Letters to the Editors Regarding the Montgomery
Bus Protest Movement,” presages his lifelong inter-
est in social conditions affecting African Americans.
He married Mildred Webster in 1958, with whom
he had one son, Antone. In 1975, the marriage
ended in divorce. Hernton taught social science
at four historically black colleges and universities:
Benedict College (1957–58), Alabama A&M (1958–
59), Edward Waters College (1959–60), and South-
ern University and A&M (1960–61). He moved to
New York in 1961 for further study in sociology at
Columbia University and worked for the New York
Department of Welfare (1961–62) and the National
Opinion Research Center (1963–64).
Moving to the Lower East Side of Manhattan
brought Hernton in contact with other African-
American poets, including Raymond Patterson,
Tom Dent, and DAVID HENDERSON. Hernton be-
came cofounder of a collective of writers, artists,
and musicians called the Society of Umbra (1961),
whose participants included Dent, Henderson, ISH-
MAEL REED, LORENZO THOMAS, Norman Pritchard,
Brenda Walcott, and ASKIA M. TOURÉ. This experi-
ence is described in his essay “Umbra: A Personal
Recounting” (1993). The society met to critique
each other’s work and hold poetry readings, and it
published a literary magazine, Umbra. Umbra was
an important force in developing the BLACK ARTS
MOVEMENT by combining art with politics, stress-
ing performance, providing a community-based
forum for African-American voices, and join-
ing art, music, and literature. Hernton received a
fellowship to study in London at the Institute of
Phenomenological Studies directed by R. D. Laing
(1965–69). From 1970 until he retired in 1999, he
was professor of African-American studies and
creative writing at Oberlin College. Hernton’s sec-
ond marriage to Mary O’Callaghan (1998) lasted
until his death.
Hernton published three poetry collections:
The Coming of Chronos to the House of Nightsong
(1964), Medicine Man (1976), and The Red Crab
Gang and Black River Poems (1999). Reflecting
Black Arts Movement values, Hernton’s poetry
highlights performative features such as rhythm
and repetition and makes references to African-
American culture. Ballads and BLUES poems in
Medicine Man echo STERLING BROWN and LANGSTON
HUGHES in using a folk-based aesthetic (including
musical idioms, especially blues, jazz and spiritu-
als) to create sophisticated African-American cul-
tural portraits. Hernton’s most famous poem is
“The Distant Drum,” a clarion call to his primary
identity as a poet. His poems sometimes display
dry wit, as in “Low Down and Sweet,” where he
plays the dozens with Ishmael Reed. His extended
lyrics, such as “Medicine Man,” show the influ-
ence of modernists such as MELVIN B. TOLSON. The
Red Crab Gang reflects his final battle with cancer.
The Coming of Chronos to the House of Nightsong,
subtitled An Epical Narrative of the South, is an il-
lustrated chapbook-length tone poem. Hernton
also wrote scripts for the television series “A Man
Called Hawk,” which starred his former Oberlin
College student, Avery Brooks.
Hernton published one novel, Scarecrow
(1974), about travelers to Europe on board the
Castel Felice. Its central theme is the focus of his
writing: the psychological and sexual ramifica-
tions of racism. Hernton published many essays
on literature, psychology, and social conditions.
His most important work of literary criticism is
The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers:
Adventures in Sex, Literature, and Real Life (1987).
The title of this groundbreaking essay collection
alludes to Hughes’s essay on African-American
artists and race pride, “The Negro Artist and the
Racial Mountain” (1926). (Hughes was a men-
tor to Hernton, who, when young and hungry in
New York, regularly appeared at Hughes’s door
on Sundays at suppertime, where he was assured
of being invited for dinner, perhaps his one solid
meal of the week.) The Sexual Mountain is one of
the earliest examinations of the accomplishments
and obstacles of African-American female writers.
It controversially cites negative images of African-
American women by male novelists, notably RICH-
ARD WRIGHT and RALPH ELLISON, in contrast with
more positive images by JAMES BALDWIN. Hernton
received acclaim from African-American women
for courage in articulating his pro-female stance.
The book contains an influential opening chapter246 Hernton, Calvin Coolidge