Byrd Rudolph P. (editor) - Generations in Black and White : Photographs from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection

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Generations in Black and White

Generations in Black and White

Photographs by CARL VAN VECHTEN

from the JAMES WELDON JOHNSON Memorial Collection

EDITED BY RUDOLPH P. BYRD

A SARAH MILLS HODGE FUND PUBLICATION
This publication is made possible in part through a grant from the Hodge
Foundation in memory of its founder, Sarah Mills Hodge, who devoted her life to
the relief and education of African Americans in Savannah, Georgia.

Paperback reissue, 2014
1993 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved

Photographs are from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of
Negro Arts and Letters, Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Estate of Carl Van Vechten.

Corrected Review and Song: I Want a Witness Michael S. Harper

Designed by Sandra S. Hudson
Set in 11 on 17 Gill Sans Book by Tseng Information Systems Inc.
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines
for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Most University of Georgia Press titles are
available from popular e-book vendors.

Printed in the United States of America
14 15 16 17 18 P 5 4 3 2 1

The Library of Congress has cataloged the
hardcover edition of this book as follows:
Van Vechten, Carl, 18801964.
Generations in Black and white : photographs / by Carl Van Vechten
from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection;
edited by Rudolph P. Byrd.
xxvii, 172 p. : ill. ; 29 cm.
ISBN 0-8203-1558-3 (alk. paper)
1. Van Vechten, Carl, 18801964Photograph collections.
2. African AmericansPortraits. 3. African AmericansBiography.
4. Photograph collectionsConnecticutNew Haven. I. Byrd, Rudolph P.
II. Title. III. Title : James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection.
EI85.96.V36 1993
973.049607300922dc20
932684

2014 paperback reissue ISBN 978-0-8203-4617-5

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN for digital edition: 978-0-8203-4699-1

To the Next Generation

Contents

Portraits

Acknowledgments

Generations in Black and White is a project I undertook with enthusiasm and trepidation. Such volatile poles of feeling very often produce paralysis, and paralysis does not produce books. I was fortunate, however, in that from conception to completion I stood on the shoulders of many, and as a consequence of this unwavering support I have produced a better and more satisfying book than I had first imagined.

I was introduced to Yale Universitys James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters by Michael S. Harper, the Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English at Brown University and Poet Laureate of Rhode Island. I wish to thank Professor Harper for that timely introduction, which in retrospect was nothing less than an initiation into the valiant tradition of thought, service, and excellence this volume seeks to honor, to celebrate, and to make more widely known. I also wish to thank Professor Harper for granting permission to reprint two of his finest poems.

I owe special debts of gratitude to Professor Vera M. Kutzinski of Yale University, Professor Herman A. Beavers of the University of Pennsylvania, and Professor Bruce Kellner of Millersville University, all of whom recognized the value of this project even in its earliest stages and whose generosity of spirit helped bring it to fruition.

I wish to thank Patricia M. Willis and Steve Jones of Yale Universitys Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library for their cooperation in all stages of this project. I also wish to thank Joseph Solomon, executor of the Carl Van Vechten Estate, for granting permission to reprint Van Vechtens photographs in book form.

I have read that strong and imaginative leadership in the publishing industry is rapidly disappearing, but that tradition of leadership can still be found at the University of Georgia Press. Once again I am under an obligation to Karen K. Orchard, Executive Editor of the University of Georgia Press, for her editorial judgment and faith in this project. I also wish to express my admiration for the professionalism of Madelaine Cooke and Sandra Hudson. Committed to producing a perfect book, Ms. Cooke maintained the very highest standards during all stages of copyediting. Once again, Ms. Hudson has designed a book that beautifully complements both language and imagery.

As a member of the faculty at Emory University, it is my privilege to test and to explore ideas with exceptional students. Among those students is Jeffrey B. Leak, who was by turns research assistant and colleague in the final stages of this project.

I wish to acknowledge the forbearance and advice of Henry A. Leonard during the various stages of this project. I also wish to acknowledge the encouragement of Meardis Cannon and other members of my family who refrained from attaching uncharitable constructions upon my absences and forgetfulness as I sought to meet real and imagined deadlines. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the aid and good will of friends, most especially Richard A. Benson, Tyrone Cannon, Robert Carwell, Brenda Files, Craig Fort, Earl Gordon, Kemp Harris, Cecelia Corbin Hunter, Ingrid Saunders Jones, James D. Manning, Walter L. Miller, Barry Nelson, Phillip Robinson, Garth Tate, Deborah G. Thomas, William A. Tibbs, Jr., and Jerome Wright. Finally, thanks and praise to the Spirit, who makes all things possible.

Introduction

In the early days of the Negro literary and artistic movement, wrote James Weldon Johnson of his friend Carl Van Vechten, no one in the country did more to forward it than he accomplished in frequent magazine articles and by his many personal efforts in behalf of individual Negro writers and artists. The event that made African American intellectuals suspicious of Van Vechtens undisguised enthusiasm for African American culture, an enthusiasm Van Vechten shared with other American intellectuals of European descent, was the publication of Nigger Heaven (1926), his controversial novel of Harlem life.

Although keenly aware of Van Vechtens efforts to promote African American culture, many African American intellectuals felt almost betrayed following the publication of Nigger Heaven, the first novel of Harlem life by a white author. It was the opinion of some of the most astute critics of African American culture that the novel celebrated only the most unsavory and unseemly aspects of African American life and, its flattering portrait of the black middle class notwithstanding, failed to suggest the diversity of African American life as it emerged with all its force and beauty in Harlem. In the pages of the Crisis, W. E. B. Du Bois expressed the opinion of many astonished readers in his review of Nigger Heaven: I cannot for the life of me see in this work either sincerity or art, deep thought, or truthful industry. It seems to me that Mr. Van Vechten tried to do something bizarre and he certainly succeeded.

Johnsons opinion of Van Vechtens achievement as a novelist was not altered by the furor ignited by

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