The sculptor at the present time of assured position is Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller.
Meta Vaux Warrick was born in Philadelphia, June 9, 1877. She first compelled serious recognition of her talent by her work in the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, for which she had won a scholarship, and which she attended for four years. Here one of her first original pieces in clay was a head of Medusa, which, with its hanging jaw, beads of gore, and eyes starting from their sockets, marked her as a sculptor of the horrible. In her graduating year, 1898, she won a prize for metal work by a crucifix upon which hung the figure of Christ torn by anguish, also honorable mention for her work in modeling. In her post-graduate year she won the George K. Crozier first prize for the best general work in modeling for the year, her particular piece being the "Procession of Arts and Crafts." In 1899 the young student went to Paris, where she worked and studied for three years, chiefly at Colarossi's Academy. Her work brought her in contact with St. Gaudens and other artists; and finally there came a day when the great Rodin himself, thrilled by the figure in "Secret Sorrow," a man represented as eating his heart out, in the attitude of a father beamed upon the young woman and said, "Mademoiselle, you are a sculptor; you have the sense of form." "The Wretched," one of the artist's masterpieces, was exhibited in the Salon in 1903, and along with it went "The Impenitent Thief"; and at one of Byng's exhibitions in L'Art Nouveau galleries it was remarked of her that "under her strong and supple hands the clay has leaped into form: a whole turbulent world seems to have forced itself into the cold and dead material." On her return to America the artist resumed her studies at the School of Industrial Art, winning, in 1904, the Battles first prize for pottery. In 1907 she was called on for a series of tableaux representing the advance of the Negro, for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, and later (1913) for a group for the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission. In 1909 Meta Vaux Warrick became the wife of Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, of Framingham, Mass. A disastrous fire in 1910 destroyed some of her most valuable pieces while they were in storage in Philadelphia. Only a few examples of her early work, that for one reason or another happened to be elsewhere, were saved. In May, 1914, however, she had sufficiently recovered from this blow to be able to hold a public exhibition of her work. Mrs. Fuller resides in Framingham, has a happy family of three boys, and in the midst of a busy life still finds some time for the practice of her art.
The fire of 1910 destroyed the following productions: Secret Sorrow, Silenus, Oedipus, Brittany Peasant, Primitive Man, two of the heads from Three Gray Women, Peeping Tom, Falstaff, Oriental Dancer, Portrait of William Thomas, The Wrestlers, Death in the Wind, Désespoir, The Man with a Thorn, The Man who Laughed, the Two-Step, Sketch for a Monument, Wild Fire, and the following studies in Afro-American types: An Old Woman, The Schoolboy, The Comedian (George W. Walker), The Student, The Artist, and Mulatto Child, as well as a few unfinished pieces. Such a misfortune has only rarely befallen a rising artist. Some of the sculptor's most remarkable work was included in the list just given.
Fortunately surviving were the following: The Wretched (cast in bronze and remaining in Europe), Man Carrying Dead Body, Medusa, Procession of Arts and Crafts, Portrait of the late William Still, John the Baptist (the only piece of her work made in Paris that the sculptor now has), Sylvia (later destroyed by accident), and Study of Expression.
The exhibition of 1914 included the following: A Classic Dancer, Brittany Peasant (a reproduction of the piece destroyed), Study of Woman's Head, "A Drink, Please" (a statuette of Tommy Fuller), Mother and Baby, A Young Equestrian (Tommy Fuller), "So Big" (Solomon Fuller, Jr.), Menelik II of Abyssinia, A Girl's Head, Portrait of a Child, The Pianist (portrait of Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare), Portrait of S. Coleridge-Taylor, Relief Study of a Woman's Head, Medallion Portrait of a Child (Tommy Fuller), Medallion Portrait of Dr. A. E. P. Rockwell, Statuette of a Woman, Second model of group made for the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission (with two fragments from the final model of this), Portrait of Dr. A. E. P. Rockwell, Four Figures (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) for over-mantel panel, Portrait-Bust of a Child (Solomon Fuller, Jr.), Portrait-Bust of a Man (Dr. S. C. Fuller), John the Baptist, Danse Macabre, Menelik II in profile, Portrait of a Woman, The Jester.
Since 1914 the artist has produced several of her strongest pieces. "Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War" in May, 1917, took a second prize in a competition under the auspices of the Massachusetts Branch of the Woman's Peace Party. Similarly powerful are "Watching for Dawn," "Mother and Child," "Immigrant in America," and "The Silent Appeal." Noteworthy, too, are "The Flower-Holder," "The Fountain-Boy," and "Life in Quest of Peace." The sculptor has also produced numerous statuettes, novelties, etc., for commercial purposes, and just now she is at work on a motherhood series.
From time to time one observes in this enumeration happy subjects. Such, for instance, are "The Dancing Girl," "The Wrestlers," and "A Young Equestrian." These are frequently winsome, but, as will be shown in a moment, they are not the artist's characteristic productions. Nor was the Jamestown series of tableaux. This was a succession of fourteen groups (originally intended for seventeen) containing in all one hundred and fifty figures. The purpose was by the construction of appropriate models, dramatic groupings, and the use of proper scenic accessories, to trace in chronological order the general progress of the Negro race. The whole, of course, had its peculiar interest for the occasion; but the artist had to work against unnumbered handicaps of every sort; her work, in fact, was not so much that of a sculptor as a designer; and, while the whole production took considerable energy, she has naturally never regarded it as her representative work.
