Chester B. Himes

by Lawrence P. Jackson

  I would like to thank the College of Emory University and in particular Robin Foreman, the dean of the college, who has supported my career at crucial stages. My fellow biographer of black writers Keith Gilyard has lent great support and genuine brotherhood to me and been an uncle to my children. Dean Beverly Wendland and Vice Dean Chris Celenza at Johns Hopkins University have also been unusually helpful and supportive of this project. At Johns Hopkins, I also appreciate the welcome and support of colleagues Hollis Robbins, Chris Nealon, Mark Thompson, John Marshall, Cheryl Holcombe-McCoy, and Kathryn Edin.

  There are always a series of mischances and odd occasions in the course of writing a biography, but I would like to thank three people who have made a powerful impression on my understanding of Chester Himes. One year before her death, an ill Lesley Himes welcomed me into her home in Spain. She was a gracious and considerate hostess, in spite of the fact that she was rushed to the hospital during my brief stay in Moraira. Melvin Van Peebles also was very generous with his time. Finally, Carlos Moore, whom I regard highly as a complex committed man of literary and intellectual affairs, made himself available on multiple occasions and contributed a valuable portrait of two world-class figures whom he knew intimately.

  Dr. Preston King has graciously taken his time to help me develop my reflections on this period and shared his knowledge, wisdom, and personal recollections of several key twentieth-century transatlantic black figures. It has been my privilege to have him as a friend.

  I would also like to thank James A. Miller and Jerry G. Watts, who joined the ancestors in 2015. My friends David Miller, Dr. Leroy Reese, Nathan McCall, and James Ezelio have helped me to see the brighter side of life. My mother and my sons have been unusually supportive and understanding of the odd life of the writer.

  My agent, Regina Brooks; my editor, Amy Cherry; her assistant, Remy Cawley; and my expert copy editor, Trent Duffy, have contributed a great deal to this project.

  Evelyn Crawford and Mary Louise Patterson are exemplary women I have been so very fortunate to know. I would also like to thank colleagues Michael D. Hill, Alan Wald, Vanessa Siddle-Walker, Isabel Wilkerson, Richard Yarborough, Jonathan Eburne, Dianne Stewart, James Sallis, Michelle Gordon, Shana Redmond, Lena Hill, Valerie Loichot, François Furstenberg, James West, William Maxwell, Dolan Hubbard, Kevin Bell, Elizabeth Alexander, Manthia Diawara, Ike Newsum, Ayesha Hardison, and Beverly Moss. Several people shared their knowledge of World War II–era California: Alden Kimbrough, Walter Gordon, and William Beverly. Molly Lewis, Rosylin Meindorfer, and Marylin Mobeley hospitably contributed to my understanding of New York, Spain, and Cleveland.

  I am especially grateful for the insights and hard work of students Gloria Jirsairaie, Olivia Young, Nicole Morris, Adam Newman, Joshua Coen, Jimmy Worthy, Guy Conn, Guirdex Masse, Toni Jones, and Rebekah Ramsay.

  I would like to express my gratitude for the help of multiple librarians and the libraries who serve the public: Amistad Library, Tulane University: Christopher Harter and Lee Hampton; Ralph Bunche Center, UCLA: Susan Anderson, Dalena Hunter, and Darnel Hunt; Southern California Library for Social Studies Research: Yusef Omowale, Michele Wesling, Julie Grigsby, and Racquel Chavez; Huntington Library; Missouri Historical Society; the Stuart A. Rose Library at Emory University: especially Randall Burkett and Pellom McDaniels; Emory University library staff, Marie Hansen, Jerrold Brantley and Erica Brucho; St. Louis Public Library; Alcorn State College Library: Professor J. Janice Williams; Yale University: Jacqueline Goldsby, Robert Stepto, and the staff at the Beinecke Rare Book Library; University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff Special Collections; Cleveland Public Library; Western Reserve Historical Society; Cuyahoga County Archives; Ohio State Historical Society, Columbus; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

  Enfin, je voudrais dire “merci” aux mes amis et frères le plus generieux qui habitant en Bouake et Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: Eugene N’Guessen, Daouda Coulibaly, Vamara Koné, Herman Camara, Pierre Kramoko, Toh Zorobi, Zie Outtara, et Azouma Outtara. Amities.

  Index

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  Page numbers after 499 refer to endnotes.

