41 pages • 1 hour read
George SchuylerBlack No More: Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1931A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
A few days later, at his office, Matthew announces to Bunny that he knows what to do about the political situation in the South. First, Rev. Givens will speak on the radio weekly for two months, and then, he will create a connection between the Republicans and Black-No-More to discredit the Republicans. The third and final step will remain a secret. Within days, Rev. Givens is giving his first radio address titled The Menace of Negro Blood and for the entire hour, “he successfully avoided saying anything that was true” (97). After the weekly radio sessions conclude, President Harold Goosie tells a group of reporters that he is planning to take action on the issues raised by Rev. Givens and to form a commission of five Republicans and two Democrats that will visit all the sanitoriums and make a report. The outcomes of the report prove that the Black-No-More businesses are entirely legal. In six weeks, a more thorough report will be made.
Two months later, a report of nearly 1,800 pages emerges, and Matthew is celebrated as a man with political potential as he spurs the government to action. At this point, Matthew decides it is time to complete his third step, which involves bringing a snooty white supremacist organization called the Anglo-Saxon Society, based in Richmond, Virginia, together with the Knights of Nordica. Matthew’s strategy is based on convincing them that they will “win the next Presidential election hands down” (101) if they work together to defeat the Republicans.
The President of the Anglo-Saxon Society, Snobbcraft, is credited with the many laws in the south that maintain rigid boundaries between blacks and whites. His society is wealthy but is increasingly unpopular, so when Matthew contacts him, an opportunity to connect with a wider audience appears. When Snobbcraft and Rev. Givens meet, they realize that they can work together to pass a genealogical law that takes away all the rights of anyone with black ancestry, but first, they must join forces politically in order to gain the White House. Snobbcraft recruits a statistician named Dr. Samuel Buggerie to do a national research project to “disclose the various non-Nordic strains in the population” (103). Preliminary procedures reveal that as many as 20 million Americans are likely to be of impure racial genealogy and to be, therefore, undeserving of their right to procreate and to exist as American citizens. This knowledge could undermine the Republican party completely and hand the election to the Democrats, so Dr. Buggerie begins his work in secret.
Chapter 10 Summary
Dr. Crookman and his two investors meet with Gorman Gay, a top-level Republican, to discuss money. The Republicans have done favors for the doctor, and, in return, Dr. Crookman has donated generously to the Republicans, but as most blacks in America are now white, the doctor is closing all but five of his treatment centers. Gay pressures Dr. Crookman to keep the Lying-In hospitals open for women and their biracial babies and to donate more money in exchange for protection; after all, if the Democrats win the upcoming election, Dr. Crookman will be completely out of business. Dr. Crookman gives in to Gay’s pressures, promising a hefty donation and to keep the hospitals open, and Gay leaves to bring the good news back to the National Executive Committee.
The Republicans are in need of money if President Goosie is to be reelected, especially as the Democrats are gaining momentum. At the Democratic convention in July of 1936, Matthew holds his ground against other men representing possible candidates for the presidential nomination, firm in his belief that Rev. Givens is the man for the job. Snobbcraft of the Anglo-Saxon Society is nominated for vice-president, taking second place when Matthew succeeds in his mission. The Republican convention nominates President Goosie and his vice-president, named Gump, for reelection, and when President Goosie makes his acceptance speech, Dr. Crookman and his men remark that it sounds remarkably similar to the speech Rev. Givens gave upon his acceptance of the Democratic nomination.
Campaign activities take place throughout the rest of the summer as Dr. Buggerie and his team work on their report. In September, they deliver a partially completed report. The campaign continues, becoming vitriolic and rageful, and one of Dr. Crookman’s hospitals is burned, killing a dozen babies and casting even more darkness on the Republicans. In Washington, two Republicans, Walter Williams and Joseph Bonds, formerly of the National Data League, scheme against the Democrats while discussing the fact that Dr. Shakespeare Beard, now a Democrat-hating white man, is working with Dr. Buggerie on the secret research project. Williams and Bonds decide to contact Beard; they receive Gay’s blessing to move forward with a plan involving Beard, so Williams takes a train from Washington to Richmond.
Beard, “the former champion of the darker races” (113), meets with Williams in Richmond, explaining the secret project and his secret intention to sell some of the more interesting data once his work with the project is done. Williams learns that all the information gathered so far is held in a vault at the Anglo-Saxon Association’s building. The next morning, Williams has a long meeting with Gay.
Chapters 9-10 Analysis
As the political situation intensifies in these chapters, the stakes get higher and the corruption goes deeper. The themes of racism, hatred, and fear maintain their importance to the plot line as Schuyler’s biting criticism of the political system in America becomes evident.
The stereotypes of white ignorance emphasize the injustice of racist behavior against black people in these chapters. Snobbcraft is a caricature of the Southern aristocrat with a claim to colonial beginnings and wealth that he likely did not earn himself. His name suggests an embarrassing shallowness of rational thought; his anti-black fervor is mere snobbery, not even passionate hatred.
Schuyler’s experiences as a social commentator come into play in his exploration of the run-up to the Presidential election. His depiction of the tension between Democrats and Republicans, as well as his statements regarding the leaders of each party, are timely and relevant even today.
The death of twelve babies at one of Dr. Crookman’s Lying-In hospitals, which has been set on fire, foreshadows the deaths that take place at the end of the novel. As well, these deaths are needless, and the killing of innocents like these babies has a Biblical quality; perhaps they have been sacrificed to assuage a higher power who has been angered by the chaos of American race relations.
