Four years after the publication of One Way to
Heaven,Cullen prepared a dramatic version of the
novel. His play of 10 scenes, described as “a mix-
ture of satire and comedy,” was to be the first play
presented in a series of “Negro plays” organized at
the Hedgerow Theatre at Rose Valley in Philadel-
phia (NYT, 29 September 1936, 35). The cast of
14 featured 12 actors of color, a detail to which the
New York Times,in its brief mention of the upcom-
ing play, called the attention of its readers.
Bibliography
Cullen, Countee. One Way to Heaven.New York: Harper
& Brothers, 1932.
Ferguson, Blanche. Countee Cullen and the Negro Renais-
sance.New York: Dodd, Mead, 1966.
On the Fields of France Joseph Seamon
Cotter, Jr.(1920)
A posthumously published one-act play written by
JOSEPHSEAMONCOTTER,JR. Published in June
1920 in THECRISIS,the play appeared 16 months
after Cotter’s death from tuberculosis in February
1919.
Set on a battlefield in northern FRANCEdur-
ing the FIRSTWORLDWAR, the play features two
speakers, a “White American Officer” and a “Col-
ored American Officer.” Both men, according to
the stage directions, are “mortally wounded,” and
they spend their last moments sharing water, remi-
niscing about their homes in America, lamenting
the divisive nature of caste and race prejudice.
Cotter insisted on an elusive equality, signaled by
the white officer’s opening overtures to the other
dying soldier. The white American addresses the
African-American as “my good fellow” and intro-
duces himself as “a fellow officer, my friend.” The
two take each others hands as they feel death ap-
proaching and they share a vision of heavenly fig-
ures that herald their arrival in heaven. The white
officer sees George Washington, “a white haired
figure clad in the Old Continentals, standing there
within the gates of heaven... beckoning for me.”
While the officer of color also sees the first presi-
dent and former slave owner, he then sees Crispus
Attucks next to Washington, the runaway slave
who was the first to die in the Boston Massacre.
Attucks appears with “his swarthy chest bare and
torn” and beckons to the African-American vet-
eran just moments before the figure of William
Carney, the heroic Civil War–era soldier who
served with the Massachusetts 54th Regiment and
who, in the deadly assault on Fort Wagner, made
sure that the flag never touched the ground. Car-
ney, accompanied by Shaw and “his black—
heroes” has come for their symbolic descendant.
The play closes as the soldiers muse about the
fact that they, like their angelic soldiers, “stand
hand in hand over there and we died hand in hand
over here on the fields of France.” In a climactic
moment of national pride and racial unity, the two
shout, “America!” in unison and then “fall back
hand in hand as their life blood ebbs away.”
The play reflected Cotter’s deep interest in
the First World War and in the contributions and
experiences of the soldiers who fought in the segre-
gated ranks. This play, like his “Sonnet to Negro
Soldiers,” recognized the sacrifices that men of
color made for their country, despite the systematic
efforts to disenfranchise them and the race as a
whole.Bibliography
Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Jr. The Band of Gideon, and
Other Lyrics.1918; reprint, College Park, Md.: Mc-
Grath Publishing Company, 1969.
Payne, James Robert, ed. Complete Poems: Joseph Seamon
Cotter, Jr.Athens: University of Georgia Press,
1990.Oppenheim, James(1882–1932)
An editor and outspoken radical who immersed
himself in the literary and activist worlds of NEW
YORKCITYduring the Harlem Renaissance, James
Oppenheim was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to
Joseph Oppenheim, a former Minnesota legislator,
and Matilda Schloss Oppenheim. The family,
which relocated to New York City shortly after Op-
penheim’s birth, suffered the death of Joseph Op-
penheim in 1890. In 1901, James began studies at
COLUMBIAUNIVERSITY. He was enrolled through
1903 and left before the start of his senior year. He
chose instead to pursue work as a teacher and as a
social worker with the Lower East Side communi-
ties of the city. Shortly after his 1905 marriage to
Lucy Seckel, with whom he would have two sons,Oppenheim, James 405