A Black Literary Guide to the Harlem Renaissance

Author(s): Roger M. Valade III

Source: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education , Spring, 1996, No. 11 (Spring, 1996),
pp. 102-109
Published by: The JBHE Foundation, Inc

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 A Black Literary Guide
to the Harlem Renaissance

In an era when almost no blacks went to college, an elite group of African-American

intellectuals was making significant contributions to American literature, music, and the arts
Here we present a directory of some of the leading figures of the period.

by Roger M. Valade III

Arna Bontemps until 1965. While at Fisk, Bontemps developed a collection

American poet, novelist, author of children's literature, of African-American literature that included the papers of
and anthologist many important authors. He compiled several literary
Born October 13,1902; died June 4,1973. anthologies that were widely used in schools and wrote
biographies for young readers of prominent black Ameri?
cans, including George Washington Carver and Frederick
An important
Arnauld figure isinnoted
Wendell Bontemps the for
Harlem Renaissance,
stressing in Douglass. He also wrote critical essays on black poetry and
his poetry, novels, and juvenile works a sense of pride in folklore, and in 1958 he and Hughes published The Book of
one's color and heritage. Many, however, consider his work Negro Folklore. Bontemps enjoyed a distinguished academ?
as a librarian and an anthologist to be as important a contri? ic career, teaching and writing into the 1970s. He died of a
bution to African-American literature as his original writ? heart attack in Nashville on June 4,1973.
ings.
Born in Alexandria, Louisiana, on October 13,1902, Bon? Sterling A. Brown
temps moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was American poet, folklorist, and critic
three years old. His mother died when he was twelve, and Born May 1,1901; died January 13,1989.
his childhood was dominated by the conflicting influences
of his father, who warned him against acting "colored," and
his father's brother, Buddy, who delighted in retelling tradi? Considered
early twentiethone of the
century, bestAllen
Sterling black American
Brown was a poets of the
tional African-American stories. pioneer of the academic study of black literature. He was
Bontemps graduated from Pacific Union College in 1923 one of the first critics to identify folklore and folk music as
and moved to New York to teach at Harlem Academy. His vital to the black aesthetic.

poetry, which was later collected in Personals (1963), soon Brown was born May 1, 1901, in Washington, D.C,
caught the attention of such figures as Langston Hughes where his father, Sterling N. Brown, was a professor of reli?
and W.E.B. Du Bois. Bontemps married Alberta Johnson in gion at Howard. After graduating from Williams College in
1926. His first novel, God Sends Sunday, appeared in 1931. 1922 and receiving his M.A. in literature from Harvard
The same year, he left Harlem with his growing family and University in 1923, Brown spent six years teaching in the
moved first to Alabama and then to Chicago, teaching at South, where he began to study African-American folklore.
small colleges. His best-known work, Black Thunder He collected worksongs, ballads, blues, and spirituals, con?
(1936), is a historical novel about a slave rebellion. In an ducting this research at a time when most black poets had
effort to reach younger readers, in the 1930s Bontemps also stopped using dialect in their poetry. In 1927 he married
began to write children's books. Daisy Turnbull. Two years later he became a professor at
In 1943 Bontemps earned a master's degree in library sci? Howard, where he would teach for the next 40 years.
ence from the University of Chicago. He became a librarian In 1932, Brown published Southern Road, a volume of
at Fisk University in Nashville, where he would remain poetry based on material he had gathered in the South. Yet,

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 LITERARY GUIDE TO THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

magazine's John Reed Memorial Prize, for such poems as

despite laudatory reviews, Brown could not find a publisher
"The Ballad of the Brown Girl." Upon graduation he pub?
for his second book of poetry. With no new published poet?
ry to support his reputation, Brown quickly came to be lished
con? Color (1925), his well-received first volume of poet?
sidered, even within the black community, as a poet of ry. In 1926, after earning a master's degree from Har?
the past. He then turned his creative energies to vard, he became an assistant editor at Opportu?
critical and historical analyses of black art nity. There, he created "The Dark Tower," a
and culture. In 1937 he published two column wherein he aired his opinions on
seminal studies of black literary histo? African-American art and social re?

ry, Negro Poetry and Drama and sponsibility.

