The Expansive Vision of Jessie Redmon Fauset

Although the Harlem Renaissance has been much discussed, and the origins of the Harlem Renaissance have been thoroughly examined, the role of women in promoting and developing Black modernism is still woefully unexamined. For example, origin stories of the Harlem Renaissance, as Jayne Marek notes in an essay on women editors of the Harlem Renaissance “have not accommodated the true complexity of [Jessie] Fauset’s contributions.” This chapter addresses the role that Jessie Fauset played as editor of The Crisis , and how her visionary role as editor contributed to the overall aesthetic of the Harlem Renaissance and Black modernism in general; specifically, the role Fauset played in publishing the work of the younger writers of the Harlem Renaissance, thus broadening Du Bois’ vision of African American literature from one strictly of racial uplift into more radical modernist work. The chapter takes the position that Fauset serves as the necessary bridge between the older generation of Harlem Renaissance writers and the more radical, younger writers, a role that she was uniquely qualified to fill through her expansive vision, one that combined classical idealism with a modern racially and gender-conscious pragmatism, or a Pragmatic Black Socratism.