John Langston Gwaltney (September 25, 1928 – August 29, 1998) was an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

writer and anthropologist focused on

African-American culture African-American culture, also known as Black American culture or Black culture in American English, refers to the cultural expressions of African Americans, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. African-American/Bl ...

, best known for his book '' Drylongso: A Self Portrait of Black America''.

Early life

Gwaltney lost his eyesight soon after birth and was the first blind student to attend his local high school in

Newark, NJ Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area.Upsala College Upsala College (UC) was a private college affiliated with the Swedish-American Augustana Synod (later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and located in East Orange in Essex County, New Jersey in the United States, with an additiona ...

in 1952, an MA from the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

in 1957, and in 1967 a Ph.D. in anthropology from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where he won the Ansley Dissertation Award and studied under

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker, who appeared frequently in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Col ...

, who called him ""a most remarkable man... homanages his life and work with extraordinary skill and bravery".Cole, Johnnetta B.
"John Langston Gwaltney (1928-1998)"
, ''American Anthropologist'', September 1999 Vol. 101 (3): 614-615. His dissertation on

river blindness Onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness, is a disease caused by infection with the parasitic worm ''Onchocerca volvulus''. Symptoms include severe itching, bumps under the skin, and blindness. It is the second-most common cause of blindne ...

among the Chinantec-speaking people in

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, eventually became his 1970 book ''Thrice Shy: Cultural Accommodation to Blindness and Other Disasters in a Mexican Community''. He was a professor of anthropology at the

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

''Drylongso''

''Drylongso'' is a collection of Gwaltney's transcriptions of oral interviews with whom he described as "core black people", ordinary men and women who made up black America. In the interviews, he asked people to define their culture. The book includes a glossary of African American terms, and interviews with 41 people from the Northeast United States. The title is from an African-American word, "drylongso", which is used to mean "ordinary", in reference to the social status of the interviewees. In a terse introductory statement chosen by Gwaltney from an interviewee not included in the broader text, factory worker Othman Sullivan says "I think this anthropology is just another way to call me a nigger." The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' described it as "The most expansive and realistic exposition of contemporary mainstream black attitudes yet published."

Bibliography

*''Thrice Shy: Cultural Accommodation to Blindness and Other Disasters in a Mexican Community''

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

(1970) *''Drylongso: A Self Portrait of Black America'', New York:

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

(1980). Reprinted by

The New Press The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André SchiffrinReid, Calvin (December 2, 2013)"New Press Founder André Schiffrin Dead at 78" ''Publishers Weekly''. Accessed August 1, 2014. (Chev ...

, 1993 *''The Dissenters: Voices From Contemporary America'', Random House (1986)Suzanne W. Woo
''Library Journal'' 1986 review
reprinted at Amazon.com book page.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwaltney, John Langston African-American non-fiction writers Black studies scholars Syracuse University faculty Upsala College alumni The New School alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American ethnologists 1928 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American anthropologists 20th-century African-American writers Writers from Newark, New Jersey American blind people