Sterling A. Brown's A Negro Looks at the South

Sterling A. Brown, Poet, Essayist, Critic, Teacher, And Raconteur, Looms As A Pivotal Figure In African American Letters. His Writing Established A New Vocabulary, One That Created A Complex Portrait Of African American Lives And A Deep Knowledge Of Folk Speech And Forms. One Of His Great Works, However-a Nonfiction Study Of Midcentury Black Life In The South-was Never Completed And Never Published. Brown Scholars Tidwell And Sanders Have Pieced Together From Extensive Archival Sources The Book Brown Envisioned And Present It Here For The First Time. A Negro Look At The South Employs Oral History, Documentary, Reportage, Autobiography, Vernacular Philosophy, Ethnography, And Literary Sketches In Order To Depict The Struggles And Strengths Of Everyday Black People. Thus, Brown Created A Remarkable Document Of The 1940s And Provided An Intimate Collage Of America's Persistent Geographical And Racial Divide.--jacket. A Note On The Text Xi -- Looking At Sterling A. Brown's South: An Introduction / John Edgar Tidwell, Mark A. Sanders 3 -- South On The Move 19 -- Out Of Their Mouths 23 -- By Way Of Autobiography -- Old Buck 37 -- Old Man Mccorkle 51 -- Bus Station 54 -- Club Car 59 -- Roommate 62 -- Return Of The Native 64 -- Jim Crow Journal -- On The Government 81 -- V For Victory 90 -- Jim Crow Snapshots 93 -- A Harvardian Goes South 94 -- Separate But Equal 95 -- Fats 97 -- Words On A Bus 100 -- Georgia Nymphs 103 -- And/or 109 -- Gone With The Wind -- I Look At The Old South 115 -- Sister Cities 118 -- Gone With What Wind 124 -- Symbol Of The Old South 131 -- A Tour Of History: Old New Orleans 138 -- Gee's Bend 149 -- Low Cotton 161 -- Take Your Coat Off, Gene! 165 -- Insurance Executive 171 -- Let's Look At Your Base 182 -- Meekness In Bronze 187 -- No Ties That Bind 190 -- Academic Retreat -- The Little Gray Schoolhouse 199 -- The Path To Alcorn 206 -- And Gladly Teach 207 -- What Could Freddie Say? 214 -- One Language, One People 218 -- Vicious Circle 222 -- The Palmer Case 225 -- Signs Of Improvement 233 -- Colleges: Retreat Or Reconnaissance 239 -- Pursuit Of Happiness -- And He Never Said A Mumbalin' Word 253 -- Song Hunter 261 -- The Duke Comes To Atlanta 272 -- Farewell To Basin Street 275 -- Po' Wanderin' Pildom, Miserus Chile 281 -- Jitterbugs' Joy 285 -- Edited By John Edgar Tidwell And Mark A. Sanders. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.