The Negro Caravan (1941). In 1927 Cullen published his sec?
Neglected as a poet and shunned ond poetry volume, Copper Sun,
by the more conservative mem? and edited Caroling Dusk: An
bers of the English department at Anthology of Verse by Negro
Howard for his interest in folk- j Poets. His 1929 volume, The
lore and jazz, Brown suffered I Black Christ and Other Poems,
periods of extreme depression, further explores his earlier
occasionally requiring hospital- themes of death, black identity,
ization. He was rediscovered dur? racial conflict, and Christianity.
ing the late 1960s; subsequently, he In 1932 Cullen published his first
received several honorary doctorates and only novel, One Way to Heaven.
and in 1984 was named poet laureate Receiving mixed reviews, the work
of Washington, D.C. The Collected contains two dissimilar plotlines: a love
Poems of Sterling A. Brown (1980) won the story and a rollicking satire of Harlem's
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Brown died of intellectuals. In 1934 Cullen began teaching
leukemia on January 13, 1989, in Takoma Countee Culh
an (1903-1946) ^n?^sn anc* French in New York. He also
Park, Maryland. wrote two collections of didactic children's

stories, translated a stage production of Medea (1935), and

Countee Cullen collaborated on the writing of several plays. One of these,
American poet, novelist, and dramatist St. Louis Woman (1971), was heavily criticized for its per?
Born May 30, J903; died January 9, J946. ceived focus on the seamier side of black life, but it eventu?
ally opened on Broadway shortly after Cullen's death in
early 1946.
Cullenthat
poetry is best remembered
established him as a for the five
luminary in theearly volumes of
Harlem Renaissance. He was committed to themes of Pan- Jessie Redmon Fauset
Africanism, racial equality, and artistic freedom, yet he American editor and novelist

feared being categorized as a strictly "racial" poet and mea? BornApril27,1882(7); died April 30,1961.
sured himself against the formalist standards of the nine?
teenth century, especially those of romantic poet John
Keats. Fauset wasmany
encouraging largely responsible
writers for discovering
during the Harlem Renais? and
Cullen is believed to have been born in Louisville, Ken? sance, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean
tucky, on May 30,1903. In 1918, following the death of his Toomer, and Claude McKay. Born in Camden County, New
guardian grandmother, he was taken in by Reverend Freder? Jersey, Fauset graduated from Cornell University in 1905
ick A. Cullen, a Methodist pastor and a central figure in and spent the next 14 years teaching in the public schools of
Harlem politics. At age 19 Cullen entered New York Uni? Baltimore and Washington, D.C. In 1919 she moved to
versity, where he received several awards, including Poetry New York City to become the literary editor of Crisis maga-

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 THE JOURNAL OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

zine. In 1920 and 1921 she also edited and did much of the Angelina Weld Grimke
writing for The Brownies' Book, a magazine for black chil? American dramatist and poet
dren. She hoped to earn her living by writing after leaving Born February 27, 1880;
Crisis in 1926 but ultimately had to return to teaching. died June 10,1958.
Fauset produced a number of poems, short stories, and

G:
essays during her long writing career, but her most noted rirnke was a poet and playwright associat?
works are her novels. There Is Confusion (1924) ed with the Harlem Renaissance. Ad?

deals with black family life in a world of mired and frequently anthologized during
racial discrimination; Plum Bun: A Novel her lifetime, her work has been neglect?
Without a Moral (1929) is concerned ed since her death, though some
with light-skinned blacks passing as scholars still consider Grimke a

white; The Chinaberry Tree (1931) substantial artist from a critical

examines miscegenation; and Com? period in the development of

edy, American Style (1933) centers African-American literature.

on a woman who hates being Bom in Boston, Grimke came

black. Faucet died of heart disease from an intellectual back?

