Harriet E. Wilson’s legacy honored at dedication

Jenn McDowell

MILFORD, N.H. — Actress and writer Ruby Dee called the attention of more than 200 audience members at Town Hall on Saturday afternoon to a controversial issue.

She delivered the keynote speech at the dedication ceremony for a bronze statue of Harriet E. Wilson, the first known African American woman to publish a novel.

“We really can’t know if she was first or not,” she said, citing the racism and sexism existent in the 19th century that prevented both black and women writers from being recognized.

But Dee also emphasized that whether or not Wilson, a Milford resident whose novel “Our Nig: or Sketches From the Life of A Free Black,” was published in 1859, was the first in a long line of black women novelists had no bearing on the subject at hand.

“Today, all of us here, we celebrate that life, that spirit, that resilience that is a legacy to us all,” she said.

Besides writing and acting (“Raisin in the Sun” and “Roots”), Dee was a civil rights activist in the 1960s, assisting with the March on Washington, D.C., in 1963 along with her husband, Ossie Davis. It was at this marked historical event that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

After the dedication ceremony, the Milford High School band led a procession to Bicentennial Park. The oldest black woman living in Milford, Iris Thompson, 96, unveiled the bronze statue. A dove was released into the sky at the unveiling.

Also at the unveiling, sculptor Fern Cunningham spoke of her labor on the statue. There are no photographs or portraits of Wilson, so Cunningham was charged with creating a completely fresh image of the novelist.

The sculpture depicts Wilson holding her book opened up to her face, chin held high, with her young son George at her side.

Justiana Andrews, a Milford High School student and founder of the activist student organization Milford High School Peace Jam, read excerpts from “Our Nig” at Town Hall and paid tribute to Wilson in a speech at the park.

Andrews read Wilson’s book on New Hampshire Public Radio during last month’s “Granite State Stories” series.

Lawrence Watson, a celebrated soul musician, sang for the crowd at both locations, including a heartfelt rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

Watson is an associate professor of voice at Berklee College of Music and the Art Institute of Boston. He is also an adjunct black studies professor at Boston College.

State Sen. Peter Bragdon, who lives in Milford, read a letter from Gov. John Lynch during the proceedings at Town Hall. The letter expressed the governor’s apologies for not being able to attend the ceremony.

U.S. congressional candidate Paul Hodes also attended the ceremony before heading out to a campaign rally at Nashua’s Democratic headquarters with Lynch and Nashua Democratic candidates for office.

Donating agencies to the Harriet E. Wilson Project include the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Milford Lions Club, the Marchesi Fund and the Milford Rotary.

Jenn McDowell is a staff writer at The Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph. This article originally appeared in the Nov. 5, 2006, edition of the Telegraph.