LLoouuiissiiaannaa SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy LLSSUU DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1972 JJaammeess WWeellddoonn JJoohhnnssoonn:: iinn QQuueesstt ooff aann AAffrroocceennttrriicc TTrraaddiittiioonn ffoorr BBllaacckk AAmmeerriiccaann LLiitteerraattuurree.. Arthenia Bates Millican Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Millican, Arthenia Bates, "James Weldon Johnson: in Quest of an Afrocentric Tradition for Black American Literature." (1972). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2229. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2229 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. 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Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. unvwrvny HmrwRvvw 300 North Zaob Road Am Arbor, MleMoan 40100 A Xorox SOuootton Company 72-28,361* MILLICAN, Arthenia Bates, 1920- JAMES WELDON JOHNSON: IN QUEST OF AN AFROCENTRIC TRADITION FOR BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1972 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, A XEROK Company, Arm Arbor, Michigan © 1972 ARTHENIA BATES MILLICAN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED JAMES WELDON JOHNSON: IN QUEST OF AN AFROCENTRXC TRADITION FOR BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Arthenia Bates Millican B. A., Morris College, 1941 M. A., Atlanta University, 1948 May, 1972 PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have Indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Gratitude must be expressed, first of all, to everyone who helped in some small way to make the task of writing this doctoral dissertation easier for its author. I owe gratitude to the chief members of ray doctoral committee — Dr. Lewis P. Simpson, Dr. Darwin H. Ghrell, and Dr. John H. Wildman — for encouragement along the way and for their critical reading and evaluation of the original manuscript. Dr. VfiLUiam J. Olive and Dr. Lawrence A. Sasek, who also served on the committee, must also be thanked for their critical reading and evaluation of the work. I am especially indebted to Dr. Simpson, the chairman of the committee and to Dr. Shrell. Both lent guidance from the inception of the idea for the dissertation to the preparation of the final draft. lira. Jane T. Kleiner and her staff of the Interlibrary Loan Department at Louisiana State Library were helpful in locating books that could not be found in the local libraries. The staff of the New York Public Library also helped by permitting the reproduction of a book from the Schomburg Collection, out of print for many years. Mrs. Dorothy E. Davis, Black Heritage Librarian at Southern University in Baton Rouge, assisted in numerous ways, but especially by pointing the writer to source material that might not have been discovered in any other manner. Mr, Edward Fontenette, Director of Libraries at Southern University, was of special assistance in securing books and other materials that helped ii iii In the preparation of this study. Thanks must also go to the typist, Miss Shirley M. Coutee who worked patiently in the preparation of both drafts of the manuscript. Finally, the writer must acknowledge the encouragement given by persons who have every right to be impatient and demanding over the years but instead have been patient and considerate: Dr. Melvin A. Butler, Chair­ man of the Department of English at Southern University, her husband, Wilbert Millican, and her mother, Mrs. Susan Snma David Jackson. FOREWORD In the black world of 1972, "How Black is Black?" is a pertinent question* One thing is certain — the terms Negro and colored are not "black" enough to designate the minority group in America now more acceptably called Blacks or Afro-Americans• James Vfeldon Johnson expressed the view that black men had every reason to be proud of the word "Negro*" During the Harlem Renaissance the connotations of the term had changed from those it had during the antebellum days and the Reconstruction era in the South. During the period of "The Awakening," roughly, 1920-1930, the "New Negro" had come into existence and had begun to spell "Negro" with a capital "N." But the recent Jet surveys show that of the three names — Black, Afro-American and Negro — Negro is the least popular among today*s younger black people. The tem "Negro," then, will be used in quotation marks in the text of this paper, although it will appear in direct quotations without quotation marks. The terms "black" and "Afro- American" will be used interchangeably to designate the darker American. "Black" used as a noun or proper adjective will be capitalized. Whenever it occurs with the capital "B" in references from other works, the capitalization will be kept. As a common adjective form, it will not be capitalized. At the present time, a basic issue in the "How Black is Black?" question is aesthetics. Black critics have all but rejected what iv Ameer Barak* calls "a theory of ether." This refers to the idea that white critics search for artistic excellence divorced from the source stream of existence. Aesthetics for Blacks have come to mean "feelings about reality." Blacks are more in harmony now with the African concept of art for life's sake than with the Euro-American concept of art for art's sake. As Baraka states it, the new concept calls for "an expression of total being in the work of art — for many levels of feeling compre­ hension. " James Weldon Johnson's quest for an Afrocentric tradition for Black American literature was not a conscious one at first. His growth in black awareness was slow and often painful; he himself acknowledged that he had no assurance that he had moved in the right direction until he had made his discovery of the deepest revelation of Soul. Creative force as the "vector of existence," "rhythm as a basic creative principle," and "rhythm as an expression of race memory" (Larry Neal's phrases), all suddenly became clear to Johnson as he listened to an old-fashioned black preacher. Together with the members of the congregation, he experienced fully a primordial ecstasy. Out of a world replete with Western values, Johnson came into another world teeming with black values. Johnson's discovery of these values opened a path to the hidden treasury of African and Afro-American folk art for black literary artists who would follow him. ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS WORK 1. Along This Why............................... AW 2. Atlanta University. .......................... AU 3. Black Manhattan...............................3K A. Negro American. What Now? ..................... WN 5. The Autobiography of An Ex-Coloured I-lan.......... EXC11 6. The Book of American Negro Poetry............... ANP vi