Certain productions, however, by reason of their unmistakable show of genius, call for special consideration. These are invariably tragic or serious in tone.
Prime in order, and many would say in power, is "The Wretched." Seven figures representing as many forms of human anguish greet the eye. A mother yearns for the loved ones she has lost. An old man, wasted by hunger and disease, waits for death. Another, bowed by shame, hides his face from the sun. A sick child is suffering from some terrible hereditary trouble; a youth realizes with despair that the task before him is too great for his strength; and a woman is afflicted with some mental disease. Crowning all is the philosopher, who, suffering through sympathy with the others, realizes his powerlessness to relieve them and gradually sinks into the stoniness of despair.
"The Impenitent Thief," admitted to the Salon along with "The Wretched," was demolished in 1904, after being subjected to a series of unhappy accidents. It also defied convention. Heroic in size, the thief hung on the cross, all the while distorted by anguish. Hardened, unsympathetic, blasphemous, he was still superb in his presumption, and he was one of the artist's most powerful conceptions.
"Man Carrying Dead Body" portrays a scene from a battlefield. In it the sculptor has shown the length to which duty will spur one on. A man bears across his shoulder the body of a comrade that has evidently lain on the battlefield for days, and though the thing is horrible, he lashes it to his back and totters under the great weight until he can find a place for decent burial. To every one there comes such a duty; each one has his own burden to bear in silence.
Two earlier pieces, "Secret Sorrow," and "Oedipus," had the same marked characteristics. The first represented a man, worn and gaunt, as actually bending his head and eating out his own heart. The figure was the personification of lost ambition, shattered ideals, and despair. For "Oedipus" the sculptor chose the hero of the old Greek legend at the moment when, realizing that he has killed his father and married his mother, he tears his eyes out. The artist's later conception, "Three Gray Women," from the legend of Perseus, was in similar vein. It undertook to portray the Grææ, the three sisters who had but one eye and one tooth among them.
Perhaps the most haunting creation of Mrs. Fuller is "John the Baptist." With head slightly upraised and with eyes looking into the eternal, the prophet rises above all sordid earthly things and soars into the divine. All faith and hope and love are in his face, all poetry and inspiration in his eyes. It is a conception that, once seen, can never be forgotten.
The second model of the group for the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission (two feet high, the finished group as exhibited being eight feet high) represents a recently emancipated Negro youth and maiden standing beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has the semblance of a human hand stretched over them. Humanity is pushing them out into the world, while at the same time the hand of Fate, with obstacles and drawbacks, is restraining them in the exercise of their new freedom. In the attitudes of the two figures is strikingly portrayed the uncertainty of those embarking on a new life, and in their countenances one reads all the eagerness and the courage and the hope that is theirs. The whole is one of the artist's most ambitious efforts.
"Immigrant in America" was inspired by two lines from Robert Haven Schauffler's "Scum of the Earth":
Prophets and singers and saints of the West.
An American mother, the parent of one strong healthy child, is seen welcoming the immigrant mother of many children to the land of plenty. The work is capable of wide application. Along with it might be mentioned a suffrage medallion and a smaller piece, "The Silent Appeal." This last is a very strong piece of work. It represents the mother capable of producing and caring for three children as making a silent request for the suffrage (or peace, or justice, or any other noble cause). The work is characterized by a singular note of dignity.
"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War," the recent prize piece, represents War as mounted on a mighty steed and trampling to death helpless human beings, while in one hand he bears a spear on which he has impaled the head of one of his victims. As he goes on in what seems his irresistible career Peace meets him on the way and commands him to cease his ravages. The work as exhibited was in gray-green wax and treated its subject with remarkable spirit. It must take rank as one of the four or five of the strongest productions of the artist.
Meta Warrick Fuller's work may be said to fall into two divisions, the romantic and the social. The first is represented by such things as "The Wretched" and "Secret Sorrow," the second by "Immigrant in America" and "The Silent Appeal." The transition may be seen in "Watching for Dawn," a group that shows seven figures, in various attitudes of prayer, watchfulness, and resignation, as watching for the coming of daylight, or peace. In technique this is like "The Wretched," in spirit it is like the later work. It is as if the sculptor's own seer, John the Baptist, had, by his vision, summoned her away from the ghastly and horrible to the everyday problems of needy humanity. There are many, however, who hope that she will not utterly forsake the field in which she first became famous. Her early work is not delicate or pretty; it is gruesome and terrible; but it is also intense and vital, and from it speaks the very tragedy of the Negro race.
