Fauset, Jessie. The Chinaberry Tree. A Novel of American
Life.1931; reprint, New York: G. K. Hall, 1995.
Johnson, Abby Arthur. “Literary Midwife: Jessie Redmon
Fauset and the Harlem Renaissance.” Phylon39,
no. 2 (1978): 143–153.
Sylvander, Cheryl. Jessie Redmon Fauset, Black American
Writer.Troy, N.Y.: Whitson Publishing Company,
1981.
Chip Woman’s Fortune, The
Willis Richardson(1923)
The play by WILLISRICHARDSONthat became the
first work by an African-American playwright to be
performed on BROADWAY.
There are five characters in this one-act play
about a family whose patriarch may lose his job if he
fails to make payments on a Victrola he has bought
on credit from a friend of his boss. The drama is set
in the cramped and sparse quarters of the family
home, where the “floor is without covering and the
walls are without pictures.” The Victrola functions
as an important decorative prop, as well as a luxuri-
ous item that fuels the domestic dreams of its family
members, especially Silas, the husband, and Emma,
his teenaged daughter. The family conspires to coax
their long-nonpaying boarder into giving them the
money that he owes them. The family finds out that
Aunt Nancy, the chip woman who collects bits of
coal and wood in order to raise funds, has been sav-
ing for the day when her incarcerated son will be
freed. Undaunted by her admirable and inspiring
self-sacrifice, they appeal to her for the money that
he owes them. Her son Jim appears, gives the family
$15 as a way of thanking them for caring for his
mother, and then divides his “inheritance” with the
family so that they can pay off the collections men.
The play is in keeping with later Richardson
plays like “THEBROKENBANJO” (1926). Like the
works of MARITA BONNER,ERIC WALROND,
DOROTHYWEST, and others, it is part of the siz-
able number of Harlem Renaissance commentaries
on black domestic life and the various costs associ-
ated with social stability and material culture.
Bibliography
Rauchfuss, Christine Gray. Willis Richardson: Forgotten
Pioneer of African American Drama. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.
“Cholo Romance, A”Eric Walrond(1924)
A short story by ERICWALRONDwritten in di-
alect. Its romance plot and thwarted would-be
hero conjure up scenes found in LANGSTON
HUGHES’s 1927 short story “BODIES IN THE
MOONLIGHT.” In this story that appeared in the
June 1924 issue of OPPORTUNITY,the protagonist
over-invests in the life of a young African-Indian
girl whom he meets. Sure that she is about to be
abducted by a white slaver, he choreographs a po-
tentially successful intervention. By the story’s
end, however, he comes to realize that the elo-
quent man whom he has thought of as a villain is
indeed the father of Maria, the young woman he
wanted to save.
The moral of the story seems to lie in its asser-
tion that culture and environment can over-
shadow, and even obscure, the blood ties between
people. It is a disciplinary tale about the danger of
cultural and racial stereotypes.Bibliography
Parascandola, Louis, ed. Winds Can Wake Up the Dead:
An Eric Walrond Reader.Detroit: Wayne State Uni-
versity Press, 1998.Church Fight, TheRuth Gaines-Shelton
(1925)
One of the earliest published African-American
comedies and a prize-winning play by RUTH
GAINES-SHELTON.
Gaines-Shelton early establishes the biblical
and religious import of the play by naming mem-
bers of the cast after the biblical figures Ananias
and Judas. That there will be tension between “the
brethren” and “the sisters” is confirmed through
the cast names as well. The women are identified,
for the most part, as stereotypes and for the types
of behaviors that they exhibit. One of the central
characters, Sapphira, is joined by her fellow church
members Meddler, Experience, Take-It-Back, and
Two-Face.
The play proceeds quickly as the aggrieved
brethren descend upon Sapphira’s home and try to
concoct a “church fight” that will enable them to
terminate the services of Parson Procrastinator.
The conversation reveals a startling degree of
hypocrisy as some of the women reveal that theyChurch Fight, The 81