important elements of life. He does not descend
into the tantalizing world about which his father
would sing or into the amoral environment of
vaudeville that seduced his aunt Harriet and
played havoc with all their lives as a result. Hager
encourages her grandson to pursue dreams that
will enable him to be a “great man.” “‘I wants you
to be a great man, son,’ she often told him, sitting
on the porch in the darkness, singing, dreaming,
calling up the past, creating dreams within the
child. I wants you to be a great man’” (314). Her
gentle insistence and her unwavering belief in his
potential enable Sandy to straddle two worlds, the
public world of entertainment and the private
world in which he continues his schooling and ad-
vances himself.
Having weathered much upheaval in his family
life and benefited from his grandmother’s steadiness,
Sandy eventually comes to understand the strate-
gies that African Americans can use to survive the
tolls of everyday life, the evils of segregation, and
the devastating nature of racial violence. The
novel closes as he and his mother, Anjee, agree im-
plicitly to honor the wishes of Hager and as they
revel in uplifting, rather than seductive song, in
lyrics that are “vibrant and steady like a stream of
living faith” (324).
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Nugent, Richard Bruce(1906–1987)
Nugent was born in WASHINGTON, D.C., to
Richard Henry and Paulina Minerva Bruce. His
parents were members of the African-American
upper class in Washington, D.C. His father, who
worked as a Pullman porter, doorman at the
Supreme Court, and Capitol Hill elevator operator,
also was a member of the Clef Club quartet that
performed in the city. His mother, a talented pianist
and schoolteacher, was descended from Scottish
and Native American ancestors. Nugent attended
DUNBARHIGH SCHOOL, where his teachers in-
cluded writer ANGELINAWELDGRIMKÉ. The Nu-
gents fostered their children’s love of the arts and
exposed them to contemporary and pioneering
groups, such as the LAFAYETTEPLAYERSSTOCK
COMPANY. The family moved to NEWYORKCITY
after Nugent’s father died from tuberculosis and
asthma. Nugent worked as a delivery boy, errand
boy, and bellhop in an effort to support the family
and to supplement the wages that his mother, who
was light-skinned enough to pass for white and
gain higher paying jobs, earned as a domestic
worker and waitress. While in New York, Nugent
began taking classes in art at the New York
Evening School of Industrial Arts and at the
Traphagen School of Fashion. His brother, Gary
Lambert Nugent, known as Pete Nugent, was a
dancer who appeared on Broadway and in Irving
Berlin wartime productions, and later worked as
road manager for the Temptations during the
1960s.
In 1952 Richard Bruce Nugent married Grace
Elizabeth Marr. The couple had a platonic rela-
tionship that lasted for 17 years until her suicide in- Marr was a successful graduate of the
Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, a microbiology
instructor in the COLUMBIAUNIVERSITYnursing
education program, and, ultimately, the first
African-American supervisor of nursing in the
New York State Department of Education. Nu-
gent, who was living in Hoboken, New Jersey, at
the end of his life, suffered congestive heart failure
and passed away on 27 May 1987.
Nugent was one of the most eclectic and un-
conventional figures in the Harlem Renaissance
community. He had an unabashed interest in men
and was not at all secretive about his homosexual
preferences. He was known for his playful and in-
396 Nugent, Richard Bruce