The Blacker the Berry

The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life (1929) is a novel by American author Wallace Thurman that tells the story of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin. It begins in Boise, Idaho and follows Emma Lou in her journey to college at USC and a move to Harlem, New York City for work. Set during the Harlem Renaissance, the novel explores Emma Lou's experiences with colorism, discrimination by lighter-skinned African Americans due to her dark skin. She learns to come to terms with her skin color in order to find satisfaction in her life.

Thurman's novel has been widely discussed. Through Emma Lou Morgan, he expressed the idea that dark skin presented more problems for a woman than a man. The young woman struggles with people's reactions to her.


In 2004 Daniel Scott III published an article noting that Thurman was interested in Harlem in the 1920s as a place for personal transformation. He was aware that people were attracted there from all over the United States and brought expectations with them. The experience of living there opened them to new possibilities, which he expressed in his first novel. People were stimulated by meeting many strangers and by opportunities afforded by clubs, cabarets, concert halls, theatres, and other venues.

The novel's line "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice" has been used by several rappers, such as Tupac Shakur's 1993 song "Keep Ya Head Up", Pharoahe Monch's 2007 song "Let's Go", Dave's 2020 songs "Black" and "Run and Tell That" from the musical Hairspray, and more explicitly, Kendrick Lamar's 2015 song "The Blacker the Berry".