Nikki Giovanni
Birth Name: Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr.
Date of Birth: June 7, 1943
Place of Birth: Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Date of Death: December 9, 2024
Place of Death: Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.
Ethnicity: African-American, as well as one eighth Italian
Nikki Giovanni was an American poet, author, activist, educator, commentator, and television personality. She was involved in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and wrote numerous poetry anthologies, essays, and children’s books, as well as recorded spoken word albums. She also appeared on the television series Soul! She was a professor at Virginia Tech, where she commemorated the 2007 massacre.
Nikkie was the daughter of Yolande Cornelia (Watson) and Jones/Gus Giovanni. Her father was born in Alabama. Her mother was born in Albany, Dougherty, Georgia. She was raised mostly in Lincoln Heights, Ohio, near Cincinnati, and then Wyoming, OH. Nikki was married to academic and author Virginia Fowler, and had a son.
Nikki’s paternal grandfather was named Thomas Giovanni (the son of Susan Knox). Thomas was born in Alabama. On the 1880 U.S. Census, Thomas lists his father’s birthplace as Italy. Susan was born in South Carolina.
Nikki’s paternal grandmother was named Mattie Lou Jones. Mattie was born in Alabama.
Nikki’s maternal grandfather was John Brown Watson (the son of George Washington Watson and Cornelia Warren). John was born in Albany, Dougherty, Georgia. George was born in Georgia, the son of Ralph R. Watson and Delia Braxton. Cornelia was born in Albany, the daughter of James Warren and Julia.
Nikki’s maternal grandmother was named Emma Louvenia Terrell. Emma was born in Albany, Dougherty, Georgia.
Source: https://nikki-giovanni.com
I have previously submitted Deric ‘D-Dot’ Angelettie, a Black man who descends from an Italian immigrant to Louisiana in the 1800s.
This man in Montgomery County, Alabama, is listed as born in Corsica:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHKY-QCR
On this census, also in Montgomery, two people with the surname Giovanni were born in France:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5Z-GSY
There is likely some connection between all these since Thomas Giovanni was from Montgomery County. I’d say it’s likely that Nikki was 1/8th Corsican.
Is that actually true? Not many Italians in the South in 1800s
There are two guys with the last name Giovanni in Alabama on the 1850 census. Their ages are listed 35 and 40, and their birth country is given as France. Maybe the line originates with them. I assume the “Italy” on the census was just an assumption, kind of like Chris Mulkey and his purportedly Spanish ancestor.
In the 1870 census, there are some Giovannis all born in Louisiana who are listed as “mulatto” (I assume they’re just ethnic Italians, but it shows you how easy it was for an Italian guy to pass himself off as black back then).
There’s also a “Jasper Giovani”, b. 1838, living in Alabama with his wife and two children who is listed as black. He’s not on any other record I can find, but I would assume he is related to this Giovanni line.
No white person at that time was “passing themselves off as black.” That is patently ridiculous.
I don’t mean to suggest that he would have wanted to do such a thing; just that an Italian-American family in the South being marked as “negro”/”mulatto” on a 19th century census isn’t too unusual.
You did a good research. But there were virtually no Italian-American families in the South except for Louisiana in the 1800s, and were soon absorbed into other Euro communities (made by French descendants, mostly, with some German and Spanish too). On the contrary, it has alwais been the other way round, people of color trying to pass as swarthy exotic Southern Europeans (usually Portuguese). Chris Mulkey ancestor I think was a POC and not Spanish.
Yeah, I think you are right. I brought him up because I think it is a similar situation here with the census. (The guy doesn’t know his father’s identity whatsoever, but it was passed down that he was Spanish/Italian guy, so that’s what he gets listed on the census.)
Like I said, given the existence of the black “Giovani” family in the 1830s, I would think Thomas Giovanni’s father was probably just black.
I’m genuinely confused as to why you all are insistent that this man wasn’t Italian. Just because there were very few of them in that region doesn’t mean that there was none. No, it would not be safe – or even reasonable – to assume that he was black.
I wouldn’t say I was especially insistent about it. I don’t know the truth. The idea of an Italian guy in the south that early was just interesting.