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Speaker 1: Novel.

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Speaker 2: I knew I wanted to be a writer very early

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Speaker 2: in life. By the time I was seven years old,

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Speaker 2: there were no more dreams of being a cowgirl in

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Speaker 2: outer space. Instead, I pretended to smoke pencils over imaginary typewriters.

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Speaker 2: I've always been a voracious reader, and I soon gravitated

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Speaker 2: toward the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, that cultural movement

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Speaker 2: of the nineteen twenties and thirties that established Black Americans

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Speaker 2: as taste makers, especially in regards to the arts. During

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Speaker 2: one of my more rebellious moments of junior high school,

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Speaker 2: I wrote out the full poem of Harlem Renaissance writer

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Speaker 2: Claude McKay's If We Must Die on my homeroom's chalkboard.

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Speaker 2: If we must die, let it not be like hogs

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Speaker 2: hunted and pinned in an inglorious spot. It's a poem

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Speaker 2: of defiance. Basically, if we go out, we're not going

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Speaker 2: out like a bunch of suckers. That day in home room,

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Speaker 2: I was fascinated by this era of the past, and

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Speaker 2: it was helping me aspire toward an imaginary future for myself.

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Speaker 2: I saw the Harlem Renaissance as the epitome of what

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Speaker 2: an artist community could look like.

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Speaker 3: I'd like to tell people, welcome to Harlem. Are you

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Speaker 3: a local Harlem?

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Speaker 2: Every now and then? Because there is it's you know,

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Speaker 2: it's like an hour on the train. Even though I've

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Speaker 2: been living in New York for over six years, I've

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Speaker 2: yet to do any official tourist thing like take a

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Speaker 2: guided walk through Harlem. So I went uptown and let

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Speaker 2: a professional show me around.

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Speaker 3: I like to tell people no place in the world

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Speaker 3: has contributed more to American history and world history than Harlem.

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Speaker 2: When I first cut up to my tour guide, Carolyn Johnson,

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Speaker 2: I knew I'd be in good hands. Tall and slim,

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Speaker 2: Carolyn was dressed simply for a warm day of walking, jeans,

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Speaker 2: a light denim jacket, and sensible shoes. She was on

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Speaker 2: the phone ironing out a little business wrinkle while indicating

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Speaker 2: I should approach her, and while speaking to folks passing by.

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Speaker 3: Excuse me, miss, I'm doing yourself.

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Speaker 2: She radiated all the energy of a quintessential multitasking New Yorker.

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Speaker 1: And you're born to raise a hall.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I couldn't think of living any fresh outghborhood.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was really excited about the tour, but also

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Speaker 2: afraid I'd be disappointed. Time and gentrification aren't friendly to

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Speaker 2: historically black neighborhoods. I didn't want to see a slick

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Speaker 2: coffee shop that doesn't take care standing in the place

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Speaker 2: where the activist Marcus Garvey may have delivered Pan African speeches,

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Speaker 2: or where writer Nella Larson may have once typed out

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Speaker 2: her manuscript for passing. Instead, I got to see that

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Speaker 2: a lot of buildings remain virtually unchanged, like the building

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Speaker 2: where activist poet James Walden Johnson and his brother Jay

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Speaker 2: Rosamond Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and sing.

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Speaker 3: James Weldon Johnson, Yes, Olivia.

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Speaker 2: It took my breath to learn that the ashes of

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Speaker 2: Langston Hughes, one of the most prominent voices of the

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Speaker 2: Harlem Renaissance, are intereered in the floor of the Schomberg

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Speaker 2: Center for Research in Black Culture.

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Speaker 3: In between Lenox and Seventh we had over one hundred

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Speaker 3: and thirty restaurants, bar speakeasy, east, churches and establishments.

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Speaker 2: I saw the home of jazz pioneer Fat Swaller, the

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Speaker 2: studio of the great photographer James vandersey So.

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Speaker 3: On this street. Down the block is where Billy Holliday

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Speaker 3: was to stop, but it's still standing. It's not as

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Speaker 3: Phill's place today Bill Factory.

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Speaker 2: As the tour continued, I realized I was hearing a

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Speaker 2: lot of names I already knew, and not the one

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Speaker 2: I was hoping to learn more about. I was walking

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Speaker 2: the same streets Eunice Hunting once walked, but my tour

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Speaker 2: guide hadn't mentioned her yet. Where was Eunice?

