ness that his whiteness is prompting his compan-
ions to stare at him. The piece closes with a
terse, but apparently enlightening observation. “I
am white,” concludes Kraus.
Walrond explores racial awareness and objec-
tification in “The Stone Rebounds.” The piece,
like “ONBEING ADOMESTIC,” which appeared in
Opportunityin May 1923, uses the power of a first-
person narrative to create a story of persuasive so-
cial realism.
Bibliography
Parascandola, Louis, ed. Winds Can Wake Up the Dead:
An Eric Walrond Reader.Detroit: Wayne State Uni-
versity Press, 1998.
Stribling, Thomas Sigismund(1881–1965)
An editor, teacher, and PULITZERPRIZE–winning
novelist known for his popular novels about the
South. According to Bruce Kellner, Stribling was
the first white author since Harriet Beecher Stowe
to publish a novel featuring an African-American
protagonist.
He was born in March 1881 in Clifton, Ten-
nessee, to Amelia Waits and Christopher Colum-
bus Stribling. After completing high school,
Stribling enrolled at Southern Normal College in
Huntingdon, Tennessee, for two years before
going on to pursue a teacher-training course at
the Florence Normal College in Alabama. He
graduated with a B.A. in 1903 and then started
studying law. He earned an LL.B. from the Uni-
versity of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1905. He
published The Cruise of the Dry Dock,his first
novel, in 1917. It was his second work,
BIRTHRIGHT(1922), however, that secured him
national recognition. The novel revolves around
a mixed-race HARVARD UNIVERSITY graduate
named Peter Siner who is forced to confront the
pernicious JIM CROW segregation laws of the
South when he returns home.
Stribling published several works during the
Harlem Renaissance. They included Fombombo
(1923), Teeftallow(1926), Red Sand(1924), and his
Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Store(1933).
Bibliography
Eckley, Wilton. T. S. Stribling.Boston: Twayne Publish-
ers, 1975.
Piacentino, Edward J. T. S. Stribling: Pioneer Realist in
Modern Southern Literature.Lanham, Md.: Univer-
sity Press of America, 1988.Striver’s Row
An upscale residential HARLEMneighborhood lo-
cated between 138th and 139th Streets and Sev-
enth and Eighth Avenues. Striver’s Row was
known for its elegant European-style town
houses, which were designed by the architect
Stanford White. The area was home to such
notable figures as Eubie Blake, AARON DOU-
GLAS, W. C. HANDY, and Ethel Waters. Succ-
essful professionals such as Dr. Ernest Alexander,
a dermatologist, and his wife, Lillian, often
hosted sophisticated gatherings that celebrated
Harlem Renaissance artists and facilitated con-
tinued conversation between them and inter-
ested parties.
The neighborhood was featured in “On
Striver’s Row,” a 1940 satire by Abram Barrington
Hill, future cofounder of the American Negro
Theatre, and staged by the Rose McClendon Play-
ers. The play was revived in 2003 by the Black
Theatre Troupe at Phoenix College.Bibliography
Bailey, S. Peter, A. Peter Bailey, Edith J. Slade, and David
N. Dinkins. Harlem Today: A Cultural and Visitors
Guide.New York: Gumbs & Thomas Publishers,
1986.
Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of
African-American Culture, 1920–1930.New York:
Pantheon Books, 1995.Strong, Mary
One of several pseudonyms that the poet, play-
wright, and songwriter GEORGIADOUGLASJOHN-
SONused during her career. Johnson used the
name “Mary Strong” when she developed a letter-
writing club in which she would provide members
with a “generous list” of people with whom they
shared interests. According to biographer Gloria
Hull, Johnson began using the pseudonym in 1930
when she opened a mailbox for the club and con-
tinued to use it through 1965, the year before she
passed away.Strong, Mary 499