Bibliography
Bontemps, Arna. “The Awakening: A Memoir” [1972].
In Remembering The Harlem Renaissance. Cary
Wintz, ed. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.,
- 235–260.
Davis, Mary Kemp. “From Death unto Life: The Rhetor-
ical Function of Funeral Rites in Arna Bontemps’
Black Thunder,” Journal of Ritual Studies1, no. 1
(winter 1987): 85–101.
Egerton, Douglas. Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave
Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802.Chapel Hill: Univer-
sity of North Carolina Press, 1993.
Levecq, Christine. “Philosophies of History in Arna
Bontemps’ Black Thunder (1936),” Obsidian III:
Literature in the African Diaspora1, no. 2 (fall-win-
ter 2000): 111–130.
Tompkins, Lucy. “In Dubious Battleand Other Recent
Works of Fiction,” New York Times2 (February
1936): BR7.
Weil, Dorothy. “Folklore Motifs in the Arna Bontemps’
Black Thunder,” Southern Folklore Quarterly 35
(1971): 1–14.
Black Velvet Willard Robertson(1927)
A play by Willard Robertson that ran at the Lib-
erty Theatre in the fall of 1927. At the center of
this drama was an obstreperous white Confederate
Civil War officer who tried actively to thwart
African-American advancement, in and beyond
his own life. Over the course of three acts, he
sanctions the murder of a pro-black labor leader in
the North, endorses the LYNCHING of a young
black man, and tries to prevent his grandson from
marrying a young woman of color.
“Blades of Steel” Rudolph Fisher(1927)
Published in the ATLANTICMONTHLY,this short
story by pioneering physician RUDOLPHFISHERfo-
cused on an intense and potentially deadly rivalry
between two men and the lifesaving interventions
of an unlikely heroine.
The story opens in a thriving HARLEMbarber-
shop, where Eight-Ball Eddy Boyd readies himself
for a haircut. Just as he prepares to sit down in the
barber’s chair, however, he is pulled back by Dirty
Cozzens, a man with whom he has had a long-
standing feud. The narrator makes an effort to de-
scribe the two men, both of whom bear nicknames
that were inspired by their skin color. Dirty Cozzens,
the villain of the piece, is “a peculiar genetic jest,” a
man from whom “[h]eredity had managed to re-
move his rightful share of pigment.” His gray hair
and eyes and light skin prompt others to regard him
as “Dirty Yaller,” and it is not long before he is sim-
ply known as “Dirty.” His rival, Eight-Ball, has a
name inspired by the eight-ball used in the game of
pool. “His skin,” notes the narrator, “was as dark as
it is possible for skin to be, smooth and clean as an
infant’s.” Eight-Ball is also a much more appealing
figure than Dirty, for he is “beautifully small, neither
heavy nor slight, of proud erect bearing, perfect
poise, and a silhouette-like clean-cutness.”
There are two major altercations between the
two men, and it is an alert hairdresser named Effie,
who manages to derail Dirty’s threats and to em-
power Eight-Ball on each occasion. At the Barber’s
Ball, Effie and Eight-Ball are once again confronted
by Dirty and completely dismayed by the covert at-
tacks that he continues to make on them with a
razor. When Effie refuses to dance with him, Dirty
slices the back of Eight-Ball’s jacket. He also slashes
two of the tires of the car that belongs to Eight-
Ball’s boss. In the final confrontation between the
two men, it is Effie who slips a safety-razor into the
hand of her sweetheart so that he can defend him-
self against Dirty. The slashes on Dirty’s face are
the first that he has ever received at the hands of
an opponent, and he is thoroughly cowed by the in-
juries. The story ends as Eight-Ball marvels at the
subtle but effective intervention of Effie, an atten-
tive woman whose femininity is in no way under-
mined by her street smarts and courage.
The story is one of several evocative portraits of
Harlem life that established Fisher as one of the pe-
riod’s most talented writers. “Blades of Steel” is es-
pecially powerful for its realistic images, innovative
plot twists, and absorbing accounts of everyday life.Bibliography
McCluskey, John Jr. The City of Refuge: The Collected Sto-
ries of Rudolph Fisher.Columbia: University of Mis-
souri Press, 1987.“Blind Alley”Alvira Hazzard(1929)
A short story about intraracial jealousy by
ALVIRAHAZZARD, published in April 1929 issue48 Black Velvet