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Speaker 3: Do you have one hundred and thirty third Street? Swing Street?

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Speaker 3: They called it Jungle Alley? And that's what a real

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Speaker 3: party was.

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Speaker 2: What does she get into as a young woman fresh

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Speaker 2: out of college?

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Speaker 1: Where did she sweat her hair out?

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Speaker 2: I came to Harlem hoping for a glimpse of Unice

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Speaker 2: and the neighborhood she moved to in the nineteen twenties,

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Speaker 2: which quickly became her playground and the vibrancy of her youth,

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Speaker 2: and would go on to be her home for the

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Speaker 2: majority of her life. But amongst this celebration of Harlem's past,

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Speaker 2: the ghost of her memory seemed determined to stay just

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Speaker 2: out of reach. That is until I asked my tour guide,

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Speaker 2: Carolyn about a particular building four O nine edgecomb Avenue.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't a stop on the tour.

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Speaker 3: Well, we can go up there. You can take that

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Speaker 3: two bus right up there, drop you right off in

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Speaker 3: front of it.

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Speaker 1: Of course Carolyn knew of it.

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Speaker 3: They're a good marshalltt W de Boys, Walter White. That

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Speaker 3: was like the eight building.

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Speaker 2: Ever since the nineteen twenties, the movers and shakers of

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Speaker 2: Harlem had lived at four O nine Edgecomb Avenue. One

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Speaker 2: day that would include Unice two. When I think about Unis,

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Speaker 2: it can feel like someone is humming a few bars

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Speaker 2: of a song I used to know, but now I

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Speaker 2: can't remember the lyrics. But here finally was a glimpse

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Speaker 2: of Unis, like always perpetually just around the next corner,

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Speaker 2: out of reach and a little overshadowed by her neighbors,

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Speaker 2: but still here amidst the Harlem renaissance.

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Speaker 3: Here, this is where we live. This is where it

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Speaker 3: all happened.

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Speaker 2: From the teams at iHeartRadio and Novel, I'm Nicole Perkins

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Speaker 2: and this is the Godmother Episode two Harlem Czarina tucked

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Speaker 2: between funeral notices and municipal updates of a nineteen twenty

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Speaker 2: three edition of The Yonkers Herald as a small article.

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Speaker 2: It's an announcement. Nine thousand invitations have been issued for

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Speaker 2: the largest black wedding ever held in the country. The

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Speaker 2: bride to be is the prominent and extremely wealthy socialite,

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Speaker 2: Miss May Walker Robinson. Her grandmother, Madame C. J. Walker,

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Speaker 2: is a hair care product pioneer and the first American

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Speaker 2: female entrepreneur of any race to become a millionaire. The

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Speaker 2: Walker Robinson's were a big deal in Harlem nineteen twenty three,

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Speaker 2: and the wedding makes headlines across the country, especially in

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Speaker 2: the Black press.

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Speaker 4: All of these other black institutions of the public sphere

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Speaker 4: in the twenties and thirties look to the Black press

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Speaker 4: to sort of keep their pulse on what is hot

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Speaker 4: and sexy culturally, but also what is hot in terms

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Speaker 4: of politics. It's where the stage is being set for

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Speaker 4: who the movers and shakers in the society people are.

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Speaker 2: Units had been a socialite herself from a young age.

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Speaker 2: The Huntings didn't have the Walker Robinson's wealth, but her

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Speaker 2: parents were still very much a part of the black

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Speaker 2: social elite. In an article from The New York Age

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Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty three, there's a picture of May Walker

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Speaker 2: Robinson on her wedding day, seated in her wedding dress,

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Speaker 2: surrounded by bridesmaids and flower girls in glossy sheer, decadent,

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Speaker 2: bright dresses, replete with headdresses and bouquets. And if you

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Speaker 2: look closely, there in the back row, along a line

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Speaker 2: of other women honored with the role of bridesmaid, second

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Speaker 2: from the right, head turned slightly, eyes on something just

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Speaker 2: beyond the camera, is Eunice Hunting. It's not clear whether

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Speaker 2: Eunice in May would have really been friends, if the

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Speaker 2: number of bridesmaids is anything to go by, but her

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Speaker 2: inclusion was a mark of her emerging importance in this

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Speaker 2: elite circle. Eunice was slotting into the high falutine social

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Speaker 2: circle of black women, sometimes referred to as the czarinas

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Speaker 2: their every move was covered breath by the Black press

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Speaker 2: at the time, read not just by New Yorkers, but

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Speaker 2: by black people all across the country.

