spite of an occasional internal formlessness deriving
from apostrophes to jazz rhythms, Banjohas definite
form.” “The book follows two curves,” wrote the
unidentified New York Timesreviewer as he went
on to note that the novel tracks “the carefree Banjo
who occupies the centre of the stage until the mid-
point of the story is reached, only to drift away into
a minor position, and that of Ray, who more and
more usurps the major position in the story” (NYT,
12 May 1929, BR5). McKay’s reviewers tended to
hope that the author would develop more compli-
cated issues for his characters and stage more in-
tense moral dilemmas in the novels. “[H]e doesn’t
give his people enough problems to test them,”
lamented one critic in 1928, but McKay scholar
James Giles insists that “there are more complexi-
ties in the characterization of Banjo than may at
first appear and more than most critics have recog-
nized” (Giles, 87). The novel is a kaleidoscopic pi-
caresque, one that privileges the perspectives of
young men of color. It provides unpretentious ac-
counts of life abroad and combines its vivid tales of
raucous life with subtle commentaries on the ways
in which colonialism continues to factor in the lives
of people of color.
Bibliography
Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner In the
Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,
1987.
Giles, James R. Claude McKay.Boston: Twayne Publish-
ers, 1976.
Barber, Jesse Max(1878–1949)
The outspoken journalist who single-handedly
managed the Voice of the Negro,an ATLANTA-based
African-American literary and social history journal
founded in 1904. During his tenure as editor, Bar-
ber published works by CHARLES CHESNUTT,
Pauline Hopkins, W. E. B. DUBOIS,GEORGIADOU-
GLAS JOHNSON,MARY CHURCH TERRELL, and
other progressive race writers and activists.
Barber was one of the early members of the NI-
AGARAMOVEMENTand the NAACP; he served as
the president and executive director of the
Philadelphia branch of the organization in the
1920s. His propensity for straightforward analysis
and his public critiques of BOOKERT. WASHING-
TONcomplicated his professional and personal life.
Washington labeled him as a troublemaker and ac-
tively lobbied against Barber whenever he could.
Barber eventually became a dentist in Philadelphia
and stated that this was the only profession in
which he could establish himself beyond Washing-
ton’s reach.Bibliography
Johnson, Abby Arthur, and Ronald Maberry Johnson.
Propaganda & Aesthetics: The Literary Politics of
African American Magazines in the Twentieth Cen-
tury.Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1979.Barnard College
Founded in 1889, this New York City women’s col-
lege was one of the original members of the Seven
Sisters consortium. In 1900 it officially became part
of the COLUMBIAUNIVERSITYsystem. The most
well-known Harlem Renaissance writer to enroll at
Barnard was ZORA NEALE HURSTON. Annie
Nathan Meyer, one of the college’s founders, helped
to facilitate Hurston’s enrollment at the school on
scholarship beginning in 1925. Hurston, the lone
African-American student at the college, produced
sophisticated work that caught the attention of
FRANZBOAS, the eminent anthropology scholar.
Hurston soon took graduate courses with Boas and
prepared for her pioneering fieldwork and research
under his supervision.Bibliography
A History of Barnard College, Published in Honor of the
Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the College.New York:
Barnard College, 1964.
Horowitz, Helen. Alma Mater: Design and Experience in
the Women’s Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century
Beginnings to the 1930s.New York: Knopf, 1984.
Kendall, Elaine. ‘Peculiar Institutions’: An Informal History
of the Seven Sisters Colleges.New York: Putnam,
1976.Barnes, Albert Coombs(1872–1951)
A successful physician, art collector and graduate
of the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Medical
School who grew up in poverty in Philadelphia.
His pharmaceutical invention of Argyrol made himBarnes, Albert Coombs 27