XII
MUSIC
THE foremost name on the roll of Negro composers is that of a man whose home was in England, but who in so many ways identified himself with the Negroes of the United States that he deserves to be considered here. He visited America, found the inspiration for much of his best work in African themes, and his name at once comes to mind in any consideration of the history of the Negro in music.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor[9] (1875-1912) was born in London, the son of a physician who was a native of Sierra Leone, and an English mother. He began the study of the violin when he was no more than six years old, and as he grew older he emphasized more and more the violin and the piano. At the age of ten he entered the choir of St. George's, at Croydon, and a little later became alto singer at St. Mary Magdalene's, Croydon. In 1890 he entered the Royal College of Music as a student of the violin; and he also became a student of Stanford's in composition, in which department he won a scholarship in 1893. In 1894 he was graduated with honor. His earliest published work was the anthem, "In Thee, O Lord" (1892); but he gave frequent performances of chamber music at student concerts in his earlier years; one of his symphonies was produced in 1896 under Stanford's direction, and "a quintet for clarinet and strings in F sharp minor (played at the Royal College in 1895) was given in Berlin by the Joachim Quartet, and a string quartet in D minor dates from 1896." Coleridge-Taylor became world-famous by the production of the first part of his "Hiawatha" trilogy, "Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast," at the Royal College, November 11, 1898. He at once took rank as one of the foremost living English composers. The second part of the trilogy, "The Death of Minnehaha," was given at the North Staffordshire Festival in the autumn of 1899; and the third, "Hiawatha's Departure," by the Royal Choral Society, in Albert Hall, March 22, 1900. The whole work was a tremendous success such as even the composer himself never quite duplicated. Requests for new compositions for festival purposes now became numerous, and in response to the demand were produced "The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuillé" (Leeds, 1901), "Meg Blane" (Sheffield, 1902), "The Atonement" (Hereford, 1903), and "Kubla Khan" (Handel Society, 1906). Coleridge-Taylor also wrote the incidental music for the four romantic plays by Stephen Phillips produced at His Majesty's Theatre, as follows: "Herod," 1900; "Ulysses," 1901; "Nero," 1902; "Faust," 1908; as well as incidental music for "Othello" (the composition for the orchestra being later adapted as a suite for pianoforte), and for "A Tale of Old Japan," the words of which were by Alfred Noyes. In 1904 he was appointed conductor of the Handel Society. The composer's most distinctive work is probably that reflecting his interest in the Negro folk-song. "Characteristic of the melancholy beauty, barbaric color, charm of musical rhythm and vehement passion of the true Negro music are his symphonic pianoforte selections based on Negro melodies from Africa and America: the 'African Suite,' a group of pianoforte pieces, the 'African Romances' (words by Paul L. Dunbar), the 'Songs of Slavery,' 'Three Choral Ballads' and 'African Dances,' and a suite for violin and pianoforte."[10] The complete list of the works of Coleridge-Taylor would include also the following: "Southern Love Songs," "Dream-Lovers" (an operetta), "Gipsy Suite" (for violin and piano), "Solemn Prelude" (for orchestra, first produced at the Worcester Festival, 1899), "Nourmahal's Song and Dance" (for piano), "Scenes from an Everyday Romance," "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors" (concert march for orchestra), "Five Choral Ballads" to words by Longfellow (produced at the Norwich Festival, 1905), "Moorish Dance" (for piano), "Six Sorrow Songs," several vocal duets, and the anthems, "Now Late on the Sabbath Day," "By the Waters of Babylon," "The Lord is My Strength," "Lift Up Your Heads," "Break Forth into Joy," and "O Ye that Love the Lord." Among the things published since his death are his "Viking Song," best adapted for a male chorus, and a group of pianoforte and choral works.
[9] This account of Coleridge-Taylor is based largely, but not wholly, upon the facts as given in Grove's Dictionary of Music (1910 edition, Macmillan). The article on the composer ends with a fairly complete list of works up to 1910.
[10] Crisis, October, 1912.
In America the history of conscious musical effort on the part of the Negro goes back even many years before the Civil War. "Some of the most interesting music produced by the Negro slaves was handed down from the days when the French and Spanish had possession of Louisiana. From the free Negroes of Louisiana there sprang up, during slavery days, a number of musicians and artists who distinguished themselves in foreign countries to which they removed because of the prejudice which existed against colored people. Among them was Eugène Warburg, who went to Italy and distinguished himself as a sculptor. Another was Victor Séjour, who went to Paris and gained distinction as a poet and composer of tragedy. The Lambert family, consisting of seven persons, were noted as musicians. Richard Lambert, the father, was a teacher of music; Lucien Lambert, a son, after much hard study, became a composer of music. Edmund Dédé, who was born in New Orleans in 1829, learned while a youth to play a number of instruments. He accumulated enough money to pay his passage to France. Here he took up a special study of music, and finally became director of the orchestra of L'Alcazar, in Bordeaux, France."[11]
[11] Washington: "The Story of the Negro," II, 276-7.
The foremost composer of the race to-day is Harry T. Burleigh, who within the last few years has won a place not only among the most prominent song-writers of America, but of the world. He has emphasized compositions in classical vein, his work displaying great technical excellence. Prominent among his later songs are "Jean," the "Saracen Songs," "One Year (1914-1915)," the "Five Songs" of Laurence Hope, set to music, "The Young Warrior" (the words of which were written by James W. Johnson), and "Passionale" (four songs for a tenor voice, the words of which were also by Mr. Johnson). Nearly two years ago, at an assemblage of the Italo-American Relief Committee at the Biltmore Hotel, New York, Mr. Amato, of the Metropolitan Opera, sang with tremendous effect, "The Young Warrior," and the Italian version has later been used all over Italy as a popular song in connection with the war. Of somewhat stronger quality even than most of these songs are "The Grey Wolf," to words by Arthur Symons, "The Soldier," a setting of Rupert Brooke's well known sonnet, and "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors." An entirely different division of Mr. Burleigh's work, hardly less important than his songs, is his various adaptations of the Negro melodies, especially for choral work; and he assisted Dvorak in his "New World Symphony," based on the Negro folk-songs. For his general achievement in music he was, in 1917, awarded the Spingarn Medal. His work as a singer is reserved for later treatment.
