disrespected by a system that should, in principle,
support their efforts to become successful providers.
The play concludes with pointed references to a
riot in CHICAGOprompted by unemployment and
pressing social needs. Ultimately, Edward offers a
pained exposé of social services and the plight of the
working poor and unemployed.
Bibliography
Hatch, James. Black Theatre, U.S.A.; Forty-five Plays by
Black Americans, 1847–1974.New York: Free Press,
1974.
Edwards, Eli
One of several pseudonyms used by poet and nov-
elist CLAUDEMCKAY. The name “Eli Edwards”
was based on the first letters in the names of his
wife Eulalie Imelda Lewars. Biographer Wayne
Cooper also suggests that McKay developed the
pseudonym as a tribute to his mother, Hannah
Ann Elizabeth Edwards.
McKay used this pseudonym during a period
of economic hardship. In 1917, three years after
his marriage to Lewars ended, he published poems,
including “Invocation” and “The Harlem Dancer,”
under this name.
Bibliography
Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the
Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,
1987.
Giles, James R. Claude McKay.Boston: Twayne Publish-
ers, 1976.
McKay, Claude. A Long Way from Home.New York:
Arno Press, 1969.
Edwards, Eulalie Imelda (unknown)
Born Eulalie Lewars in Jamaica, she was the child-
hood sweetheart and wife of Jamaican-born poet
and novelist CLAUDEMCKAY. The couple, who
married on July 30, 1914, in Jersey City, New Jer-
sey, settled in NEWYORKCITY. The marriage was
short-lived. After six months, a pregnant Edwards
returned to Jamaica, where she bore their daugh-
ter, Rhue Hope McKay.
Bibliography
Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the
Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,
1987.Elijah’s RavenShirley Lola Graham DuBois
(1930)
An unpublished three-act comedy by SHIRLEY
LOLAGRAHAMDuBois, written in 1930 during her
tenure as a music teacher at Morgan College, now
Morgan State University. The KARAMUPLAYERS
performed the play during DuBois’s two-year resi-
dency at the Yale Drama School in New Haven on
a JULIUSROSENWALDFELLOWSHIPand in 1942.Bibliography
“Shirley Lola Graham DuBois.” Dictionary of American
Biography, Supplement 10: 1976–1980.New York:
Scribners, 1995.
Roses, Lorraine Elena, and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph.
Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies
of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900–1945.Boston: G.
K. Hall & Co., 1990.Ellington, Edward Kennedy(Duke Ellington)
(1899–1974)
An extremely popular Harlem Renaissance–era
composer, bandleader, and entertainer. Ellington,
who began performing professionally when he
was 17 years of age, established himself in NEW
YORKCITYin the early 1920s. His bands, which
ranged in size from sextets to 14-piece ensem-
bles, produced some of the most well-known
pieces of the age including “Black and Tan Fan-
tasy” (1927) and “Mood Indigo” (1930). He en-
joyed a lengthy engagement at the COTTON
CLUB, the famous establishment that became
synonymous with Harlem Renaissance gaiety and
entertainment, from 1927 through 1932 and
again from 1937 through 1938. The 1935 film
Symphony in Blackwas based on Ellington’s “A
Rhapsody of Negro Life.”Bibliography
The Ellington Papers are located at the Smithsonian In-
stitution in the Ellington Collection and at Yale
University Library in the Ellington Papers.Ellington, Edward Kennedy 137