the origin and growth of afro-american literature

8/3/2019 The Origin and Growth of Afro-American Literature

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54 December 1967 NEGRO DIGEST

WHEATLEYHESNUTTA Survey

FRICANS were greatstory tellers long be-fore their first appear-ance in Jamestown,Virginia, in 1619. Therich and colorful history, art andfolklore of West Africa, the an-cestral home of most Afro-Amer-icans, present evidence of this, and

more.Contrary to a misconceptionwhich still prevails, the Africanswere familiar with literature andart for many years before their con-tact with the Western world. Beforethe breaking up of the social struc-ture of the West African states of

BY JOHN HENRIK CLARKEGhana, Melle (Mali) and Songhay,and the internal strife and chaosthat made the slave trade possible,the forefathers of the Africans whoeventually became slaves in theUnited States lived in a societywhere university life was fairlycommon and scholars were beheldwith reverence.There were in this ancestry rul-ers who expanded their kingdomsinto empires, great and magnificentarmies whose physical dimensionsdwarfed entire nations into submis-sion, generals who advanced thetechnique of military science,scholars whose vision of life


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From the sages of Timbuktu to the novelists of the HarlemWriters Guild runs a strain of history and culture which isseldom recognized in .4inerica but which, nevertheless, re-mains real and viable

showed foresight and wisdom, andpriests who told of gods that werestrong and kind. To understandfully any aspect of Afro-Americanlife, one must realize that the blackAmerican is not without a culturalpast, though he was many genera-tions removed from it before hisachievements in American litera-ture and art commanded any ap-preciable attention.I have been referring to the Afri-can Origin of Afro-American Lit-erature and history. This preface isessential to every meaningful dis-cussion of the role of the Afro-American in every major aspect ofAmerican life, past and present.

Before getting into the main bodyof this talk I want to make it clearthat the Black Race did not cometo the United States culturallyempty-handed.I will elaborate very briefly onmy statement to the effect that "theforefathers of the Africans whoeventually became slaves in theUnited States once lived in a so-ciety where university life was fair-ly common and scholars were be-held with reverence."During the period in West Afri-can historyfrom the early part ofthe fourteenth century to the timeof the Moorish invasion in 1591,the City of Timbuktu, with the

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REDD1CK PETRYROMANUniversity of Sankore in the Song-hay Empire, was the intellectualcenter of Africa. Black scholarswere enjoying a renaissance thatwas known and respected through-out most of Africa and in parts ofEurope. At this period in Africanhistory, the University of Sankore,at Timbuktu, was the educationalcapital of the Western Sudan. Inhis book Timbuktu the Mysteri-ous, Felix DuBois gives us the fol-lowing description of this period:"The scholars of Timbuktuyielded in nothing, to the saints intheir sojourns in the foreign uni-versities of Fez, Tunis and Cairo.They astounded the most learnedmen of Islam by their erudition.That these Negroes were on a levelwith the Arabian Savants is provedby the fact that they were installedas professors in Morocco andEgypt. In contrast to this, we findthat the Arabs were not alwaysequal to the requirements of San-kore." I will speak of only one of thegreat black scholars referred to inthe book by Felix DuBois.Ahmed Baba was the last chan-cellor of the University of Sankore.He was one of the greatest Africanscholars of the late sixteenth cen-tury. His life is a brilliant exampleof the range and depth of WestAfrican intellectual activity beforethe colonial era. Ahmed Baba wasthe author of more than 40 books;nearly every one of these books hada different theme. He was in Tim-buktu when it was invaded by theMoroccans in 1592, and he wasone of the first citizens to protestthis occupation of his belovedhome town. Ahmed Baba, alongwith other scholars, was impris-oned and eventually exiled to Mo-rocco. During his expatriation fromTimbuktu, his collection of 1,600books, one of the richest librariesof his day, was lost.Now, West Africa entered a sadperiod of decline. During the56ecember 1967 NEGRO DIGEST


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Moorish occupation, wreck andruin became the order of the day.When the Europeans arrived in thispart of Africa and saw these con-ditions. they assumed that nothingof order and value had ever existedin these countries. This mistakenimpression, too often repeated, hasinfluenced the interpretation of Af-rican and Afro-American life inhistory for over 400 years years.

