The Blacker the Berry

“The Blacker the Berry” is the provocative and illuminating 1929 novel by Harlem Renaissance author Wallace Thurman. The novel follows the life of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin. She is born and raised by her single mother in the predominantly white community of Boise, Idaho. She often feels like an outsider, even among her family, as they are lighter skinned than she, and believes that her dark skin will keep her from marrying and having an easy life. Emma wants a better life for herself and goes to college at the University of Southern California, hopeful she will find people who will accept her. While she finds a larger black community at college, she continues to feel like an outsider and is often made to feel inferior and unwanted due to her darker skin. Emma Lou’s search for love and acceptance takes her to New York and the vibrant black community of Harlem after college, but she continues to face prejudice and rejection in a world she thought would be more accepting of her. Critically acclaimed, “The Blacker the Berry” remains an unflinching and thought-provoking examination of race, prejudice, and self-acceptance.