McKinney, Richard I. Mordecai, The Man and His Mes-
sage: The Story of Mordecai Wyatt Johnson.Washing-
ton, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1998.
Mordecai Johnson Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Research
Center, Howard University.
Johnson, S. Miller(1900–unknown)
A poet and short story writer whose works ap-
peared in OPPORTUNITYand in THEMESSENGER.
Born in Calhoun County, Arkansas, Johnson
graduated from Hampton Institute in Hampton,
Virginia.
Johnson published realistic, even racy poetry
that celebrated African-American femininity and
beauty. His “Variations on a Black Theme” was an
extended meditation on the glorious nakedness of a
woman named Nellie. The sweetheart of the
woman with “comely hips,” “swift black legs,” “dim-
pled knees,” and “bright red lips / Magnetic, honey-
dewed” transfixes her admirer. He is “wrapt in
celestial bliss, wild-eyed” by the sight of her “danc-
ing there naked on silver sand by / the Silver River
for her lover, the Sun.” Johnson’s tantalizing ac-
count of voyeurism and unself-conscious pride ap-
peared in the March 1927 issue of Opportunity.
Johnson’s interest in tense, passionate, and un-
fulfilled relationships extended to his fiction. “THE
GOLDENPENKNIFE,” a short story about two Euro-
pean immigrant families, revolved around danger-
ous and irrepressible female sexuality and frustrated
male desire.
Jolson, Al(1886–1950)
The famous singer who became synonymous with
blackface minstrelsy. Born Asa Yoelson in a Rus-
sian village that later became part of Lithuania, he
arrived in America with his family in 1890.
In 1925 Jolson responded to GARLANDAN-
DERSON, a San Francisco hotel bellhop who be-
came the first African-American playwright to see
his work performed on BROADWAY. Anderson sent
Jolson a copy of APPEARANCE,his play about a
young bellboy who is falsely accused of rape. Jolson
liked the story and financed Anderson’s travel to
the East Coast.
Jolson was a well-known performer who ap-
peared in some of the first talking films. During the
Harlem Renaissance, he appeared in The Jazz
Singer(1927) and numerous stage shows.Bibliography
Alexander, Michael. Jazz Age Jews. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 2001.
Goldman, Herbert G. Jolson: The Legend Comes to Life.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.Jonah’s Gourd VineZora Neale Hurston
(1934)
The first novel by ZORA NEALEHURSTON.In-
spired by her own family, it was a compelling
account of life in EATONVILLE, Florida, the
African-American town in which Hurston grew up.
The novel was published by Lippincott, which gave
the financially strapped Hurston, who endured
eviction as she completed the novel, a $200 ad-
vance on the work. It included an introduction by
FANNIEHURST, a celebrated writer and one of
Hurston’s supporters. Hurston completed this novel
in less than four months. Her penchant for writing
quickly emerged again in 1937 when she completed
her groundbreaking novel THEIR EYES WERE
WATCHINGGODin just seven weeks. The novel,
which appeared in May 1934, was well-received
and hailed by the NEWYORKTIMESas one of the
most vibrant and authentic novels about African-
American life to date.
The novel took its title and overall message
from the Book of Jonah. Hurston focused on Chap-
ter Four, verses 6–10. This section of the chapter
refers to a great gourd that provides shade to the
beleaguered prophet Jonah. Despite Jonah’s plea-
sure, God then sends a worm to destroy the gourd
and cause it to wither. Hurston used the biblical
verses as a powerful allegory for the life-threatening
actions of the protagonist John Buddy Pearson.
The novel follows the double life of John Pear-
son, an illegitimate Alabama laborer born to an en-
slaved woman named Amy, who works on the
plantation of Alf Pearson, a white man. John, who
loves women, is attracted to Lucy Potts, a school-
mate who marries him despite her family’s objec-
tions to his poverty. The couple leave Alabama
shortly after the birth of their third child and John’s
violent attack on Lucy’s brother. The Pearsons relo-
cate to Florida and begin life anew. John becomes a292 Johnson, S. Miller