Negroes played an importantpart in American life, history andculture long before 1619. Our re-lationship to this country is as oldas the country itself.

Africans first came to the newworld as explorers. They partici-pated in the exploratory expedi-tions of Balboa, the discoverer ofthe Pacific, and Cortes, the con-queror of Mexico. An African ex-plorer helped to open up New Mex-ico and Arizona and prepared theway for the settlement of the South-west. Africans also accompaniedFrench Jesuit missionaries on theirearly travels through North Amer-ica.

In the United States, the art andliterature of the Negro people hashad an economic origin. Much thatis original in black American folk-lore, or singular in "Negro spirit-uals" and blues, can be traced tothe economic institution of slaveryand its influence upon the Negro'ssoul.

After the initial poetical debutof Jupiter Hammon and PhillisWheatley, the main literary expres-sion of the Negro was the slave

narrative. One of the earliest ofthese narratives came from the penof Gustavas Vassa, an Africanfrom Nigeria. This was a time ofgreat pamphleteering in the UnitedStates. The free Africans in theNorth, and those who had escapedfrom slavery in the South, madetheir mark upon this time andawakened the conscience of the na-tion. Their lack of formal educa-tional attainments gave their nar-ratives a strong and rough-hewedtruth, more arresting than scholar-ship.

Gustavas Vassa established hisreputation with an autobiography,first printed in England. Vassa,born in 1745, was kidnapped byslavers when he was 11 years oldand taken to America. He wasplaced in service on a plantationin Virginia. Eventually, he was ableto purchase his freedom. He leftthe United States, made his homein England and became active inthe British anti-slavery movement.In 1790, he presented a petition toParliament to abolish the slavetrade. His autobiography, The In-teresting Narrative of the Life ofGustay. Vassa, was an immediatesuccess and had to be publishedin five editions.

At the time when slave shipswere still transporting Africans tothe New World, two 18th centuryNegroes were writing and publish-ing works of poetry. The first ofthese was Jupiter Hammon, a slavein Queens Village, Long Island. In1760, Hammon published An Eve-

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ning Thought: Salvation by Christ,With Penitential Cries . . . In allprobability this was the first poempublished by an American Negro.His most remarkable work, "Anaddress to the Negroes of NewYork," was published in 1787. Jup-iter Hammon died in 1800.Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784),like Hammon, was influenced bythe religious forces of Wesley-Whitefield revival. Unlike Ham-mon, however, she was a writerof unusual talent. Though born inAfrica, she acquired in an uncred-ibly short time both the literary cul-ture and the religion of her NewEngland masters. Her writings re-flect little of her race and much ofthe age in which she lived. She wasa New England poet of the thirdquarter of the 18th century, andher poems reflected the poetic con-ventions of the Boston Puritanswith whom she lived. Her famecontinued long after her death in1784 and she became one of thebest known poets of New England.

Another important body of liter-alum came out of this period. It isthe literature of petition, written byfree black men in the North, whowere free in name only. Some ofthe early petitioners for justice wereCaribbean-Americans who sawtheir plight and the plight of theAfro-Americans as one and thesame.

In 18th century America, two ofthe most outstanding fighters forliberty and justice were the WestIndiansPrince Hall and John B.

Russwurm. When Prince Hallcame to the United States, the na-tion was in turmoil. The colonieswere ablaze with indignation. Bri-tain, with a series of revenue acts,had stoked the fires of colonial dis-content. In Virginia, Patrick Henrywas speaking of liberty or death.The cry, "No Taxation WithoutRepresentation," played on thenerve strings of the nation. PrinceHall, then a delicate-looking teen-ager, often walked through the tur-bulent streets of Boston, an ob-server unobserved.A few months before these hec-tic scenes, he had arrived in theUnited States from his home inBarbados, where he was bornabout 1748, the son of an English-man and a free African woman.He was, in theory, a free man, buthe knew that neither in Boston norin Barbados were persons of Afri-can descent free in fact. At once,he questioned the sincerity of thevocal white patriots of Boston. Itnever seemed to have occurred tothem that the announced principlesmotivating their action was strong-er argument in favor of destroyingthe system of slavery. The colon-ists held in servitude more than ahalf million human beings, some ofthem white; yet they engaged in thecontradiction of going to war tosupport the theory that all menwere created equal.

