Young Black Joes and Old Negroes: Recontaining Black Modernity in The Saturday Evening Post

Irwin S. Cobb’s contributions to The Saturday Evening Post exemplify George Horace Lorimer’s efforts to register and recontain black modernity. Cobb created a reputation as Southern humorist who recycled racist caricatures, but in 1918, he established himself as a white authority on African Americans with “Young Black Joe,” which helped launch the reputation of the Harlem Hellfighters. Following on the success of this publication, Cobb published an abridged, serialized version of his first novel, J. Poindexter, Colored. This novel embodies many of the practices constituting Lorimer’s efforts to deny black humanity, insist on innate black subservience, and promulgate white supremacy.