Blacker the Berry...In The Blacker the Berry…, a classic yet provocative novel written during the Harlem Renaissance, a young woman must reckon with colorism in the Black community as she navigates 1920s New York City. One of the most widely read and controversial works of the Harlem Renaissance, The Blacker the Berry...was the first novel to openly explore prejudice within the Black community. This pioneering novel found a way beyond the bondage of Blackness in American life to a new meaning in truth and beauty. Emma Lou Brown's dark complexion is a source of sorrow and humiliation—not only to herself, but to her lighter-skinned family and friends and to the white community of Boise, Idaho, her hometown. As a young woman, Emma travels to New York's Harlem, hoping to find a safe haven in the Black Mecca of the 1920s. Wallace Thurman recreates this legendary time and place in rich detail, describing Emma's visits to nightclubs and dance halls and house-rent parties, her sex life and her catastrophic love affairs, her dreams and her disillusions—and the momentous decision she makes in order to survive. A lost classic of Black American literature, The Blacker the Berry...is a compelling portrait of the destructive depth of racial bias in this country. A new introduction by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, author of The Sweeter the Juice, highlights the timelessness of the issues of race and skin color in America. |
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135th Street ain't Alva Junior Alva's Anise Arline Arline's asked Benson black girl Blake blue veins Boise Boise high school boy friends Braxton brown Cabaret called Campbell Kitchen campus Carl Van Vechten child Cora crowded dance dark dollars door dress Emma Lou began eyes face feel fellow felt friends Geraldine gone Gwendolyn hair Harlem Hazel heard Ivory Soap knew lady laughed lips live looked Los Angeles Lou's loved married matter Miss Morgan morning mother mulatto Negro never nigger night party passed person playing realized RENT PARTY returned Rudolph Valentino seemed Seventh Avenue skin color smile social strolled talk tell theater things thought told Tony Crews Truman trying turned Uncle Joe Verne voice walked WALLACE THURMAN week Weldon Western Union woman wondered yaller