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Speaker 4: Whose wedding were they at, what were they wearing? Where

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Speaker 4: did they dine that evening? And in the next breath

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Speaker 4: a really cutting line about a choice that they made,

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Speaker 4: either politically, professionally or in terms of what they wore.

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Speaker 4: Even they have to be exemplars. They're supposed to be exceptional,

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Speaker 4: and they're also supposed to be engaging in behaviors that

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Speaker 4: help further the race right. There isn't a lot of

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Speaker 4: space for people to just be individuals and say, oh,

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Speaker 4: I don't care about that race thing over there.

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Speaker 2: With William and Addie Hunts and as parents, Unice would

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Speaker 2: have been better prepared than most for this kind of pressure.

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Speaker 2: She had already lived a truly exceptional life after fleeing

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Speaker 2: the terrors of the nineteen oh six Atlanta race massacre.

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Speaker 1: As a young.

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Speaker 2: Girl, she'd lived in Germany, attended a predominantly white college,

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Speaker 2: and graduated with two degrees all by the time she

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Speaker 2: arrived in Harlem aged twenty five. It's possible that Unice's

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Speaker 2: class and education made her a little sheltered at first.

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Speaker 5: I think she.

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Speaker 6: Didn't know what to expect in the real world. It

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Speaker 6: wasn't a matter of just living in Harlem. It was

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Speaker 6: a matter of going out in the community because that

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Speaker 6: was her job.

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Speaker 2: Pretty soon after graduating, Unice took up a job as

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Speaker 2: a social worker with Family Services in New York and

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Speaker 2: New Jersey. Work would bring her in contact with a

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Speaker 2: whole new sphere of black life.

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Speaker 7: By the nineteen twenties, Harlem was referred to as being

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Speaker 7: like the capital of the black world.

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Speaker 2: All right, so picture it mid nineteen twenties, Harlem. It's

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Speaker 2: Sunday morning. Unice Hunting, twenty five years old, a social worker,

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Speaker 2: a socialite. She leaves her trendy apartment and walks south

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Speaker 2: to one hundred and thirty fifth Street, Or maybe she

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Speaker 2: takes the number three train and uses the minute she

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Speaker 2: saves to stand in awe of the magic of the

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Speaker 2: black mecca that sits before her.

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Speaker 8: She would have seen on one corner black communists standing

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Speaker 8: on a soapbox talking about the revolution. On the other

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Speaker 8: soapbox across the corner, she would have seen traditional politicians

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Speaker 8: urging African Americans to leave the Republican Party and come

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Speaker 8: join the Democratic Party. On the third street corner, she

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Speaker 8: would have seen a religious figure, maybe the guy called

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Speaker 8: the Barefoot Prophet, who was telling everyone they better get

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Speaker 8: with Jesus right away or they're can be going to Hell.

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Speaker 8: And on the fourth corner, those would have been the

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Speaker 8: race nationalists.

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Speaker 2: The community of Harlem, unlike many of the spaces units

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Speaker 2: must have been used to by that time, was full

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Speaker 2: of diverse black life.

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Speaker 7: You know, Harlem becomes this place where African Americans have

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Speaker 7: a chance to remake themselves all over again, securing better jobs,

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Speaker 7: better wages, and even housing conditions. Is all really a

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Speaker 7: dream from many people.

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Speaker 2: But many of those new arria to the neighborhood soon

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Speaker 2: found themselves falling into systemic traps which don't sound all

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Speaker 2: that different from the racism Unis and her family had

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Speaker 2: left in the South.

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Speaker 7: Those dreams are complicated by Jim Crow North. They're complicated

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Speaker 7: by police violence. They are complicated by the thread of

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Speaker 7: public violence on the street.

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Speaker 2: Between nineteen ten and nineteen thirty, the number of Black

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Speaker 2: people living in just that one and a half square

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Speaker 2: mile of central Harlem increased eight times over, from a

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Speaker 2: little over eighteen thousand to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand.

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Speaker 2: The Big Apple offered new beginnings and opportunities.

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Speaker 7: There are countless shops, clubs, tenement housing buildings. Harlem is

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Speaker 7: kind of like a melting pot.