in Philadelphia. ground. Her father was a

lawyer, publisher, and writer
Rudolph Fisher who served as vice president of
American novelist and the National Association for the

short story writer Advancement of Colored People

Born May 9,1897; (NAACP). Her mother, also a writ?
died December 26,1934. er, was a white woman who aban?
doned the family soon after her daugh?
ter was born. Grimke attended several
Respected
writers, by aJohn
Rudolph number of notable
Chauncey Fisher black prestigious schools, taking summer courses at

helped spark interest in black literature dur- jessie pec/mon fc wset (1882-1961) Harvard University from 1904 to 1910,
ing the Harlem Renaissance. Bom in Wash? and spent much of her career teaching
ington, D.C., Fisher graduated from Brown University in English in Washington, D.C.
1919 and Howard University Medical School in 1924. The Grimke suffered extended periods of emotional turmoil,
following year, he moved to New York, where he began perhaps due in part to her lesbianism, and her literary output
two years of postgraduate medical studies at Columbia Uni? seems to have functioned as a therapeutic release. She com?
versity and published his first short stories, including "The posed some poetry about poUtical subjects but wrote most
City of Refuge." often about love. Unfulfilled desire is a prevalent theme in
Fisher began his medical practice in New York in 1927. her poems. In "When the Green Lies Over the Earth"
His first novel, The Walls of Jericho (1928), attempts to por? springtime recalls memories of a former loved one, and in
tray all levels of Harlem society, and his second book, The the elegiac "To Clarissa Scott Delany" Grimke mourns a
Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem (1932), dead woman.

is recognized as the first black American detective novel. In addition to her poetry, Grimke authored one of the
Fisher also published 10 more short stories between 1927 earliest American plays written for blacks. Rachel (1916)
and 1933 (another was published posthumously in 1935), offers a bleak perspective on the fate of black children in a
including "Common Meter" (1930), the story of two jazz racist society. She also wrote a short story about the same
musicians, and "Miss Cynthie" (1933), which centers on a subject, "The Closing Door" (1919), in which a black
protective black grandmother. Fisher died of a chronic woman goes mad and murders her own child soon after it
intestinal ailment at the age of 37. is born.

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 LITERARY GUIDE TO THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Langston Hughes Although his peaceful politics eventually conflicted with

American poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright,
the militancy of many of the younger black poets, Hughes
autobiographer, and nonfiction writer continued to play a prominent role in black thought
Born February 1,1902; died May 22,1967. throughout the 1960s. In 1960 he was awarded the Spingarn
Medal from the National Association for the Advancement

of Colored People (NAACP). His later works, especially

Hughes was
Renaissance; one
some of the
critics seminal
consider figures
him the of
most sig? the Harlem Ask Your Mama: J2 Moods for Jazz (1961), The Panther
nificant African-American writer of the twentieth century. and the Lash: Poems of Our Times (1967), and Black Mis?
Hughes inspired and encouraged two generations of ery (1969), address the anger of the decade without
black writers, including Margaret Walker and endorsing violent action.
Gwendolyn Brooks, and later Ted Joans, Mari jhcs died in New York City on May
Evans, and Alice Walker. , 1968; his popularity has grown in
Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Mercer the years since his death. His works
Langston Hughes began his literary have continued to be anthologized
career in high school, publishing and collected in books such as

poetry and short fiction in the school Good Morning Revolution:

magazine. He enrolled at Columbia \ Uncollected Social Protest
University in 1921 but left after his Writings by Langston Hughes
freshman year due to racial ten? (1973) and The Collected
sions on campus. From 1923 to '! Poems of Langston Hughes
1925 he traveled abroad, visiting (1994).
West Africa and Europe. His first
book, The Weary Blues (1926), is a Zora Neale Hurston

collection of poems that reflects the American novelist andfolklorist

frenzied atmosphere of Harlem's Born January 7, J891; died Jan?
nightlife. Later that year, Hughes contin? uary 28, J960.
ued his studies, this time at Lincoln Univer?
sity. urston is recognized as an important
Some of Hughes' contemporaries objected to his writer of the Harlem Renaissance. She has

realistic portrayal of African-American culture zora Neale Hi rston (1891-1960) influenced such writers as Ralph Ellison,
and values, especially in collections such as Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones, and Toni Cade
Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927), Shakespeare in Harlem Bambara. The author of four novels and a number of short

