Miss Anne in Harlem
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103 “I know I’m not beautiful” . . . “And it always surprises”: Josephine Cogdell, journal, 1927, Box 8, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
103 In California, Josephine was taken: In the United States, many raw-foodists trace their origins to Dr. St. Louis Estes, a former dentist, the founder of the Raw Food Eaters’ Health Club and the author of an influential though controversial book, Raw Food and Health (still in print), which came out in 1927. Estes toured the country, offering himself as evidence of the benefits of a raw-food diet. “In middle age he was crippled, given up to die. ‘Right food’ cured him. Once he was bald. ‘Right food’ grew his hair again. By changing food he twice changed the color of his hair,” Time magazine reported in 1934. “‘A diet of natural food, that is, milk and raw fruits and vegetables, will cure baldness and bad teeth, rheumatism, weak eyes and ugly dispositions, and above all raw food will keep one slim and energetic.’ Thirteen years ago, Dr. Estes . . . cured himself of paralysis . . . by eating raw food.”
104 “All cooked food”: Jannath, “Death and Diet [II],” 107.
104 “California was flaming”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 530.
104 “an insular, irrelevant”: Quoted in Dearborn, Queen of Bohemia, 177.
104 “Socialism has always drawn”: Josephine Cogdell, journal, 1920, Box 8, Folder 3, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
104 “Like all intelligent”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, “An Interracial Marriage,” 274.
104 “A colored woman”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 529.
105 “shame and guilt”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 530.
105 “white chickens pecking”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 531.
105 “exalted opinion”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 530.
105 “began a novel”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 531.
105 “a point of . . . classes and studios”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “17 Years of Mixed Marriage,” 62.
105 It published her somewhat garbled: Cogdell, “Truth in Art in America,” 634–35; Cogdell, “My Sorrow Song,” 388; Cogdell, “Irony,” 366; Cogdell, “Spring,” 178; Cogdell, “Those Inimitable Avatars,” 302. I am grateful to Hania Musiol for helping me locate and obtain copies of these early race writings by Josephine Cogdell.
105 “A swift metamorphosis”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 531.
106 “Everyone was madly in love with him”: According to his daughter Lisa, that effect continued up until his death in 1971. Even as an old man, Garth was surrounded by a phalanx of adoring women wherever he appeared. Author’s interview with Lisa Illia, February 18, 2011.
107 With her allowance: It is possible the banker “Paxton” gave her money.
107 “melancholy [that] had”: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary, Box 8, Folder 9, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
107 Josephine sometimes had to pawn: In 1923, she pawned a diamond ring at Treister’s Jewelers for which she reported receiving $975, a small fortune at the time.
108 “Nonsense”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, undated diary [1920s], Box 8, Folder 5, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
108 “it’s good enough” . . . “the same”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, undated diary, July [1927], Box 8, Folder 11, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
108 She would also look: Author’s interview with Lisa Illia, February 18, 2011.
110 “Socialists, Trade Unionists”: Barnet, All-Night Party, 143.
110 In Greenwich Village: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, undated diary [1927], Box 8, Folder 24, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
110 “large airy room” . . . “Village Yankees”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, undated diary [1927], Box 8, Folder 24, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
111 “participation in suffrage”: Stansell, American Moderns, 229.
111 “half-way through the door”: Stansell, American Moderns, 231.
111 “living by one’s wits”: Levin, Bohemia in America, 150.
111 “Female Bohemians had to be”: Freedman, “The New Woman,” 393.
111 four thousand: DeBoer-Langworthy, The Modern World of Neith Boyce, 12.
111 “intellectually sterile”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “17 Years of Mixed Marriage,” 63.
111 “new world”: Johnson, Along This Way, 152. In the early years of the twentieth century, “Black Bohemia” was located not in Harlem but in the Tenderloin and San Juan Hill.
112 “In Harlem”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, undated diary, Box 8, Folder 24, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
112 “The Fall of a Fair Confederate”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 62.
