but finds out that he has been victimized by Henry
Patmore, a villainous saloon keeper who has a
vendetta against Merritt because the lawyer suc-
cessfully tried a case against him and forced Pat-
more to pay restitution to him in the amount of
$10,000. Eventually, however, Shine, who has first-
hand knowledge of Patmore’s boasts about the fire
and has had contact with Merritt because he
helped to move his household belongings, comes
to the aid of the besieged lawyer. Shine also is mo-
tivated to act on Merritt’s behalf because he learns
that it is Patmore, rather than the attorney, who
attempted to rape Linda. Fisher’s novel ends with
a hopeful and strategic message about African-
American solidarity and honorable masculinity.
Merritt, on the verge of buying out the moving
company for which Shine works, offers his de-
fender a major promotion from laborer to manager
of the company.
The novel provides one of the most compre-
hensive portraits of African-American social life in
Harlem during the 1920s. Scholar David Levering
Lewis suggests that The Walls of Jerichosidesteps the
“decadence” of Carl Van Vechten’s Nigger Heaven
and the “graceless realism” of Claude McKay’s
Home to Harlem(Lewis, 229). Contemporary re-
views, however, veered toward heavy-handed de-
scriptions of the worlds and people whom Fisher
represented in the novel. Featured as the leading
item in an August 1928 NEWYORKTIMESbook re-
view, The Walls of Jerichoprompted one reviewer to
dwell at length on images of Harlem as a “negro
colony,” as an “urban jungle of... standardized
tenements,” and ultimately as “Darkest Harlem.”
The unidentified reviewer went on to note the
value of Fisher’s glossary, a tool that in combination
with the narrative “provides a considerably inform-
ing picture of negro life as it has developed in
[Harlem]... jungle which hides under the deadly
monotony of its outside, lurking places among us
for colonies, larger or smaller, of most of the races
under the sun” (NYT,5 August 1928, 54).
Fisher’s novel also functions as an astute and
daring contemporary social and political critique. It
included thinly veiled portraits of well-known fig-
ures associated with the Harlem Renaissance such
as CHARLOTTEOSGOODMASON, the demanding
philanthropist and patron of ZORA NEALE
HURSTON,LANGSTON HUGHES,ALAIN LOCKE,
and others. David Levering Lewis suggests that the
novel “expose[s] the cleavages within the Afro-
American world,” a perspective that differs sharply
from one contemporary 1928 review that acknowl-
edges that “Dr. Fisher’s view of the relations of the
races” is “touched with irony which reveals at once
a strong prejudice and a certain fairness” but goes
on to suggest that he “makes fun of the ‘uplifters’ of
his people and does not conceal his contempt for
the whites who profess to be lovers of the race for
the pose’s sake or for profit” (NYT,5 August 1928,
54). The novel’s value lies in its richly textured por-
trait of Harlem, its considerations of African-Amer-
ican domesticity and solidarity, and its realistic
exploration of the racial tensions that can both en-
danger and empower people of color.Bibliography
Fisher, Rudolph. The Walls of Jericho.1928; reprint, Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Gable, Craig, ed. Rudolf Fisher Newsletter.Available on-
line. URL: http://www.fishernews.org. Accessed
June, 1, 2005.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue.New
York: Knopf, 1981.
“The Walls of Jerichoand Other Works of Fiction.” New
York Times,5 August 1928, 54.Walrond, Eric Derwent(1898–1966)
A journalist, writer, and one of several prominent
West Indian writers who made significant contri-
butions to the Harlem Renaissance. Born in
Georgetown, British Guyana, Walrond moved in
1906 with his mother, Ruth, to her home near
Black Rock in Barbados after his parents’ marriage
foundered. In 1910 he and his mother made an
earnest effort to relocate Walrond’s father. In the
course of their search, the two traveled to the
Panama Canal Zone because the majority of labor-
ers recruited to work on the massive construction
project were from Guyana and other West Indian
countries such as Jamaica. Mother and son eventu-
ally settled in Colón, Panama, where Walrond was
educated in the public school system and by tutors.
He became a civil servant in the health depart-
ment of the Canal commission. In 1916 he began
his career in journalism with the Panama Star-
Heraldand later that year, intrigued by stories he
had heard of the United States, immigrated to
NEWYORKCITY.Walrond, Eric Derwent 549