(1942, with Robert Glenn), and Montage of a Dream stories, essays, and nonfiction works, Hurston is also
Deferred (1951). Some felt that Hughes fostered racial dis? acknowledged as the first black American to collect and
trust by emphasizing the seemingly negative traits of black publish African-American folklore. Hurston was born and
Americans. However, Hughes insisted that his portrayals raised in the first incorporated all-black town in America ?
were realistic and that his characters were common but Eatonville, Florida ? which provided the inspiration for
noble. most of her fiction. Though she was taken out of school at
In addition to his poetry, Hughes detailed his understand? age 13, an employer later arranged for her to complete her
ing of African-American life in many other genres, includ? primary education. Hurston studied anthropology at
ing the novel Not Without Laughter (1930), the autobiogra? Barnard College and Columbia University with the anthro?
phy The Big Sea: An Autobiography (1940), the musical pologist Franz Boas, an experience that influenced her
The Sun Do Move (1942), and short stories such as thosework. From 1927 to 1931, Hurston collected African-
involving the character Jesse B. Semple (shortened to Sim- American folklore in Alabama and Florida, working on a
pie). private grant. Hurston drew on this folklore material for her

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 THE JOURNAL OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

plays, musicals, short stories, and novels. The novel Jonah's height of her popularity. In the same year, she was accused
Gourd Vine (1934) combines her knowledge of folklore of plagiarizing her short story "Sanctuary." She was eventu?
with biblical themes. Mules and Men (1935) incorporates ally exonerated, but the accusation and the scandal haunted
folktale elements drawn from her hometown's culture. The her. She then experienced marital problems that resulted in
novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), considered a sensationalized divorce. Larsen withdrew from literary
Hurston's best work by many critics, tells the story of a circles and spent the last 20 years of her life working as a
woman's quest for fulfillment and liberation. In Moses, nurse in Manhattan hospitals.
Man of the Mountain (1939), an allegorical novel of Ameri?
can slavery, Hurston made use of her studies of voodoo in Alain Locke

New Orleans. Her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road American philosopher, writer, and essayist
was published in 1942. By the mid-1940s, Hurston's liter? Born September 13,1886; died June 9,1954.
ary career had largely failed. During the remaining years of
her life she suffered a stroke in 1959 and was forced to

enter a welfare home in Florida, where she died penniless in An influential

wrote figure inpolitical
on topics in philosophy, the Harlem Renaissance,
science, soci? Locke
1960. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce'sology, anthropology, literature, art, music, and African stud?
segregated cemetery, the Garden of the Heavenly Rest. ies. In addition to promoting the development of black cul?
ture as a means of moving towards social, political, and
Nella Larsen economic equality, he urged black American artists and
American novelist writers to cultivate their African heritage.
Born April 13,1891; died March 30,1964. Alain Le Roy Locke was bom on September 13, 1886, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both of his parents were
schoolteachers. After graduating from Harvard University
Although
of periodical she published
pieces, only two
Larsen is regarded as annovels
impor? and a handful with honors in 1907, he became the first black Rhodes
tant writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Bom in Chicago in scholar, earning a degree in literature from Oxford Univer?
1891, Larsen was the child of a West Indian father and a sity and studying philosophy for a year at the University of
Danish mother. Her father died when she was two years old Berlin. In 1911 he spent six months touring the American
and her mother remarried a man of her own nationality. South, becoming acutely aware of prejudice and discrimi?
Larsen spent her youth among white family members and nation. He obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1918.

