Wright, Shirley Haynes. A Study of the Fiction of Wallace
Thurman.Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms
International, 1983.
“Corner, The”Eunice Hunton Carter(1925)
“The Corner” was one of several prose narratives
that EUNICEHUNTONCARTER, a successful lawyer
and noted feminist, published in OPPORTUNITYdur-
ing the Harlem Renaissance. In it, she considers the
ways in which the true riches and splendor of
HARLEMescape those like her friend who lives en-
sconced in a “doll’s house of white enamel and soft
blues.” She also observes the ways in which “alien
pleasure seekers” who drive in for entertainment fail
to appreciate the “life” of the black city. “They had
missed a chance of seeing life when they didn’t stop
and watch the boy on the corner who for clapping
companions in front of the drug store was doing a
dance that was a bit of Buck and Wing, a bit of
‘Charleston’ and many other things,” she notes. She
finally abandons her post in her friend’s home, lured
down to the street by the “heated argument” about
philosophy in which a group of college students are
completely engaged. The piece ends with a final
lament about the cultural invasion of Harlem. The
speaker sees another lot of “pleasure seekers” whom
she is convinced “heard nothing but their own
maudlin laughter, they saw nothing but their own
vacuous faces. They passed on to the cabarets,” she
writes, “illegitimate offspring of their own resorts,
looking for life, Harlem life, and blindly, feverishly
rushing by it.”
Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Jr.(1895–1919)
A poet and playwright whose great promise as a
writer was cut short when, at the age of 24, he
committed suicide rather than die of tuberculosis.
The son of JOSEPH COTTER,SR., an established
poet and friend of Paul Laurence Dunbar, he wrote
most of his poems while he battled the sickness he
had contracted while studying at FISKUNIVERSITY.
Before his death, he published a collection of
poems entitled The Band of Gideon(1918) and a
one-act play On the Fields of Francein THECRISIS.
Bibliography
Payne, James, ed. Complete Poems: Joseph Seamon Cotter,
Jr.Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990.
Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Sr.(1861–1946)
An industrious teacher and poet who overcame
great odds to become a respected school adminis-
trator and published poet. A mixed-race child
whose father was a wealthy, white Louisville citizen,
Cotter inherited his love of literature from his
mother. His friendship with Paul Laurence Dunbar
encouraged him to write and to incorporate dialect
into his works. The father of JOSEPHSEAMONCOT-
TER,JR., outlived his son, an aspiring poet, who
died tragically in 1919. During the Harlem Renais-
sance, the 77-year old Cotter Sr., an author of plays,
poems, and autobiographical musings, published a
volume of his collected poems. One year later, he
published another volume entitled Sequel to the ‘Pied
Piper of Hamelin’ and Other Poems(1939).Bibliography
Shockley, Ann Allen. “Joseph S. Cotter, Sr.: Biographical
Sketch of a Black Louisville Bard.” College Language
Association Journal18 (1975): 327–340.Cotton Club
One of the best-known clubs of the Harlem Re-
naissance, the Cotton Club was an exclusive estab-
lishment that catered almost exclusively to whites.
As historian Steven Watson notes, the club pro-
vided whites with a highly regulated opportunity to
experience African-American culture. It was only
out of respect for DUKEELLINGTON, one of its
most highly respected and long-standing perform-
ers, that the club relaxed its segregationist policy.
Located on Lenox Avenue, the Cotton Club pre-
sented stunning shows featuring African-American
performers such as Ethel Waters, CABCALLOWAY,
and other well-known artists of the day.Bibliography
Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of
African-American Culture, 1920–1930.New York:
Pantheon Books, 1995.“Coulev’ Endormi”John Matheus(1929)
A tale of an exotic dancer whose performances
prompt comparisons to a coulev endormi, or sleeping
serpent. Written by JOHNMATHEUSand published
in the December 1929 issue of OPPORTUNITY,the“Coulev’ Endormi” 99