Another prominent composer is Will Marion Cook. Mr. Cook's time has been largely given to the composition of popular music; at the same time, however, he has produced numerous songs that bear the stamp of genius. In 1912 a group of his tuneful and characteristic pieces was published by Schirmer. Generally his work exhibits not only unusual melody, but also excellent technique. J. Rosamond Johnson is also a composer with many original ideas. Like Mr. Cook, for years he gave much attention to popular music. More recently he has been director of the New York Music Settlement, the first in the country for the general cultivation and popularizing of Negro music. Among his later songs are: "I Told My Love to the Roses," and "Morning, Noon, and Night." In pure melody Mr. Johnson is not surpassed by any other musician of the race to-day. His long experience with large orchestras, moreover, has given him unusual knowledge of instrumentation. Carl Diton, organist and pianist, has so far been interested chiefly in the transcription for the organ of representative Negro melodies. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was published by Schirmer and followed by "Four Jubilee Songs." R. Nathaniel Dett has the merit, more than others, of attempting to write in large form. His carol, "Listen to the Lambs," is especially noteworthy. Representative of his work for the piano is his "Magnolia Suite." This was published by the Clayton F. Summy Co., of Chicago. As for the very young men of promise, special interest attaches to the work of Edmund T. Jenkins, of Charleston, S. C., who three years ago made his way to the Royal Academy in London. Able before he left to perform brilliantly on half a dozen instruments, this young man was soon awarded a scholarship; in 1916-17 he was awarded a silver medal for excellence on the clarinet, a bronze medal for his work on the piano, and, against brilliant competition, a second prize for his original work in composition. The year also witnessed the production of his "Prélude Réligieuse" at one of the grand orchestral concerts of the Academy.
Outstanding pianists are Raymond Augustus Lawson, of Hartford, Conn., and Hazel Harrison, now of New York. Mr. Lawson is a true artist. His technique is very highly developed, and his style causes him to be a favorite concert pianist. He has more than once been a soloist at the concerts of the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra, and has appeared on other noteworthy occasions. He conducts at Hartford one of the leading studios in New England. Miss Harrison has returned to America after years of study abroad, and now conducts a studio in New York. She was a special pupil of Busoni and has appeared in many noteworthy recitals. Another prominent pianist is Roy W. Tibbs, now a teacher at Howard University. Helen Hagan, who a few years ago was awarded the Sanford scholarship at Yale for study abroad, has since her return from France given many excellent recitals; and Ethel Richardson, of New York, has had several very distinguished teachers and is in general one of the most promising of the younger performers. While those that have been mentioned could not possibly be overlooked, there are to-day so many noteworthy pianists that even a most competent and well-informed musician would hesitate before passing judgment upon them. Prominent among the organists is Melville Charlton, of Brooklyn, an associate of the American Guild of Organists, who has now won for himself a place among the foremost organists of the United States, and who has also done good work as a composer. He is still a young man and from him may not unreasonably be expected many years of high artistic endeavor. Two other very prominent organists are William Herbert Bush, of New London, Conn., and Frederick P. White, of Boston. Mr. Bush has for thirty years filled his position at the Second Congregational Church, of New London, and has also given much time to composition. Mr. White, also a composer, for twenty-five years had charge of the instrument in the First Methodist Episcopal Church, of Charlestown, Mass. Excellent violinists are numerous, but in connection with this instrument especially must it be remarked that more and more must the line of distinction be drawn between the work of a pleasing and talented performer and the effort of a conscientious and painstaking artist. Foremost is Clarence Cameron White, of Boston. Prominent also for some years has been Joseph Douglass, of Washington. Felix Weir, of Washington and New York, has given unusual promise; and Kemper Harreld, of Chicago and Atlanta, also deserves mention. In this general sketch of those who have added to the musical achievement of the race there is a name that must not be overlooked. "Blind Tom," who attracted so much attention a generation ago, deserves notice as a prodigy rather than as a musician of solid accomplishment. His real name was Thomas Bethune, and he was born in Columbus, Ga., in 1849. He was peculiarly susceptible to the influences of nature, and imitated on the piano all the sounds he knew. Without being able to read a note he could play from memory the most difficult compositions of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. In phonetics he was especially skillful. Before his audiences he would commonly invite any of his hearers to play new and difficult selections, and as soon as a rendering was finished he would himself play the composition without making a single mistake.
