45 years old, went on to become a professor at
University College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His
mother never publicly revealed the identity of her
son’s father.
The Harlem Renaissance poet CLAUDE
MCKAYworked with Pankhurst during his sojourn
in England. In 1919 McKay relocated from the
United States to England, where he took up resi-
dence in London. In 1920 he joined the staff of
Pankhurst’s WORKER’SDREADNOUGHT,the influ-
ential newspaper that was founded originally as the
Women’s Dreadnought.McKay did not earn wages
but rather gained room and board when he agreed
to work at the paper. He was able to publish a
number of poems and articles, and he frequently
used pseudonyms, including the name RHONDA
HOPE, in order to protect himself from political
persecution. Pankhurst was familiar with McKay
before he joined her staff; she had published in the
Worker’s Dreadnoughta set of his poems and a copy
of a letter to the editor that he had submitted to
the British Daily Herald.McKay biographer Wayne
Cooper notes that the poet held Pankhurst in high
regard and that “McKay recalled that she was a
plain little Queen-Victoria sized woman with
plenty of long, unruly, bronze-like hair... her eyes
were fiery, even a little fanatic, with a glint of
shrewdness.... And in the labor movement she
was always jabbing her hat pin into the hides of the
smug and slack labor leaders” (Cooper, 115).
McKay’s tenure at the Worker’s Dreadnoughtended
when Scotland Yard raided the offices and arrested
Pankhurst and some of her supporters. McKay,
who took care to remove incriminating articles
from the office, eluded arrest.
Pankhurst died in Addis Ababa in September
- She was 78 years old.
Bibliography
Bullock, Ian, and Richard Pankhurst. Sylvia Pankhurst:
From Artist to Anti-Fascist.New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1992.
Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojoumer in the
Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,
1987.
Curtin, Patricia. E. Sylvia Pankhurst: Portrait of a Radical.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987.
Winslow, Barbara. Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics and Po-
litical Activism.New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
“Parasites, The”Hazel Campbell(1936)
A short story by HAZELCAMPBELLthat appeared
in the September 1936 issue of OPPORTUNITY.The
second of two works that Campbell published dur-
ing the Harlem Renaissance, the story focuses on
an impoverished family who have an unhealthy de-
pendence on welfare assistance. The family, a mar-
ried couple and their son, face a threat to their
otherwise steady existence when the husband is
appointed to a ditch-digging crew. Campbell, like
writer DOROTHYWESTand others, used the story
to expose the dangers of enforced poverty and the
complicated evils of federal support.“Part of the Pack: Another View of Night
Life in Harlem”Hazel Campbell(1935)
The first of two stories that HAZELCAMPBELLpub-
lished in OPPORTUNITY.“Part of the Pack,” pub-
lished in the August 1935 issue, is a grim tale
about one couple’s desperate efforts to survive dur-
ing the GREATDEPRESSION. Set in HARLEM, the
story chronicles the tension that grows between Lu
and her husband, Steve. Like “THEPARASITES”
(1936), Campbell’s second OPPORTUNITY story,
“Part of the Pack” focuses on the limits of federal
assistance and the challenges that upstanding peo-
ple face in moments of dire need.passing
The term that is used to denote the act of self-
transformation and reinvention. It is often used to
refer to racial passing, when an individual of
African descent, and usually of light skin tone,
passes for white. The act of passing, however, is
not limited to African Americans passing for
white; it includes all variations of self-re-presenta-
tion. The term can also refer to social passing, in
which individuals pose as members of another
class and claim otherwise elusive and restricted
privileges for themselves.
Passing was a popular subject during the
Harlem Renaissance. Authors such as MARITA
BONNER, JESSIEFAUSET, JAMESWELDONJOHN-
SON, RUDOLPHFISHER, NELLALARSEN, WALTER
WHITE, and others tackled the theme in their fic-
tional works. Fisher’s prizewinning short story
“HIGHYALLER” chronicles the trials of a youngpassing 413