Black Empire

by George S. Schuyler, Brooks E. Hefner (Editor), Brooks E. Hefner (Introduction), Brooks E. Hefner (Noted by)

Overview

A pioneering work of Afrofuturism and antiracist fiction by the author of Black No More, about a Black scientist who masterminds a worldwide conspiracy to take back the African continent from imperial powers—for fans of the Oscar-nominated film American Fiction

A Penguin Classic

“An amazing serial story of Black genius against the world” is how Black Empire was promoted upon its original publication as a serial in The Pittsburgh Courier from 1936 to 1938. It tells the electrifying tale of Dr. Henry Belsidus, a Black scientific genius desperate to free his people from the crushing tyranny of racism. To do so, he concocts a plot to enlist a crew of Black intellectuals to help him take over the world, cultivating a global network to reclaim Africa from imperial powers and punish Europe and America for white supremacy and their crimes against the planet’s Black population.

At once a daring, high-stakes science fiction adventure and a strikingly innovative Afrofuturist classic, this controversial and fearlessly political work lays bare the ethical quandaries of exactly how far one should go in the name of justice.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143137078
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/31/2023
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	518,959
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

George S. Schuyler (1895–1977) was a satirist, critic, and eminent African American journalist of the Harlem Renaissance. He became the first Black journalist to attain national prominence and was known for his controversial opinions. In addition to Black Empire, he published the novels Black No More and Slaves Today, as well as several novellas and an autobiography.

Brooks E. Hefner (editor/introducer) is a professor of English at James Madison University. He is the author of Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Shadow of Jim Crow and The Word on the Streets: The American Language of Vernacular Modernism, as well as the codirector of the National Endowment for the Humanities–funded digital humanities project Circulating American Magazines.

Table of Contents

Foreward, by John A. Williams
Editorial Statement
BLACK EMPIRE
“The Black Internationale: Story of Black Genius Against the World"
"Black Empire: An Imaginative Story of a Great New Civilization in Modern Africa"
Afterword, by Robert A. Hill and R. Kent Rasmussen
APPENDIXES
A. Schuyler’s Story Notes (ca. 1936-1937)
B. “The Rise of the Black Internationale” (1938)
Bibliography: George S. Schuyler's Pittsburgh Courier fiction
Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

02/06/2023

Originally serialized between 1936 and 1938 in a newspaper that served Pittsburgh’s Black community, these two linked novellas from Schuyler (1895–1977) are indispensable reading for anyone interested in early Afrofuturism. In “The Black Internationale: Story of Black Genius Against the World,” journalist Carl Slater reluctantly agrees to serve as secretary to the ruthless Dr. Henry Belsidus, a wealthy Black American nationalist who, by the tale’s end, has violently wrested control of Africa from white imperialists. “Black Empire: An Imaginative Story of a Great New Civilization in Modern America” continues the story with Belsidus and his crew of handpicked specialists defending their takeover of the African continent through cunning espionage and the deployment of technology ripped from the pages of the era’s science fiction magazines. In both tales, Schuyler, a journalist, steeps his progressive criticism of “white world supremacy” in the palatable popular storytelling conventions of the day, creating rip-roaring yarns with sharp satirical points. The result, though undeniably pulpy, is still searing in its indictment of entrenched racism. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

An incredible science fiction novel . . . It’s just a fantastic book, filled with romance and war and politics. I loved this book, and I couldn’t have been more surprised by it.” ―Bill Goldstein, NBC’s Weekend Today in New York

“Imagine W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Marcus Garvey rolled into one fascist superman, and there you have Dr. Henry Belsidus. . . . [Black Empire is] an Afrocentrist’s dream.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The New York Times Book Review

“Indispensable reading for anyone interested in early Afrofuturism . . . Searing in its indictment of entrenched racism . . . Rip-roaring yarns with sharp satirical points.” ―Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating . . . A proto-Afrofuturist potboiler poised between Black Panther and the works of Percival Everett . . . Lurid, pulpy fun.” ―Library Journal

“A fascinating piece of work . . . Fast-paced, action packed . . . A solid read―there’s good adventure here, and Schuyler tells his story quite well―and it’s also of literary-historical interest. The Penguin Classics edition is also an excellent one, from editor Brooks E. Hefner’s useful Introduction to the interesting appendices.” ―The Complete Review

From the Publisher

02/01/2023

Best known for his provocative 1931 race satire Black No More, Schuyler was a prolific contributor of editorials and serial fiction to the national Black newsweekly The Pittsburgh Courier. A cliff-hanging melodrama of the overthrow of white supremacy by all means necessary, it isn't hard to see why his The Black Internationale and its 1936 sequel Black Empire were both popular in the era of Jim Crow. Ruthless, fanatical Dr. Henry Belsidus is the mastermind of an elaborate scheme to reclaim the African continent and thence achieve global domination by means of futuristic solar energy, hydroponics, and fax machines. Prone to satanic smirks and speechifying, the suave Belsidus is hardly a utopian, unleashing pandemonium via petty thievery, eugenics, death rays, total war, and the eradication of the British upper crust in a concert hall converted into a gas chamber. This moral ambivalence reflects gadfly Schuyler's own deep cynicism but doesn't detract from the lurid, pulpy fun, which includes orgiastic rites, a sexy aviatrix in a golden autogyro, and a trained attack-leopard named Ben. VERDICT A proto-Afrofuturist potboiler poised between Black Panther and the works of Percival Everett, this fascinating glimpse beyond the Harlem Renaissance canon anticipates Black power and Afrocentrist themes.

Library Journal

"The Black Internationale and Black Empire, which, in the manner of the pulp science fiction of its day, combine action packed adventure with futuristic technology, are an Afrocentrist's dream, and ought to enjoy a large readership among those in search of a Black utopia." -- New York Times Book Review

Henry Louis Gates