Brilliant: Les Gemmes Literary Luncheon Dazzles with Inspiring Program
Les Gemmes translates to “The Jewels,” and the 17th annual Literary Luncheon in support of the group’s Lighting the Path scholarship program was indeed multi-faceted, with performances by Sankofa African Dancers, several former Fisk Jubilee Singers, and 2024 Nashville Poet Laureate Jadyn Marshall; a marketplace of local entrepreneurs; guests in African attire; appearance by Mayor Freddie O’Connell; and keynote address by ReShonda Tate, bestselling author of The Queen of Sugar Hill.
Tate’s 2024 novel tells the story of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Academy Award, for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind. In real life, McDaniel fought to abolish restrictive real estate covenants based on race, which dictated who could acquire property in neighborhoods across the country. The midcentury lawsuit eventually led to the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
While McDaniel’s legal battle unfolded in California, Nashville experienced similar real estate segregation. Metro Register of Deeds Karen Johnson knows that history as well as anyone, because documents restricting purchase of land based on race are archived in her department, where she is the first woman and first African American elected to the office. Not only did Johnson chair Les Gemmes Literary Luncheon at Music City Center on May 18, she wrote an editorial in The Tennessean leading up to the event and narrating the history of inequitable property law.
As the Register of Deeds Office relocates to Deaderick Street this summer, Johnson plans to display documents for the public to learn from the painful past.
“We see these pages, yellow with age, and we are incredulous, emotional,” Johnson wrote. “But we hear stories like Hattie McDaniel’s, and we are inspired by their fearlessness, their relentlessness and, eventually, their victories.”
Johnson and Tate’s thoughtful writings typify the mentoring and leadership that Les Gemmes seek to connect to young African American women through Lighting the Path. The Nashville chapter of Les Gemmes was established in 2004 by Tennessee Tribune editor Rosetta Miller Perry and provides mentoring and educational experiences, such as college tours, cultural experiences, etiquette instruction, and other seminars, along with scholarships to colleges and universities, trade schools or other academic opportunities.
