The Negro in American Fiction

Excerpt: "The treatment of the Negro in American fiction, since it parallels his treatment in American life, has naturally been noted for injustice. Like other oppressed and exploited minorities, the Negro has been interpreted in a way to justify his exploiters I swear their nature is beyond my comprehension. A strange people!—merry ’mid their misery—laughing through their tears, like the sun shining through the rain. Yet what simple philosophers they! They tread life’s path as if ’twere strewn