Summary

Chapter 19. Richard starts attending “unit” meetings of the Communist Party. He has decided that his contribution to the party could be his ability, through his writing, to explain the Negro soul to the other Communist members. However, he is met with skepticism in his every attempt to explain himself. Even his fellow Negro Communists laugh at him and accuse him of being an intellectual and a Bourgeois.

He begins a series of interviews with a man named Ross, a black member of the Party. His goal is to write a series of biographical sketches through which he hopes to explain the difficulties of the southern black living in an urban environment. When the Party learns that he is taking notes about Ross’s life, he is chastised and warned. One Black Communist tells him, “Intellectuals don’t fit well into the party.” Ross becomes fearful...