Jean Toomer is best known for his novel Cane (1923), but he contributed a great deal more to American letters, particularly during the Harlem Renaissance. His writings and ideas made provocative assertions about race; in some respects, he was an unlikely pillar in the African American literary community.
Toomer was born on December 26th, 1894 and raised primarily in Washington D.C. by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, Benton Stewart Pinchback, was the son of a white plantation owner and a slave with whom he lived openly; he was also the governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. Toomer was fascinated by his grandfather, as well as by the father he barely knew.
In D.C., Toomer...
