The Activist Collector

“Christa Clarke’s The Activist Collector, a triumph of archival research and art historical scholarship, is a revelation of the astonishing degree to which symbolic and spiritual connections to South Africa were shared by African Americans at every social level as much as a century ago. Clarke’s work demonstrates in stunning detail that consciousness of Black African culture and politics and truly ‘Pan-African’ artistic sensibility were not merely embraced by exemplars of the African American intellectual elite, but were much more broadly-based, and shared across black social classes. In stunningly insightful analyses of the collection of art objects that Lida Clanton Broner gathered as she engaged in a one-woman campaign for black liberation throughout apartheid South Africa almost a century ago, Clarke has resurrected from the archives a story that reveals the power and magic of courage, imagination, and the belief that the battle for freedom must be pursued one speech and one art object at a time.” -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University
From hairstylist and housekeeper to grassroots activist, Ms. Broner led an extraordinary life. The granddaughter of enslaved Africans, she was determined to visit her ancestral home. Her history with us began in 1943 with an exhibition of objects and artifacts she collected (and later donated to the Museum) during her 1938 trip to South Africa. That installation was among the very first museum exhibitions to focus on the art of South Africa and may well have been the first museum presentation of a collection by an African American woman. -- Linda C. Harrison, Director & CEO, The Newark Museum of Art * from the foreword *

"This extensively researched volume, supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, is an important contribution to scholarship. At the same time, the book’s engaging narrative style, with its generous inflections of Broner’s voice and its portrayal of her 'spirited and independent personality and outspoken opinions', has the potential to keep broader audiences cheering for this activist collector. Clarke’s writing conveys Broner’s wit and tact without varnishing her occasional tourist faux pas. It showcases her networking among prominent political leaders, intellectuals, and other 'New Africans'—the growing Christian and educated Black middle class of South Africa—while acknowledging her affection for and interest in those from rural areas who were uneducated and who followed traditional belief systems. These qualities make Broner an everywoman: fascinating and formidable, but also human, relatable, and entertaining. A trailblazing Black woman’s legacy and voice are now recorded, undoubtedly able to inspire Black women still on today’s literal and figurative picket lines and on a mission."

* Women's Art Journal *