112 “The fact that he was dark”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “17 Years of Mixed Marriage.”
112 “There is a certain affinity”: George Schuyler, Slaves Today, 183–84.
112 “Mecca”: Anderson, This Was Harlem, 61.
113 “Only Negroes belong in Harlem”: Robeson, Paul Robeson, 42, 44.
113 “was a place”: Nugent, quoted in Watson, The Harlem Renaissance, 144.
113 “Everything about Harlem”: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary, Box 8, Folder 9, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
114 “the intellectual pulse”: Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue, 105.
114 thanks in part to the efforts: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 124.
114 “The popular idea of Harlem”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 535.
114 “Intense political debates”: Ransby, Ella Baker, 67.
114 “I found the group”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “17 Years of Mixed Marriage,” 63.
114 “raise questions”: quoted in Ransby, Ella Baker, 79.
114 “a notorious naysayer”: Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 183.
115 “‘fundamental, eternal’”: George Schuyler, “The Negro-Art Hokum,” 662–63.
115 “We are not”: George Schuyler, “Views and Reviews,” July 3, 1926, 2.
116 “My whole life changed”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 163.
116 “something of an expert”: Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 143.
116 “How bawdy the music” Quoted in Talalay, Composition in Black and White, 19.
117 “the dream is the Superself”: Schuyler and Schuyler, Kingdom of Dreams, 194.
117 “to help you”: Schuyler and Schuyler, Kingdom of Dreams, 204.
117 “Altho I trembled with fear”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, diary [1924?], Box 8, Folder 6, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
118 “neurotic disease”: Schuyler and Schuyler, Kingdom of Dreams, 75.
118 “as far back”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 3–4.
118 “a good table . . . order and discipline”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 6.
118 “I was always to fight back”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 18.
119 George Schuyler couldn’t get enough: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 60.
119 He worked as a porter: Peplow, George S. Schuyler, 20.
119 “full bosom . . . pretty good”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 98.
120 “The words ‘Negro’”: George Schuyler, “The Caucasian Problem,” in What the Negro Wants, ed. Logan, 298.
120 “fundamental, eternal”: George Schuyler, “The Negro Art Hokum,” 663.
120 “At best, race is a superstitution”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 352.
120 “the only gentleman”: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary, Box 8, Folder 9, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
120 “disapp
ointed me”: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary, Box 8, Folder 9, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
121 “liberal on the race question”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 163.
121 “Everything about Harlem thrilled me”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 532.
121 “My sentimental views”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 532.
121 “loyal . . . tribulations”: George Schuyler, “Reminiscences,” 159; George Schuyler, “Views and Reviews,” February 6, 1926, 3; George Schuyler, “Speaking of History and Monuments,” 16.
121 “would have been hard pressed”: Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 150.
122 love letters: E.g., George Schuyler to Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, March 28, 1929, Schomburg Center.
122 “Sex across the color line”: Mumford, Interzones, xi.
122 “Something marvelous”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, undated diary [1927], Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
123 “invisible norm”: Nell Painter, quoted in Alcoff, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being.”
123 “Even worse than what they”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 533.
124 “Temptation”: On “Temptation” as Josephine’s poem, see Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 274, n. 30. Although I agree that the poem is hers, Ferguson did not, until a recent phone conversation with me, consider it a satire. That earlier opinion is representative of the low regard many of George’s biographers have long had for his wife.
124 “With George”: Quoted by Talalay, Composition in Black and White, 21.
124 “I felt that what was good”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 532.
125 Then, unexpectedly: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary [1927], Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
126 “flabby bankers and brokers”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 533.
128 “Experimenting with a Negro lover”: Quoted by Talalay, Composition in Black and White, 37. Talalay provides no citation for this quote; it cannot be verified from extant original sources.
128 “When Black Weds White”: George Schuyler, “When Black Weds White.”
