Clarke, John Louis. “Mystery Novel Writer Is Inter-
viewed Over the Radio.” Pittsburgh Courier,21 Jan-
uary 1933.
Deutsch, Leonard. “‘The Streets of Harlem;’ The Short
Stories of Rudolph Fisher.” Phylon40, no. 2 (1979):
159–171.
Gosselin, Adrienne. “The World Would Do Better to
Ask Why Is Frimbo Sherlock Holmes?: Investigat-
ing Liminality in Rudolph Fisher’s The Conjure-
Man Dies.” African American Review 32, no. 4
(winter 1998): 607–619.
Kaplan, Carla. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters.New
York: Doubleday, 2002.
McCluskey, John, ed. The City of Refuge: The Collected
Stories of Rudolph Fisher.Columbia: University of
Missouri Press, 1987.
McGruder, Kevin. “Jane Ryder Fisher.” Black Scholar23,
no. 2 (1993): 20–25.
Rudolph Fisher Newsletter: Online News and Resources
for Rudolph Fisher & the Harlem Renaissance.
Available online. URL: http://www.fishernews.org.
Accessed June 2005.
Tignor, Eleanor. “Rudolph Fisher.” In Dictionary of Literary
Biography:New York: Gale Group, 1987, 86–96.
Fisk University
The oldest university in Nashville, Tennessee, Fisk
was founded in 1866 with an early mission to edu-
cate former slaves. In 1952 it became the first his-
torically black institution to have a chapter of PHI
BETAKAPPAestablished on its campus. The Ju-
bilee Singers, founded in 1871 to raise funds for
the school and to preserve African-American
songs, brought national and international atten-
tion to the school.
Fisk played a central role in the lives of
Harlem Renaissance writers and scholars. NELLA
LARSENattended the school for one year in 1907;
her ex-husband, Elmer Imes, studied physics and
graduated from Fisk in 1903. Adelaide Allen
Brown, the mother of the writer, educator, and fu-
ture Fisk professor STERLINGBROWN, was one of
the school’s graduates. Sociologist George Edmund
Haynes earned his B.A. there in 1903, and the
renowned singer Roland Hayes enrolled and stud-
ied voice at Fisk with Jennie Robinson.
Prominent writers and editors shaped the hu-
manities, arts, and social science programs at Fisk in
the 1920s and 1930s in particular. W. E. B. DUBOIS,
the cofounder of the NATIONALASSOCIATION FOR
THEADVANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE,CRISIS
editor, and the first African-American Ph.D. at
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, graduated from Fisk in- JAMESWELDONJOHNSON, a former secretary
of the NAACP, taught creative writing there until
his death in a car accident in 1938. AARONDOU-
GLAS, the pioneering artist of the Harlem Renais-
sance, founded the Fisk Art Department and was
chair until 1966. ALAINLOCKE, respected scholar
and editor of THENEWNEGROanthology, was a
visiting professor. CHARLESS. JOHNSON, founder of
OPPORTUNITYand officer in the NATIONALURBAN
LEAGUE, joined the Sociology Department at Fisk in - In 1946 he became the first African-Ameri-
can president of the institution. E. FRANKLINFRA-
ZIER, the accomplished sociologist and author of The
Negro in the United States,was a member of the Fisk
faculty during Johnson’s tenure as chair.
In 1934 ZORANEALEHURSTONbegan con-
versations with Fisk President Thomas Jones, who
encouraged her to apply for a faculty appointment.
Hurston, who had just visited the campus to see
her friends Charles Johnson, James Weldon John-
son, and Lorenzo Dow Turner, was enthusiastic
about the prospect. The position in the drama de-
partment did not materialize, however. Hurston bi-
ographer Valerie Boyd suggests that the school
became wary of Hurston’s reputation for being as-
sertive and outspoken.
In 1943, soon after the close of the Harlem
Renaissance, writer ARNABONTEMPSbecame the
head librarian and under his leadership began an
impressive African-American literary collection
that included papers by COUNTEE CULLEN,
CHARLES S. JOHNSON,JEANTOOMER, and the
musical collection of CARLVANVECHTEN.
Bibliography
Jones, Thomas. Progress at Fisk University: A Summary of
Recent Years.Nashville: Fisk University, 1930.
Richardson, Joe. A History of Fisk University, 1865–1946.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1980.Fleming, Sarah Lee Brown(1875–1963)
The first black woman elected “Mother of the
Year” in Connecticut, Fleming was also the firstFleming, Sarah Lee Brown 167