Anita Scott Coleman

Anita Scott Coleman (born in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico in 1890–1960) was an American short story writer, and poet. She published her earliest work, thirteen short stories, in New Mexico between 1919 and 1925, the most famous of which, "The Little Grey House," appeared in 1922." ^[1]

Early life

"Coleman spent her life in Silver City, New Mexico, close to Ft. Bayard, and in Los Angeles. Her writing career spanned nearly thirty years and culminated in Reason for Singing, a collection of poems published by Decker Press in Prairie City, Illinois, in 1948. Coleman came from a military family and her poetry and fiction often explored issues of concern to veterans such as war, peace, post-service employment, and the definition of patriotism. Although hailed by the Harlem Renaissance journal The Messenger, as “one of the best of the Negro writers and a winner of many prizes for short stories, ”Coleman’s publications on war and peace have been virtually ignored by critics."^[2]

Life and career

"Her teaching career ended in 1916 when she married James Harold Coleman, a printer and photographer born in Virginia. She later moved to Los Angeles, California in 1926 to join her husband James who moved looking for work two years earlier. There she raised four children, ran a boarding house, and published her most sophisticated stories over an eight-year period between 1926 and 1933. Among her best stories are "The Brat" and "Three Dogs and a Rabbit." She took a seven year hiatus from writing, but in the early forties published at least five more stories and then in 1948 she published a volume of poetry, Reason for Singing. A children's book, The Singing Bells, was published posthumously in 1961. Coleman published stories, essays, and poems which appeared in national magazines such as The Half-Century Magazine, The Competitor, The Crisis, The Messenger, and Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life during the 1920s and 1930s.^[3] The last three periodicals were major outlets for Harlem Renaissance writers. Her publications emphasize racial pride and issues of import to black women as well as inveighing against white racism, lynching, employment discrimination, and segregation. Her poetry appeared in anthologies such as Beatrice Murphy's Negro Voices (1938) and Ebony Rhythm (1948). Much of Coleman's writing focused on the Southwest. In "The Little Grey House," Coleman describes the availability of home ownership for southwestern African Americans. The story "El Tisico" suggests Coleman's Afro-Latino cultural heritage and her knowledge of the Southwest and of Mexico. The lead character in "Bambino Grimke" is a jazz band manager in Los Angeles. Her essay "Arizona and New Mexico-the Land of Esperanza," solicited for the series, "These ‘Colored' United States" by The Messenger magazine, shows her respect for the history and élan of the Southwest. Anita Scott Coleman died in relative obscurity in Los Angeles in 1960."^[4][5]

Works

"Coleman often wrote about things like racial pride, as she did in Black Baby. Her poetry, the majority of which consists of spiritual praises and contrasting images, has appeared in book-length publications; but her strength as a writer is in the short story genre. While a few of her poems explore issues such as the celebration of black identity, almost all of her fiction reveals social and political issues as relationships between blacks and whites in a racist society and the plight of black women in a sexist society. Coleman also shows the atrocities of segregation and the problems of black-white relations in other stories such as “Three Dogs and a Rabbit” and “The Brat.” As these stories demonstrate, throughout Coleman’s fiction frequently what is revealed through subtle symbols and metaphors is more important than what is stated outright. The portrayal of relationships between blacks and whites is blended with that of religion in “White Folk’s Nigger” to demonstrate that sometimes the kindness of blacks is unacknowledged by whites."

Black Baby:

The baby I hold in my arms is a black baby.

Today I set him in the sun and

Sunbeams danced on his head.

The baby I hold in my arms is a black baby.

I toil, and I cannot always cuddle him.

I place him on the ground at my feet.

He presses the warm earth with his hands,

He lifts the sand and laughs to see

It flow through his chubby fingers.

I watch to discern which are his hands,

Which is the sand. . . .

Lo . . . the rich loam is black like his hands

The baby I hold in my arms is a black baby.

Today the coal-man brought me coal.

sixteen dollars a ton is the price I pay for coal.-

Costly fuel . . . though they say:

- If it is buried deep enough and lies hidden long enough

'Twill be no longer coal but diamonds. . . .

My black baby looks at me.

His eyes are like coals,

They shine like diamonds.

Works

• "The Shining Parlor"

^[6]

• "Unfinished Masterpieces" by Anita Coleman is a culmination of her work as a Harlem Renaissance poet.
• Reason for Singing (1948)
• The Singing Bells (1961).

References

1. ^ Glasrud, Bruce A.. "Bruce A. Glasrud and Laurie Champion, "Anita Scott Coleman," Twentieth Century American Women Writers, 1900-1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Laurie Champion (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000): 77-81; Laurie Champion and Bruce A. Glasrud, eds.,". "Anita Scott Coleman," Twentieth Century American Women Writers, 1900-1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000): 77-81; Laurie Champion and Bruce A. Glasrud, eds.. http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/coleman-anita-scott-1890-1960. Retrieved 21 September 2011. 
2. ^ http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/coleman-anita-scott-1890-1960
3. ^ http://www.questia.com/read/28002749?title=Anita%20Scott%20Coleman%20(1890-1960)
4. ^ Mitchell, Vernon. "A Family Answers the Call: Anita Scott Coleman, Literature, and War". WLA Journal. http://www.wlajournal.com/20_1-2/301-313%20Mitchell.pdf. Retrieved 22 September 2011. 
5. ^ "Coleman, Scott Anita". http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_master_lit_1/0,,654599-,00.html. Retrieved 22 September 2011. 
6. ^ Anita Scott Coleman: An Unknown Contributer