Of those who have exhibited the capabilities of the Negro voice in song it is but natural that sopranos should have been most distinguished. Even before the Civil War the race produced one of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who came into prominence in 1851. This artist, born in Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared for by a Quaker lady. Said the Daily State Register, of Albany, after one of her concerts: "The compass of her marvelous voice embraces twenty-seven notes, reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to a few notes above even Jenny Lind's highest." A voice with a range of more than three octaves naturally attracted much attention in both England and America, and comparisons with Jenny Lind, then at the height of her great fame, were frequent. After her success on the stage Miss Greenfield became a teacher of music in Philadelphia. Twenty-five years later the Hyers Sisters, Anna and Emma, of San Francisco, started on their memorable tour of the continent, winning some of their greatest triumphs in critical New England. Anna Hyers especially was remarked as a phenomenon. Then arose Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the first rank, and one who, by her arias and operatic work generally, as well as by her mastery of language, won great success on the continent of Europe as well as in England and America. The careers of two later singers are so recent as to be still fresh in the public memory; one indeed may still be heard on the stage. It was in 1887 that Flora Batson entered on the period of her greatest success. She was a ballad singer and her work at its best was of the sort that sends an audience into the wildest enthusiasm. Her voice exhibited a compass of three octaves, from the purest, most clear-cut soprano, sweet and full, to the rich round notes of the baritone register. Three or four years later than Flora Batson in her period of greatest artistic success was Mrs. Sissieretta Jones. The voice of this singer, when it first attracted wide attention, about 1893, commanded notice as one of unusual richness and volume, and as one exhibiting especially the plaintive quality ever present in the typical Negro voice.
At the present time Harry T. Burleigh instantly commands attention. For twenty years this singer has been the baritone soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church, New York, and for about half as long at Temple Emanu-El, the Fifth Avenue Jewish synagogue. As a concert and oratorio singer Mr. Burleigh has met with signal success. Of the younger men, Roland W. Hayes, a tenor, is outstanding. He has the temperament of an artist and gives promise of being able to justify expectations awakened by a voice of remarkable quality. Within recent years Mme. Anita Patti Brown, a product of the Chicago conservatories, has also been prominent as a concert soloist. She sings with simplicity and ease, and in her voice is a sympathetic quality that makes a ready appeal to the heart of an audience. Just at present Mme. Mayme Calloway Byron, most recently of Chicago, seems destined within the near future to take the very high place that she deserves. This great singer has but lately returned to America after years of study and cultivation in Europe. She has sung in the principal theaters abroad and was just on the eve of filling an engagement at the Opéra Comique when the war began and forced her to change her plans.
In this general review of those who have helped to make the Negro voice famous, mention must be made of a remarkable company of singers who first made the folk-songs of the race known to the world at large. In 1871 the Fisk Jubilee Singers began their memorable progress through America and Europe, meeting at first with scorn and sneers, but before long touching the heart of the world with their strange music. The original band consisted of four young men and five young women; in the seven years of the existence of the company altogether twenty-four persons were enrolled in it. Altogether, these singers raised for Fisk University one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and secured school books, paintings, and apparatus to the value of seven or eight thousand more. They sang in the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany, sometimes before royalty. Since their time they have been much imitated, but hardly ever equaled, and never surpassed.
This review could hardly close without mention of at least a few other persons who have worked along distinctive lines and thus contributed to the general advance. Pedro T. Tinsley is director of the Choral Study Club of Chicago, which has done much work of real merit. Lulu Vere Childers, director of music at Howard University, is a contralto and an excellent choral director; while John W. Work, of Fisk University, by editing and directing, has done much for the preservation of the old melodies. Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, for some years prominent as a concert soprano, has recently given her time most largely to the work of teaching and showing the capabilities of the Negro voice. Possessed of a splendid musical temperament, she has enjoyed the benefit of three years of foreign study, has published "A Guide to Voice Culture," and generally inspired many younger singers or performers. Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare, of Boston, a concert pianist, has within the last few years elicited much favorable comment from cultured persons by her lecture-recitals dealing with Afro-American music. In these she has been assisted by William H. Richardson, baritone soloist of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Cambridge. Scattered throughout the country are many other capable teachers or promising young artists.
XIII
GENERAL PROGRESS, 1918-1921
THE three years that have passed since the present book appeared have been years of tremendous import in the life of the Negro people of the United States, as indeed in that of the whole nation. In 1918 we were in the very midst of the Great War, and not until the fall of that year were the divisions of the Students' Army Training Corps organized in our colleges; and yet already some things that marked the conflict are beginning to seem very long ago.
To some extent purely literary and artistic achievement in America was for the time being retarded, and in the case of the Negro this was especially true. The great economic problems raised by the war and its aftermath have very largely absorbed the energy of the race; and even if something was actually done—as in a literary way—it was not easy for it to gain recognition, the cost of publication frequently being prohibitive. An enormous amount of power yearned for expression, however; scores and even hundreds of young people were laying solid foundations in different lines of art; and within the next decade we shall almost certainly witness a great fulfillment of their striving. Yet even for the time being there are some things that cannot pass unnoticed.
Of those who have received prominent mention in the present book, W.E. Burghardt DuBois and William Stanley Braithwaite especially have continued the kind of work of which they had already given indication. In 1920 appeared Dr. DuBois's "Darkwater" (Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York), a strong indictment of the attitude of the white world toward the Negro and other colored peoples. This book belongs rather to the field of social discussion than to that of pure literature, and whether one prefers it to "The Souls of Black Folk" will depend largely on whether he prefers a work primarily in the wider field of politics or one especially noteworthy for its literary quality. Mr. Braithwaite has continued the publication of his "Anthology of Magazine Verse" (now issued annually through Small, Maynard & Co., Boston), and he has also issued "The Golden Treasury of Magazine Verse" (Small, Maynard & Co., 1918), "Victory: Celebrated by Thirty-eight American Poets" (Small, Maynard & Co., 1919), as well as "The Story of the Great War" for young people (Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York, 1919). As for the special part of the Negro in the war, importance attaches to Dr. Emmett J. Scott's "Official History of the American Negro in the World War" (Washington, 1919), while in biography outstanding is Robert Russa Moton's "Finding a Way Out" (Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y., 1920), a work written in modest vein and forming a distinct contribution to the history of the times.
