"The Black Empire: An Imaginative Story of a Great Civilization in Modern Africa”

1937-8 [Schuyler, George Samuel] (1895-1977). “The Black Empire: An Imaginative Story of a Great Civilization in Modern Africa.” By Samuel I. Brooks [pseud.]. In Black Empire Comprising The Black Internationale: Story of Black Genius Against the World and Black Empire: An Imaginative Story of a Great Civilization in Modern Africa. Ed. Robert A. Hill and R. Kent Rasmussen (Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1991), 143-258 with a “Foreword” to the volume by John A[lfred] Williams (1925-2015) (xvii-xx), an “Afterword” by the editors (259-323), “Schuyler’s story notes (ca. 1936-1937)” (325-27), and George S. Schuyler’s Pittsburgh Courier fiction, 1933-1939)” (337-44). Originally published in the Pittsburgh Courier (October 2, 1937 - April 16, 1938). No good file of the Pittsburgh Courier appears to exist, and the editors of the book publication compared the damaged, incomplete, microfilm with Schuyler’s clippings of the stories held by Syracuse University Library. PSt

Sequel to 1936-7 Schuyler in which the Black Internationale is established in Liberia to carry out its mission of liberating Africa. After Liberia is attacked by European forces, much of the novel is on the war. Everyone is required to have a thorough physical exam, and if they are found to have an incurable disease, they are euthanized. On the other hand, they have developed permanent cures for many diseases. Model kitchens that will be established throughout Africa both prepare food for the district and are used to teach people the relationship between a good diet and health. Schuyler describes the development of the movement in “The Rise of the Black Internationale.” The Crisis 25.8 (August 1938): 255-57, 274-75, 277. Rpt. in his Black Empire Comprising The Black Internationale: Story of Black Genius Against the World and Black Empire: An Imaginative Story of a Great Civilization in Modern Africa. Ed. Robert A. Hill and R. Kent Rasmussen (Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1991), 328-336; and in Rac[e]ing to the Right: Selected Essays of George S. Schuyler. Ed. Jeffrey B. Leak (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2001), 29-36. See also 1931 Schuyler. Schuyler wrote a novel depicting the way in which the descendants of the U. S. Black settlers were enslaving the indigenous inhabitants; see Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia. New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1931. Rpt. College Park, MD: McGrath Publishing Co., 1969. The author was an African American journalist.