Earth Em Jo Basshe(1927)
A play by EMJOBASSHEthat MESSENGERtheater
critic THEOPHILUSLEWISblasted as a “Broadway
forgery of Negro drama.” It starred Daniel Haynes,
a former aspiring minister whose turn to drama
when he reached NEWYORKCITYbrought him
immediate acclaim.
Bibliography
Patterson, Lindsay. Anthology of the American Negro in the
Theatre: A Critical Approach.New York: Publishers
Company, 1967.
Eastman, Crystal (1881–1928)
A pioneering feminist, lawyer, socialist, and activist
who was a cofounder of the National Civil Liber-
ties Bureau, the organization that became the
American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. CLAUDE
MCKAYworked with Eastman, who was the co-
founder and coeditor of the LIBERATOR,the peri-
odical whose chief editor was MAX EASTMAN,
Crystal Eastman’s younger brother. The Eastmans
published many of McKay’s early poems, including
“If We Must Die,” his powerful 1919 exhortation of
African Americans. McKay later joined the staff of
the magazine that was the new incarnation of the
MASSES,a periodical banned by the government
because of its open criticism of national policies.
Bibliography
Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the
Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,
1987.
Eastman, Max Forrester (1883–1969)
An intrepid socialist activist, dynamic chief editor
of the LIBERATOR, and longtime friend of poet
CLAUDE MCKAY. He believed in the potential
value of socialism and was an outspoken critic of
United States policies during the World War I. His
activism led to two trials for espionage; neither
case resulted in a guilty verdict.
Eastman, together with his accomplished and
enterprising sister CRYSTAL EASTMAN, offered
wholehearted support and literary exposure to
McKay. Eastman published some of McKay’s earli-
est poems in the pages of the Liberator,a magazine
that later became known as the most impressive
avant-garde literary magazine of the period. In ad-
dition, Eastman provided the preface to his collec-
tion of poems entitled HARLEMSHADOWS and
often read McKay’s work-in-progress.
Eastman published a number of works on so-
cialism, Russian politics, and Russian history
through the 1930s. He died in Barbados in 1969.Bibliography
Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the
Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,
1987.
Eastman, Max. Love and Revolution: My Journey Through
an Epoch.New York: Random House, 1965.Eatonville
The childhood home of ZORANEALEHURSTON
and the first town in the United States to be incor-
porated and recognized as a self-governing black132