first experienced an all-black environment when she attend? In 1912 Locke began teaching at Howard University,
ed Fisk University in Tennessee for a short time. Larsen where he chaired the philosophy department from 1918 to
worked as a nurse and librarian in New York until, as the 1953. His anthology The New Negro: An Interpretation
socialite spouse of physicist Elmer S. Inies, she befriended (1925), which assembled black poetry and prose of the
writers and artists taking part in the cultural awakening in early twentieth century, stimulated serious critical interest in
Harlem and was encouraged to write. African-American literature. By demonstrating the literary
Larsen's two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing merit of African-American works, Locke's anthology also
(1929), depict urban middle-class women constrained by provided inspiration for a generation of black writers. An
society. Quicksand, her best-known work, is a semiautobio- ardent supporter of young black artists, writers, and schol?
graphical novel that involves a mulatto woman, Helga ars, Locke urged them to draw inspiration from their
Crane, who searches in vain for sexual and racial identity. African heritage. He developed this idea in The Negro in
Quicksand was awarded a Harmon Foundation prize and Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro
received generally enthusiastic reviews. Passing is the story Theme in Art (1940). A proponent of cultural pluralism, he
of a light-skinned woman, Clare Kendry, who "passes" for criticized the practice of segregation in schools and urged
white and manages to deceive even her white husband. black educators to develop curricula that would reflect the
In 1930 Larsen became the first African-American history and heritage of black Americans. His emphasis on
woman to win a Guggenheim Fellowship and was atcommunity
the over the individual sometimes set him at odds

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 LITERARY GUIDE TO THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

with other prominent black thinkers, including W.E.B. Du by a black writer. He returned to Harlem himself after
novel
Bois and Claude McKay. 1934 and published his autobiography, A Long Way From
Home (1937), and a collection of essays, Harlem: Negro
Locke died in New York City on June 9,1954, after a long
illness. Metropolis (1940). Baptized into the Roman Catholic
Church in 1944, McKay resumed writing poetry, extolling
Claude McKay his new faith. He died of heart failure in Chicago on May
Jamaican-born American poet and novelist 22,1948, and was buried in Woodside, New York.
Born September 75, J889; died May 22, J948.
Jean Toomer
American poet, short story writer, dramatist, and essayist
McKay
His work,was
whicha expresses
major writer
his angerofabout
the the
Harlem
poor Renaissance. Born December 26,1894; died March 30,1967.
economic and social position of blacks in American society,
helped establish him as a voice for the civil rights movement
that fought for racial equality after World War I. aToomer achieved
combination literary
of fiction and proseprominence with
exploring African- Cane (1923),
McKay was born Festus Claudius McKay on American culture and spirituality. The child of mixed-
September 15, 1889, to a family of peasant race parents, Toomer refused to be classified
farmers in Sunny Ville, Jamaica. In 1912, racially and considered himself representa?
after working as a police constable in tive of the new "American" race encom?

the city of Kingston, McKay pub? passing elements of all humanity. This
lished his first collections of poetry: universalist philosophy and his inter?
Songs of Jamaica, which drew on ests in mysticism are reflected in
his Jamaican peasant background, many of his writings. Though he
and Constab Ballads, which never again achieved the literary
reflected his experiences in acclaim he garnered with Cane,
Kingston. The two volumes he is still considered a seminal
won him the Jamaican Medal of figure in African-American litera?
the Institute of Arts and Sci? ture.