When Prince Hall arrived inBoston, that city was the center ofthe American slave trade. Most ofthe major leaders of revolutionary

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movement, in fact, were slavehold-ers or investors in slave-supportedbusinesses. Hall, like many otherAmericans, wondered: what didthese men mean by freedom?The condition of the free blackmen, as Prince Hall found them,was not an enviable one. Emanci-pation brought neither freedom norrelief from the stigma of color.They were still included withslaves, indentured servants, and In-dians in the slave codes. Discrimi-natory laws severely circumscribedtheir freedom of movement.

By 1765, Prince Hall saw littlechange in the condition of theblacks, and though a freeman, atleast in theory, he saw his peopledebased as though they were slavesstill in bondage. Th ese things d rovehim to prepare himself for leader-ship among his people. So, throughdiligence and frugality, he becamea property owner, thus establishinghimself in the eyes of white peopleas well as the blacks.But the ownership of propertywas not enough. He still had to en-dure sneers and insults. He went toschool at night, and later became aMethodist preacher. His church be-came the forum for his people'sgrievances. Ten years after his ar-rival in Boston, he was the ac-cepted leader of the black com-munity.In 1788, Hall petitioned the

Massachusetts Legislature, protest-ing the kidnapping of free Negroes.This was a time when Americanpatriots were engaged in a consti-tutional struggle for freedom. Theyhad proclaimed the inherent rightsof all mankind to life, liberty andthe pursuit of happiness. Halldared to remind them that theblack men in the United Stateswere human beings and as suchwere entitled to freedom and re-spect for their human personality.Prejudice made Hall the fatherof African secret societies in theUnited States. He is the father ofwhat is now known as NegroMasonry. Hall first sought ini-tiation into the white MasonicLodge in Boston, but was turneddown because of his color. He thenapplied to the Army Lodge of anIrish Regiment. His petition wasfavorably received. On March 6,1775, Hall and fourteen otherblack Americans were initiated inLodge Number 441. When, onMarch 17, the British were forcedto evacuate Boston, the ArmyLodge gave Prince Hall and hiscolleagues a license to meet andfunction as a Lodge. Thus, on July3, 1776, African Lodge No. 1came into being. This was the firstLodge in Masonry established inAmerica for men of African de-scent.The founding of the AfricanLodge was one of Prince Hall'sgreatest achievements. It affordedthe Africans in the New Englandarea a greater sense of security,

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and contributed to a new spirit ofunity among them. Hall's interestdid not end with the Lodge. Hewas deeply concerned with improv-ing the lot of his people in otherways. He sought to have schoolsestablished for the children of thefree Africans in Massachusetts. Ofprime importance is the fact thatPrince Hall worked to secure re-spect for the personality of his peo-ple and also played a significantrole in the downfall of the Mas-sachusetts slave trade. He helpedto prepare the groundwork for thefreedom fighters of the 19th and20th centuries, whose continuingefforts have brought the blackAmerican closer to the goal of fullcitizenship.The literature of petition wascontinued by men like David Walk-er whose Appeal, an indictment ofslavery, was published in 1829.Dynamic ministers like SamuelRinggold Ward and Henry High-land Garnet joined the ranks of thepetitioners at the time a journalistliterature was being born.

Frederick Douglass, the noblestof American black men of the 19thcentury, was the leader of thejournalist group. He established thenewspaper North Star and, later,the magazine Douglass Monthly.John B. Russwurm and SamuelCornish founded the newspaperFreedom's Journal in 1827.

In 1829, a third poet, GeorgeMoses Horton, published his book,The Hope of Liberty. In his secondvolume, Naked Genius., (1865), he

expressed his anti-slavery convic-tions more clearly. George MosesHorton was the first slave poet toopenly protest his status.Throughout the early part of the19th century, the slave narrativebecame a new form of Americanliterary expression.The best known of these slavenarratives came from the pen ofFrederick Douglass, the foremostNegro in the anti-slavery move-ment. His first book was TheNarrative of the Life of FrederickDouglass (1845). Ten years later,an improved and enlarged edition,My Bondage and My Free dom, waspublished. His third autobiography,Life and Times of Frederick Doug-lass, was published in 1881 andenlarged in 1892. Douglass foughtfor civil rights and against lynchingand the Ku Klux Klan. No abuseof justice escaped his attention andhis wrath.It was not until 1887 that anAfro-American writer emergedwho was fully a master of the shortstory as a literary form. This writerwas Charles W. Chesnutt. Ches-nun, un Ohioan by birth, became ateacher in North Carolina whilestill in his middle teens. He studiedthe traditions and superstitions ofthe people that he taught and latermade this material into the ingred-ient of his best short stories. InAugust 1887, his short story, "TheGoophered Grapevine," appearedin the Atlantic Monthly. This wasthe beginning of a series of storieswhich were later brought together

