Weldon Johnson Professor of Literature and Cre-
ative Writing at Hampton Institute. In 1949 the
two-time GUGGENHEIMFELLOWSHIP winner re-
turned to Brown and became the first professor of
color to teach at an Ivy League institution. In
1970 he joined the faculty at Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York. He was the first African-Ameri-
can professor in the university’s College of Arts
and Sciences.
Redding published “Delaware Coon,” his first
short story, in the Brown University Quarterly in
December 1928. His first book appeared just as the
Harlem Renaissance was coming to a close. TO
MAKEAPOETBLACK(1939) was a work of literary
criticism that examined the evolution of the
African-American literary tradition. In the years
that followed, Redding secured a reputation for ex-
cellent scholarship. Later works included No Day
of Triumph(1942), a study of African-American life
in the South, his only novel, Stranger and Alone
(1950), and They Came in Chains: Americans from
Africa(1950), a comprehensive history of people of
African descent in America. He published 10
books, book reviews for the Baltimore Afro-Ameri-
can,and numerous articles that appeared in presti-
gious periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthlyand
Phylon.
Redding received an impressive number of aca-
demic and professional honors during his lengthy
career. He was a Rockefeller and Ford Foundation
fellow, the winner of two Guggenheim fellowships,
and the winner of the 1950 NATIONALURBAN
LEAGUE Citation for Outstanding Achievement.
Several colleges and universities bestowed honorary
degrees upon him, including Brown University,
Dickinson College, Wittenberg University, Hobart
College, and Virginia State College.
Redding died in Ithaca, New York, in March
1988.
Bibliography
Berry, Faith, ed. A Scholar’s Conscience: Selected Writings
of J. Saunders Redding, 1942–1977.Lexington: Uni-
versity Press of Kentucky, 1992.
Fraser, C. Gerald. “J. Saunders Redding, 81, Is Dead; Pi-
oneer Black Ivy League Teacher.” New York Times.
5 March 1988: 33.
Redding, J. Saunders. To Make a Poet Black.Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
Red Scare
The phrase that describes the period in which the
U.S. government targeted communists in America,
challenged labor unions, and intimidated liberal
constituencies. Woodrow Wilson appointed A.
Mitchell Palmer to the post of attorney general in
1919, and it was he who established the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Palmer also ap-
pointed J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director. Hoover
used the organization to gather information about
Americans whose actions and politics were
deemed to be radical. Among the many targeted
were Jane Addams and Charles Beard.
During the Harlem Renaissance period, there
were deportations to Russia, unsanctioned home
invasions, and arrests made without warrants or
charges filed. In 1920, some 6,000 individuals were
arrested and jailed and denied access to counsel.
The Red Scare was prompted in part by fears
of communism and the possibility that communists
emboldened by the revolution in Russia were plot-
ting to overthrow the U.S. government. It also was
shaped by the massive labor movement that in
1919 saw more than 3,000 strikes nationwide.
In 1950 Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy
revived the Red Scare when he began a ruthless
campaign against communism and communists
and their supporters in America.Bibliography
Kornweibel, Theodore. Seeing Red: Federal Campaigns
Against Black Militancy, 1919–1925.Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1998.
Landis, Mark. Joseph McCarthy: The Politics of Chaos.
Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press,
1987.
Schmidt, Regin. Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anti-
Communism in the United States, 1919–1943.
Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, Univer-
sity of Copenhagen, 2000.
Woods, Jeff. Black Struggle, Red Scare: Segregation and
Anti-Communism in the South, 1948–1968.Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University, 2004.Red Summer of 1919
The phrase that refers to the violent summer of
1919 in which some 26 race riots occurred in
major cities throughout the United States. The vi-444 Red Scare