Free Steppin' by Kate McAlpin Crady, published in 1938
This volume of poetry written in the 1930s by Kate McAlpin Crady, a White woman. Crady utilized the vernacular of the uneducated White and African American populations of the Deep South. Through the medium of poetry, she described the injustices that she witnessed throughout her life.
Although many people today would consider her use of the vernacular and description of African American experiences as cultural misappropriation, it is important to remember that the language represented in this volume crossed population lines. Although most writers today would not use these descriptive terminologies or phrases, they are an accurate representation of many speech patterns that were in common use in the Deep South.
The author’s goal was to provide a window into the pain and trauma experienced by many African Americans during the period in which she lived. It is the considered opinion of the curators that this writer tried to give a voice to people who had no voice by expressing the raw and harsh reality of the multifaceted levels of trauma experienced by the African American communities in the early part 20th century.
Due to the complexity of these traumas, the repercussions have spread across many generations. The memories of these traumas impart familial scarring and have consequences that affect the present day.