  Abbott, Robert Sengstacke, 94

  Abbott’s Monthly, 92, 94, 95, 187

  Abie the Jew (gambler), 69

  Académie Française, 390

  Actors’ Lab, 198

  Adam, 448

  Africa:

  Bantu peoples of, 475

  decolonization in, 403, 472

  Himes’s travel to, 445, 446–47

  Sharpeville massacre, 476

  African Americans:

  and American pop culture, 173–74

  and assimilation, 260

  attitudes toward white people, 24, 119–20, 217, 276, 418–19, 424

  and “Back to Africa” movement, 419, 420–21, 433

  black history studies, 42

  black nationalism, 420–21, 484

  and “black revolution,” 479

  as blacks, xv, 22, 268, 391

  and blaxploitation films, 476, 483–84

  and the blues, 230–31, 416

  “Buy Black” movement, 419

  civil rights for, see United States

  and Communist Party, 151, 153, 214, 239, 242–43, 244, 246

  and culture, 14, 22

  dealings with white people, 19, 36–37, 210, 303, 322, 336–39, 369, 410, 424, 426, 444, 464, 467

  discrimination against, 8, 12, 14, 61–64, 100–101, 124, 126–27, 130, 148–49, 154–56, 163–64, 171, 191, 201, 223, 236, 265, 283, 310, 422, 444, 464, 497

  domestic abuse of, 285

  and double V, 153–54, 161, 171

  and drugs, 426

  educated elite of, 191

  education of, 7, 11–14, 21, 22, 25, 28–30, 32, 35, 38–43, 46, 60, 61, 243, 275, 426, 427

  and exceptionalism, 14, 22–23

  extramarital affairs of, 184

  family relations of, 213, 231, 278–79, 280, 300, 380

  and FBI, 176, 188, 297–98, 423, 470, 472

  and films, 476, 483–84; see also specific films

  and generation gap, 164

  and gradualism, 265

  housing for, 132, 151, 160, 222, 243, 269

  and industrialization, 25, 30, 243, 246, 476

  interracial salons, 182

  and interracial sex, see race

  invisibility of, 467

  and Jim Crow, 12, 15, 18, 36–37, 96, 104, 123–24, 149, 160, 205, 216, 249, 251–52, 263, 356

  and Ku Klux Klan, 423, 426

  lynching of, 18, 31, 36, 118, 153

  medical treatments denied to, 43–44, 57, 265

  New Negroes, 63, 208

  pan-African militancy of, 362–63, 476

  percentages in penitentiaries, 79

  and police, 158, 467–68

  and political action, 181–83, 283

  and prostitution, 56–57

  in publishing industry, 481–82

  punishment for overambition, 44

  race riots, 19, 38, 165–66, 170, 425–26, 443–44, 448, 465, 467–68, 469, 473, 474

  racial identity of, xii, xv, 24, 112, 113, 116, 119, 120, 125, 131, 175–76, 177, 230, 231, 268, 275, 284, 289, 319, 338, 391, 447, 476; see also race

  racial oppression against, 18–19, 63, 138, 141, 177, 255, 426, 439, 444–45, 454

  and Red Summer (1919), 38

  religious fervor of, 34–35, 36

  scapegoats of, 47, 70–71

  segregation, xv, 10, 18, 36, 62–63, 125, 159–60, 167, 168, 186, 198, 233, 242, 246, 251, 265, 266, 288, 354, 427, 431

  skin tones of, xiv, 18, 23–25, 63, 65, 72, 116, 242, 367, 447

  and slavery, see slavery

  Southern Uncle Tom traditions, 37, 58, 163, 172, 269, 295, 339

  speech patterns of, 27–28, 29, 32, 51, 79, 197, 198, 218<
br />
  stereotypes of, 37, 58, 121, 136, 155, 160, 163, 172, 186, 194, 313, 337, 391, 410, 425, 432, 465, 480

  submissiveness required of, 116, 163

  Underground Railroad, 235

  violence against, 18–19, 45, 186, 438, 467–68, 480, 497

  violence promoted by, 167, 170, 419–20, 423, 443, 449, 467

  voting rights of, 118, 128, 182

  westward migration of (exodusters), 14, 19, 25, 147, 199, 243

  and white supremacy, 185–86, 397, 480, 482

  work available to, 122–24, 127, 130, 131, 143, 148, 153, 157, 160, 162, 173, 174, 177, 178, 182, 221, 243, 246, 269, 271, 275, 444–45

  writers, xiv, 14, 15, 94, 185, 188, 190, 192, 209–10, 214, 218–20, 224, 230–32, 236, 250, 263, 264–65, 269, 284, 288, 299–301, 306, 317–18, 324, 344, 390, 406, 408, 409, 422, 424, 431–32, 439, 471, 477, 480–82, 486–87, 491; see also specific writers

  African nationalism, 332

  Afro-American, 178, 220, 244, 444

  Agence France-Presse, 385

  Aistrop, Jack, 232

  Akers, Lee, 87

  Albert, Alan, 462

  Albin Michel, 218, 328, 332

  Alcorn, James A., 28

  Alcorn College, Mississippi, 27, 28–31, 33–34, 36, 37, 89, 312

  Alexander, R. M., 8

  Alexander, Will W., 182

  Alfred A. Knopf, see Knopf, Alfred A., Inc.

