Thurman, Wallace (1902-1934), was an African American author and editor. His novel The Blacker the Berry (1929) is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that promoted new directions in African American literature and other arts during the 1920’s and early 1930’s.
The Blacker the Berry, Thurman’s first novel, deals with color prejudice within the Black community. Such prejudice often leads to racism, the belief that members of some races are inferior to members of other races. The central character is Emma Lou Morgan, who suffers discrimination throughout her life from other African Americans because of her dark skin. In general, the characters in the novel treat Black people with lighter skin as superior to those with darker skin. The negative reaction by lighter-skinned Black people greatly diminishes Emma Lou’s self-esteem. By the end of the book, however, she finally accepts herself as she is.
Wallace Henry Thurman was born on Aug. 16, 1902, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He moved to California in the early 1920’s to attend the University of Southern California. In 1925, he moved to Harlem, a primarily African American section of New York City, and became deeply involved in the literary scene there. He was a founding editor—in 1924, 1926, and 1928—of three short-lived periodicals that promoted Black literature and culture. He also worked as an editor or writer for other periodicals. Thurman gained some success as the coauthor of the play Harlem: A Melodrama of Negro Life in Harlem (1929) with William Jourdan Rapp, a white dramatist.
Thurman’s novel Infants of the Spring (1932) criticized individuals in the Harlem Renaissance who Thurman believed were overrated and selfish. Some critics praised the book, but others attacked Thurman for betraying his fellow writers. Thurman’s third novel, written with A. L. Furman, was The Interne (1932), an attack on unethical practices in a city hospital.
In 1934, Thurman moved to Hollywood and wrote the screenplays for two motion pictures, Tomorrow’s Children and High School Girl. He returned to New York City that same year in poor health. He died at the age of 32 on Dec. 22, 1934, of tuberculosis complicated by alcoholism.
