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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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DN19
Saxon
as Benefactor & Negroes of National Caliber
[not
dated, probably after 1945]
After
Saxon promoted me to the head of the Dillard University Unit of
the Writers' Project, he began to use me more and more as a sort
of clearinghouse for all of his Negro contacts. In this way I
and the members of my staff were brought into contact with
Negroes of national caliber. Novelists, writers, poets,
artists who came into the orbit of this
kindly man could be named by the dozens.
It
first began even before I was head when I was named Louisiana
editor of all Negro material which was then being sent to
Sterling A. Brown, who was then in Washington working on a
composite study of the Negro in American life. Later came Roscoe
Lewis, then whipping into shape the laudable book,
THE NEGRO IN
VIRGINIA. Richard Wright having lifted himself by his own
bootstraps from Illinois Writers' project to front rank
authorship came down and paid us a visit in our office at the
University.
And
there was
J. Mason Brewer, warmly praised and vouched for by
J.
Frank Dobie, the Texan, who, like
Saxon, had exploited his
region's book about Texas Negro folklore. And there was
Jacob
Lawrence and his wife, Gwendolyn, both artists, with whom I
became fast friends--Jake with his brown, striped mail-order
suit and a portfolio of 11 pages of his pictures in FORTUNE. Or
Sterling Brown, swinging his Phi Betta Kappa "jive key"
from the end of a pocket chain, who because of his "white
man's English" and collegiate personality, unconsciously
and unintentionally gave birth to Saxon's posthumous book JOE
GILMORE AND HIS FRIENDS.
Or
there was the day when Saxon called me into town to meet a young
woman who was inquiring into the possibility of getting on our
unit. The young woman and I sat together in Saxon's outer
office. I was tired at the end of the day. The young woman
slightly ill-at-ease. I "took her in," unobserved,
from head to feet. Her body was somewhat on the petite side,
mouth somewhat large for her face and full-lipped. Saxon finally
came to the door of his office and called me in and a few
minutes later, called her in. The young woman was
Margaret
Walker, later winner of the Yale University Prize for Younger
Poets.
There
were many other prominent Negroes I met either directly or
indirectly through Saxon.
Owen Dodson, poet and playwright;
Arna
Bontemps, poet, novelist and writer, and many others.
As
usual, Saxon did not confine himself to segregation. He seemed
to be firmly of the belief that the more white people of good
will met worthy Negroes, just so much would a small stone of
prejudice be cast aside from the road of life. This belief he
reiterated again and again. When, at last, under my supervision,
he became pleased with the work of the Dillard Unit was doing,
he became an open press-agent for all us working on the project
and for me particularly.
In
speeches at colleges and universities, after telling of his work
that his main project was doing he would take time out to praise
the vast amount of research material that his Negro unit was
piling up. Whites coming to New Orleans in search of Negro
material or those on a traveling junket were frequently switched
to us out at Dillard or else sent to me at my home.
One
Saxon-sent visitor I still remember vividly, a fine-looking
handsome young Englishman named Cohn. Particularly because he
seemed to have enjoyed so much the tea I made for him and made
such pleasing comments about the Kraft cheese I served with jam
and brown bread that I prevailed upon him to stick a small
carton of it into his pockets along with an Indian arrow-head as souvenir.
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Lyle Saxon (1891-1946) was
known in his day as "Mr. New Orleans." Saxon lived the life of
the Southern gentleman, championed the romance and tradition of old New
Orleans and wrote history and biography as well as fiction. As director
of the Louisiana Federal Writer's project of the Works progress
Administration, Saxon contributed to and compiled
Gumbo Ya-Ya, a
collection of Louisiana folktales, and valuable and enduring guides to
new Orleans and to the state. other Saxon titles include Father
Mississippi (1927),
Fabulous New Orleans (1928),
Old Louisiana (1929), Lafitte
the Pirate (1930), and the novel
Children of Strangers (1937). Robert Tallant collaborated with Saxon and
other FWP researchers on Gumbo Ya-Ya. Saxon also worked with
Marcus B. Christian and the Dillard Project to develop a history of
blacks in Louisiana. Christian ennobled view of blacks however differed
from Saxon's more traditional view of the Negro in the South |
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James W. Byrd,
J. Mason Brewer: Negro Folklorist (Austin: Steck-Vaughn
Company, 1967)
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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 * * *
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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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Bob
Dylan: Only a pawn in their game /
The
Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
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Panel on Literary Criticism
26 March 2010
National Black Writers Conference
Patrick Oliver, Kalamu ya Salaam,
Dorothea Smartt, Frank Wilderson discuss
the use of literature to promote
political causes and instigate change
and transformation. The event is at the
Medgar Evers College at the City
University of New York.
C-Span Archives
Panel on Politics and Satire
26 March 2010
National Black Writers Conference
Herb Boyd, Thomas Bradshaw, Charles
Edison and Major Owens discuss how
current events are reflected in the
writings of African Americans. The
event is at the Medgar Evers College at
the City University of New York.
C-Span Archives |
update 17 April 2010 |
