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The Fire in the Flint
Written by a lifelong champion of civil rights, this is the story of Kenneth Harper, a young black physician who, after having studied in the North in the early part of the twentieth century and believing the days of oppression for blacks in the South were waning, returns to his hometown of Central City in South Georgia to practice medicine. Harper finds all too soon that the roots of intolerance grow deep. As he becomes increasingly aware of the ways in which the black community remains enslaved, Harper helps local sharecroppers organize a cooperative society to share in the economic freedom traditionally reserved for white landowners. The Ku Klux Klan is quickly rallied into action, and Harper finds himself in a violent and vengeful battle with the Klan. Amid the story's tragedy and violence, White reflects the complex nuances of humanity within white and black communities in conflict.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1924
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About the author
Walter Francis White
23 books12 followersHe was an African American journalist, novelist, and essayist who became a spokesman for his community in the United States for almost a quarter of a century. He graduated from Atlanta University in 1916 (now Clark Atlanta University). In 1918 he joined the small national staff of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New York at the invitation of James Weldon Johnson, acting as Johnson's assistant national secretary. White later succeeded Johnson as the head of the NAACP, serving from 1931 to 1955.
White oversaw the plans and organizational structure of the fight against public segregation. Under his leadership, the NAACP set up the Legal Defense Fund, which raised numerous legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement, and achieved many successes. Among these was the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which determined that segregated education was inherently unequal. He was the virtual author of President Truman's presidential order desegregating the armed forces after the Second World War. White also quintupled NAACP membership to nearly 500,000.[1]
White was the fourth of seven children born in Atlanta to George W. White and Madeline Harrison. George had graduated from Atlanta University and was a postal worker. Madeline had graduated from Clark University and became a teacher. They belonged to the influential First Congregational Church, founded by freedmen and the American Missionary Association after the Civil War. They were among the new middle class and ensured that Walter and all their children got an education. After graduating in 1916 from Atlanta University, a historically black college, White's first job was with the Standard Life Insurance Company, one of the new and most successful businesses started by African Americans. He also worked to organize an NAACP chapter in Atlanta. He and other leaders were successful in getting the Atlanta School Board to support improving education for black children. At the invitation of James Weldon Johnson, White moved to New York and in 1918 started working with at the national headquarters of the NAACP.
He married Gladys Powell in 1922, divorcing her in 1949. They had two children, actress Jane White and Walter Carl Darrow White. White then married a white magazine editor, Poppy Cannon, with whom he lived until his death in 1955.
White had the appearance of a white man, a point he emphasized in his autobiography A Man Called White (p. 3): "I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me." Five of his great-great-great-grandparents were black and the other 27 were white. All of his family was light-skinned, and his mother was also blue-eyed and blonde.[2] Her maternal grandparents were Dilsia, a slave, and William Henry Harrison, the future President. Her mother Marie Harrison was one of Dilsia's daughters and her father Augustus Ware was also white.[3]
Sinclair Lewis' 1947 novel, Kingsblood Royal, about a man who appears to be white but learns late in life that he is black, has characters based in part on White and his professional circles. In fact, Lewis consulted White on the novel. While some white critics found the novel contrived, the prominent African-American magazine Ebony named it the best novel of the year.[4]
White used his appearance to increase his effectiveness in conducting investigations of lynchings and race riots. He could "pass" and talk to whites, but also manage to identify himself as black and talk to the African-American community. Such work was dangerous, but he investigated 41 lynchings and eight race riots while working with the NAACP.
White oversaw the plans and organizational structure of the fight against public segregation. Under his leadership, the NAACP set up the Legal Defense Fund, which raised numerous legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement, and achieved many successes. Among these was the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which determined that segregated education was inherently unequal. He was the virtual author of President Truman's presidential order desegregating the armed forces after the Second World War. White also quintupled NAACP membership to nearly 500,000.[1]
White was the fourth of seven children born in Atlanta to George W. White and Madeline Harrison. George had graduated from Atlanta University and was a postal worker. Madeline had graduated from Clark University and became a teacher. They belonged to the influential First Congregational Church, founded by freedmen and the American Missionary Association after the Civil War. They were among the new middle class and ensured that Walter and all their children got an education. After graduating in 1916 from Atlanta University, a historically black college, White's first job was with the Standard Life Insurance Company, one of the new and most successful businesses started by African Americans. He also worked to organize an NAACP chapter in Atlanta. He and other leaders were successful in getting the Atlanta School Board to support improving education for black children. At the invitation of James Weldon Johnson, White moved to New York and in 1918 started working with at the national headquarters of the NAACP.
He married Gladys Powell in 1922, divorcing her in 1949. They had two children, actress Jane White and Walter Carl Darrow White. White then married a white magazine editor, Poppy Cannon, with whom he lived until his death in 1955.
