Morand’s work illustrated the deep fascination
with African-American culture and the problem-
atic tendency toward primitive, stereotypical repre-
sentations in works about people of color.
Bibliography
Guitard-Auviste, Ginette. Paul Morand.Paris: Éditions
Universitaires, 1956.
Lemaître, Georges. Four French Novelists: Marcel Proust,
André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Paul Morand.London:
Oxford University Press, 1938.
Morand, Paul. Black Magic,translated by Hamish Miles.
New York: Viking Press, 1929.
Ma Johnson’s Harlem Rooming House
Mercedes Gilbert(1938)
A play by the writer and versatile film and stage
actress MERCEDES GILBERT. The work was pro-
duced at the YOUNGMEN’SCHRISTIANASSOCIA-
TIONin HARLEM, New York.
It was the one of three dramas Gilbert wrote
and the second published script by the actress-
writer. Its production in NEW YORKCITYcoin-
cided with the publication of AUNT SARA’S
WOODENGOD,Gilbert’s first and only novel.
“Makin’ of Mamma Harris, The”
Ted Poston(1940)
A short story by the accomplished journalist TED
POSTON. Published in the April 6, 1940, issue of
THENEWREPUBLIC,it was one of several short
stories that Poston contributed to mainstream
American journals.
The story chronicles the efforts of Mamma
Harris, a woman determined to unionize her fellow
workers in a tobacco company.
Bibliography
Hauke, Kathleen. Ted Poston: Pioneer American Journalist.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.
———, ed. The Dark Side of Hopkinsville: Stories by Ted
Poston.Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.
“Makin’s, The”Marita Bonner(1939)
Published in the January 1939 issue of OPPORTU-
NITY,this short story by MARITABONNERillus-
trated the awful toll that urban life could take on
children.
The protagonist, a young boy named David,
cannot persuade his overworked, underpaid, and
frustrated parents to give him 10 cents. David
wants the money in order to purchase seeds to
plant in the nonexistent garden of his CHICAGO
home. His grandmother, a religious woman, is also
unable to provide him with the funds. By the
story’s end, David has purchased cigarettes for his
father, played his mother’s daily lottery number,
and learned to curse. His mother’s unlikely praise
for her son’s emerging aggression is a sobering sug-
gestion about the evils and destructive effects of
urban life.Bibliography
Flynn, Joyce, and Joyce Occomy Stricklin. Frye Street &
Environs: The Collected Works of Marita Bonner.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1987.Mamba’s Daughters: A Novel of
CharlestonDuBose Heyward(1929)
A novel by DUBOSE HEYWARD, a Charleston,
South Carolina, native and the author of PORGY,
the work that inspired the Gershwin production of
PORGY ANDBESS.
Set in Charleston, the novel draws from Hey-
ward’s own life story and effort to embrace his her-
itage as a member of the white southern aristocracy.
It chronicles the life of Mamba, a lower-class
woman of color who takes a job as a servant in a
white household. Aided by Maum Netta and the
white children of the Wentworth family, Mamba is
able to reinvent herself as a polished upper-class
woman who is suitable to serve the white aristoc-
racy. Mamba’s savvy enables her to triumph over
the paternalistic whites with whom she comes into
contact. She is unable to prevent her daughter
Hagar from getting into trouble and must enlist the
help of the Atkinsons, a white family who grapple
with the changing realities of the post–Civil War
South. Her goal is to secure a bright future for
Lissa, her granddaughter and a talented singer.
Lissa ultimately succeeds as a result of her grand-
mother’s determined efforts to build up savings.
Lissa’s triumph is secured when she travels to NEW
YORKCITYand makes her successful debut as anMamba’s Daughters: A Novel of Charleston 329