A Literary History of Josie Craig Berry and Her Communities, 1917–1955

Abstract:

Black Americans settled in Oklahoma beginning in the 1830s; the first Black settlers were often people enslaved by Native nations. Despite the long-time Black presence in Oklahoma and the establishment of All-Black towns and thriving middle-class communities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Ralph Ellison is the only Black writer publishing before 1940 who is commonly associated with the state. Yet Ellison’s science teacher and writing mentor, Josie Craig Berry, was a literary and journalistic powerhouse in Oklahoma City beginning in 1918. Berry published poetry, reported on cultural events, and wrote a weekly literary column for Oklahoma City’s Black Dispatch newspaper from 1937 to 1939. This essay presents Berry as an accomplished poet, a literary critic, a community-based journalist, a public intellectual, and a woman whose contributions to Black literature and Oklahoma literature are immeasurable. Berry’s writings as examined in this essay also make evident the need for further research and academic publications on Black Oklahoma writers.