morticians, the history of the profession, and its practices. Holloway took a stronger and more active approach by researching all facets of the burial business: emergency room physicians, hospital chaplains, hospice administrators, embalming chemical salesmen, casket makers, funeral directors, and grieving relatives.
She uses narrative, photographs, and images to summon a painful history of lynchings, white rage and riot, medical malpractice and neglect, executions, and neighborhood violence. Her research uncovered how people in the past had specialized caskets sold to African Americans, formal burial photos of infants, and deathbed stories, and she unveiled a glimpse...

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...d in rural communities and whites lived in the cities. The first African American funeral directors had the challenge of driving long distances, over dirt bumpy country roads in horse-drawn carriages, to care for the white dead at the family home. The dead were laid on a “cooling board” at the family home for the purpose of slowing the deterioration of the body. The funeral director had to provide the ice for the cooling board. In the1920s, blacks started moving into the major industrial cities to obtain good manufacturing jobs. Many were urged to attend mortuary school and start businesses to help bury the increasing urban African American community.
Death is an important transition in the African American life because of its traditions and history. It is a celebration of a life gone to be with Jesus. The African American history also heightens the sense of loss.