J. Mason Brewer facts for kids

Quick facts for kids J. Mason Brewer
Born	John Mason Brewer (1896-03-24)March 24, 1896 Goliad, Texas
Died	1975 (aged 78–79)
Occupation	Folklorist
Alma mater	Wiley College Indiana University

John Mason Brewer (born March 24, 1896 – died 1975) was an American expert in folklore. He was known for collecting and writing down African-American folk stories from Texas. He studied at Wiley College and Indiana University. He also taught at several colleges and high schools, including Samuel Huston College and Texas Southern University.

Brewer published many books of stories and poems. Some of his most famous works include The Word on the Brazos (1953) and Dog Ghosts and Other Texas Negro Folk Tales (1958). He was the first African American to join important groups like the Texas Folklore Society and the American Folklore Society. He also broke down racial barriers at places like the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas.

Early Life and Education

John Mason Brewer was born on March 24, 1896, in Goliad, Texas. His mother, Minnie T. Brewer, was a school teacher. His father, J. H. Brewer, had many different jobs, including barber and mail carrier. John had four sisters who all became teachers, and one brother who became an interior decorator.

Brewer's father often told him Texas stories when he was a child. His mother made sure he had books about African-American history. These early experiences helped him become a great listener, reader, and writer.

He went to public schools in Austin and Fannin. He finished high school in 1913 when he was 17. After that, he went to Wiley College in Marshall. He earned a degree in English in 1917.

Military Service and Early Teaching

After college, Brewer taught for a year in Austin. In 1918, he joined the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. He served in France as a corporal and worked as an interpreter. This was because he knew French, Italian, and Spanish.

In 1919, Brewer returned from Europe. He taught and worked as a principal in Fort Worth for five years. In 1924, he moved to Denver for a short time. There, he wrote poems and stories for a company magazine and for The Negro American.

He later returned to teaching. He became a professor at Samuel Huston College in Austin in 1926. In the 1930s, he taught English and Spanish at Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas.

Discovering Folklore

In 1932, while in Austin, Brewer met J. Frank Dobie. Dobie was a well-known writer and the editor of the Texas Folklore Society. Dobie became a very important person in Brewer's writing career.

That same year, the Texas Folklore Society published some of Brewer's collected African-American folktales. This collection was called "Juneteenth." Brewer then studied folklore formally at Indiana University. He earned his master's degree there in 1933.

He published his first book of poems, Negrito: Negro Dialect Poems of the Southwest, in 1933. In 1936, he wrote The Negro in Texas History for the Texas Centennial.

Important Works and Recognition

After teaching at Claflin College for a year, Brewer returned to Huston-Tillotson College in 1943. He became the head of the English Department. During the summers, he also taught at Texas Southern University in Houston.

In 1945, Brewer published Humorous Folktales of the South Carolina Negro. The next year, he published "John Tales" in a book called Mexican Border Ballads and Other Lore. The "John Tales" are about a clever trickster hero named John. John always outsmarts the slave owner or overseer.

In 1951, Brewer received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Paul Quinn College. This award recognized his amazing work in African American literature and folklore.

Major Successes

In 1953, Brewer published The Word on the Brazos: Negro Preacher Tales from the Brazos Bottoms of Texas. This book was considered a "classic" and was praised by many. Jet magazine even named it their Book of the Week.

In 1956, he published Aunt Dicey Tales. This book had 14 stories and was known for its beautiful crayon drawings by John T. Biggers. In 1958, Brewer published Dog Ghosts and Other Texas Negro Folk Tales. This book contained 63 stories and was called a "rich and delightful trove of stories."

In 1959, Brewer became an English professor at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. While there, he published articles and two more books: Three Looks and Some Peeps (1963) and Worser Days and Better Times (1965).

Later Career and Legacy

In 1969, Brewer published American Negro Folklore, a well-received collection of stories. That same year, he became a visiting professor at East Texas State University (ETSU) in Commerce, Texas. He taught there until his death in 1975. He was the first African American professor in ETSU's English Department.

At ETSU, he taught classes and organized workshops. He also began studying how African culture influenced Mexican folklore. By the end of his career, Brewer had received many grants for his research in African American folklore.

John Mason Brewer was a Methodist and a member of the Democratic Party. He was married twice and had a son with his first wife. He was buried in Austin after he passed away.

Brewer's impact was huge. He was the first African American to be an active member of the Texas Folklore Society and the Texas Institute of Letters. He also broke the color barrier at the Driskill Hotel in Austin when he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.

Many experts called Brewer "America's most distinguished Negro folklorist." He is often compared to other famous folklorists like Zora Neale Hurston and Joel Chandler Harris. People remember him for almost single-handedly saving the African American folklore of his home state, Texas.

His stories often showed how intelligence could win over brute force. They also showed a strong spirit against unfairness. In 1997, he received an award for his amazing work in understanding folk traditions in the Americas. In 2017, Texas A&M University–Commerce held a "J. Mason Brewer Day" to honor him.

Brewer himself described his tales as "as varied as the Texas landscape." He said they had roots in African, Irish, and Welsh traditions. Some even had connections to ancient Mexican stories and even Chaucer's England.