Spartan Profiles: Maureen Honey
BITTER FRUIT
During World War II, ads, posters and newsreels gave us Rosie the Riveter and mostly images of white women as nurses, defense plant workers, and so on. Obscured were the contributions made by African American women, a lacuna that Maureen Honey, ’67, M.A. ’70, Ph.D. ’79, professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of Nebraska, has now filled with the publication of Bitter Fruit: African American Women In World War II (University of Missouri Press, 1999)—an anthology of photos, essays, fiction and poety by and about black women during the war period.
At that time, says Honey, “the black culture’s focus was on integration—the right to have a job, just as any American, and the right to live anywhere, same as any American. Our message was, ‘We’re as American as anyone else. We belong.’”
This theme emerges throughout the book, which shows photos of black women—one could be called Wilma the Welder, parelleling Rosie—doing all the things Americans did during the war. “They were covered in African American periodicals of the times,” says Maureen. “But none of those periodicals are listed in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature.”
Maureen attended high school in Williamston, and having a father (Keith) who taught at MSU, it was an easy decision to attend MSU. “I loved it,” says Maureen. “I loved the campus, got a terrific education, and met some fabulous people.”
Among others, she mentions Herb Josephs, from whom she took four courses while completing her bachelor’s in French. She returned for graduate degrees in English and American Studies “because of Russ Nye, who was my mentor and instrumental in my intellectual development.”
