Black Mysteries: More than Easy Rawlings

By Crystal V. Rhodes

Ask most fans of mystery novels to name a black mystery writer and my bet would be that the first name mentioned would be Walter Mosley.  Ask fans to name two more black mystery writers and you might be met with dead silence.  Perhaps many of their names aren’t known, but black mystery writers and the stories they tell date back to the early 20th century.

Writer, Paula L. Woods, in an article written for The New Crisis magazine, (September/October2001 edition) noted that the earliest mystery fiction written by an African American didn’t appear in book form, but in "colored" periodicals and newspapers.  As early as 1900, a journalists named Pauline Hopkins wrote the short stories, "The Mystery Within Us" and "Talma Gordon," which appeared in issues of the Colored American Magazine.  A writer named John E. Bruce had his mystery "The Black Sleuth" serialized in the 1907-1908 McGirt's Reader. 

It wasn’t until 1926 that the first mystery novel by a black author was published.  A Jamaican writer named W. Adolphe Roberts wrote a book titled The Haunting Hand.  However, none of the characters in Roberts’ book were black.  Because of this it took nearly three quarters of a century for The Haunting Hand to be recognized as the first published mystery novel written by a black writer.

According to Woods, it wasn’t unusual in the 1920s for black characters to be absent from the mystery genre, even from those books written by black authors.  It took twelve years before a published mystery novel, written by an African American author actually featured Black characters.  The year was 1932 and the book was The Conjure Man written by Rudolph Fisher, who was a physician and a personality of the Harlem Renaissance.  The Conjure Man featured Dr. John Archer, a physician sleuth, and his sidekick, Perry Dart, a NYPD detective.

In the 1940s a new voice joined the small list of black mystery writers in this country.  His name was Chester Himes, and his works laid the foundation for many of today’s contemporary black authors in a variety of genres.  Early in his writing career, Himes wrote crime stories that appeared mainly in African American periodicals, with a few having been published in Esquire magazine.  In 1945 his acclaimed fiction novel If He Hollers let Him Go was published and later it was made into a film, but it was his Harlem Detective novels, featuring New York Police Detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones for which he is best known.  Three of the books from that crime series were made into movies, Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972) and A Rage in Harlem (1991). 

Disenchanted with America’s racism and discrimination, Himes moved to Europe in the 1950s where he lived and died, and it was there that he received recognition as a writer.  France bestowed on Himes the Grand Prix de Literature Policiere, one of that country’s most prestigious literary awards.

Many mystery and crime writers of note have followed in his footsteps.  Paula Woods cites not only Walter Mosley, but Gar Anthony Haywood, Gary Phillips, Eleanor Taylor Bland, Barbara Neeley, Chassie West, Penny Mickelbury, Patricia E. Canterbury, Evelyn Coleman, Karen Grigsby Bates and, one of my personal favorites, Valerie Wilson Wesley.  These are just a few of the array of African American mystery writers past and present.  Add to that the names of L. Barnett Evans and, yours truly, C.V. Rhodes, co-authors of the Grandmothers, Incorporated cozy mystery series, and readers will discover a variety of appealing characters and thrilling situations that will keep readers riveted.

So, the next time you’re looking for a good mystery novel, remember these names and look up a few others.  I doubt if you’ll be disappointed.

____________

For more about the Grandmothers, Incorporated cozy mystery series written by C.V. Rhodes and L. Barnett Evans visit their website at www.grandmothersinc.com.