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Speaker 2: So as Unice walks up one hundred and thirty fifth

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Speaker 2: Street that Sunday morning, she can see every facet of

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Speaker 2: black life on one corner. From the black elite and

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Speaker 2: fur coats knew ready to wear dresses off the rack.

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Speaker 6: People at the time got very dressed.

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Speaker 2: Up, working class women and freshly laundered hand me downs

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Speaker 2: and darned.

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Speaker 7: Stockings, donning the best that they have in their closet.

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Speaker 2: All the good time boys and girls and their flashiest

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Speaker 2: silks and softest hankies.

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Speaker 6: It was part of the whole atmosphere where you wore

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Speaker 6: wonderful clothes. You know, you wanted impress each other.

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Speaker 2: When I think about the hair of nineteen twenties Harlem,

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Speaker 2: I think of the expression fried died and laid to

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Speaker 2: the side. Keeping straight hair was a matter of pride

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Speaker 2: and professionalism, regardless of the kind of job you had.

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Speaker 2: Fingerways and big body bobs were all the rage. Kinks

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Speaker 2: and tight curls weren't appreciated as much as they are today.

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Speaker 7: We also see women dawning like not necessarily afros, but

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Speaker 7: natural hair meaning no chemicals, and you may see women

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Speaker 7: with pressed hair.

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Speaker 2: I avoided moving to New York for as long as

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Speaker 2: I could. I didn't think my country self could handle

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Speaker 2: all the excitement. Sometimes I can't, but I hope Eunice

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Speaker 2: fully enjoyed all that nighttime. Harlem had to offer with

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Speaker 2: red lipstick, finger waves, and a breezy dress made to

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Speaker 2: flutter around the Charleston and Lindy hop all night. Moving

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Speaker 2: to Harlem, especially at this point in this history and

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Speaker 2: at the age Unis was, must have felt exciting. What

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Speaker 2: would those communists, preachers, partiers, and fur coat wearing socialites

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Speaker 2: rushing by have seen when they looked back at Unice.

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Speaker 2: I like to think she was the kind of young

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Speaker 2: woman who yearned to be at the center of all

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Speaker 2: this action.

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Speaker 1: I like to think that she felt herself to be

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Speaker 1: at the foot of a great hill.

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Speaker 2: But did she know yet which path would lead her

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Speaker 2: into her new life? For now, Unice's parents had offered

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Speaker 2: her a road map of sorts, but the glamor of

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00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:24,000
Speaker 2: the Harlem Renaissance must have exerted a powerful pull. There's

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Speaker 2: a writer of the Harlem Renaissance era that reminds me

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Speaker 2: of Unus Zora nil Hurston and Zora nil Hurston's fiction.

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Speaker 2: With her anthropological attention to dialogue, I found images of

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Speaker 2: the women elders in my family. She made me want

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Speaker 2: to know more about my family member's internal worlds and

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00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,880
Speaker 2: wonder what they may have seen her novel. Their eyes

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Speaker 2: were watching. God made me realize my elders had whole

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Speaker 2: lives before I knew them. It seems silly, but when

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Speaker 2: you're young, you know your grandmother is grandmama, and never

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Speaker 2: think about the idea that at some point in her

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00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:06,520
Speaker 2: life she may have taken a much younger lover who

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00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:10,800
Speaker 2: filled her with renewed passion. Like in the book with

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Speaker 2: Zora Neil Hurston, it wasn't just her writings I latched onto.

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00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:19,760
Speaker 2: It was also the story of her life during the

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Speaker 2: Harlem Renaissance. She was a prolific writer an anthropologist, but

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Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty she died, broke in obscurity, and was

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Speaker 2: buried in an unmarked grave. In nineteen seventy three, renowned

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00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:38,440
Speaker 2: writer Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, located her

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Speaker 2: grave and helped bring Hurston's literary career back to the

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00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:48,120
Speaker 2: public eye, and it stayed there. How could someone like Zora,

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Speaker 2: who was once one of the most popular Black women

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Speaker 2: in the country disappear from history so easily. Unics and

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00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:03,720
Speaker 2: Zora were both outspoken and determined, traits not often appreciated

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Speaker 2: in black women. But there's another comparison between the two.

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Speaker 2: Ever since her arrival in Harlem in the mid twenties,

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Speaker 2: units hadn't just been absorbing the sights and sounds and

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Speaker 2: smells of her surroundings. She took to her typewriter with thin,

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Speaker 2: ivory sheets of paper and began writing about them.

