Cotton Comes To Harlem

In Chapter 8 Himes describes the mural on the Back-to-the-Southland building in great detail: it depicts well-dressed black workers smiling as they pick cotton, hoe the fields, and dance in celebration after a hard day’s work. The mural also features a genial white man handing out money to “a row of grinning darkies” (40), as well as smaller images of enticing Southern food. The mural also depicts a famine-ridden Africa: “tribal wars, mutilations, depravities, hunger and disease” (40). A final image shows Southern African American families thriving in big cars and nice clothes, and going to fancy schools and churches. Himes uses these depictions to play on common stereotypes perpetuated by white culture, namely the idea of the happy Negro thriving under a white master. Himes juxtaposes the images of poverty and depravity in Africa against black families thriving in America to illustrate the belief held by some that African Americans were “saved” from Africa and brought to a land of plenty in the United States. Himes refutes these misconceptions, showing that America has not been a land of opportunity for people of color, and in doing so he illustrates how ridiculous these stereotypes prove when held up to the light.

The neighborhood of Harlem plays an important role in Himes’s novel, functioning as not just setting but also a metaphor for the way people of color experience the world. Himes thoroughly details this subset of New York City, describing the rampant crime, poverty, and corruption experienced by its citizens on a daily basis. In this way, Himes might seem to be validating negative stereotypes about black communities filled with dangerous criminals: “The first thing a hoodlum learns in Harlem is never run too soon” (85). Yet Himes’s Harlem is more than just a den of sin; it is a multifaceted environment filled with desperate people trying to survive. Even the most depraved follow a sort of code, exemplified by Himes’s description of Sunday-morning worship: “The streets are deserted save for the families on their way to church. A drunk better not be caught molesting them; he’ll get all the black beat off him” (82). Himes shows how Grave Digger and Coffin Ed have been shaped by this complex world, as black cops who uphold the law when they feel it is morally right but break it when it benefits them to do so. Grave Digger and Coffin Ed also frequently resort to violence to get their way, but as Captain Bailey muses, “colored cops had to be tough in Harlem to get the respect of colored hoodlums” (86). Like Harlem, Coffin Ed and Grave Digger cannot be categorized as either purely good or bad. They are what the world has forced them to be to survive.