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in his first book, The ConjureWoman (1899). "The Wife of HisYouth" also appeared in the At-lantic (July 1898) and gave thetitle to his second volume, TheWife of His Youth and OtherStories of the Color Line (1899).Three more stories appeared later:"Baxter's Procrustes" in the At-lantic (June, 1904), and "TheDoll- and "Mr. Taylor's Funeral"in The Crisis magazine (April,1912 and April-May, 1915).

Chcsnutt's novel did not measureup to the standards he had set withhis short stories, though they wereall competently written. In 1928,he was awarded the Spingarn Med-al for his "pioneer work as a liter-ary artist depicting the life andstruggle of Americans of Negrodescent."

Paul Laurence Dunbar, a con-temporary of Charles W. Chesnutt,made his reputation as a poet be-fore extending his talent to shortstories. Both Dunbar and Chesnuttvery often used the same subjectmatter in their stories. Chesnuttwas by far the better writer, and hisstyle and attitude differed radicallyfrom Dunbar's.

Dunbar's pleasant folk tales oftradition-bound plantation blackfolk were more acceptable to alarge white reading audience withpreconceived ideas of "Negro char-acteristics." In all fairness, it mustbe said that Dunbar did not caterto this audience in all of his stories.In such stories as "The Tragedy atThree Forks," "The Lynching of

Jube Benson" and "The Ordeal ofMt. Hope," he showed a deep con-cern and understanding of the moreserious and troublesome aspects ofAfro-American life. Collections ofhis stories are: Folks from Dixie(1898), The Strength of Gideon(1900), In Old Plantation Days(1903), and The Heart of HappyHollow (1904). Only one of hisnovels, The Sport of the Gods,(1902) is mainly concerned withAfro-American characters.

Chesnutt and Dunbar, in theirday, reached a larger general read-ing audience than any of the blackwriters who came before them. Theperiod of the slave narratives hadpassed. Yet, the black writer wasstill an oddity and a stepchild inthe eyes of most critics. This atti-tude continued in a lessening de-gree throughout one of the richestand most productive periods inAfro-American writing in theUnited Statesthe period called"the Negro Renaissance." Thecommunity of Harlem was the cen-ter and spiritual godfather and mid-wife for this renaissance. The cul-tural emancipation of the Afro-American that began before thefirst World War was now in fullforce. The black writer discovereda new voice within himself andliked the sound of it. The whitewriters who had been interpretingour life with an air of authority and



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a preponderance of error looked atlast to the black writer for theirnext cue. In short story collectionslike Jean Toomer's Cane (1923)and Langston Hughes' The Waysof White Folks (1934 ) heretoforeuntreated aspects of Afro-Amer-ican life were presented in an in-teresting manner that was unrealto some readers because it was newand so contrary to the stereotypesthey had grown accustomed to.

In her book Males and Men(1935), Zora Neal Hurston pre-sented a collection of folk talesand sketches that showed the closerelationship between humor andtragedy in Afro-American life. Indoing this, she also fulfilled thefirst requirement of all bookstoentertain and guide the readerthrough an interesting experiencethat is worth the time and attentionit takes to absorb it. In otherstories like The Gilded Six Bits,Drenched in Light and Spunk an-other side of Miss Hurston's talentwas shown.

