Lowry, Beverly. Her Dream of Dreams: The Rise and Tri-
umph of Madam C. J. Walker.New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 2003.
Villard, Oswald Garrison (1872–1949)
A journalist, activist, and grandson of William
Lloyd Garrison, the pioneering abolitionist and
Liberatoreditor. Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, he
was the son of German-born businessman Henry
Villard and his wife, Helen Frances Garrison Vil-
lard. The family returned to the United States in
1876, after a lengthy stay abroad that was intended
to restore Henry Villard’s health. Oswald, the third
of four children, attended HARVARDUNIVERSITY
and graduated in 1893. Several years after the
boating enthusiast established Yachting Magazine,
Villard became editor of THENATION,a progres-
sive weekly magazine that reported on civil and so-
cial injustices and the efforts to achieve various
equalities in the United States. Villard held the
post from 1918 until 1932.
Villard followed in the footsteps of his famous
grandfather and committed himself to working for
racial equality. With W. E. B. DUBOISand others,
he was a cofounder of the NATIONALASSOCIA-
TION FOR THEADVANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEO-
PLE. While serving as chairman of the organization,
he met with President Woodrow Wilson but was
dismayed by Wilson’s lack of interest in matters
pertaining to racial injustice.
Villard suffered a stroke and died in New York
City in 1949. He was buried in Tarrytown, New
York, at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Bibliography
Humes, Dollena. Oswald Garrison Villard, Liberal of the
1920s.Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press,
1960.
Villard, Oswald Garrison. Fighting Years: Memoirs of a
Liberal Editor. New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company, 1939.
“Virginia Idyll”John Aubrey(1931)
A mournful short story by JOHNAUBREY, set in the
home of an impoverished southern family with a
sick child. Published in the April 1931 issue of OP-
PORTUNITY,the terse narrative chronicles the ef-
forts of a nameless mother who is determined to
secure medicine for her child. Her husband, how-
ever, does not share her sense of urgency and re-
sists his wife’s request that he seek out medicine
for the dying child. She makes desperate efforts,
sending her husband out with the last of the wheat
she has set aside for bread in order to buy medicine
at the store. He returns, but only to tell her that
the owner took the wheat to cover the tobacco bill
that he had run up at the store. In an act of ex-
treme need, the wife turns a rifle on her husband,
who is determined to go to bed. She urges him to
take their only calf to a white landowner, get
money, and buy medicine. Hours later, the man re-
turns, drunk from the alcohol purchased from the
small sum made from the sale of the calf. The story
ends as the husband delivers a slurred speech in
the presence of his wife who, despite her best ef-
forts, has been unable to prevent the death of her
infant child.
Aubrey’s story is an uncompromising portrait
of domesticity gone awry and the muted but pierc-
ing ways in which the larger society contributes to
the demise of its less powerful citizens.VisionSarah Collins Fernandis(1925)
The second of two volumes of poetry by SARAH
COLLINSFERNANDIS. Unfortunately, Vision,pub-
lished by a small BOSTONcompany, has escaped
critical attention and seems to have disappeared
from circulation altogether.“Voodoo’s Revenge, The”Eric Walrond
(1925)
A prize-winning short story by ERICWALROND
about a misanthropic activist in a West Indian is-
land community. Published in July 1925, the two-
part story introduces Nestor Villaine, a stowaway
from Anguilla who has sequestered himself in the
forests of another French Caribbean island to
which he originally came to work. Eventually
Nestor becomes the editor of a political paper that
supports the Liberal Party. Unfortunately, a brawl
with a political critic lands them both in court, and
without any regard for Nestor’s political fidelity,
the judge sentences both men to 60 days in jail.
The bewildered Nestor, unable to comprehend“Voodoo’s Revenge, The” 545