Niggerati
Encyclopedia
Wallace Thurman
Wallace Henry Thurman was an American novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. He is best known for his novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life, which explores discrimination among black people based on skin color.-Early life:...
for the group of young African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
. "Niggerati" is a portmanteau of "nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
" and "literati
Literati
Literati may refer to:*Intellectuals or those who read and comment on literature*The scholar-bureaucrats or literati of imperial China**Literati painting, also known as the Southern School of painting, developed by Chinese literati...
". The rooming house where he lived, and where that group often met, was similarly christened Niggerati Manor. The group included Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...
, Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
, and several of the people behind Thurman's journal FIRE!!
Fire!!
Fire!! was an African American literary magazine published in 1926 during the Harlem Renaissance. The publication was started by Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, John P...
(which lasted for one issue in 1926), such as Richard Bruce Nugent
Richard Bruce Nugent
Richard Bruce Nugent , aka Richard Bruce and Bruce Nugent, was a writer and painter in the Harlem Renaissance.-Biography:...
(the associate editor of the journal), Jonathan Davis, Gwendolyn Bennett, and Aaron Douglas
Aaron Douglas
Aaron Douglas was an African American painter and a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance.-Early life:...
.
At a time when homophobia and sexism were common, and when the African American bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
sought to distance itself from the slavery of the past and seek social equality
Social equality
Social equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
and racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
, the Niggerati themselves appeared to be relatively comfortable with their diversity of gender, skin colour, and background. After producing FIRE!!, which failed because of a lack of funding, Thurman persuaded the Niggerati to produce another magazine, Harlem. This, too, lasted only a single issue.
Origin
In his autobiographical novel, Infants of the Spring, Thurman referred to the Harlem literatiLiterati
Literati may refer to:*Intellectuals or those who read and comment on literature*The scholar-bureaucrats or literati of imperial China**Literati painting, also known as the Southern School of painting, developed by Chinese literati...
, whose pretensions he often considered to be spurious and whose achievements he often considered to be second-rate, as the Niggerati. (In the novel, Sweetie May Carr, a character modelled on the real-life Hurston, christens the Harlem rooming house where Dr Parkes, modelled on the real life Alain Locke, establishes a salon of artists, Niggerati Manor, just as Thurman's own rooming house was in real life.) Thurman himself was infamous amongst that literati, although popular amongst the younger, bohemian, crowd. Thurman rejected what he called "society Negroes". He himself, as many others of the literati did, would hold parties on Saturday nights, which Langston Hughes described in The Big Sea by observing that "at Wallace Thurman's you met the bohemians of both Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
and the Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
." Recalling the days of Niggerati Manor, Theophilus Lewis wrote:
All three of Hughes, Hurston, and Thurman enjoyed the shock value of referring to themselves as the Niggerati. Hurston's biographer Valerie Boyd
Valerie Boyd
Valerie Boyd is a widely published journalist, author, and cultural critic, best known for the critically acclaimed biography, Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston.-Biography:Boyd was born on December 11, 1963, in Atlanta...
described it as "an inspired moniker that was simultaneously self-mocking and self-glorifying, and sure to shock the stuffy black bourgeoisie". Hurston was actually the coiner of the name. The quickest wit in what was a very witty group, which encompassed Helene Johnson
Helene Johnson
Helen Johnson, who was better known as Helene Johnson was an African American poet during the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a cousin of author Dorothy West.She spent her early years at her grandfather’s house in Boston...
, Dorothy Peterson
Dorothy Peterson
Dorothy Peterson was an American actress.Peterson was born in Hector, Minnesota of Swedish immigrant ancestry. She made her screen debut in 1930's Mothers Cry, a domestic drama that required the 29-year-old actress to age nearly three decades in the course of the film...
, Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen was an American poet who was popular during the Harlem Renaissance.- Biography :Cullen was an American poet and a leading figure with Langston Hughes in the Harlem Renaissance. This 1920s artistic movement produced the first large body of work in the United States written by African...
, Augusta Savage
Augusta Savage
Augusta Savage, born Augusta Christine Fells was an African-American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher and her studio was important to the careers of a rising generation of artists who would become nationally known...
, Dorothy West
Dorothy West
Dorothy West was a novelist and short story writer who was part of the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her novel The Living Is Easy, about the life of an upper-class black family.-Early years:...
(then a teacher), Harold Jackman, and John P. Davis
John P. Davis
John Preston Davis was an American lawyer and activist intellectual became prominent for his work with the Joint Committee on National Recovery and the founding of the National Negro Congress in 1935. He went on to found Our World magazine in 1946, a full-size, nationally-distributed magazine...
(a law student at the time), as well as hangers-on, friends, and acquaintances, Hurston dubbed herself the "Queen of the Niggerati". In addition to Niggerati Manor, the rooming house at 267 West 136th Street where both Thurman and Hughes lived, Niggerati meetings were held at Hurston's apartment, with a pot on the stove, into which attendees were expected to contribute ingredients for stew. She also cooked okra, or fried Florida eel.