  Algeria, and anti-colonialism, 354, 362–63, 385, 402, 427, 448, 449, 452, 465

  Allen, Benjamin F., 19–20, 21, 25

  Allen, Julia, 23

  Alliance Française, 380–81

  Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, 181

  American Academy of Arts and Letters, 365, 421–22, 484

  American Book Award, 497

  American Magazine, 119

  Ames, Elizabeth, 250–52, 256, 257–58

  Amistad I, 478, 482

  Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, 498

  Amos ’n’ Andy (radio), xiv

  Amsterdam News, 103, 188, 206, 240, 249, 483, 487

  Amussen, Ted, 266

  Anderson, Eddie “Rochester,” 155

  Angelou, Maya, 446, 451, 479, 484, 485, 494

  Angry Black, The (anthology), 431

  Arab-African racism, 445, 450

  Aragon, Louis, 443

  Arche, 443

  Arendt, Hannah, 219

  Aristotle, 282

  Armine, Alice, 105

  Armstrong, Louis, 381

  Arnett, William, 14

  Arvin, Newton, 251

  Aswell, Edward, 409

  Atlanta, race riots in, 19, 38

  Atlanta Daily World, 92, 97

  Atlantic Monthly, 189, 243

  Attaway, William, 205

  Attucks, Crispus, 175

  Augusta, Georgia, fire in, 32–33

  Authors League, 233, 237

  Avon Publications, 441

  Azikwe, Namdi, 332

  Bacall, Lauren, 139

  Bachelor, 117

  “Back to Africa” movement, 419, 420–21, 433

  Bain, Myra, 487

  Baker, Josephine, 62, 489

  Baldwin, James, 196, 361, 366, 391, 442–43, 489

  Another Country, 442

  “Everybody’s Protest Novel,” 288

  The Fire Next Time, 442

  Giovanni’s Room, 358, 370

  Go Tell It on the Mountain, 298–99, 300, 301, 306

  and Himes’s writing, 250, 299, 479–80, 492

  influence of, 299, 431

  “Many Thousands Gone,” 288, 299, 301

  and Wright, 298–301, 303, 353, 405, 470, 478, 492

  Bambara, Toni Cade, 488, 494

  Bantu peoples, 475

  Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones), 474, 482

  Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, 44

  Barnett, Benny, 69, 70, 72, 74

  Barrett, Lindsey, Lip Skybound, 486

  Barry, Naomi, 408

  Bass, Charlotta, 151, 161, 166, 173

  Battle of Seven Pines, 5

  Beacon Press, 363

  Bearden, Romare, 459

  Beat Generation, 364, 388

  Beauvoir, Simone de, 295

  The Second Sex, 302

  Beck, Robert, xiv

  Before Columbus Foundation, 496, 497

  Bennett, Gwendolyn, 206

  Berkley Books, 341, 348, 372–73, 425

  Bertel (painter), 353, 359, 369

  Best Short Stories 1940, The (O’Brien, ed.), 134

  Bethune, Mary McLeod, 7, 8, 51, 118, 181

  Beti, Mongo, 398

  King Lazarus, 368

  Mission to Kala, 368

  Poor Christ of Bomba, 368

  “Romancing Africa,” 368

  Bilbo, Theodore, 36, 510

  Birmingham, Alabama, bombing of Baptist Church in, 438

  Black American Academy of Arts and Letters, 484

  Black Citizens Patrol, 480

  Black Mask, 92

  blacks, see African Americans

  Black World (formerly Negro Digest), 478

  Blassingame, Lurton:

