New Directions Volume 13 | Issue 2 Article 4 4-1-1986 A Conversation With a Literary Critic E. Ethelbert Miller Follow this and additional works at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections Recommended Citation Miller, E. Ethelbert (1986) "A Conversation With a Literary Critic," New Directions: Vol. 13: Iss. 2, Article 4. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol13/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Directions by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ARTS Afro-American Resource Center at 20 A Conversation the university, “have enhanced our insight into and appreciation of With a Literary Afro-American literature. ” Critic MILLER: Dr. Henderson, let us begin with your growing up in Key West, Florida. I remember you talking about that experience as something that shaped By E. Ethelbert Miller your character and personality and proba­ bly grounded you in certain positions that E ditor’s note: The following was you took in terms of analyzing Afro- edited from a recent taped con­ American literature and Afro-American versation with Stephen E. Hender­ culture. Can you tell us something about son, co-author of “The Militant growing up in Key West and what makes Photography by Billy Rose, Ltd. Rose, by Billy Photography Black Writer” and editor of an that part of the country so unique in terms of Afro-American culture? anthology, “Understanding the still feel, a certain kind of gravitational New Black Poetry, ” among other HENDERSON: Well, Key West is very pull toward that part of the world. Key published works. Professor Hender­ well known now. But when I was in West is 90 miles from Cuba. son, who is now teaching in the college and after I began my graduate work, if you said Key West most people MILLER: What about the music? Department of Afro-American looked at you twice. Studies at Howard University, was HENDERSON: Well, the music is ca­ Growing up in Key West is growing up lypso. We used to call it the Nassau dance until last June the director of the in a semi-tropical or even sub-tropical which covers a multitude of sounds, but Institute for the Arts and the Hu­ environment. And you even remember as I said Cuba is only 90 miles away so specific colors like the special kind of manities at the university. Before Afro-Cuban music was heard all day long. ultramarine blue, then the red-orange of coming to Howard, he was the There was indigenous music which later poincianas. That combination just stays in became known as Junkanoo music — a chairman of the English Depart­ my mind. I used to paint watercolors sort of a modern rediscovery of the ment at Morehouse College in At­ when I was younger and that was one of Nassau flavor. My high school in Key lanta. The Institute for the Arts the things I couldn’t get away from. But in West had a tremendous influence on me, addition to the sheer beauty of the place, and the Humanities, which is no particularly some of the teachers. And as Key West was isolated physically from longer in operation, came into being far as literature was concerned, we mem­ the mainland of Florida and, until World in the early 1970s and was a major orized Paul Laurence Dunbar, we memo­ War II, Key West people used to refer to rized Shakespeare, we memorized quite force in its early years in bringing other people as “mainland people.” And a few things. scores of Black writers and most of the Black population is derived folklorists to the campus. Its docu­ from either Afro-Cuban or Bahamian de­ MILLER: So you were pretty equipped mentation series, both on audio and scent. My folks on my mother’s side were before you went to Morehouse in Atlanta in the 1940s. There was a certain tradi­ video tape, contain a wealth of derived from Bahamian ancestry. Coming to Howard in 19701 used to hear the West tion that had been presented to you. Did material that cannot be matched Indian students talk. I always would be that have a lot to do with your decision to elsewhere. The contributions of surprised when I turned around and go to a Black college? Stephen Henderson, according to noticed their ages because they sounded HENDERSON: Well, going to a Black E. Ethelbert Miller, director of the like the older people at home. And I felt, I college was just the way you thought if NEW DIRECTIONS APRIL 1986 you came from a poor family such as MILLER: You left Morehouse and later me a job at Howard teaching watercolor. mine. In fact, I wasn’t really considering went to teach in Richmond. If I’m not That was fabulous. I drop that on people college in a serious way until I was mistaken, you roomed with Wyatt T. when I try to impress them. discharged from the army and my staff Walker. MILLER: You think that offer still sergeant asked me what I was going to HENDERSON: Yeah, well my first job stands? do. I said I was going to get married. He was at Virginia Union University in Rich­ HENDERSON: No. said “why don’t you go to college?” That mond and I was pretty young. I had gone MILLER: After Richmond, you went was good advice. That is how it happened right out of Morehouse to the University back to Atlanta, I think around 1962. Everybody knew about Tuskegee of Wisconsin with a scholarship, and I had Could you talk a little about not only and Hampton, but I learned about More­ to finish very quickly because I didn’t have returning to Atlanta, but also about the house through a fellow hospital inmate any money. So I got the master’s degree mood of the country at that time? Also, from Atlanta. in nine months or two semesters [and could you talk about what was happening later a Ph.D. in English and art history]. MILLER: Who were some of the peo­ on the campus of Atlanta University? ple who were at Morehouse because I And then I had to get a job so I went by think you were in school with a number of Morehouse to check out my English HENDERSON: Before Atlanta you people who are very prominent today. teacher and he said, “you write every­ have to think in terms of the civil rights body but check this one.” So I wrote to movement and the sit-ins in 1960. Some HENDERSON: Well, Lerone Bennett Virginia Union and they had an opening. Virginia Union students were involved in and I were classmates. I was there when Wyatt T. Walker was a chemistry major the sit-ins. One of the leaders, Charles Lerone was editor of the campus news­ when we were roommates, but he was Sherrod, a student in my class, was paper, The Maroon Tiger, which was on called to the Baptist ministry. He came among those picketing downtown depart­ par with [Howard’s] The Hilltop. He did from a brilliant family. We were friends ment stores. He came to me for advice. I the yearbook. Lerone was also a musi­ and I learned a lot from him. There were lived, at that time, in a dormitory with cian, which most people didn’t know. He other people, too. I had a good friend who divinity students and Sherrod was one of was philosophical but also a very talented was an artist then and I had, and still the undergraduates who was planning to musician and poet. He played tenor sax­ have, a strong interest in art. I sort of enter the ministry so I think that gave him ophone and had his own orchestra. Mar­ hung around his gallery and workshop and some feeling of ease with being around tin Luther King had been there as an picked up a few things. Virginia Union me. That was the connection. I went to early admission student. I never knew was a very good experience because, as I Atlanta because you heard all these good him then, just heard talk about him. They look back, and this is the first time I’ve things, all these exciting things coming called him M. L., Jr. in contrast to his had the occasion to look back, some of out of the South. And people were being father M. L., Sr. And Dr. Benjamin Mays, the programs that I participated in there attacked not only physically but intellec­ of course, was the guiding light to all of later became incorporated into other tually. The Virginia Union students were us. That was one of the most significant kinds of things. They had an annual fine being attacked, for example, in the news­ experiences in my life, particularly the arts festival, for example, which is one of papers. And when the students sat in at chapel. You grumbled and kicked about the experiences. I met Lois Jones the counters, a columnist named Ross going to chapel but in the chapel I saw Pierre-Noel there. I said I used to fool Valentine poked fun at them because they Alain Locke. Mordecai Johnson gave our around with watercolor and. sat there with books. And it was unfortu­ commencement address. That’s all I re­ nate for him that he mentioned two of the MILLER: You didn’t just fool around.