White had the appearance of a white man, a point he emphasized in his autobiography A Man Called White (p. 3): "I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me." Five of his great-great-great-grandparents were black and the other 27 were white. All of his family was light-skinned, and his mother was also blue-eyed and blonde.[2] Her maternal grandparents were Dilsia, a slave, and William Henry Harrison, the future President. Her mother Marie Harrison was one of Dilsia's daughters and her father Augustus Ware was also white.[3]
Sinclair Lewis' 1947 novel, Kingsblood Royal, about a man who appears to be white but learns late in life that he is black, has characters based in part on White and his professional circles. In fact, Lewis consulted White on the novel. While some white critics found the novel contrived, the prominent African-American magazine Ebony named it the best novel of the year.[4]
White used his appearance to increase his effectiveness in conducting investigations of lynchings and race riots. He could "pass" and talk to whites, but also manage to identify himself as black and talk to the African-American community. Such work was dangerous, but he investigated 41 lynchings and eight race riots while working with the NAACP.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 19, 2008
This text is often overlooked by literary scholars as mediocre, but I found it culturally and historically rich. White was no genius writer, but he tells an intriguing tale of racism in the south during the early part of the twentieth century. As is common in other texts from the Harlem Renaissance, White also acknowledges the class struggles within the Black community and how the middle class often submitted to white racists--"knowing their role", so to speak, while poor Blacks wanted to fight the oppression. I wrote a research paper on this text looking at the roles the three women characters played and their levels of submission and subversion of the men in the text. Very interesting, particularly considering the gender issues between the writers during the Harlem Renaissance.
June 15, 2020
A young black man, educated as a doctor up north, returns to Central City Georgia to start his medical practice. If’s 1924. Modern times, he thinks. Sure he knows the white folk are prejudiced, and a lot of them are members of that silly old Ku Klux Klan, but all the books he read tells him it isn’t as bad as it used to be. He doesn’t understand why his brother, who stayed behind, seems awfully bitter. Doesn’t he know that, if you just keep your head down and take pride in your own work and your own people, you can get by and maybe get on with the progressive sort of white man? Or does he see, like anyone else sees, that our hero is doomed?
This is a great piece of journalism and not so good as a novel. The Georgia town comes alive but the characters are blocks of stereotyped wood. If you want to get a look at how the South looked to members of the black middle class, this is your book. Some of the insights are pretty startling.
This is a great piece of journalism and not so good as a novel. The Georgia town comes alive but the characters are blocks of stereotyped wood. If you want to get a look at how the South looked to members of the black middle class, this is your book. Some of the insights are pretty startling.
December 21, 2020
The Washington Post called this novel of one of the 12 novels that changed the way we live. Written in the 1920s by the man who would later guide the NAACP through the Depression, this novel tells the story of a black man's futile attempt to live quietly within the confines of the racist south. It laid bare the falsity of that quest and the reality of lynching. In the year of Black Lives Matter, it is another key reminder of the American burden of its racist foundation.
June 23, 2024
The story here is a worthy one, and offers insight into the realities of the post WWI era lives of Black people in the Southern United States. Reading this as a White woman in 2024, the story felt predictable because sadly I have read and seen too many like it. I can imagine the impact would have been quite different had I read it when it was published.
The storytelling though felt stilted and the characters sometimes sketchily drawn. There were some resonant emotional moments, but overall, it was neither journalism nor fiction, but some of kind of weird mishmash of the two, and therefore not as affecting to read as it might have been.
But philosophically? Culturally? Historically? Fascinating and instructive. Meaty, in the sense of taking a while to digest. I'll be thinking on it for quite some time in that sense.
The storytelling though felt stilted and the characters sometimes sketchily drawn. There were some resonant emotional moments, but overall, it was neither journalism nor fiction, but some of kind of weird mishmash of the two, and therefore not as affecting to read as it might have been.
But philosophically? Culturally? Historically? Fascinating and instructive. Meaty, in the sense of taking a while to digest. I'll be thinking on it for quite some time in that sense.
August 7, 2025
I actually read the 2023 copyrighted Unfading Pages printing of this book with a “Detailed Historical Context” afterward. The living conditions of Black Americans described in this book, along with “And Their Eyes were Watching God” and “The Warmth of Other Suns” among others, provide a shameful context for the history of race relations in this country to this very day. Once this administration wipes out the brown population, who do you suppose is next?
March 27, 2022
Knocked the guts right out of me. The steady pace and 'reasonable' voice of the author moves us steadily forward through this brilliant book until near the end when his fire and fury pour forth. This story of an educated black man in the south, his family and loved ones, and the horrific actions of the KKK is forceful, vivid and horrific all at once.
September 17, 2022
This classic book is one of many that I am thankful that Amazon has made available in audio books. This speaks to the importance that this historical written work must be told. We can learn so much from the past. This past reflects the risks that we face if we continue to focus on hate rather than healing.
July 24, 2024
Man's inhumane side
Novel based during the Jim Crow South at it's highest peak. Written by this talented writer as a debut novel this book contains violence and abusive language that is period correct. Sad and tragic ending 😢
Novel based during the Jim Crow South at it's highest peak. Written by this talented writer as a debut novel this book contains violence and abusive language that is period correct. Sad and tragic ending 😢
April 24, 2023
A tough read, but extremely interesting to hear a Black American p.o.v. from the 1920s. Intense.
July 7, 2024
Well done!!!! Review here ->https://youtu.be/Tp8mv-2_HXs
July 17, 2022
The whole time I felt this was more an argument than a work of art-which I don't suppose there is anything wrong with that. White tended to digress from the story and get going on some unimportant tangent of description right in the middle of an important scene which was irritating.
May 3, 2023
Written in 1925 as part of the Harlem Renaisance, is is a bit pedantic but a good primer to life in the south at that time and in many ways today too..
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews