Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Senator and the Socialite:
1. What qualities did Blanche Kelso Bruce possess that allowed him to rise—not just from obscurity, but from slavery? In what way was Bruce better positioned to succeed after the Civil War than most other slaves?
2. How does Graham present the variety and complexities of the slave experience, in which some slaves were given far greater freedoms than others?
3. Bruce and his wife Josephine lived largely outside the African-American community, associating primarily with whites. Would you say they deliberately turned their backs on their own race...or would you say that the nature of their accomplishments placed them in the circle of the white establishment (i.e., rich people tend to associate with rich people)?
4. A follow-up to Question 3: Can Bruce's treatment of his tenant farmers—the conditions he permitted them to live under—be justified? What about his silence in the Senate as white violence stripped black people of their rights?
5. Talk about the succeeding generations of the Bruce family. Which descendants do you admire...or whom do you feel were less than admirable? What about the two Roscoes, son and grandson? What was the cause—or causes—of the family's downfall?
6. Discuss the nature of the Bruce family's relationship with Booker T. Washington. Does the author represent Washington and his views on education and segregation objectively? How do you feel about Washington after reading this book? Did he make undue concessions...or did he face the facts as they existed in his era?
7. Does the author see the story of the rise and fall of the Bruce famil as a cautionary tale? Or does he position the story as an inspiration for later generations? How do you see the story?
8. Is America still as race-obsessed today as it was in the post-Civil-War years?
9. What have you learned from this book—about the nation, its history of racism, and the individuals it covers?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
top of page