Rogers, Joel Augustus (ca. 1880–1966)
A Jamaican-born journalist, novelist, and historian
whose studies of African-American history were pi-
oneering contributions to the field of American his-
tory. Born in Negril, Jamaica, Rogers was one of
four children born to Samuel, a teacher and planta-
tion supervisor, and Emily Rogers. Following his
wife’s death, Samuel Rogers remarried and had
seven additional children. Joel Rogers completed
high school and, without the benefit of further for-
mal education, proceeded to become a self-edu-
cated historian and journalist. After high school, he
joined the British army and served for four years as
an artillery man. He arrived in the United States in
1906 and became a citizen 11 years later in 1917.
He married Helga Bresenthal. Rogers passed away
in Harlem, in September 1966.
Rogers’s first work, From ‘Superman’ to Man
(1917), appeared in the same year that he became
an American. The volume was prompted by
Rogers’s experiences of American racism and his
growing interest in documenting the evolution and
dissemination of prejudices and racist ideologies. In
his research for the work, Rogers taught himself
French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish and con-
ducted extensive research in Africa and Europe.
Rogers began writing for the PITTSBURGH
COURIER, the most widely circulated African-
American newspaper during the Harlem Renais-
sance, during the 1930s. Following successful
reports on the 1930 coronation of Ethiopian Em-
peror Haile Selassie, he became the first American
war correspondent of African descent when he
covered the war between Ethiopia and Italy in
- He also published in well-known periodicals
such as JOURNAL OFNEGROHISTORY,AMERICAN
MERCURY,SURVEYGRAPHIC,and Freedomways.
Rogers enjoyed memberships in the American
Academy of Political Science and the American
Geographical Society as well as the French organi-
zation, Société d’Anthropologie.
Rogers published throughout and after the
Harlem Renaissance period. His works included As
Nature Leads: An Informal Discussion of the Reason
Why Negro and Caucasian Are Mixing in Spite of
Opposition(1919), The Maroons of the West Indies
and South America(1921), The Ku Klux Klan Spirit:
A Brief Outline of the History of the Ku Klux Klan
Past and Present(1923), World’s Greatest Men of
African Descent (1931), and 100 Amazing Facts
About the Negro, with Complete Proof: A Short Cut
World History of the Negro(1934). He published
two novels, Blood Money(1923) and The Golden
Door(1927), during the Harlem Renaissance.Bibliography
Kinya Kiongozi, ed. Selected Writings of Joel Augustus
Rogers.New York: Pyramid, 1988.
Pinckney, Darryl. Out There: Mavericks of Black Litera-
ture,New York: BasicCivitas Books, 2002.Roll Sweet Chariot: A Symphonic Play
of the Negro PeoplePaul Green (1934)
A tragic play about suffering, betrayal, and mur-
der in the deep South by PAULGREEN, the white
PULITZER PRIZE–winning playwright known for
his works on African-American experiences and
culture.
The play is set primarily in Potter’s Field, a de-
pressed community named after a former planta-
tion owner but one that increasingly takes on the
characteristics of a burial ground. The boarding-
house of Quiviene Lockley stands at the center of
this depressed community of undertakers, laborers,
would-be sweethearts, abandoned children, and
convicts. Milly Wilson, wife of the imprisoned
Bantam Wilson, hopes to secure a divorce from her
husband in order to marry Tom Sterling, a fellow
boarder at the Lockleys’. Before the two can wed
and escape the awful community, Bantam returns
to claim his wife. A dreadful and violent con-
frontation ensues, and before long, Bantam is dead,
shot to death by Sterling. Milly is shocked by the
double loss, and her pain only increases when Ster-
ling is sentenced to 10 years of hard labor on the
chain gang. Aware that Sterling is ill, Milly finds
the prison crew and tries unsuccessfully to get
medicine to Sterling. When he finally succumbs to
illness and drops to the ground, one of the prison
guards shoots Sterling in the back and kills him.
The play closes as a bright light rises above Potter’s
Field and as the convicts, unable to stop and to
mourn, continue to work.
Roll Sweet Chariotdebuted some seven years
after Green’s nationally acclaimed play INABRA-
HAM’SBOSOMwon the Pulitzer Prize in drama. The
show, which opened in October 1934 at the Cort458 Rogers, Joel Augustus