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Books by Marcus Bruce
Christian
Song of the Black Valiants: Marching Tempo
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High Ground: A Collection of Poems /
Negro soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans
I am New
Orleans: A Poem
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Negro Iron Workers of Louisiana: 1718-1900 /
The Liberty Monument
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* * Books by George Schuyler
Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia
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Black
No More /
Ethiopian Stories /
The Communist
Conspiracy Against the Negroes
Black and Conservative
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Letter 10
Christian
Complains about Schuyler
Critique of the State of Black
Letters March
Twenty-sixth 1937
Mr.
George S. Schuyler
2628
Center Avenue
Pittsburgh,
Pa.
Dear
Mr. Schuyler:
I
have been reading with such interest your late articles on the
encouragement of Negro literature. I do not expect to find
that you have ever heard of me or my poetry. I have done quite a
bit of verse for the newspapers and magazines, among which the
CRISIS, THE PITTSBURGH Courier, OPPORTUNITY, and THE LOUISIANA
WEEKLY. I an sending you some of the best examples of my bad
art. Please do not return or publish.
Your
recent statements about 'getting things started' in the COURIER
of March 27, was -- to me -- slightly reminiscent of
the old colored lady who told the street-car conductor, "Doncha
run way frum me--Ah'll pullya back evy time." When she laid
her hands on the car and it stopped suddenly, she thought that
she had stopped it.
By
referring to the files of THE LOUISIANA WEEKLY, of March 26,
1932, you will find that there was a meeting of persons
interested in poetry, at 2500 Palmyra St. Shortly following this
meeting, I was among those who, went to Mr. C.C. Dejoie, the
president, and asked that space be allowed us in his columns.
From that time onward, there has been a POET'S CORNER in the
paper, and from this beginning, some of us have made the better
newspapers and magazines of our race--as well as a few
publications among the whites.
By
referring to the WEEKLY of November 26, 1936, you will find the
announcement of a cash award to be given for the best poem
published in the paper during the first quarter of 1937.
The
judges will be Miss Bower of Gilbert Academy, Prof. Edmonds of
Dillard University, and Prof. Rousseve of Xavier University. For
the award which will be very soon, we are planning a poetry
recital at the home of the editor, Miss Brown, at which Lyle
Saxon has promised to present the award, and at which Dean Bond
has promised to speak. We are also planning a mimeographed
booklet, containing a dozen or so of the best poems, to be
presented to those present.
What
I was thinking was that, it was not so much that you are
'getting things started' as that many of your readers are
'getting you told'. However, such a revelation would not be
necessary if the American Negroes had five magazines like
OPPORTUNITY, and five editors like ELMER ANDERSON CARTER. You
may notice that OPPORTUNITY carried two poems of mine during
1933--BEAUTY AND BEASTS and
CLOWN AND KING--that decried that our poetic currency should
carry on one side the face of a grinning
Negro. In spite of the fact that he went out of his way to
encourage me, I always thought that it was extremely unfortunate
that Langston Hughes went away to Russia before he learned how
to sing A NEW SONG.
I
am at present connected with the Negro History Group at Dillard
University, which is directed by Dean Horace Mann Bond and
Lyle Saxon, State Administrator of the Federal Writers Project.
My assignment is relative to the free people of color in
Louisiana. I'd like to tell you something about the culture of
this free Negro group. Dr. DuBois made mention of a book of
poetry written by them, called LES CENELLES, in 1845. I shall
soon be doing a chapter on Negro literature in Louisiana prior
to Reconstruction, and if possible, may send you a copy.
I
think that one of the best things your column can do is to
encourage poetry and art atmosphere among our entire race, and
the need of a greater cohesiveness between sectional groups.
Being poetry editor of the WEEKLY for only this short time
during the contest has been proof to me that we have many
rhymesters--and also a few decent poets. What I also think is
that someone must throw down the challenge to the educated
man--point out to him that though it is true -- perhaps -- that
'great poets are born', it is also possible to make near-great
poets through a little necessary encouragement.
Please
pardon this letter, Mr. Schuyler, and please forgive the poetry.
I shall do better some day.
Sincerely,
Marcus
Christian
314
S. Rocheblave St.
<<---Previous Next--11->> * *
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| George Schuyler (1895-1977), born in
Providence , Rhode island, enlisted with the United States Army
in 1912 and worked his way to the rank of lieutenant.
After the First World war Schuyler moved to New York City
where he worked as a laborer and later as a journalist on The
Messenger in 1923. For awhile a member of the socialist
Party, Schuyler contributed to a wide variety of radical
journals including Opportunity, Crisis, and Nation. |
 |
 |
Schuyler eventually became associate editor of the
Pittsburgh Courier. He supplied the weekly paper with a regular
column and was one of its chief editorial writers. On one
assignment he took the Jim Crow tour of the Southern states.
books written by Schuyler include The Negro Art Hokum
(1926),
Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia
(1930) and
Black
No More (1931).
During the McCarthy era Schuyler moved sharply to the right
and contributed to American Opinion, the journal of the
John Birch Society. In 1947 Schuyler published
The Communist
Conspiracy Against the Negroes.
Black and Conservative
(1966),
his autobiography, was published in 1966. George Schuyler died
in 1977. |
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Black and Conservative: The Autobiography of George S.
Schuyler / Robert A. Hill, ed.
Ethiopian Stories. Northeastern University Press, 1996
Jeffrey B. Leak
ed.
Rac(E)Ing to the Right: Selected Essays of
George S. Schuyler. University of
Tennessee Press, 2001 * *
* * *
Selected Letters
Selected Diary Notes Memories of Marcus B. Christian
(Cains) Christian's
BioBibliographical Record Introduction to I AM NEW
ORLEANS
A
Theory of a Black Aesthetic Magpies,
Goddesses, & Black Male Identity
Activist Works on Next Level of Change
Intro to I Am New
Orleans
Letter from Dillard University
A
Labor of Genuine Love
Letter of Gift of
Photos
Letters from
LSU and Skip Gates * * *
* *
|
Negro Iron Workers of Louisiana: 1718-1900
By Marcus Bruce Christian
Study of the blacksmith
tradition and New Orleans famous lace balconies and
fences.
Acclaimed
during his life as the unofficial poet laureate of
the New Orleans African-American community, Marcus
Christian recorded a distinguished career as
historian, journalist, and literary scholar. He was
a contributor to Pelican's
Gumbo Ya Ya, and also wrote many articles
that appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and
general-interest publications. |
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Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
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1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
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Ratification
The People Debate the Constitution,
1787-1788
By Pauline Maier
A notable historian
of the early republic, Maier devoted a
decade to studying the immense
documentation of the ratification of the
Constitution. Scholars might approach
her book’s footnotes first, but history
fans who delve into her narrative will
meet delegates to the state conventions
whom most history books, absorbed with
the Founders, have relegated to
obscurity. Yet, prominent in their local
counties and towns, they influenced a
convention’s decision to accept or
reject the Constitution. Their
biographies and democratic credentials
emerge in Maier’s accounts of their
elections to a convention, the political
attitudes they carried to the conclave,
and their declamations from the floor.
The latter expressed opponents’
objections to provisions of the
Constitution, some of which seem
anachronistic (election regulation
raised hackles) and some of which are
thoroughly contemporary (the power to
tax individuals directly). Ripostes from
proponents, the Federalists, animate the
great detail Maier provides, as does her
recounting how one state convention’s
verdict affected another’s. Displaying
the grudging grassroots blessing the
Constitution originally received, Maier
eruditely yet accessibly revives a
neglected but critical passage in
American history.—Booklist |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 17 April 2010
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