Harlem Renaissance. She joined the International
Worker’s Order, an organization dedicated to pro-
tecting workers’ rights. In 1937, at Thompson’s
suggestion, Hughes established the HARLEMSUIT-
CASETHEATREin the New York City space that
the IWO branch was leasing at the time.
Thompson was one of the signatories of the
1951 “We Charge Genocide” petition that chal-
lenged the United Nations to address American vi-
olence against African Americans. She also
worked closely with PAULROBESON, who attended
her wedding to Patterson, when he was targeted
for his political views. She helped to organize
Robeson’s legendary Peekskill, New York, concerts
and his appearances before African-American au-
diences during the years when he was blacklisted.
In 1970 Thompson was again at the forefront of
public agitation for civil rights and social justice.
She was chair of the New York committee working
to achieve the freedom of Angela Davis.
Thompson died in New York City on August
27, 1999 at the age of 97. Upon her death,
Thompson was recognized as a champion of politi-
cal, civil, and social rights. The People’s Weeklyre-
minded its readers that colleagues such as Frank
Chapman of the National Alliance Against Racist
and Political Repression had regarded her as one
who had “seen the trials and tribulations of our
century not as an observer but as a participant.”
The New York Timeshailed her as “an advocate of
civil rights and leftist causes, a participant in the
Harlem Renaissance and a longtime associate of
one of its leading figures, the poet Langston
Hughes” (NYT,2 September 1999).
Bibliography
“Louise Patterson Dies at 97.” People’s Weekly World(7
September 1999). Available online. URL: http://
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/140.html. Ac-
cessed June 1, 2005.
Berry, Faith, ed. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond
Harlem.Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Com-
pany, 1983.
Boyd, Valerie. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora
Neale Hurston.New York: Scribner, 2003.
Boynton, Robert. “The Lives They Lived: Louise Patter-
son, b. 1901; The Red and the Black.” New York
Times,2 January 2000, 22.
Goldstein, Richard. “Louise Patterson, 97, Is Dead; Fig-
ure in Harlem Renaissance.” New York Times, 2
September 1999, C20.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: I, Too,
Sing America.Vol. 1, 1902–1941.New York: Oxford
University Press, 1986.
———. The Life of Langston Hughes: I Dream a World.
Vol. 2, 1941–1967.New York: Oxford University
Press, 1988.
Woo, Elaine. “Louise Patterson, Harlem Social Activist.”
Chicago Sun-Times,20 September 1999, 54.“Three Dogs and a Rabbit”Anita Scott
Coleman(1926)
This short story by ANITA SCOTT COLEMAN
placed third in the 1925 CRISISliterary contest.
The narrative evolves as an absorbing story about
true womanhood and empathy. The loquacious
narrator, Timothy Phipps, is a self-conscious story-
teller who recognizes characters, setting, and mood
as the vital elements of any story. He “unreel[s] his
yarn” during the course of a meal, his words satisfy-
ing himself and his audience almost as much as the
“copious helping[s]” that he piles upon his own
plate.
Phipps relates the story of the widow Ritton, a
white woman whose “natural curliness” of hair sug-
gests to the perceptive observer that she may in
fact have African ancestry. The widow has been
charged with harboring a fugitive. Three stout
white gentlemen have brought the case against
her. In her own defense, the widow takes the stand
and begins to testify. She quickly notes that doing
so will force her to reveal a lifelong secret. In the
course of her narration, she reveals that she was an
enslaved child who, when traveling with her mas-
ter’s family, was able to save a rabbit from three
hunting dogs. Despite the family’s desperate
hunger, the young girl refused to hand over the
rabbit that she had ensconced in her skirt pocket.
She withstood the violent beating that she got
from her master for not noting the rabbit’s path
and refused to surrender the defenseless animal.
Her courage stirred up a newfound respect in
Howard Ritton, the master’s son, and he later
freed and married the brave slave girl. Mrs. Rit-
ton’s testimony finishes as she justifies her decision
to offer sanctuary to the man who entered her“Three Dogs and a Rabbit” 517