In the midst of this renaissance,two strong voices from the WestIndians were heard. Claude McKayin his books Ginger-Town (1932)and Banana Bottom (1933), wroteof life in his Jamaican homeland ina manner that debunked the trav-elogue exoticism usually attributedto Negro life in the Caribbean area.Before the publication of thesebooks, Harlem and its inhabitantshad already been the subject matterfor a group of remarkable shortstories by McKay and the inspira-

lion for his book, Home to Harlem,still the most famous novel everwritten about that community.In 1926, Eric Walrond, a nativeof British Guiana, explored andpresented another side of West In-dian life in his book, Tropic Death,a near classic. In these 10 natural-istic stories, Eric Walrond concernshimself mostly with labor and liv-ing conditions in the Panama CanalZone where a diversity of peopleand ways of fife meet and clash,while each tries to survive at theexpense of the other. Clear per-ception and strength of style en-abled Mr. Walrond to balance formand content in such a manner thatthe message was never intrudedupon the unfolding of the stories.Rudolph Fisher, another brightstar of the Harlem literary renais-sance, was first a brilliant youngdoctor. The new and light touch hebrought to his stories of Afro-American life did not mar the se-rious aspect that was always pres-ent. The message in his comicrealism was more profound be-cause he was skillful enough toweave it into the design of hisstories without destroying any oftheir entertainment value. Hisstories "Blades of Steel," "The Cityof Refuge" and "The PromisedLand" were published in the At-lantic Monthly. "High Yaller" ap-peared in The Crisis magazine dur-ing the hey-day of that publication,and was later reprinted in theO'Brien anthology, Best ShortStories of 1934. Unfortunately, he



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died before all of his bright prom-ise was fulfilled.The Harlem literary renaissancewas studded with many names.Those already mentioned are onlya few of the m ost outstanding. Dur-ing the period of this literary flow-ering among black writers, Harlembecame the Mecca, the stimulatingHoly City, drawing pilgrims fromall over the country and from someplaces abroad. Talented authors,playwrights, painters and sculptorscame forth eagerly showing theirwares.

Three men, W. E. B. Du Bois,James Weldon Johnson and AlainLocke, cast a guiding influenceover this movement without be-com ing a part of the social climbingand pseudo-intellectual aspect of it.W. E. B. Du Bois, by continuouslychallenging the old concepts andmisinterpretations of Afro-Ameri-can life, gave enlightened new di-rections to a whole generation. Aseditor of The Crisis, he introducedmany new black writers and ex-tended his helpful and disciplininghand when it was needed. Follow-ing the death of Booker T. Wash-ington and the decline of the Book-er T. Washington school ofthought, he became the spiritualfather of the new black intelligent-sia.James Weldon Johnson movedfrom Florida to New York. His di-

versity of talent established hisreputation long before the begin-ning of the "New Negro literarymovement" Later, as a participantin and historian of the movement,he helped to appraise and preservethe best that came out of it. In hisbooks, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), The Bookof American Negro Poetry (1922),Black Manhattan (1930), andAlong This Way , an autobiography(1933), James Weldon Johnsonshowed clearly that Negro writershave made a distinct contributionto the literature of the UnitedStates. His own creative talentmade him one of the most able ofthese contributors.Alain Locke is the writer whodevoted the most time to the in-terpretation of the "New Negroliterary movement" and to Afro-American literature in general. In1925, he expanded the specialHarlem issue of the magazine Sur-vey Graphic (which he edited) intothe anthology, The New Negro.This book is a milestone and aguide to Afro-American thought,literature and art in the middletwenties. The objective of the vol-ume "to register the transformationof the inner and outer life of theNegro in America that had so sig-nificantly taken place in the lastfew preceding years," was ablyachieved. For many years, Mr.Locke's annual appraisal of booksby and about Negroes, published inOpportunity magazine, was an ea-gerly awaited literary event.



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Early in the Harlem literary ren-aissance period, the black ghettobecame an attraction for a variedassortment of white celebrities andjust plain thrill-seeking white peo-ple lost from their moorings. Somewere insipid rebels, defying themores of their upbringing by as-sociating with Negroes on a social-ly equal level. Some were too richto work, not educated enough toteach, and not holy enough topreach. Others were searching forthe mythological "noble savage"the "exotic Negro."These professional exotics weregenerally college educated Negroeswho had become estranged fromtheir families and the environmentof their upbringing. They talked atlength about the great books with-in them waiting to be written. Theirwhite sponsors continued to sub-sidize them while they "developedtheir latent talent. - Of course the"great books" of these camp fol-lowers never got written and,eventually, their white sponsorsrealized that they were never goingto writenot even a good letter.Ironically, these sophisticates madea definite contribution to the pe-riod of the "Nos Negro literaryrenaissance." In socially inclinedcompany, they proved that a blackAmerican could behave with asmuch attention to the details ofsocial protocol as the best bred andrichest white person in the country.They could balance a cocktail glasswith expertness. Behind their pre-tense of being writers they were