129 “I have gained the peace”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “The Fall of a Fair Confederate,” 536.
129 “The violent American complex”: George Schuyler, “When Black Weds White,” 12.
129 “there was never a happier bride”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, “An Interracial Marriage,” 275.
129 “The race barrier”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “17 Years of Mixed Marriage,” 65.
129 “I know up North” . . . “orthodox wife”: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary [1927–28], n.p.; Schuyler Family Papers, Josephine Schuyler Collection, Schomburg.
130 “the mudsill upon which”: George Schuyler, “Our Greatest Gift to America,” in Johnson, ed., Ebony and Topaz, 124.
130 “intellectual Slave”: Gordon, “Some Disadvantages of Being White,” 79.
131 “want to play”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, untitled fragment, “From Texas to Harlem with Love,” 5. Different versions of this narrative appear, with different wording, in various draft versions of “From Texas to Harlem with Love.” This version is quoted by Talalay, Composition in Black and White, 38. I have not been able to locate Talalay’s transcription in extant copies of the manuscript. What follows draws from the diaries and fragments.
132 “inter-racial marriage”: Lemire, “Miscegenation,” 150, n. 5.
132 “This is by far the easiest”: Asbury, “Who Is a Negro?,” 6.
133 But for some reason: Certificate and record of marriage, January 6, 1928, Certificate 2639, George S. Schuyler and Josephine Lewis, State of New York, New York Municipal Archives.
133 “a progressive deed”: Dreisinger, Near Black, 7.
134 “As I stepped down”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, manuscript fragment of “From Texas to Harlem with Love,” chap. 16, edited draft, 9, Philippa Schuyler Unprocessed Papers, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
134 “You papa, you initiated me so”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, manuscript fragment of “From Texas to Harlem with Love,” chap. 16, edited draft, 5–6, Philippa Schuyler Unprocessed Papers, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
135 “The future war”: Jannath, “America’s Changing Color Line,” 89.
135 “New Women”: George Schuyler, “Emancipated Women and the Negro.”
136 “spoiled”: Joann Rhome Herring, daughter of Josephine’s sister Daisy’s oldest son, telephone interview, February 17, 2013.
137 “Taboo”: Jannath, “Taboo,” 307.
137 “My husband is a Yankee”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, manuscript fragment of “From Texas to Harlem with Love,” chap. 16, 342, Philippa Schuyler Unprocessed Papers, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg, 343–44.
137 “You are entering a new life”: Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, manuscript fragment of “From Texas to Harlem with Love,” chap. 16, 343–44, Philippa Schuyler Unprocessed Papers, Schuyler Family Papers, Schomburg.
138 “Anything that’s alive”: Jerome [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “Love Always Changing,” 9.
139 “There are Negroes, of course”: George Schuyler, “Our White Folks,” 386.
139 “inside information”: George Schuyler, “Our White Folks,” 387.
139 “Knowing him so intimately”: George Schuyler, “Our White Folks,” 387.
140 “the moony scions”: George Schuyler, “Our White Folks,” 385.
140 “Lilliputians”: George Schuyler, “Our White Folks,” 391.
141 “Copious praise”: Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 126.
141 “the most recognizable name”: Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 125.
141 “particular kind of lie”: Nancy Cunard, editorial footnote to Jannath, “America’s Changing Color Line,” in Negro, ed. Cunard, 88.
141 “There is no creature”: Dorothea Gardner, “Black Women Strike Back,” “National News,” Illustrated Feature Section (short-lived national newspaper insert), May 19, 1932, 15, clipping in George S. Schuyler Papers, Syracuse University.
142 “dignified, friendly”: Anonymous [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “17 Years of Mixed Marriage,” 63.
142 “the wives of many”: Ransby, Ella Baker, 81.
142 “irretrievable fall”: Quoted in Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 148.