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Speaker 9: Nineteen twenty five. The Corner by Unice Carter. My friend

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Speaker 9: lives in the house on the corner. She lives high

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Speaker 9: above the street, in a doll's house of white enamel

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Speaker 9: and soft blues, with lovely old furniture and oriental rugs

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00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:52,200
Speaker 9: of faded brilliance on dark polished floors, in a miniature

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Speaker 9: home with a real fireplace and polished grasses and flowers

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Speaker 9: all about in crystal bowls. She lives high up there,

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Speaker 9: but below are the street and the avenue. And one

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Speaker 9: fall night, as I waited for her in the loveliest

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Speaker 9: room of all, I turned from watching the fire flicker

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Speaker 9: and dart across the room, and great chrysanthemums casting sleeping

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Speaker 9: shadows on the wall. I turned from this and watched

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Speaker 9: the street. It was alive with light and sound, the

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Speaker 9: light and sound of the city, the Black City.

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Speaker 2: The piece you just heard is called The Corner. It

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00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:48,040
Speaker 2: was written and published in nineteen twenty five. In it,

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Speaker 2: Eunice is writing an insider's account, documenting the sensual experiences

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Speaker 2: of living in the neighborhood, sights and sounds that might

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00:18:56,359 --> 00:19:02,199
Speaker 2: go unnoticed by visiting outsiders. Unice's early writings offer a

293
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:06,160
Speaker 2: unique perspective to who she was. Her professional and activist

294
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 2: writings show a determined, educated, even commanding woman, and when

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00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:13,680
Speaker 2: you add the wings of creativity, her.

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00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:19,879
Speaker 6: Short stories were wonderful. They were celebrated by some of

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00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:24,400
Speaker 6: the most prominent writers in Harlem. She for instance, would

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Speaker 6: go to some of the cocktail gatherings and it was

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00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:30,280
Speaker 6: important to her because you couldn't just show up, you

300
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,880
Speaker 6: had to be invited. People would get dressed up. These

301
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:37,040
Speaker 6: were the top artists of the era, and she became

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Speaker 6: part of that because of her writing.

303
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,480
Speaker 2: Eunice Hunting is not a name I remember reading about

304
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,800
Speaker 2: in the library. I'd like to think that it's because

305
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,040
Speaker 2: the era was so full of great talent and the

306
00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:54,920
Speaker 2: world was moving so fast at the time that some

307
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:58,639
Speaker 2: people fell through history as cracks. But in this moment

308
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 2: of history, it feels especially important to actively remember black luminaries.

309
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:08,120
Speaker 2: When I was growing up, Zora nil Hurston's their eyes

310
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Speaker 2: were watching. God was taught in sophomore English classes.

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Speaker 1: All over America.

312
00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,280
Speaker 2: But as I speak, Black history is being erased from

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00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:21,400
Speaker 2: schools across the country. Who's to say that Zora nil

314
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:26,919
Speaker 2: Hurston's work won't be buried again. Writer's works frequently get

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00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,080
Speaker 2: lost to the ravages of time, and I wonder if

316
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,919
Speaker 2: Unics used her fiction, her articles, and reviews as a

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00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:38,440
Speaker 2: way of carving her name into history's tree trunk. Unice

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Speaker 2: was here. Maybe I'm projecting because as a writer myself,

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00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:53,840
Speaker 2: I hope my work will last. And that's someone one hundred,

320
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Speaker 2: two hundred years from now will scroll through the library

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Speaker 2: catalog shipped into their left pink finger, probably and see

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00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:07,800
Speaker 2: my name and know I existed. In nineteen twenty five,

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00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,359
Speaker 2: Unics had another piece of writing published, but this time,

324
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,280
Speaker 2: unlike the Corner, it was an essay, and unlike the Corner,

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Speaker 2: it shows that Unice was looking out to a world

326
00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:22,879
Speaker 2: beyond Harlem. It was called breaking Through.

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Speaker 9: Harlem is a modern ghetto. True, that is a contradiction

328
00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:33,840
Speaker 9: in terms, but prejudice has ringed this group with invisible

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00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 9: lines and bars. Within the bars, you will find a

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Speaker 9: small city, self sufficient, complete in itself, a riot of

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00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:49,199
Speaker 9: color and personality, a medley of song and tears, a

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00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:54,399
Speaker 9: canvas of browns and golds and flaming reds, and yet bound.

