More acutely than ever before Emma Lou began to feel that her luscious black complextion was some what of a liability, and that her marked color variation from the other people in her environment was a decided curse.
The Blacker the Berry ~ by Wallace Thurman, 1929, psychological fiction, 221 pages
This novel by Harlem Renaissance author Wallace Thurman follows the life of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin who was born and raised by a single mother in the predominantly white community of Boise, Idaho. She often feels like an outsider, even among her family, as they are lighter skinned than she is.
She believes that her dark skin will keep her from marrying and having an easy life. Because she wants a better life for herself, she goes to college at the University of Southern California, hoping to find people who will accept her. While she finds a larger black community at college, she continues to feel like an outsider and is often made to feel inferior and unwanted due to her darker skin.
After college, her search for love and acceptance takes her to New York and the vibrant black community of Harlem, but she continues to face prejudice and rejection in a world she thought would be more accepting of her. My edition has a 1996 introduction by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, author of The Sweeter the Juice.
Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts
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