Letters
Brown, Garland and Campbell
By Jolynn Hope Brooks
Nov 29, 2006, 14:40

Ruth Brown

April has garnered an undeserved reputation as the cruelest month but for women of African descent here in America, November has been cold and heartless. For in this one month we have lost Phyllis (Phyl) Garland, the first tenured African American and woman professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism, Miss R&B herself Ruth "Mama, He Treat Your Daughter Mean" Brown, and Philadelphia-born author and mental health advocate Bebe Moore Campbell.

Garland was the mentor and inspiration for a whole generation of young Black journalists who she loved and shepherded. Before joining COlumbia's faculty, she followed in her mother's footsteps at the Pittsburgh Courier, moved on to Ebony as their New York editor.

Ruth Brown was indefatigable spirit working nonstop until she suffered a debilitating stroke and laid in a coma until her death. But for all the folks who saw her brassy performance in "Hairspray," Miss Brown was also a force of nature. Barely five feet tall, Miss Ruth stood tall. Her early hits were covered by White singers but Ruth Brown was never publicly bitter about her lack of monetary success.

Bebe Moore Campbell wrote realistically about her life, about the lives of believable Black folks. She wrote about her father, her aunts collectively known as the Bosoms, Emmett Till, mental illness, estrangement, and the high cost of our purchase. In her novel What You Owe Me, she chronicled the lives of two women, one African American and the other Jewish, and masterfully wove a tale of what happens when betrayal leads to success for some but not everyone.

Phyl Garland and Ruth Brown, 71 and 78 years of age respectively, were able to reach their three score and ten; but Miss Campbell leaves us much sooner. At 56, she had more books to author and more causes to champion.

Given the barrenness of our artistic landscape we can ill afford the absence of these three giants. We mourn their loss as we face the promise of a new year that now seems not quite as sweet without them.

Jolynn Hope Brooks is an author presently living in metro Atlanta.


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