Calvin Coolidge Hernton (April 28, 1932 — September 30, 2001) was an American sociologist,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, particularly renowned for his 1965 study ''Sex and Racism in America'', which has been described as "a frank look at the role sexual tensions played in the American racial divide, and it helped set the tone for much African-American social criticism over the following decade."

Biography

Hernton was born in Chattanooga,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, United States, on April 28, 1932. He studied at

Talladega College Talladega College is a private historically black college in Talladega, Alabama. It is Alabama's oldest private historically black college and offers 17 degree programs. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. His ...

in Alabama, where he received a B.A. in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

(1954), and at Fisk University, where he earned a master's degree. In the mid-1950s, he worked as a social worker in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He also gave poetry readings there and co-founded the magazine ''Umbra'', which published a collective of Black writers including Langston Hughes, Ishmael Reed and

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

. Hernton subsequently went to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and worked with the Institute of Phenomenological Studies (1965–69), studying under

R. D. Laing Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illnessin particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment o ...

Margalit Fox Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...

"Calvin Hernton, 69, Scholar Of American Race Relations"
''New York Times'', October 10, 2001. Hernton was active alongside Obi Egbuna,

C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...

and others in the Antiuniversity of London. He returned to the US in 1970, and went to Oberlin College as a writer in residence and two years later joined the Black Studies department. He was a Professor of African-American Studies there until his retirement in 1999."Oberlin College Professor Calvin Hernton to be Honored November 6-8"
, press release, October 27, 1998. Oberlin Online. Hernton was the author of nine books that reflect his writings as a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and social scientist, including the bestselling ''Sex and Racism In America'' (1965), which was translated into several languages, and the ground-breaking ''The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers: Adventures in Sex, Literature, and Real Life'' (1987). His poems were also published in ''

Essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...

'', '' Evergreen Review'' and '' Black Scholar'', among other places, and on various recordings and were performed in plays on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and on tour. In 2011 the Chelsea Art Museum recreated a performance of ''Black Zero'', a happening staged by

Aldo Tambellini Aldo Tambellini (29 April 1930 – 12 November 2020) was an Italian-American artist. He pioneered electronic intermedia, and was a painter, sculptor, and poet. He died at age 90, in November 2020. Childhood Aldo Tambellini was born in Syracu ...

Group Center In abstract algebra, the center of a group, , is the set of elements that commute with every element of . It is denoted , from German '' Zentrum,'' meaning ''center''. In set-builder notation, :. The center is a normal subgroup, . As a subgr ...

on several occasions between 1963 and 1965. Sound recordings of Hernton reciting his poetry were accompanied by improvised performances by

Ben Morea Up Against the Wall Motherfucker, often shortened as The Motherfuckers or UAW/MF, was a Dadaist and Situationist anarchist affinity group based in New York City. This "street gang with analysis" was famous for its Lower East Side direct actio ...

and

Henry Grimes Henry Grimes (November 3, 1935 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz double bassist and violinist. After more than a decade of activity and performance, notably as a leading bassist in free jazz, Grimes completely disappeared from the music s ...

."Back In The New York Groove!"
, October 26, 2011; accessed December 10, 2011. Hernton died in

Oberlin, Ohio Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, 31 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students. The town is the birthplace of th ...

, at the age of 69.

Bibliography

Fiction * ''Scarecrow'' (novel; 1974) Non-Fiction * ''Sex and Racism in America'' (Doubleday, 1965) * ''White Papers for White Americans'' (Doubleday, 1966) * ''Coming Together: Black Power, White Hatred, and Sexual Hang-ups'' (Doubleday, 1971) * (with

Joseph Berke Joseph H. Berke, M.D., (January 17, 1939 – January 11, 2021) was an American–born psychotherapist, author and lecturer. He studied at Columbia College of Columbia University and graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Ne ...

) ''The Cannabis Experience: An Interpretative Study of the Effects of Marijuana and Hashish'' (London: Peter Owen, 1974) * ''The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers: Adventures in Sex, Literature, and Real Life'' (1987) Poetry * ''The Coming of Chronos to the House of Nightsong: An Epical Narrative of the South'' (Interim Books, 1964) * ''Medicine Man: Collected Poems'' (Reed Cannon & Johnson Publishing, 1976) * ''The Red Crab Gang and Black River Poems'' (Ishmael Reed Publishing Company, 1999) *''Selected Poems'' (Wesleyan University Press, forthcoming, 2022) Plays * ''Glad to Be Dead'' (1958) * ''Flame'' (1958) * ''The Place'' (1972) *(These plays remain unpublished) Contributions to Anthologies * (Poetry) Rosey E. Pool, ed., ''Beyond the Blues: New Poems by American Negroes'' (Hand & Flower Press, 1962) * (Poetry and essay) LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal, eds, ''Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing'' (Morrow, 1969)

References

External links

* *Margalit Fox
"Calvin Hernton, 69, Scholar Of American Race Relations" (obituary)
''The New York Times'', October 10, 2001.
"Medicine Man"
by Calvin Hernton, African American Registry
FBI file on Calvin Hernton
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hernton, Calvin C. 1932 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American poets African-American social scientists African-American novelists American male novelists American sociologists Fisk University alumni Oberlin College faculty People from Chattanooga, Tennessee Talladega College alumni American male poets Academics from Tennessee 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Ohio Novelists from Tennessee 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers African-American poets 20th-century African-American writers African-American male writers

Biography

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links