Summary
Turning once again to the "mountain" in front of Black artists, Hughes recounts an anecdote about how a Black woman from Philadelphia who happily paid money to see Raquel Meller perform, while she told Hughes she would never think of going to see Clara Smith sing. Likewise, Hughes asserts that many upper-class Black churches would not ever consider playing spirituals, instead assimilating to white culture by playing traditional Christian hymns that Hughes calls "drab melodies" (6). Hughes laments how great Black writers and musicians have produced work that has not received the critical acclaim it deserves.
Hughes notes that it is a sad reality that many now-famous Black performers were not celebrated by many Black people before those performers were honored in the white community. He cites examples of Black artists who only became popular among Black citizenry after stints on Broadway or after writing for white publications.
Hughes notes specifically the work of Jean Toomer and his novel Cane, which Hughes perceives as some of the best writing in Black history. But Toomer's work received relatively little praise from Black people and was frequently criticized by white people. But, Hughes notes, distinctly Black literature does exist in popular culture, as does Black music in the form of jazz and blues. Hughes notes that he awaits the same status for disciplines like theater, visual art, and dance.
Analysis
In this section of his essay, Hughes is able to support his argument with specific anecdotes and allusions to particular artists. His story about the Philadelphia club woman parallels his opening anecdote about the young poet who did not want to be considered a "Negro poet" (1). Both of these figures—the young poet and the Philadelphia woman—are Black people who clearly maintain an interest and appreciation for the arts. However, Hughes shows how this interest is relegated to what white culture deems acceptable in the main stream. In other words, Hughes suggests that Black people's own artistic interests are influenced and in part determined by white people in America. He further supports this point by pointing to Black actor Charles Gilpin, who was not recognized by Black people as a talented player until he worked on Broadway after years working in Black theaters. Hughes also cites a writer who was only welcomed by the Black people in his city after he began writing for white publications. Hughes uses the story of this writer to show the paradox of white influence over upper and middle-class Black citizenry: he recalls that the Black people in the writer's city threw him a "grand dinner" but that they told the writer's mother not to come as "they were not sure she would have an evening gown" (8). Here, Hughes suggests how the disparate treatment of the writer and his mother showcases the inherent value higher-class Black citizens place on whiteness above all else.
Hughes also makes particular reference to Jean Toomer, a novelist whose ancestry was, actually, mostly white. However, Toomer's novel Cane, published in 1923, presented the varying experiences of Black Americans through a series of vignettes, often written in different genres (prose, poetry, and drama). Hughes praises Cane as "the finest prose written by a Negro in America," but laments the fact that most Black readers hated the novel (9). Hughes suggests that Cane and its distinctly modernist, experimental structure is a central expression of Black art, just like jazz music and its known investment in improvisation. When he explains many Black readers' distaste for the novel, he attributes it to fear, saying, simply, "they are afraid of it" (9). This understated moment in the essay ultimately suggests that, for Hughes, art that is distinctly and unapologetically Black forces Black readers to confront their own Blackness—something the upper classes of Black citizenry attempted to suppress.