really actorsand rather goodones. They were generally betterinformed than their white sponsorsand could easily participate in adiscussion of the writings of MarcelProust, in one minute, and themusic of Ludwig Von Beethoventhe next. As social parasites, theyconducted themselves with asmoothness approaching an artisticaccomplishment. Unknown tothem, their conduct had done muchto eliminate one of the major pre-vailing stereotypes of Afro-Amer-ican life and manners.Concurrently with the unfoldingof this mildly funny comedy, thegreatest productive period in Afro-American literature continued. Themore serious and talented blackwriters were actually writing theirbooks and getting them published.

Opportunity magazine, thenedited by Charles Johnson, andThe Crisis, edited by W. E. B. DuBois, were the major outlets for thenew black writers.

Opportunity short story contestsprovided a proving ground for anumber of competent black writers.Among the prize winners wereCecil Blue, John F. Matheus, Eu-gene Gordon and Marisa Bonner.

Writers like Walter White, JessieFauset, Wallace Thurman, NellaLarsen, George S. Schuyler, Ster-ling A. Brown and Arna Bontempshad already made their debut andwere accepted into the circle of thematured.

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depression and the end of the pe-riod known as "The Negro Renais-sance." The "exotic Negro," pro-fessional and otherwise, becameless exotic now that a hungry lookwas upon his face. The numerouswhite sponsors and well-wisherswho had begun to flock to Harlemten years before no longer had timeor money to explore and marvelover Harlem life. Many Harlemresidents lived and died in Harlemduring this period without oncehearing of the famous literarymovement that had flourished anddeclined within their midst. It wasnot a mass movement. It was a fad,partly produced in Harlem andpartly imposed on Harlem. Most ofthe writers associated with it wouldhave written just as well at anyother time.

In the intervening years betweenthe end of "The Negro Renais-sance" and the emergence of Rich-ard Wright, black writers of genu-ine talent continued to producebooks of good caliber. The lack ofsponsorship and pampering hadmade them take serious stock ofthem selves and their intentions. TheCrisis, organ of the National Asso-ciation for the Advancement ofColored People, and Opportunity,organ of the National UrbanLeague, continued to furnish apublishing outlet for new blackwriters. The general magazinespublished stories by black writ-ers intermittently, seemingly on aquota basis.During this period writers like

Ralph Ellison, Henry B. Jones,Marian Minus, Ted Poston, Law-rence D. Reddick and Grace W.Thompkins published their firstsh ort stories.

0In 1936 Richard Wright's firstshort story to receive any appreci-able attention, "Big Boy Leaves

Home," appeared in the anthology,The New Caravan. "The Ethics ofLiving Jim Crow: An Autobio-graphical Sketch" was published inAmerican Stuff, anthology of theFederal Writers Project, the nextyear. In 1938, when his first book,Uncle Tom's Children, won a $500prize contest conducted by StoryMagazine, his talent received na-tional attention. With the publica-tion of his phenomenally successfulnovel, Native Son, in 1940, a newera in Afro-American literaturehad begun. Here, at last, was ablack writer who undeniably wroteconsiderably better than many ofhis white contemporaries. As ashort story craftsman, he was themost accomplished black writersince Ch arles W . Chesnutt.After the emergence of RichardWright, the period of indulgencefor Negro writers was over. Here-after, black writers had to stand orfall by the same standards andjudgments used to evaluate thework of white writers. The era ofthe patronized and pampered black