Whilst Hughes, Hurston, and Thurman were comfortable with the appellation, others were less so. Cullen, for example, found Carl Van Vechten
Carl van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.-Biography:...
's novel Nigger Heaven
Nigger Heaven
Nigger Heaven is a 1926 novel written by Carl Van Vechten, set during the Harlem Renaissance in the United States in the 1920s. The book and its title have been controversial since its publication....
so offensive that he refused to talk to him for 14 years. Hurston, though, had no trouble with language that challenged the sensibilities of others. She dubbed the well-heeled white liberals who were involved in the Harlem Renaissance "Negrotarians" (c.f. rotarian).
FIRE!!
FIRE!! itself represented the aesthetic frustrations of the Niggerati. Its single issue was published in November 1926, a year after the publication of Alain Locke's The New NegroThe New Negro
The New Negro: An Interpretation is an anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays on African and African American art and literature edited by Alain Locke, who lived in Washington, DC and taught at Howard University during the Harlem Renaissance...
. Whilst The New Negro was viewed by the Niggerati as subtle propaganda, appropriating their talents for racial propagandist purposes, FIRE!! was intended to be "devoted to the younger Negro artists", and was edited, paid for, and published by the Niggerati themselves, with the intention both of being purely aesthetic and of causing outrage amongst black literary critics. The journal's title came from a poem that Hughes had written, which was a sinner's lament in the fashion of a Negro spiritual. In a letter written to Locke, Hurston stated that there needed to be "more outlets for Negro fire", and the Niggerati distanced themselves even from Locke, declining his offer of patronage for the journal.
Organization
In addition to Nugent; Bennett, Douglas, Thurman, Hurston, and Hughes formed the journal's editorial board, with Thurman at the head. Davis was the business manager. Each editor was supposed to contribute 50 dollars towards the publication costs, although only three (not including Hurston) actually did. Thurman signed an I.O.U.IOU (debt)
An IOU is usually an informal document acknowledging debt. An IOU differs from a promissory note in that an IOU is not a negotiable instrument and does not specify repayment terms such as the time of repayment. IOUs usually specify the debtor, the amount owed, and sometimes the creditor...
for the printer, making him personally liable for the bill of nearly $1,000. He borrowed $150 from the Harlem Community Church, and another $150 from the Mutual League, only to be mugged
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
on a street corner in Harlem, losing both all of the money and his clothing. For the next four years, Thurman's pay was attach
Attachment (law)
Attachment is a legal process by which a court of law, at the request of a creditor, designates specific property owned by the debtor to be transferred to the creditor, or sold for the benefit of the creditor. A wide variety of legal mechanisms are employed by debtors to prevent the attachment of...
ed in order to pay the debt. Hurston solicited subscriptions on a folklore-collecting trip to the South in 1927, in order to help, and both she and Hughes submitted essays to World Tomorrow, which had loaned money to FIRE!, to repay that loan.
This shaky financial foundation was symptomatic of the troubles that beset the journal, one of the most major of which was that none of the Niggerati had time to work on it. By the Autumn of 1926, Hurston had begun a course at Barnard, Hughes had returned to college in Pennsylvania, Davis was at Harvard and occupied with editing Crisis, Bennett was at Howard and occupied with her column for Opportunity, and even Thurman had taken a new job editing World Tomorrow magazine. Nugent and Douglas were artists, not editors. One of Nugent's stories, submitted for publication, was destroyed accidentally whilst stored at Hurston's apartment, and he had to rewrite it. He did so on a roll of toilet paper, which he gave to Thurman. Nugent himself stated that the most amazing thing about FIRE!! was that it was ever published at all.
In a final irony, the printer gave the entire print run of the magazine to the Niggerati, in the hope that they would sell better in quantity, only for several hundred copies to be lost in a fire in the basement in which they were stored. Hurston later commented "I suppose that 'Fire' has gone to ashes quite, but I still think the idea is good.".
Content
The one issue of FIRE!! to be published contained stories by several of the Niggerati, most of which had transgressions of moral and aesthetic boundaries as their themes. Thurman's story Cordelia the Crude was a story about a sixteen-year-old black girl becoming a prostitute — an image that would have outraged black critics of the time, whose view of black female sexuality was that images of it should be moral. Nugent's story was Smoke, Lilies and Jade, an overtly homoerotic story with black and Latino protagonists, and the first such story published by an African American. Hurston submitted two stories, one of which, her play Color Struck (a reworked version of what she had won the 1925 Opportunity contest with), Thurman had considered printing under a nom de plume, in order to prevent the issue being too "Zoraish". Like the other stories, Color Struck condemned the bourgeois attitude of envying whites, on biological and intellectual grounds, its subject being that of a woman who was so conscious of the colour of her skin that she missed out on the love of a good man. Her other submission was a short story entitled SweatSweat (short story)
Sweat is a short story by the American writer Zora Neale Hurston, first published in 1926. The story revolves around a washerwoman and her unemployed, insecure husband.Robert E...
