Glacier Park in Montana and between 1934 and
1937 offered art classes there during the summer.
The historic March 1925 SURVEY GRAPHIC
issue that was devoted to Harlem and African-
American issues featured artwork by Reiss. In his
editorial comments, guest editor ALAIN LOCKE
noted that the images offered “a graphic interpre-
tation of Negro life, freshly conceived after its own
patterns” (Locke, 651). Locke also praised Reiss as
a “folk-lorist of the brush and palette, seeking al-
ways the folk character back of the individual, the
psychology behind the physiognomy” (Locke, 653).
Reiss also produced a series of drawings of Harlem
Renaissance personalities including Locke, COUN-
TEECULLEN, and W. E. B. DUBOIS.
Bibliography
Locke, Alain. “Harlem Types: Portraits by Winold Reiss,”
Survey Graphic(March 1925): 651–654.
Stewart, Jeffrey. To Color America: Portraits by Winold
Reiss.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1989.
———. Winold Reiss: An Illustrated Checklist of His Por-
traits.Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery,
1990.
Renaissance Ballroom
The ballroom located in the Renaissance Casino
located at 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue. The
African-American-owned business also included a
casino and film auditorium. In 1923 the Sares Re-
alty Company agreed to transform the ballroom
into a basketball arena for the Spartan Braves, an
African-American team. Renamed the Renais-
sance Big Five, the team became the first profes-
sional basketball team with an African-American
owner and players.
Bibliography
Thurman, Wallace. Negro Life in New York’s Harlem:
A Lively Picture of a Popular and Interesting Sec-
tion. Haldeman-Julius Quarterly,2, no. 1 (October–
November–December 1927).
“Replica” Eunice Hunton Carter(1924)
An intriguing vignette by EUNICE HUNTON
CARTERand one of the four stories that she pub-
lished in OPPORTUNITYduring the Harlem Renais-
sance. “Replica” appeared in the September 1924
issue under the name Eunice Roberta Hunton,
which she continued to use after her 1924 mar-
riage. The issue also included poems by COUNTEE
CULLENand articles on French colonial policy by
ALAINLOCKEand RENÉMARAN.
The vignette focuses on a summer gathering
in Georgia on a blisteringly hot day. Despite the
“hot and languid” breezes and the “angry red dust”
that conspires to “settle back heavily on all who
dared the road,” the members of the large uniden-
tified party gather to celebrate a holiday. The
scene is enlivened by Carter’s vivid descriptions.
In addition to enticing details about the “food of
the great Negro South,” she provides evocative
profiles of the range of people gathered under “the
cool shadow of the mammoth trees.” Included are
“romping children” and “slim brown girls whose
comely bodies stood silhouetted as streaks of light
pierced thin and clinging garments.” The events
suddenly take a turn, however, when a compelling
drumbeat begins to emanate from the nearby
grove. Within moments, a striking female elder
emerges. This unnamed woman, described as “a
weird figure,” is “burnt black with the suns of
many summers and worn thin with the burdens of
years.” Despite her unusual appearance and ad-
vanced age, however, the woman is able to capti-
vate the audience before her. Soon after she begins
to dance with “astounding agility and abandon,” a
young, barefooted girl joins her. The two women
dance un-self-consciously, and the gestures of the
younger woman transform the moment into a
scene of seduction. The narrator notes that “the
dusky mane of her hair tumbled down, her full red
lips drooped slightly apart, the swell of her ripe
young breasts rose and fell with drumbeat after
drumbeat, and the youths in the circle watched
spellbound.” The story ends as the women in the
crowd rush to dance, “throwing away restraint”
and prompting the mass dance to “increas[e] in
abandon and barbarity as the minutes slipped
away.” The story credits memories of a long-lost
African past for the enthusiastic response. The
women, it appears, are overcome by a collective
“memory of jungle nights, of stagnant heat, of
prowling beasts, of glowing fires, of the tom tom’s
pulsing beat, of naked bodies gleaming in the“Replica” 447