for herself in order to live independently and care
for her child.
Jule continues the story by focusing on Jule,
Ollie’s son, whom she named for his father and
raised alone. During his youth, Jule moves to
Hannon, Alabama, where he has an altercation
with a white man who has made sexual advances
to his girlfriend, Bertha. In the aftermath of this
attack, Jule flees to New York to escape the inevi-
table white retaliation. In New York, Jule grows
into adulthood, eventually becoming a printer’s
apprentice. In the novel’s conclusion, Jule returns
to Alabama to attend his mother’s funeral. Also,
he plans to marry Bertha and return with her to
New York.
Although Ollie Miss is clearly the stronger of
the two, the novels share the realistic setting and
unromanticized portraits of the South that are
hallmarks of Henderson’s writing. In addition,
Ollie Miss presents a strong, uncompromising, at-
tractive, black female who decides what is right for
her; she accepts responsibility for the choices she
makes without apology. In this regard, Ollie com-
pares favorably with other fictional black heroines
of the period, particularly ZORA NEALE HURSTON’s
JANIE CRAWFORD and RICHARD WRIGHT’s Aunt Sue.
Although it contains much of the same sensitive
portrayal of the South found in Ollie Miss, Jule suf-
fers from superficial characterization and several
structural flaws. However, there are suggestions of
social and racial protest in Jule that are not as dis-
cernible in Ollie Miss. In addition, there is a strong
sense of autobiography at work in Jule, much more
so than in Ollie Miss.
Henderson’s reputation as a writer rests on these
two novels and, while neither was a major criti-
cal or commercial success, Henderson occupies a
place of importance in the African-American liter-
ary canon in that these works help constitute the
transition from the best-foot-forward fiction of
the Harlem Renaissance to the more pronounced
and strident protest works of the 1940s.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carson, Warren J. “Four Black American Novelists,
1935–1941,” M.A. thesis, Atlanta University, 1975.
Kane, Patricia, and Doris Y. Wilkinson. “Survival
Strategies: Black Women in Ollie Miss and Cotton
Comes to Harlem.” Critique 16 (1974): 103.
Warren J. Carson
Henderson, Stephen Evangelist
(1925–1997)
An administrator, teacher, scholar, and champion
of BLACK AESTHETIC, Henderson was born and
reared in Key West, Florida; his family ties ex-
tended to the Bahamas, Cuba, and the West Indies.
He studied English and sociology at Morehouse
College and completed an M.A. in English at the
University of Wisconsin. He taught at Virginia
Union while simultaneously completing his Ph.D.
degree in English and art history at Wisconsin, fin-
ishing in 1959. In 1962, he returned to Morehouse
to join the English faculty; he eventually became
department chair. After the 1968 assassination of
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., Henderson and Vincent
Harding, the civil rights historian and professor
of religion, were engaged in discussions that led
to the creation of The Institute of the Black World
in Atlanta. Henderson was a senior research fellow
with the institute until 1971, when he was hired by
Howard University to teach in the Afro-American
studies department. From 1973 to 1987, Hender-
son ran Howard’s Institute of Arts and Humani-
ties; when funding was cancelled, he returned to
teaching full time.
Henderson’s administrative prowess was evi-
dent again in his direction of the Institute of
Arts and Humanities. Designed to be a creative
scholarly center as well as a bridge between the
academy and the black community, the institute
offered programs, workshops, and action-cen-
tered seminars, research fellowships, and intern-
ships, as well as public lectures and performances.
Henderson worked with STERLING BROWN, JOHN
OLIVER KILLENS, HAKI MADHUBUTI, and other no-
table figures to sustain the institute. In addition
to bringing distinguished faculty, community
activists, artists, writers, and musicians together
with young people, the institute honored local
Henderson, Stephen Evangelist 243