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Speaker 9: There is also some tugging from without at the ropes

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00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:01,480
Speaker 9: that bind the ghetto. It is the result of the

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00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:05,800
Speaker 9: efforts of the whites, because of curiosity, self interest, a

336
00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:12,080
Speaker 9: spasm of self righteousness, or very rarely genuine interest, to

337
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Speaker 9: establish a contact with those within the ghetto.

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Speaker 2: In the essay, Eunice argues in favor of those.

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Speaker 9: Who often appear in the first instance to be deserting

340
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:23,240
Speaker 9: the race.

341
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:26,080
Speaker 2: And talks about those striving to be the first to

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00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:27,119
Speaker 2: accomplish something.

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Speaker 9: Whereas many who break the bonds are actuated solely by

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00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:33,680
Speaker 9: the desire to get the best for themselves in spite

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00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,960
Speaker 9: of prescription, a few realize that they are blazing a

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00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,159
Speaker 9: trail that others of the race may follow. The essay

347
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 9: goes on there is another side of the picture.

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Speaker 1: It is a tale of long.

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Speaker 9: Dark years, of dismal failure, of brave struggles to rise

350
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:54,960
Speaker 9: above mediocrity, of bitter fights for existence, A tale twisted

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00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 9: with heartaches and heartbreaks, a tale drenched in sweat and blood,

352
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 9: but still shot Through with flashes of sunlight upon pure gold.

353
00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:09,040
Speaker 9: It takes rare courage to fight a fight that more

354
00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 9: often than not ends in death, poverty, or prostitution of genius.

355
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Speaker 9: But it is to these who make this fight, despite

356
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,640
Speaker 9: the tremendous odds, despite the deterring pessimism of those who

357
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:26,479
Speaker 9: see the tangle of prejudice that surrounds the ghetto, a

358
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 9: hopeless barrier, that we must look for the breaking of

359
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 9: the bonds now linked together by ignorance and misunderstanding.

360
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Speaker 1: It's a righteous essay.

361
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:42,919
Speaker 2: It feels autobiographical and maybe even a bit self aggrandizing

362
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,919
Speaker 2: and smug, like she was telling her readers get like me, kids,

363
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 2: as if you can. But it seems to show Unice

364
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:53,640
Speaker 2: starting to turn away from the.

365
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 9: Riot of color and personality.

366
00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 2: To pursue other goals. You can tell from reading Breaking

367
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,439
Speaker 2: Through that Unice was deeply concerned with the idea of

368
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 2: her own legacy, and it's interesting to think about it

369
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 2: in the context of where Unice's life was at in

370
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty five when she wrote this as a twenty

371
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 2: six year old. You see, she did not sign the

372
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,840
Speaker 2: essay Breaking Through with the name Unice Hunting. She signed

373
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 2: it Eunice Hunting Carter because by nineteen twenty five, Eunice

374
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 2: was married.

375
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 6: She lived in a society where women married and had children.

376
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 6: That was the way it was.

377
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 2: Writer, social worker, socialite, and now wife. But these roles

378
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,040
Speaker 2: weren't keeping her satisfied.

379
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 6: I think Unis did feel very strongly about being role modeled.

380
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:59,879
Speaker 6: She wrote about it, how it's very important to accomplish

381
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,960
Speaker 6: so people who come beyond you know, this is a woman,

382
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 6: this is a black person, and she's very successful. I

383
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 6: can be that way too.

384
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,800
Speaker 2: By this point in Unice's life, she's clearly been formulating

385
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:22,359
Speaker 2: a plan. Looking back now, Breaking Through can be seen

386
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 2: as a roadmap she'd written for herself. It outlined a

387
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 2: strategy that Unice would continually use throughout her life, especially

388
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 2: the decisions she would make in the final years of

389
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 2: the Roaring twenties. She wanted to be different. She wanted

390
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 2: to be a trailblazer. It's nineteen twenty three. Unice meets

391
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 2: a wealthy man and his name is Lyle Carter.

392
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,000
Speaker 6: He was born and raised in Barbados.

393
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 2: Lyle arrived in New York City in nineteen thirteen and

394
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,639
Speaker 2: evolved into a prominent figure in Harlem too, in a

395
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 2: more understated way than Eunice. He'd built his wealth through

396
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,440
Speaker 2: a successful dental practice. Eunice married Lyle in nineteen twenty four.