Of those poets who have come into prominence within the period now under review first place must undoubtedly be given to Claude McKay. This man was originally a Jamaican and his one little book was published in London; but for the last several years he has made his home in the United States and his achievement must now be identified with that of the race in this country. He has served a long apprenticeship in writing, has a firm sense of form, and only time can now give the full measure of his capabilities. His sonnet, "The Harlem Dancer," is astonishing in its artistry, and another sonnet, "If We must Die," is only less unusual in strength. Mr. McKay has recently brought together the best of his work in a slender volume, "Spring in New Hampshire, and Other Poems" (Grant Richards & Co., London, 1920). Three young men who sometimes gave interesting promise, have died within the period—Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., Roscoe C. Jamison, and Lucian B. Watkins. Cotter's "The Band of Gideon, and Other Lyrics" (The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918) especially showed something of the freedom of genuine poetry; and mention must also be made of Charles B. Johnson's "Songs of my People" (The Cornhill Co., 1918), while Leslie Pickney Hill's "The Wings of Oppression" (The Stratford Co., Boston, 1921) brings together some of the striking verse that this writer has contributed to different periodicals within recent years. Meanwhile Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson has continued the composition of her poignant lyrics, and Mrs. Alice M. Dunbar-Nelson occasionally gives demonstration of her unquestionable ability, as in the sonnet, "I had not thought of violets of late" (Crisis, August, 1919). If a prize were to be given for the best single poem produced by a member of the race within the last three years, the decision would probably have to rest between this sonnet and McKay's "The Harlem Dancer."
In other fields of writing special interest attaches to the composition of dramatic work. Mary Burrill and Mrs. Dunbar-Nelson especially have contributed one-act plays to different periodicals; Angelina W. Grimké has formally published "Rachel," a play in three acts (The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1920), while several teachers and advanced students at the different educational institutions are doing excellent amateur work that will certainly tell later in a larger way. R. T. Browne's "The Mystery of Space" (E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1920), is an interesting excursion in metaphysics; and this book calls forth a remark about the general achievement of the race in philosophy and science. These departments are somewhat beyond the province of the present work. It is worthwhile to note, however, that while the whole field of science is just now being entered in a large way by members of the race, several of the younger men within the last decade have entered upon work of the highest order of original scholarship. No full study of this phase of development has yet been made; but for the present an article by Dr. Emmett J. Scott, "Scientific Achievements of Negroes" (Southern Workman, July, 1920), will probably be found an adequate summary. Maud Cuney Hare has brought out a beautiful anthology, "The Message of the Trees" (The Cornhill Co., Boston, 1919); and in the wide field of literature mention might also be made of "A Short History of the English Drama," by the author of the present book (Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1921).
The general attitude in the presentation of Negro characters in the fiction in the standard magazines of the country has shown some progress within the last three years, though this might seem to be fully offset by such burlesques as are given in the work of E. K. Means and Octavus Roy Cohen, all of which but gives further point to the essay on "The Negro in American Fiction" in this book. Quite different and of much more sympathetic temper are "The Shadow," a novel by Mary White Ovington (Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1920) and George Madden Martin's "Children of the Mist," a collection of stories about the people in the lowlands of the South (D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1920).
In the field of the theatre and the drama there has been progress, though the lower order of popular comedy still makes strong appeal; and of course all legitimate drama has recently had to meet the competition of moving-pictures, in connection with which several members of the race have in one way or another won success. Outstanding is Noble M. Johnson, originally of Colorado, a man of great personal gifts and with a face and figure admirably adapted to Indian as well as Negro parts. In the realm of the spoken drama attention fixes at once upon Charles S. Gilpin, whose work is so important that it must be given special and separate treatment. It is worthy of note also that great impetus has recently been given to the construction of playhouses, the thoroughly modern Dunbar Theatre in Philadelphia being a shining example. Interesting in the general connection for the capability that many of the participants showed was the remarkable pageant, "The Open Door," first presented at Atlanta University and in the winter of 1920-21 given in various cities of the North for the benefit of this institution.
In painting and sculpture there has been much promise, but no one has appeared who has gone beyond the achievement of those persons who had already won secure position. Indeed that would be a very difficult thing to do. Mr. Tanner, Mr. Scott, Mrs. Meta Warrick Fuller, and Mrs. May Howard Jackson have all continued their work. Mr. Tanner has remained abroad, but there have recently been exhibitions of his pictures in Des Moines and Boston, and in 1919 Mrs. Jackson exhibited at the National Academy of Design and at the showing of the Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf-Astoria. In connection with sculpture, important is a labor of love, a book, "Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture," by Frederick H. M. Murray (published by the author, 1733 7th St., N. W., Washington, 1916). This work contains many beautiful illustrations and deserves the attention of all who are interested in the artistic life of the Negro or in his portrayal by representative American sculptors.