  Chicken Every Sunday, 159

  and Himes’s writing, 225, 227, 234, 247, 267, 270, 342, 344–45

  Bloom, Leonard, 232

  “Blow” (confidence-man scheme), 373–74, 376, 377

  Blues People, 430

  Blum, Suzanne, 403

  Bogart, Humphrey, 139, 267

  Bomar, Charles, 5–6

  Bomar, Elias, 1, 3, 4, 5–6, 503

  Bomar, Elisha, 2, 4

  Bomar, Estelle, see Himes, Estelle Bomar

  Bomar, Gertrude, 15, 16

  Bomar, Hattie, 7, 8

  Bomar, John Earle, 3, 4, 5, 503

  Bomar, John, Jr., 3

  Bomar, Mabel, 31

  Bomar, Malinda Cleveland, 2–3, 5

  Bomar, Margaret, 31

  Bonelli, Eddie, 248, 260, 264

  Bontemps, Arna, 199, 215, 216, 240

  Book Find Club, 309

  Book-of-the-Month Club, 209, 288, 309, 311

  Bootsie (cartoon), 356

  Bosscheres, Guy de, 439

  Boston, racism in, 337–38

  Boston Globe, 317

  Boucher, Anthony, 396, 459–60

  Bourdel, Maurice, 351, 382, 383

  Bourge, Serge, 395

  Boutelleau, Jessie, 328

  Bowles, Paul, The Sheltering Sky, 339, 374

  Bowron, Fletcher, 165

  Boyd, Melba, 489

  Branch Normal, Arkansas, 38–43, 44, 46, 55

  Brandt, Carl, 428, 431, 434

  Brantley, George, 46

  Brawley, Benjamin, A Short History of the American Negro, 42

  Breton, André, 372

  Bricker, John, 128

  Brierre, Annie, 330–31, 344, 350–51, 359

  Bright, John, 151, 202, 205

  Brisville, Jean-Claude, 331

  Broadside Press, 489

  Broadway Rose (prisoner), 85

  Broady, Charles, 158, 376

  Bromfield, Louis, 138–39, 141, 142–46, 148, 158, 223, 250

  Bromfield, Mary, 144

  Brooks, Gwendolyn, Maud Martha, 306

  Browder, Earl, 159, 214

  Brown, Athay, 93

  Brown, Cecil, The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger, 482

  Brown, Claude, xiv, 444

  Manchild in the Promised Land, 460

  Brown, Daisy, 1

  Brown, Lloyd, 242–43, 342

  Brown, Sterling, 1, 120–22, 123, 124, 134, 158, 163, 205, 230

  Southern Road, 120

  Brown, Walker, 93

  Browning, Alice, 174, 190, 196

  Brownsville, Texas, racial violence in, 19

  Brown v. Board of Education, xiv, 151, 465

  Bryant, Walter, 353

  Buchergilde Gutenberg, 435

  Bucino, Frank, 258–59

  Buck, Pearl, 189

  Buford, Fanny, 190

  Bulkley, E. D., 15
, 16, 20

  Bullins, Ed, 488

  Bülow-Hübe, Torun, 373, 381, 407, 411, 438, 445, 457, 459, 466

  Bunche, Ralph, 213, 353

  Burke, Kenneth, 244

  Burley, Dan, 190, 205, 206

  Original Handbook of Harlem Jive, 197

  Burroughs, William, 364

  Burton, Harold, 132

  Byrnes, Charles, 372

  Cabin in the Sky (film), 154, 156

  Caddoo, Emile, 430

  Caddoo, Joyce, 430–31, 436, 465, 466

  Cagney, James, 172

  Cain, James M., 208

  Cain family, 23

  Caldwell, Erskine, 99, 329

  California:

  behind the times, 148–49

  exodusters’ move to, 147

  Jean and Chester’s trip to, 222, 223–24

  California Eagle, 151, 166, 167, 173

  California Sanitary Canning Company, 148

  Calloway, Cab, 197

  Cambridge, Godfrey, 480

  Campbell, E. Simms, 100, 107

  Camus, Albert, 219, 324

  Myth of Sisyphus, 231

  Candide, 426

  Cannes Film Festival, 412, 438

  Cannon, Poppy, 184, 357

  Cannon, Steve, 479, 488, 494

  Capone, Al, 68

  Capote, Truman, Other Voices, Other Rooms, 261

  Carolina Spartan, 4

  Carter, Edward, 150

  Carter, Phil, 156

  Caruso, Enrico, 35

  Carver, George Washington, 199

  Castle on the Hudson (film), 145

  Castro, Fidel, 446–47

  Cathcart, Ida, 7

  Cau, Jean, 390

  Cavanaugh, Inez, 381

  Cayton, Horace, 207, 245, 274, 338, 370

  on black identity, 230, 231, 284, 289

  on Himes’s writing, 238

  and Parkway Community House, 169, 248–49

  “Race Conflict in Modern Society,” 254, 255

  socializing, 209, 212, 252, 259, 282, 283, 289, 335

  Cayton, Ruby, 259

  Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 367, 405

  Césaire, Aimé, 428, 451

  Chalked Out (film), 107

  Chamberlain, Wilt, 417

  Chambers, Whittaker, 277

  Chambrun, Jacques, 134

  Chandler, Merrill, 94

  Chandler, Raymond, 228, 372

  Chandleri, Jean, 385

  Chappel, Helen, 167