397
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 6: She and her husband lived in this beautiful house in Harlem,

398
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 6: and they liked to entertain.

399
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 2: Their wedding had been a small, intimate affair, a far

400
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 2: cry from the lavish May Robinson Walker extravaganza.

401
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,640
Speaker 6: A year or two later, they have a child.

402
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 2: They named that child Lyle Carter Junior. Eunice's mother, Addie,

403
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 2: when touring the country for work, had written extensively on

404
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 2: the roles and responsibilities of black women in American society,

405
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 2: their roles both at home and in public, while their

406
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:59,720
Speaker 2: husbands lead the family. And Unice's work does take a

407
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 2: back seat to Lyle's at this time in the nineteen

408
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 2: twenty five senses, while she's publishing writing as well as

409
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,439
Speaker 2: holding down a social work career. Lyle is listed as

410
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 2: a dentist and Unice's occupation is simply housewife. I imagine

411
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:21,679
Speaker 2: this must have rubbed Unis the wrong way. Eunice and

412
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,919
Speaker 2: Lyle would hold social events together and they'd often have

413
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:25,640
Speaker 2: people over.

414
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,360
Speaker 6: I mean the parties they had in their house. That

415
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,920
Speaker 6: meant a lot to them. I think that bound them

416
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 6: their devotion to Harlem. They were very well known in

417
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:38,160
Speaker 6: the community. As you can imagine, the pair of them

418
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 6: looked good together. On the surface, it probably seemed ideal,

419
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:46,479
Speaker 6: Eunice and Lyle entertaining the who's who of the Harlem

420
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 6: Renaissance in their family home. Did Ornel Hurston ever pop by?

421
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:59,200
Speaker 6: But scratch that surface, there were rumors that Eunice had

422
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 6: had an affair at some point with the musician. One

423
00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 6: of the writers of the era mentioned in a letter

424
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 6: that she thought Unice might be gay, which who knows.

425
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 6: I mean, those were the rumors, But what do they

426
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 6: speak to. They speak to the fact that maybe her

427
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 6: marriage was not the best.

428
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 2: For all of her mother ADDIE's advocacy on the role

429
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 2: of black women in America, her daughter, Eunice Hunt and

430
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 2: Carter still yearned for more, thanks in part to Addie.

431
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,800
Speaker 6: In many ways, she was a maverick, and Addie her

432
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,440
Speaker 6: mother instilled this in her because Addie was a bit

433
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 6: of a maverick.

434
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 2: In her own time. As a young mother, Addie had

435
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 2: traveled the Deep South alone documenting atrocities. She'd gone to

436
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Speaker 2: Germany with her young family to pursue her own education,

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00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 2: and later she'd returned to Europe to advocate for black

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00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 2: soldiers on the front lines of World War One, all remarkable,

439
00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 2: exceptional feats. She never let being a mother stand in

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00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 2: the way of her ambition, and neither would her daughter.

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Speaker 10: Unice was doing social work, she was writing, she married,

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00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 10: and she had a son who was a good mother,

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00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 10: a good wife. But I think she wanted to act

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00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 10: on the world and to be influential and known in

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00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 10: a different way than she would have been as a

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00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 10: writer and a social worker.

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00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 6: So this was a tension I think in her whole life,

448
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 6: because she was very well educated, she was very smart.

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00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 5: And she desired to make a greater contribution, to have

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00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 5: a greater impact.

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00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 2: By nineteen twenty seven, Unice was twenty eight years old

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00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 2: and now on the inside looking outside of the Black city,

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00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 2: and her experiences had made Unis almost uniquely prepared for

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00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 2: the consequences of the decision she made next.

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00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 5: Eunice was able to venture into the white realm.

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00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty seven, with a young child and a

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00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:08,760
Speaker 2: fledgling writing career, Eunice decided to go back to school, law.

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Speaker 11: School, social work, was very important work, but there were

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00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 11: a lot of women and black women doing social work

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00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 11: at the time, and that was not the case at

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00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 11: all in law.

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Speaker 2: From this point in her life forward, Eunice Hunt and

463
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:30,160
Speaker 2: Carter would leave writing behind. She would never publish another

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Speaker 2: piece of creative writing.

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Speaker 10: I wouldn't be surprised if she just felt like, Okay,

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Speaker 10: I'm leaving that part of my life behind and We're

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00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 10: going to become a lawyer, or just stop because she

468
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 10: didn't have time to do it anymore.