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writer had at last come to an end.The closing of this era may, in thefinal analysis, be the greatest con-tribution Richard Wright made tothe status of Negro writers and toNegro literature.When the United States enteredthe second World War, the activeNegro writers, like most other writ-ers in the country, turned theirtalents to some activity in relationto the war.The first short stories of AnnPetry began to appear in The Cri-sis, The Negro Caravan, the bestanthology of Negro literature sinceAlain Locke edited The New Negrosixteen years before, had alreadyappeared with much new material.Chester B. Himes, a dependablewriter during the depression pe-riod, managed to turn out a num-ber of remarkable short storieswhile working in shipyards and warindustries in California. In 1944,he received a Rosenwald Fellow-ship to complete his first novel, 1 /He Hollers Let Him Go. In 1945,Frank Yerby won an O. HenryMemorial Award for his excellentshort story, "Health Card," whichhad been published in Harper'sMagazine a year before.A new crop of post-war blackwriters was emerging. In their sto-ries they treated new aspects ofAfro-American life or brought newinsights to the old aspects. Princi-pally, they were good story tellers,aside from any message they want-ed to get across to their readers.The weepy sociological propagandastories (so prevalent during the de-

pression era) had had their daywith the Negro writer and all oth-ers. There would still be proteststories, but the protest would nowhave to meet the standards of livingliterature.Opportunity and The Crisis,once the proving ground for somany new black writers, were nolonger performing that much need-ed service. The best of the newwriters found acceptance in thegeneral magazines. Among theseare James Baldwin, Lloyd Brown,Arthur P. Davis, Owen Dodson,Lance Jeffers, John 0. Killen,Robert H. Lucas, Albert Murray,George E. Norford, Carl R. Of-ford, John H. Robinson Jr., JohnCaswell Smith, Jr. and Mary E.Vroman.With the rise of nationalism andindependent states in Africa, andthe rapid change of the status ofthe Negro in the United States, thematerial used by black writers andtheir treatment of it did, of neces-sity, reflect a breaking away fromthe old mooring.Among black writers the periodof the 1940's was the period ofRichard Wright. The period of the1960's was the period of JamesBaldwin.The now flourishing literary tal-ent of James Baldwin had no easybirth, and be did not emerge over-night, as some of his new discover-ers would have you believe. Foryears this talent was in incubationin the ghetto of Harlem, before hewent to Europe a decade ago in anattempt to discover the United



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States and how he and his peoplerelate to it. The book in which thatdiscovery is portrayed, The FireNext Time, is a continuation of hissearch for place and definition.Baldwin, more than any otherwriter of our times, has succeededin restoring the personal essay toits place as a form of creative liter-ature. From his narrow vantagepoint of personal grievance, he hasopened a "window on the world."He plays the role traditionally as-signed to thinkers concerned withthe improvement of human condi-tionsthat of alarmist. He callsnational attention to things in thesociety that need to be correctedand things that need to be cele-brated.When Richard Wright died inParis in 1960, a new generation ofblack writers, partly influenced byhim, was beginning to explore, asRalph Ellison said, "the full rangeof American Negro humanity." Inthe short stories and novels of suchwriters as Frank London Brown,William Melvin Kelly, LeRoiJones, Panic Marshall, Rosa Guyand Ernest J. Gaines, both a newdimension and a new direction inwriting is seen. They have ques-tioned and challenged all previousinterpretations of Afro-Americanlife. In doing this, they have cre-

ated the basis for a new Americanliterature.The black writer and his peopleare now standing at the crossroadsof history. This is the black writer'sspecial vantage point, and this iswhat makes the task and the mis-sion of the black writer distinctlydifferent from that of the whitewriter. The black writer, concernedwith creating a work of art in asegregated society, has a doubletask. First: he has to explain thesociety to himself and create hisnet while opposine that society.Second: he cannot be honest withhimself or his people without lend-ing his support, at least verbally, tothe making of a new society thatrespects the dignity of men.The black writer must realizethat his people are now enteringthe last phase of a transitional pe-riod between slavery and freedom.It is time for the black writer todraw upon the universal values inhis people's experience, just asSean O'Casey and Sholem Alei-chem drew upon the universal val-ues in the experiences of the Irishand the Jews. In the next phase ofAfro-American writing, a literatureof celebration must be creatednot a celebration of oppression, buta celebration of survival in spiteof it.

John Henrik Clarke, author of the survey on "The Origin and Growthof Afro-American Literature," is associate editor of Freedomwaysmagazine, a free lance writer and historian, and editor of several liter-ary anthologies, including American Negro Short Stories, which is avail-able in both hard cover and soft cover editions.

the origin and growth of afro-american literature

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