In music the noteworthy fact is that there has been such general recognition of the value of Negro music as was never accorded before, and impetus toward co-operation and achievement has been given by the new National Association of Negro Musicians. R. Nathaniel Dett has been most active and has probably made the greatest advance. His compositions and the songs of Harry T. Burleigh are now frequently given a place on the programs of the foremost artists in America and Europe, and the present writer has even heard them at sea. Outstanding among smaller works by Mr. Dett is his superb "Chariot Jubilee," designed for tenor solo and chorus of mixed voices, with accompaniment of organ, piano, and orchestra. To the Southern Workman (April and May, 1918) this composer contributed two articles. "The Emancipation of Negro Music" and "Negro Music of the Present"; and, while continuing his studies at Harvard University in 1920, under the first of these titles he won a Bowdoin essay prize, and for a chorus without accompaniment, "Don't be weary, traveler," he also won the Francis Boott prize of $100. Melville Charlton, the distinguished organist, has gained greater maturity and in April, 1919, under the auspices of the Verdi Club, he conducted "Il Trovatore" in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria. Maud Cuney Hare has helped to popularize Negro music by lecture-recitals and several articles in musical journals, the latter being represented by such titles as "The Drum in Africa," "The Sailor and his Songs," and "Afro-American Folk-Song Contribution" in the Musical Observer. In January, 1919, with the assistance of William R. Richardson, baritone, Mrs. Hare gave a lecture-recital on "Afro-American and Creole Music" in the lecture hall of the Boston Public Library, this being one of four such lectures arranged for the winter by the library trustees and marking the first time such recognition was accorded members of the race. The violinist, Clarence Cameron White, has also entered the ranks of the composers with his "Bandanna Sketches" and other productions, and to the Musical Observer (beginning in February, 1917) he also contributed a formal consideration of "Negro Music." Meanwhile J. Rosamond Johnson, Carl Diton, and other musicians have pressed forward; and it is to be hoped that before very long the ambitious and frequently powerful work of H. Laurence Freeman will also win the recognition it deserves.
In the department of singing, in which the race has already done so much laudable work, we are evidently on the threshold of greater achievement than ever before. Several young men and women are just now appearing above the horizon, and only a few years are needed to see who will be able to contribute most; and what applies to the singers holds also in the case of the young violinists, pianists, and composers. Of those who have appeared within the period, Antoinette Smythe Garnes, who was graduated from the Chicago Musical College in 1919 with a diamond medal for efficiency, has been prominent among those who have awakened the highest expectation; and Marian Anderson, a remarkable contralto, and Cleota J. Collins, a soprano, have frequently appeared with distinct success. Meanwhile Roland W. Hayes, the tenor, has been winning further triumphs by his concerts in London; and generally prominent before the public in the period now under review has been Mme. Florence Cole Talbert, also the winner of a diamond medal at Chicago in 1916. Mme. Talbert has been a conscientious worker; her art has now ripened; and she has justified her high position by the simplicity and ease with which she has appeared on numerous occasions, one of the most noteworthy of her concerts being that at the University of California in 1920.
A list of books bearing on the artistic life of the Negro, whether or not by members of the race, would include those below. It may be remarked that these are only some of the more representative of the productions within the last three years, and attention might also be called to the pictures of the Van Hove Statues in the Congo Museum at Brussels in the Crisis, September, 1920.
A Social History of the American Negro, by Benjamin Brawley. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1921.
Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, recorded from the singing and the sayings of C. Kamba Simango, Ndau Tribe, Portuguese East Africa, and Madikane Cele, Zulu Tribe, Natal, Zululand, South Africa, by Natalie Curtis Burlin. G. Schirmer, New York and Boston, 1920.
Negro Folk-Songs: Hampton Series, recorded by Natalie Curtis Burlin, in four books. G. Schirmer, New York and Boston, 1918.
The Upward Path: A reader for colored children, compiled by Myron T. Prichard and Mary White Ovington, with an introduction by Robert R. Moton. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1920.
J. A. Lomax: Self-Pity in Negro Folk-Songs. Nation, August 9, 1917.
Louise Pound: Ancestry of a "Negro Spiritual." Modern Language Notes, November, 1918.
Natalie Curtis Burlin: Negro Music at Birth. Music Quarterly, January, 1919, and Current Opinion, March, 1919.
William Stanley Braithwaite: Some Contemporary Poets of the Negro Race. Crisis, April, 1919.
Elsie Clews Parsons: Joel Chandler Harris and Negro Folklore. Dial, May 17, 1919.
Willis Richardson: The Hope of a Negro Drama. Crisis, November, 1919.
N. I. White: Racial Traits in the Negro Song. Sewanee Review, July, 1920.
Our Debt to Negro Sculpture. Literary Digest, July 17, 1920.
C. Bell: Negro Sculpture. Living Age, September 25, 1920.
Robert T. Kerlin: Present-Day Negro Poets. Southern Workman, December, 1920.
Robert T. Kerlin: "Canticles of Love and Woe." Southern Workman, February, 1921.
XIV
CHARLES S. GILPIN
AS an illustration of the highly romantic temperament that characterizes the Negro race, and also as an instance of an artist who has worked for years to realize his possibilities, we might cite such a shining example as Charles S. Gilpin, the star of "The Emperor Jones" in the New York theatrical season of 1920-21. Here is a man who for years dreamed of attainment in the field of the legitimate drama, but who found no opening; but who with it all did not despair, and now, after years of striving and waiting, stands with his rounded experience and poise as an honor and genuine contributor to the American stage.