ences. He used the money he Nathan Eugene Toomer was

received to move to the United born on December 26, 1894, in
States. In 1914 he married Eulalie Washington, D.C., to a woman of
Imelda Edwards, whom he later mixed blood and a white Georgia
divorced. planter. He was raised primarily in the
The United States proved not to be the home of his grandfather, Pinckney Benton
land of opportunity for which McKay had Stewart Pinchback, who was considered
hoped. Editors of larger publications refused his black and had been a powerful Louisiana politi-
work because he sympathized with black Claude McKa\
/ (1889-1948) c*an' Toomer lived in white neighborhoods
causes. "If We Must Die" (1919) most clear? until financial setbacks in 1910 forced the

ly stated his belief that even interracial violence was prefer? Pinchbacks to move to a less affluent, black area. Having
able to maintaining the status quo. This poem was collected racially mixed experiences and bloodlines, Toomer decided
in Harlem Shadows (1922), along with other poems protest? to adopt an identity in which he was neither white nor
ing the persecution of blacks in America. McKay also black, but simply American.
espoused communism and, in 1923, visited the Soviet As a young man, Toomer lived a transient lifestyle of work
Union. and study, attending several different colleges and universities
Living in Europe between 1923 and 1934, McKay wrote until deciding in 1919 to become a writer. While serving a lit?
Home to Harlem (1928), the first commercially successful erary apprenticeship in Greenwich Village, he met emerging

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 THE JOURNAL OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

writers such as Edwin Arlington Robinson and Waldo Frank. a dispiriting pilgrimage to India, he converted to Quakerism
In the early 1920s Toomer accepted a post at a rural, black in 1940 and lived as a recluse and in declining health.
school in Georgia and later toured the South. These experi? Though he continued writing until the mid-1940s, he could
ences enabled him to explore his black roots and provided not find a publisher ? many found his works tedious and
much of the inspiration for Cane, which reveals the strength didactic. He died of arteriosclerosis in Doylestown on
of the dying black American folk culture. March 30, 1967. Selections from his many unpub?
Toomer continued to explore African-Amer? lished works are contained in the posthumous
ican themes in other major works of the volume The Wayward and the Seeking.
time. His one-act play, Balo ? pub?
lished in the anthology Plays of Eric Walrond

Negro Life (1927) ? provides an Guyanese short story writer

affirmative view of the black fam? andjournalist
ily. Two other works ? the short Born in 1898; died in 1966.
story "Withered Skins of
alrond is considered an
W; important young writer
Berries," about a young mulatto
woman, and the unproduced
play Natalie Mann, about a mid? who came to the public's atten?
dle-class black woman ? were tion during the Harlem Renais?
not published until 1980, in The sance. Born in 1898 in George?
Wayward and the Seeking. As town, British Guiana (now
Toomer gained a reputation as a Guyana), he immigrated to the Unit?
leader in black letters, he became ed States in 1918 and established him?

angered, preferring to be regarded self with his early writings, which are
simply as an American writer. Ultimate? based on the racial bigotry he met with in
ly, he distanced himself from his former America and which reflect Walrond's indig?
friends and colleagues and denied his black her? nation and disillusionment.

itage. Alain Locke ( 1886-1954) Walrond's first story published in America

In 1924, disillusioned by the alienation of was "On Being Black" (1922), which
the modern world, Toomer studied the teachings of Arme? recounts his personal experiences with racial conflict. He
nian philosopher George Gurdjieff and became a follower also published articles in the early and mid-1920s, includ?
and teacher. Toomer continued to write, but few of his ing "The Negro Exodus From the South" (1923), in which
works were published. Several short stories appeared in he explores the effects of the movement of blacks from
journals, though none of them linked him to his earlier the rural South to the urban North and "The Black City"
works, and Gurdjieffian ideas increasingly influenced his (1924), an essay on Harlem. His most noted essay, howev?
subject matter, as evidenced in the poem "The Blue er, is "The New Negro Faces America" (1923), in which
Meridian," published in The New Caravan (1936). he critiques the philosophies of three major black leaders:
Booker T Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus Gar-

"As Toomer gained a reputation as a leader in vey.

Walrond's most acclaimed work is his collection of short
black letters, he became angered, preferring to be
stories, Tropic Death (1926), which focuses on and illumi?
regarded simply as an American writer."
nates the problems faced by migratory blacks of the
Caribbean. The book was regarded as an outstanding exam?
After his first wife, Margery Latimer, died giving birth to ple of avant-garde writing and drew high praise from con?
a daughter, Toomer married Marjorie Content in 1934 and temporary critics. Walrond left the United States in 1927
moved to a farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. There, after and traveled in Europe until his death in 1966.