142 But in his autobiography: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 124, 213. The single most important cultural institution of the Harlem Renaissance was its public library, with white librarian Ernestine Rose as its head. Extending principles of “localization” and “community self-expression” that she had developed in her work with immigrant groups, Rose encouraged exhibitions of local artists, reading groups on black history and literature, book clubs, symposia, and extensive programs of adult education, especially in African-American literature and African history. She hired the library’s first black librarians, including Nella Larsen, and defended her interracial staff to its many detractors. “Before one race meets another on equal grounds, it must know and respect itself,” she wrote. “Race knowledge must be stimulated and guided.” See Rose, “Serving New York’s Black City,” 255–58; “Books and the Color Line,” 75–76; “Where White and Black Meet,” 467–71; “A Librarian in Harlem,” 220. While rarely acknowledged in histories of the period, Rose had as much behind-the-scenes impact on Harlem Renaissance culture as Mary White Ovington did on its politics.
142 “Leaving Josephine to send”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 165–66.
143 “Leaving Josephine behind”: George Schuyler, Black and Conservative, 167.
144 “animated discourse”: Ransby, Ella Baker, 79.
145 “fed off their importance”: Ferguson, The Sage of Sugar Hill, 149.
145 “George a
nd Josie”: untitled poem by W. P. Dabney, Cincinnati Union, October 16, 1930, n.p., clipping in the George S. Schuyler Papers, Syracuse University.
146 “love must be monogamous”: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary, Schuyler Family Papers, Josephine Cogdell Schuyler Collection, Schomburg.
147 The Harlem Hospital: Gill, Harlem, 299.
147 “Women and children”: Quoted in Ransby, Ella Baker, 75.
147 reduced his salary: Williams, George S. Schuyler, 47.
148 “Butcher Shop”: Gill, Harlem, 285.
148 Ella Baker and other women friends: Ransby, Ella Baker, 81.
148 “Gargoyles of Color”: Tanne [Josephine Cogdell Schuyler], “On Lenox,” 338. Lenox Avenue is one of Harlem’s main streets. The poem’s speaker is recording first impressions of the excitement of life in Harlem.
148 “Whites sometimes”: Jannath, “America’s Changing Color Line,” in Negro, ed. Cunard, 86.
148 “extraordinarily productive”: Peplow, George S. Schuyler, 26.
148 Many have noted a change: Peplow, George S. Schuyler, 48.
148 Often he was in areas: At one point, The Pittsburgh Courier even announced that Schuyler was “in the interior of Africa” and unable, owing to the “irregularity of the mail services,” to send his usual pieces. The Pittsburgh Courier, April 25, 1931, 10; “Schuyler Abroad,” The Pittsburgh Courier, April 4, 1931, 11–12.
149 “I know or have heard”: Jannath, “America’s Changing Color Line,” in Negro, ed. Cunard, 85, 87.
150 If Josephine was right: On the asymmetries of “reverse passing,” see Dreisinger, Near Black.
150 “bits of scandal”: Josephine Cogdell, undated diary, Schuyler Family Papers, Josephine Schuyler Collection, Schomburg.
151 “moonlight” . . . “pure white womanhood”: Jannath, “Deep Dixie,” 87.
151 “Damned Good Story”: William Pickens to Heba Jannath, March 4, 1931, Box 3, Folder 6, Schuyler Family Papers, Josephine Cogdell Schuyler Collection, Schomburg.
151 As Tanne, Josephine published: Tanne, “To a Dark Poem,” The Messenger, March 1928. I base my claim that Laura Tanne is Schuyler on her style; on the fact that Tanne published only in the journals where Josephine Schuyler also published and only as long as Josephine was writing under pseudonyms; and on the fact that an exhaustive search for Laura Tanne, in any state at any time in the nation’s records, reveals no one by that name. It is possible but highly unlikely, given George Schuyler’s editorship of The Messenger at that time, that Tanne was a different woman publishing pseudonymously. However, her themes, as well as her style, were all those that Josephine was also working on.