Charles S. Gilpin was born in Richmond, Va., the youngest child in a large family. His mother was a nurse in the city hospital; his father a hard-working man in a steel plant. He was educated at St. Frances' Convent, where he sang well and took some part in amateur theatricals; but he was to work a long while yet before he found a chance to do the kind of work that he wanted to do, and meanwhile he was to earn his living as printer or barber or otherwise, just as occasion served. He himself has recently said, "I've been in stock companies, vaudeville, minstrel shows, and carnivals; but not until 1907 did I have an opportunity to show an audience that the Negro has dramatic talent and likes to play parts other than comedy ones."
It was in the 90's that Mr. Gilpin began his professional work as a variety performer in Richmond, and he soon joined a traveling organization. In 1903 he was one of the Gilmore Canadian Jubilee Singers; in 1905 he was with Williams and Walker; the next season with Gus Hill's "Smart Set"; and then from 1907 to 1909 with the Pekin Stock Company of Chicago. This last company consisted of about forty members, of whom eleven were finally selected for serious drama. Mr. Gilpin was one of these; but the manager died, and once more the aspiring actor was forced back to vaudeville.
Now followed ten long years—ten years of the kind that blast and kill, and with which even the strongest man sometimes goes under. With the New York managers there was no opening. And yet sometimes there was hope—not only hope, but leadership and effort for others, as when Mr. Gilpin carried a company of his own to the Lafayette Theatre and helped to begin the production of Broadway shows. Life was leading—somewhere; but meanwhile one had to live, and the way was as yet uncertain. At last, in 1919, came a chance to play William Custis, the old Negro in Drinkwater's "Abraham Lincoln."
The part was not a great one. It was still bound by racial limitations and Custis appeared in only one scene. Nevertheless the work was serious; here at least was opportunity.
In the early fall of 1920 Mr. Gilpin was still playing Custis and helping to make the play a success. Meanwhile, however, Eugene O'Neill, one of the most original playwrights in the country, had written "The Emperor Jones"; and Charles S. Gilpin was summoned to the part of the star.
There were many who regretted to see him leave "Abraham Lincoln," and some indeed who wondered if he did the wise thing. To Charles Gilpin, however, came the decision that sooner or later must be faced by every artist, and indeed by every man in any field of endeavor—either to rest on safe and assumed achievement, or to believe in one's own self, take the great risk, and launch out into the unknown. He choose to believe in himself. His work was one of the features of the New York theatrical season of 1920-21, and at the annual dinner of the Drama League in 1921 he was one of the ten guests who were honored as having contributed most to the American theatre within the year.
The play on which this success has been based is a highly original and dramatic study of panic and fear. The Emperor Jones is a Negro who has broken out of jail in the United States and escaped to what is termed a "West Indian Island not yet self-determined by white marines." Here he is sufficiently bold and ingenious to make himself ruler within two years. He moves unharmed among his sullen subjects by virtue of a legend of his invention that only a silver bullet can harm him, but at length when he has reaped all the riches in sight, he deems it advisable to flee. As the play begins, the measured sound of a beating tom-tom in the hills gives warning that the natives are in conclave, using all kinds of incantations to work themselves up to the point of rebellion. Nightfall finds the Emperor at the edge of a forest where he has food hidden and through whose trackless waste he knows a way to safety and freedom. His revolver carries five bullets for his pursuers and a silver one for himself in case of need. Bold and adventurous, he plunges into the jungle at sunset; but at dawn, half-crazed, naked, and broken, he stumbles back to the starting-place only to find the natives quietly waiting for him there. Now follows a vivid portrayal of strange sounds and shadows, with terrible visions from the past. As the Emperor's fear quickens, the forest seems filled with threatening people who stare at and bid for him. Finally, shrieking at the worst vision of all, he is driven back to the clearing and to his death, the tom-tom beating ever nearer and faster according as his panic grows.
To the work of this remarkable part—which is so dominating in the play that it has been called a dramatic monologue—Mr. Gilpin brings the resources of a matured and thoroughly competent actor. His performance is powerful and richly imaginative, and only other similarly strong plays are now needed for the further enlargement of the art of an actor who has already shown himself capable of the hardest work and the highest things.
For once the critics were agreed. Said Alexander Woolcott in the New York Times with reference to those who produced the play: "They have acquired an actor, one who has it in him to invoke the pity and the terror and the indescribable foreboding which are part of the secret of 'The Emperor Jones.'" Kenneth MacGowan wrote in the Globe; "Gilpin's is a sustained and splendid piece of acting. The moment when he raises his naked body against the moonlit sky, beyond the edge of the jungle, and prays, is such a dark lyric of the flesh, such a cry of the primitive being, as I have never seen in the theatre"; and in the Tribune Heywood Broun said of the actor: "He sustains the succession of scenes in monologue not only because his voice is one of a gorgeous natural quality, but because he knows just what to do with it. All the notes are there and he has also an extraordinary facility for being in the right place at the right time." Such comments have been re-echoed by the thousands who have witnessed Mr. Gilpin's thrilling work, and in such a record as this he deserves further credit as one who has finally bridged the chasm between popular comedy and the legitimate drama, and who thus by sheer right of merit steps into his own as the foremost actor that the Negro race has produced within recent years.