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Civil unrest had become something of a common trend in Harlem by May 23, 1968. Seven weeks prior, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated - and Black occupants of this nation were distraught and enraged.
The protests and violence between Blacks and whites seemed to echo themes from the fictions of Henry Dumas.
And, on that May night, Dumas would be handed a fate like that of a character from his very own works.
Henry Dumas was an up-and-coming writer, a central figure in the Black Arts Movement connected to the Black Power revolution.
As literary giant Toni Morrison described him, “[H]e had written some of the most beautiful, moving and profound poetry and fiction that I have ever in my life read.”
His work highlighted the day-to-day realities of being Black in America. Stories - tinged with Afro-surrealism - expressed the experiences of our people, from gut-wrenching prejudice leading to Black death to triumphant hope for a brighter tomorrow.
But tragedy would bring to an early end the promising career of this radical purveyor of Black thought.
A New York transit cop shot and killed Henry Dumas. With no witnesses - and few investigative efforts - that night remains a mystery.
Still, just as his work inspired so many during Black Power’s height, his work can again inspire us as we continue the fight for Black lives.