Bibliography
Rauchfuss, Christine Gray. Willis Richardson: Forgotten
Pioneer of African American Drama. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Richardson, Willis, ed. Plays and Pageants from the Life of
the Negro.Washington, D.C.: The Associated Pub-
lishers, 1930.
Plays of Negro Life: A Sourcebook
of Native American DramaAlain Locke
and T. Montgomery Gregory, eds.(1927)
A dynamic collection of plays by and about African
Americans. Edited by HOWARDUNIVERSITYpro-
fessors ALAINLOCKEand THOMASMONTGOMERY
GREGORY, the volume included illustrations by
AARONDOUGLAS.
Published by HARPER ANDBROTHERS,Plays of
Negro Liferepublished plays that had appeared in
popular Harlem Renaissance periodicals such as
THECRISISand OPPORTUNITY. The editors also
provided a comprehensive set of materials that
shed light on the plays and playwrights, including
cast lists, performance chronologies, and produc-
tion photographs.
The writers represented in the Plays of Negro
Lifewere among the most talented and promising
figures of the day. The collection featured African-
American and white writers who had explored race
and related issues in their works. Included were
PAULGREEN,THELMAMYRTLEDUNCAN,GEOR-
GIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON,RICHARD BRUCE NU-
GENT,EUGENE O’NEILL, J. W. Rogers, EULALIE
SPENCE,JEANTOOMER, and RIDGELEYTORRENCE.
Bibliography
Linneman, Russell, ed. Alain Locke: Reflections on a Mod-
ern Renaissance Man.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University, 1982.
Locke, Alain, and Montgomery Gregory. Plays of Negro
Life: A Source-Book of Native American Drama.
1927; reprint, Westport, Conn.: Negro University
Press, 1970.
Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral
Jessie Fauset(1929)
The third of four novels by JESSIEFAUSET, one of
the most enterprising and visionary figures of the
Harlem Renaissance. Plum Bun,published by Fred-
erick Stokes publishing company of New York City
and priced at $2.50, tackled the complicated issue
of PASSING. Fauset dedicated the novel to her fa-
ther and mother, Redmon and Anna Fauset.
The title of Plum Bunis derived from the chil-
dren’s rhyme that reads “To Market, To Market, /
to Buy Plum Bun; / Home again, Home again, /
Market is done” (McDowell, xii). Fauset divided
the novel into five sections that evoke the refrain
from the popular children’s song: “Home,” “Mar-
ket,” “Plum Bun,” “Home Again,” and “Market Is
Done.” The Murrays live in a neighborhood whose
very aura foreshadows the insidious upheaval that
soon will face the family. Their apartment is part of
a neighborhood that “has no mystery, no allure, ei-
ther of exclusiveness or of downright depravity,”
and they reside in one of the several three-story
apartment buildings on Opal Street. The Murrays
live in one of these apartments that “contain[s] six
boxes called by courtesy, rooms.” The protagonist
is Angela Murray, the daughter of Junius Murray, a
carpenter and former coachman, and his wife
Matty, a former domestic who was employed in the
household of a “famous actress,” and sister of Vir-
ginia, a young woman with “rosy bronzeness and... deeply waving black hair.” Angela, a talented
art student who “had no high purpose in life,” has
light skin that prompts many with whom she
comes into contact to assume that she is white.
When her true identity is discovered, however,
Angela is repeatedly hurt by the unpleasant reac-
tions that she has to endure. She experiences this
trauma as a young schoolgirl when one of her
friends abandons her. “Coloured! Angela, you
never told me that you were coloured!” is the re-
frain that plagues the young girl whose response is
marked by its “tragic but proud bewilderment”
(38). She also sees firsthand how her father, a
dark-skinned man, is forced to deny his marriage
to Matty, who, because of her light skin, is one day
admitted to a white hospital after a fainting spell.
When Mrs. Murray dies shortly thereafter,
Angela loses not only her mother but the compan-
ion with whom she would shop and easily
transgress the public rules of racial segregation.
Eventually, Angela decides to accept the consis-
tent public misreadings of her identity and to pur-
sue her professional goals as an artist. At the local
Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral 423