nization’s activities as behavior that betrayed the
race.
Bibliography
Pride, Armistead S., and Clint C. Wilson II. A History of
the Black Press.Washington, D.C.: Howard Univer-
sity Press, 1997.
Harrison, Hubert Henry(1883–1927)
A native of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, who be-
came a formidable scholar and energetic force in
New York publishing and journalism circles. In
1917, Harrison became editor of Voice: A News-
paper for the New Negro,a paper that generated
spirited debate about radical black politics of the
day.
Harrison, who was known to sleep less than
four hours a day in order to read as much as he
could, immersed himself in various fields of study
including politics, economics, and sociology. Like
J. A. Rogers and A. PHILIPRANDOLPH, Harrison
was one of several well-known public intellectuals
who declared themselves to be atheists and ag-
nostics. He was known for his stirring street ad-
dress to New Yorkers during which he advanced
his beliefs about socialism, suggested how African
Americans might best advance their political in-
terests, and promoted the Liberty League,the po-
litical organization that he modeled on socialism
but in which issues relating to race would figure
most prominently.
Harrison, Juanita(ca. 1891–unknown)
The author of MY GREAT WIDE BEAUTIFUL
WORLD(1936), an engaging narrative based on
the writer’s global travels. Harrison, who was born
in Mississippi, was a woman of “slight form [and]
fresh olive complexion” who wore her “long hair
braided about her head” (Atlantic Monthly,Octo-
ber 1935, 434). She worked as a domestic and
began writing seriously when one of her employers
encouraged her to do so. In her late 30s, Harrison
embarked on an impressive voyage that spanned
the years 1927 through 1935. She financed her
travels by working but emphasized her autonomy
and freedom from the personal domestic con-
straints associated with marriage and family. Her
impressive itinerary included sojourns in Burma,
Hawaii, Israel, India, and Thailand.
Harrison published portions of My Great Wide,
Beautiful World in the October and November
1935 issues of THEATLANTICMONTHLY.The in-
troductory editorial comments informed readers
that Harrison was “an American colored woman
who at the age of 36 undertook to work her way
around the world.” They characterized her work-
ing life as a domestic as “sordid, unsparing years”
filled with an “endless round of cooking, washing,
and ironing in an overburdened household” and
noted that it was this grueling experience that
“steeled in her the determination to escape, and to
see the world.” Harrison, like IDABELLEYEISER,
JESSIEFAUSET, and MARYCHURCHTERRELL, was
an enthusiastic and enterprising traveler. Her col-
orful and insightful accounts confirm what the At-
lanticasserted—that “[f]or her there existed no
barriers of class or race. She has a faculty for mak-
ing friends; she believed that everyone would like
her and she was not disappointed.” Noting that
Harrison had finally settled in Hawaii, the editorial
introduction closed with the enthusiastic assess-
ment that “Whatever else the journal may be, it is
certainly genuine.”
While Harrison’s entries may have convinced
The Atlantic Monthlyeditors of her open-mindedness
toward others, the narrative does reveal Harrison’s
own steady awareness of class and racial tensions.
As she prepared to leave NEWYORKCITYand to
begin her voyage, for example, she noted that “Our
cabins looked good. I always want a upper berth I
dont want anybody make it down on me.” She
challenged others about their elitism and stereo-
types. On one occasion, she engaged in pointed
conversation with a “Young Student Doctor from a
town call ‘a Way cross Georgia’ Ga” who tended to
“keep very much to himself.” “I ask him why,” Har-
rison writes, “and he say he do not care to mix
with emigrant. I said these are respectful business
people going home to visit. He had never been
away from his little Georgia Town and read about
emigrants at Ellis Island. He has not passport the
poor kid is about 19.” She was unfazed by her illit-
eracy and promptly secured the help of fellow pas-
sengers when she needed it. “My table mate read
the mune [menu] for me,” she noted in her June
28, 1927, entry, before going on to record thatHarrison, Juanita 223