Harlem Nocturne (25 page)
Authors: Farah Jasmine Griffin
11/5/52
The statement made by Primus consists, in effect, of a denial of any Communist activities and furnishes no information about any associates. It is a rather clever denial of Communist membership (although membership and sympathy during a certain period were admitted) and acquaintances. Primus refused to furnish any information about associates with the arguments that she could not possibly furnish information about Communist membership on the part of an individual unless she was absolutely sure that individual was a communist, and she was not even sure she was a communist herself. . . . It is difficult to evaluate Primus' honesty.
Office Memorandum United States Government. By L. B. Nichols. Written to Mr. Tolson November 21, 1952. File Number 100â332915.
Dear Mr. Nunn:
I have been a little slow in answering your letter of Oct 6 relative to Miss Mary Lou Williams. I have been studying the situation here in Atlanta and I have now come to the conclusion that it would be virtually impossible and certainly unwise right now for us to plan in Atlanta the kind of program Miss Williams suggested. Things are pretty tense right here in Atlanta now and some of us are working very carefully and quietly to avert what could become a major racial conflict here. There is an organization by the name of the “Columbians” that are doing things worse than the Ku Klux Klan. Although things seem to be under control, any thing can happen at anytime. It may be that later such a program as Miss Williams proposes would be quite in order.
I am returning Miss Williams' letter, which you may want to keep. I am also suggesting that you may send her a copy of my letter if you think it is necessary.
With kindest regards and best wishes, I am
Yours truly,
Benjamin E. Mays
President
Benjamin E. Mays, president of Morehouse College, to Bill Nunn, managing editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, [November 6, 1946], copy sent to Mary Lou Williams, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 6, Box 1, Folder 8, Institute of Jazz Studies Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
Selected Short Stories and Novels by Ann Petry
YEAR: | 1943 |
TITLE: | “On Saturday the Siren Sounds at Noon” |
PUBLICATION: | The Crisis |
PLOT: | Children of main character burn in fire in small apartment. |
INSPIRATION: | Newspaper story Petry covered for “my paper” |
YEAR: | 1944 |
TITLE: | “Doby's Gone” |
PUBLICATION: | Phylon |
PLOT: | Girl attends all-white New England school with imaginary friend, who disappears after she beats up her tormentors. |
INSPIRATION: | Autobiographical |
YEAR: | 1945 |
TITLE: | “Like a Winding Sheet” |
PUBLICATION: | The Crisis |
PLOT: | Domestic abuse and spousal murder follow racial incident at work. |
YEAR: | 1946 |
TITLE: | The Street |
PUBLICATION: | Houghton Mifflin |
PLOT: | Single black mother Lutie Johnson struggles to raise her son in Harlem. |
INSPIRATION: | Newspaper story about superintendent who taught boy to steal letters |
YEAR: | 1947 |
TITLE: | “The Bones of Louella Brown” |
PUBLICATION: | Opportunity |
PLOT: | The bones of a laundress are mixed up with the bones of a countess. Where will they be buried? |
YEAR: | 1947 |
TITLE: | “In Darkness and Confusion” |
PUBLICATION: | Cross Section |
PLOT: | Man's son, a soldier, is executed in Georgia, and he takes part in Harlem Race Riot of 1943. |
INSPIRATION: | Harlem Race Riot of 1943; |
YEAR: | 1947 |
TITLE: | “Solo on the Drums” |
PUBLICATION: | '47: The Magazine of the Year |
PLOT: | Love gone wrong inspires jazz drum solo. |
YEAR: | 1947 |
TITLE: | Country Place |
PUBLICATION: | Houghton Mifflin |
PLOT: | Storm in New England town leads to melodrama. |
INSPIRATION: | Hurricane of 1938 |
YEAR: | 1953 |
TITLE: | The Narrows |
PUBLICATION: | Houghton Mifflin |
PLOT: | Interracial romance leads to murder in a small New England town. |
A
RCHIVAL
S
OURCES
Ann Petry
The Ann Petry Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University
Ann Petry Portrait Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
The James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Papers, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University
Pearl Primus
The Pearl Primus Collection, Duke University Libraries
The Pearl Primus Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Mary Lou Williams
The Mary Lou Williams Collection, Institute for Jazz Studies, Rutgers University
Mary Lou Williams Portrait Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Performing Arts Research Collections, Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, New York Public Library
O
THER
S
OURCES AND
S
UGGESTED
R
EADING
Adams, George R. “Riot as Ritual: Ann Petry's âIn Darkness and Confusion.'”
Negro American Literature Forum
6, no. 2 (1972): 54â60.