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 LITERARY GUIDE TO THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Dorothy West view of America's racial confrontations during the first

American novelist and short story writer decades of the twentieth century.
Born June 2, J907. Walter Francis White was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on
July 1, 1893. He began working for the NAACP in 1918
and was serving as its secretary at the time of his death.
West is best
Renaissance, remembered
founding the journalfor her role
Challenge in thein the Harlem White's first novel, The Fire in the Flint (1924), focuses on
1930s. Challenge highlighted much of the best work of lynching, while Flight (1926) centers around African
African-American writers of the time, including Langston Americans "passing" as white. While in France under a
Hughes and Richard Wright. West is also noted for her Guggenheim Fellowship, White wrote Rope and Faggot: A
novel The Living Is Easy (1948) and her many short stories, Biography of Judge Lynch (1929), an analysis of lynching.
which often feature black urban characters and settings. Her Of historical importance are White's numerous essays doc?
story "The Typewriter," which shared an award with a work umenting the successes and failures of the American civil
by Zora Neale Hurston, reflects her fascination with peo? rights movement from the early 1920s through the mid-
ple's hidden motivations. 1950s. The collection A Rising Wind: A Report on the Negro
Some of West's work draws on her own experiences Soldier in the European Theater of War (1945) examines the
growing up as a middle-class black child in early twentieth- worldwide implications of the officially sanctioned racism of
century Boston. Her father was an ex-slave who created a the American armed forces during World War II. White's
successful business in Massachusetts, and her mother, who final works, A Man Called White: The Autobiography of
was much younger than her father, came from a large south? Walter White (1948) and How Far the Promised Land?
ern family she supported with her husband's money. West's (1955), provide a record of his work with the NAACP and
novel The Living Is Easy depicts a similar situation, de? the organization's overall influence on racial policies in
scribing a woman who marries an older man for his money America during the first half of the twentieth century. White
and then invites her family to live with her. Exposing the died on March 21, 1955, in New York City. IJI*HKI
emptiness of some white values adopted by blacks, the
This directory of Harlem Renaissance figures is excerpted from The
novel was well received by critics both when it was first
Essential Black Literature Guide by Roger M. Valade III. Copyright
published and when it was reprinted in 1982. In 1995 West ? 1996 Gale Research Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
published a second novel, The Wedding, revolving around All rights reserved.

black-white relations during a 1950s wedding on Martha's Photo credits: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/Art
Vineyard. Resource, New York. Photographs of Locke, Cullen, McKay, and
Hurston ? Estate of Carl Van Vechten Gravure (Joseph Solomon,
executor) and compilation copyright ? Eakins Press Foundation.
Walter White

American essayist, novelist, When Harlem Became Black

and nonfiction writer
"An untoward circumstance has been injected into the pri?
Born July I, 1893;
vate dwelling market in the vicinity of 133rd and 134th
died March 21, 1955.
streets. During the last three years the flats in 134th Street
between Lenox and Seventh avenues, that were occupied
entirely by white folks have been captured for occupancy
Although asWhite
remembered published
a significant writer only twoHarlem
from the novels, he is by a Negro population. Nearly all the old dwellings in 134th
Renaissance. He was also a political activist during some of Street to midway in the block west from Seventh Avenue
are occupied by colored tenants, and real estate brokers pre?
the most powerful years of the National Association for the
dict that it is only a matter of time when the entire block will
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). White's first
be a stronghold of the Negro population. As a result of the
position with the NAACP was to investigate mob violence extension of this African colony, dwellings have depreciated
and lynching in the South; because he had fair skin and blue from 15 to 20 percent in value. "
eyes, he could pose as a white reporter and gather eyewit? ? New York Herald
December 24, 1905
ness accounts. He used this experience to present a unique

SPRING 1996_109^

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