, which Hemenway praises as being "a remarkable work, her best fiction of the period", and observes that such stories could have led to the magazine's eventual success, had it not suffered from the other problems.
Reception
The Niggerati sought to challenge borgeoise attitudes with FIRE!!, and intended it (in Thurman's own words from his solicitiation letters) to be "provocative […] to provide the shocks necessary to encourage new types of artistic interest and new types of artistic energy". However, their efforts failed. They were not taken very seriously. Most of the negative reactions were little stronger than slaps on the wrist. Locke criticized their "effete echoes of contemporary decadence" and yet praised their anti-PuritanismReligious fanaticism
Religious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...
. The NAACP even handled some of the journal's prepublication publicity. Du Bois, editor of Crisis, simply ignored them.
The way in which the Niggerati thought that FIRE!! was received reveals much about their intent in publishing it. Hughes wrote in The Big Sea that "None of the older Negro intellectuals would have anything to do with FIRE. Dr. Du Bois in Crisis roasted it.". In fact, Du Bois did no such thing. The only mention that FIRE!! received was a brief announcement in the January 1927 issue, calling it "a beautiful piece of printing" that was "strikingly illustrated by Aaron Douglas" and concluding "We bespeak for it wide support.". Huges thought that Du Bois panned FIRE!! because he expected him to pan it, that being the reaction that he and the other Niggerati had intended to elicit. Nugent reported that once all initial submissions had been made, Thurman had asked the group for something that would get the journal banned in Boston, which led to the inclusion of Cordelia the Crude and Smoke, Lilies and Jade.
Harlem
The Niggerati's next magazine, Harlem, published in November 1928, was subtly different in tone to FIRE!!. Whilst still choosing themes that critics considered inappropriate and shocking, the magazine was more politically oriented, was more commercially viable, and had a wider variety of articles, stories, advertisements, and other contents. It also had a different look, and lacked the inter-generational rhetoric of FIRE!!. Thurman himself described it as a "wholly new type of magazine", with a new outlook, celebrating "a new day in the history of the American Negro". Thurman aimed the magazine squarely at the New Negroes envisioned by Locke and others. Unlike FIRE!!, Harlem was not intended solely a vehicle for the Niggerati themselves, but was intended to accept articles from anyone, as long as the authors had skill.Organization
Most of the editors of FIRE!! also contributed to Harlem. They also approached other writers. One such was Nella LarsenNella Larsen
Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (born Nellie Walker (April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964), was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. She published two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned...
, a friend of Peterson. Peterson had wanted no part in another magazine published by Thurman, and had been approached by Nugent and Scholley Alexander, to write a monthly theatrical column, under the pretext that Alexander was the editor. Upon receiving a thank-you letter with Thurman's name as editor on the letterhead, she withdrew, despite pleas from Alexander acknowledging Thurman's "selfish treatment of those who have helped him gain a place in the literary world" and stating that he would not let Thurman run amok. Alexander asked Peterson to ask her friends "to forbear — to with-hold their criticism until they have the first issue at hand to criticize" (original emphasis and underlining). Larsen also declined, on the grounds that she was not going to be paid for her submissions, confessing that her ultimate goal in writing was "money". "I write so slowly and with such great reluctance that it seems a waste of time.", she also observed.
Content
The first issue of Harlem contained essays by Lewis, Locke, Nugent, and Walter Francis WhiteWalter Francis White
Walter Francis White was a civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for almost a quarter of a century and directed a broad program of legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist...
; poems by Helene Johnson, Georgia Douglas Johnson
Georgia Douglas Johnson
Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson better known as Georgia Douglas Johnson was an American poet and a member of the Harlem Renaissance.-Early life and education:...
, Alice Dunbar Nelson
Alice Dunbar Nelson
Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson was an American poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance...
, and Effie Newsom; stories by Roy de Coverly and George Little
George Little
-People:*George Little, Pentagon/Department of Defense Press Secretary*George Little , English TV actor and father of Tasmin Little*George Little , American football and basketball coach, 1914–1926...
; and illustrations. Although intended to be more moderate than FIRE!!, Thurman abandoned this stance in later pages of the issue. His review of Larsen's Quicksand gave closer attention to the review of the novel given by Du Bois than it did to the novel itself, saying that Larsen "no doubt pleases Dr. Du Bois for she stays in her own sphere and writes about the sort of people one can invite to one's home without losing one's social prestige. She doesn't give white people the impression that all Negroes are gin drinkers, cabaret hounds and of the half world. Her Negroes are all of the upper class. And how!".