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00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 11: Law was a place where she could really distinguish herself.

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Speaker 6: Although she had to have known it was going to

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00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 6: be an uphill climb.

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00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 2: And Unis isn't the only one about to undergo a

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00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 2: major transition. As the Roaring twenties start to draw to

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00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 2: a close, Harlem itself is changing, and as it does,

475
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 2: a different side of this world is about to come

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00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 2: into view. Units may have thought she'd seen a lot

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00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 2: of what Harlem had to offer, the glitz, the glamour,

478
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 2: the tradition, and the struggle of those she walked alongside.

479
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 2: But there were other layers to it too. In Harlem

480
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:23,440
Speaker 2: and across the city, New York's underworld is about to rise.

481
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:25,480
Speaker 1: Closer to the surface.

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00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 7: Lucky Luciano, an Italian immigrant, forms these different alliances. This

483
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 7: is someone who is interested in really expanding his empire.

484
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 7: So very much like other white racketeers, the millions of

485
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 7: dollars that they had made during the late nineteen tens

486
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 7: and throughout the nineteen twenties dries up, so for many

487
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 7: of them they have to look for new avenues of income.

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Speaker 2: That's coming up in episode three of the Godmother. On

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00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 2: this episode of The Godmother, you heard Carolyn Johnson, my

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00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 2: Harlem tour guide.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Harlem. That's the name of my company. I'm Stuff.

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00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: I'm Professor Sarah Jackson.

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00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 4: I'm a Presidential Associate Professor at the Annaberg School for

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00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 4: Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an affiliate with

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00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 4: the Africana and African American Studies Program.

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00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 6: Here, I'm Marilyn Greenwald. I'm a professor Emerita of journalism

497
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 6: at Ohio University, and I'm the author of five biographies,

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00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 6: including one of Eunice Hunt and Carter.

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00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 7: My name is Lashawn Harris. I am an associate professor

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00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:48,640
Speaker 7: of history at Michigan State University in the Department of History.

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00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 8: I'm Jonathan Gill and I'm a professor of Humanities at

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00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 8: Amsterdam University College in the Netherlands and the author of Harlem,

503
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 8: the only complete history uptown Manhattan.

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00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:01,000
Speaker 1: My name is Leah Carter.

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00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 10: I am Eunis Carter's great granddaughter. My dad, Stephen Carter,

506
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 10: wrote the book Invisible, the Forgotten Story of the Black

507
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,479
Speaker 10: woman lawyer who took down America's most famous mobster, and

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00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 10: I did.

509
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 1: A lot of the research for that book.

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Speaker 5: My name is doctor Clarissa Myrik Harris, and I am

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00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:27,520
Speaker 5: a tenured professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Speaker 2: The Godmother is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more

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00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 2: from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The Godmother is hosted

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00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 2: and written by me Nicole Perkins. Our producer is Leona Hammy.

515
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 2: Additional production from Ajuajima Broumpong, Ronald Young Junior, and Zaiana Yusuf.

516
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 2: Our editor is Ajua Jima Broumpong. Additional story editing from

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00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 2: Max O'Brien and Mithi Lely Raw and our researcher is

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00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 2: Zianna Yusuff. Additional research from Mohammed Ahmed David Waters is

519
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 2: our executive producer. Field production by Tnito Romani and Pallas Shaw,

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00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:16,760
Speaker 2: Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempsen.

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00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,720
Speaker 2: Our score was written, performed and recorded by Jeff Parker.

522
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:25,800
Speaker 2: Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Production management

523
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 2: and endless patients from Sharie Houston, Sarah Tobin, and Charlotte Wolfe.

524
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 2: Fact checking by Fendel Fulton and Dania Suleiman. Story development

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00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 2: by Madeline Parr, Jess Swinburne, Ziana Yusuff. Willard Foxton is

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00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 2: our creative director of Development. Special thanks to Leah Carter,

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00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 2: Stephen Carter, Angela J. Davis, Andrew Fernley, Marilyn Greenwald, Sondra Lebtdy,

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00:34:53,520 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 2: Katherine Godfrey, Nadia Maidie, Amalia Sortland, Sean Glenn, Neil Krish,

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00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:05,759
Speaker 2: Non Julia Bromberg, Katrina Norvale, Carly Frankel, and all the

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00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:06,959
Speaker 2: team at w Emmy

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Speaker 4: Novel