Encyclopedia of the Harlem Literary Renaissance

intellectual and literary community during the
Harlem Renaissance. He collaborated with ALAIN
LOCKEat the Associated Publishers, a company
that published several works relating to African-
American life and culture. Woodson, a member of
the AMERICANNEGROACADEMY, founded the
ASSOCIATION FOR THESTUDY OFNEGRO LIFE
ANDHISTORYin 1915. He was a prolific author
whose impressive works included A Century of
Negro Migration(1918), The Education of the Negro
(1919), The History of the Negro Church(1921),
and The Negro in Our History(1922). A winner of
the prestigious SPINGARNMEDALin 1926, he was
celebrated for his tireless commitment to docu-
menting and making African-American history ac-
cessible to all.

Bibliography
Conyers, James Jr. Carter G. Woodson: A Historical
Reader.New York: Garland Publishing, 2000.
Goggin, Jacqueline. Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black
History.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press, 1993.
Greene, Lorenzo, and Arvarh Strickland, ed. Working
with Carter G. Woodson, The Father of Black History:
A Diary, 1928–1930.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1989.

Work, John Wesley, III(1901–1967)
A composer, writer, and teacher, Work was part of
an impressive family of African-American musi-
cians and cultural activists. Born in Tullahoma,
Tennessee, he was the son of John and Agnes
Haynes Wesley. He married Edith McFall, a
Charleston, South Carolina, native, in 1928, and
the couple had two sons, John IV and Frederick.
A graduate of FISKUNIVERSITY, Work earned
his M.A. from COLUMBIAUNIVERSITYin 1923 and
his Mus.B. from YALEUNIVERSITYin 1933. He also
won a JULIUSROSENWALDFELLOWSHIPthat en-
abled him to study music at the Juilliard Institute.
Work joined the faculty of Fisk University, his fa-
ther’s alma mater, and was a longtime member of
the music department. During his tenure as music
director at Fisk, Work composed numerous choral
arrangements, won first prize from the Fellowship of
American Composers in 1946, and had the oppor-
tunity to collaborate with well-known figures of the

Harlem Renaissance such as ARNABONTEMPS, for

whom he created a musical version of Bontemps’s

Golgotha Is a Mountain.Work also published in

leading journals of the period, and his essays on

Negro folk songs appeared in publications such as

OPPORTUNITY.

Bibliography

Work, John Wesley. Folk Song of the American Negro.

1915; reprint, New York: Negro Universities Press,

1969.

Worker’s Dreadnought

A British trade workers’ journal founded by SYLVIA

PANKHURST. The journal was known first as the

Women’s Dreadnought,but in the wake of World

War I and the Russian Revolution, Pankhurst

transformed the journal into the Worker’s Dread-

nought and affiliated the publication with the

Worker’s Socialist Federation.

Poet CLAUDEMCKAYjoined the staff of the

magazine during his sojourn in England in the

early 1920s. McKay published more than a dozen

works in the magazine during 1920, including “To

‘Holy’ Russia,” “The Beast,” “Joy in the Woods,”

“Samson,” “Song of the New Soldier and Worker,”

and “Summer Morn in New Hampshire.”

Bibliography

Bullock, Ian, and Richard Pankhurst, eds. Sylvia

Pankhurst: From Artist to Anti-Fascist.New York: St.

Martin’s Press, 1992.

Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the

Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,

1987.

Giles, James R. Claude McKay.Boston: Twayne Publish-

ers, 1976.

Romero, Patricia. E. Sylvia Pankhurst: Portrait of a Radi-

cal.New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,

1987.

Pugh, Martin. The Pankhursts.London: Penguin Books,

2002.

World Tomorrow, The

A Protestant journal that was dedicated to peace

and Socialist principles. Founded in NEWYORK

CITYin 1918, the periodical was marketed first as

World Tomorrow, The 567