In March of 2021 The Washington Post published an article entitled "The Rosa Parks of D.C." about Miss Barbara E. Pope.  The author, David A. Taylor describes her as follows:

Quote

[Miss Pope] ranks among the most stunning forgotten American lives. She was, in addition to being a high school teacher, an author of fiction about social change at the turn of the 20th century, and her literary voice was celebrated on the international stage by no less than W.E.B. Du Bois. Her stories probed relationships among men and women, Black and White, with a modern voice and a sharp eye for detail and character. . . .

 

But perhaps her greatest accomplishment was the stand she took against racism in transportation nearly 50 years before Rosa Parks’s bus ride: In August 1906, Pope boarded a train at Union Station and traveled into Virginia, in the process challenging Virginia’s Jim Crow law requiring segregation on trains and streetcars. She soon gained the support of Du Bois and his Niagara Movement, a precursor to the NAACP. . . .

 

Mr. Taylor goes on to let us know that the only source of her stories is on microfilm at the Library of Congress.  They were originally printed in Waverly Magazine between 1896 and 1900.  And now they are available again in print here. Transcribed from the microfilm of the original printing as preserved at the Library of Congress. This edition includes useful descriptions of terms of the day that may be less familiar to the modern reader. The transcription is intended to be completely faithful to the original. In addition to Miss Pope's stories, this edition includes the following:

•     Annotations to clarify archaic or out-of-date terminology
•     Editorial notes to clarify where the original material may be unclear
•     Biography/Description for Miss Pope, Waverly Magazine, and Daniel Murray
•     Discussion Guide
•     List of Characters

 

This book includes four short stories:

1. The New Woman
2. A Social Mishap
3. Cornelia
4. Campbell's Experiment
    

• Editor:  Alan S. Eisen
• Author: Miss Barbara E. Pope
• ISBN: 979-8763300710
• Publication Date: November 9, 2021
• I am interested in a book review of these historic short stories

 

Note that a portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to Howard University's African American Studies Resource Center.

 

A hardback copy is now also available at the same link.