2015 Reprint of 1931 Printing. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This celebrated Picaresque novel is a 1931 Harlem Renaissance era satire on American race relations. Schuyler targets both the KKK and NAACP in condemning the ways in which race functions as both an obsession and a commodity in early twentieth-century America. The central premise of the novel is that an African American scientist invents a process that can transform blacks into whites. Those who have internalized white racism, those who are tired of inferior opportunities socially and economically, and those...

The landmark comic satire that asks, "What would happen if all black people in America turned white?"

It's New Year's Day 1933 in New York City, and Max Disher, a young black man, has just found out that a certain Dr. Junius Crookman has discovered a mysterious process that allows people to bleach their skin white--a new way to "solve the American race problem." Max leaps at the opportunity, and after a brief stay at the Crookman Sanitarium, he becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man who's able to attain everything he's ever wanted: money, power, good liquor, and the white woman who...

What would happen if Marcus Garvey had achieved his dreams by force? Satirizing one of the most influential figures of twentieth century Black America, George S. Schuyler’s Black Empire is a remarkable look into the complicated politics of race and class. After witnessing a murder in Harlem, the promising young Black journalist, Carl Slater, is kidnapped by the incredibly charismatic but deranged Dr. Belsidus. Having secretly formed a Black Internationale, the doctor has plans to upset alliances between Europe and the United States when the time is right. As Carl slowly discovers the depth...