Overshadowed

Overshadowed: A Novel (1901) is a novel by Sutton E. Griggs. Published just two years after his debut novel, Overshadowed takes a different angle on the political reality of African Americans than Griggs explored in Imperium in Imperio. Taking an ironic tone, he examines the intersection of race and gender in the burgeoning Black middle-class to explore and critique the politics of liberalism and assimilation. Although Griggs’ novels were largely forgotten by the mid-twentieth century, scholars have recently sought to emphasize his role as an activist and author involved with the movement for Black nationalism in the United States. Critics since have recognized Griggs as a pioneering political figure and author whose utopian themes and engagement with contemporary crises constitute some of the era’s most radical literary efforts by an African American writer. “[T]he grain that came to life under the oak has its peculiar struggles. It must contend for sustenance with the roots of the oak. It must wrestle with the shade of the oak. The life of this isolated grain of corn is one continuous tragedy. Overshadowed is the story of this grain of corn, the Anglo-Saxon being the oak, and the Negro the plant struggling for existence.” Introducing his second novel, Griggs sets the stage for a story of perseverance, a quality possessed by both Erma Wysong and Astral Herndon. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Erma and Astral are representative of the emerging Black middle class. As they each go off to college and embark on a path to a promising young adulthood, they hope to take advantage of opportunities that weren’t afforded to their parents. Secretly, however, Astral hopes to return to Richmond and win Erma’s hand in marriage, believing that time and distance will convince her that he can be more than a friend. Although their love grows stronger, Astral finds himself flooded with doubt regarding one aspect of Erma’s identity―although she was raised by Black parents, her birth father was a white man. This edition of Sutton E Griggs’ Overshadowed: A Novel is a classic work of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Sutton E. Griggs (1872-1933) was an African American novelist, activist, and Baptist minister. Born in Chatfield, Texas, Griggs was the second of eight children. His father, Rev. Allen R. Griggs, was a former slave who became an influential minister and founded the first newspaper and high school for African Americans in Texas. Upon graduating from Bishop College and Richmond Theological Seminary, Griggs followed in his father’s footsteps to become a pastor in Berkley, Virginia, where he married Emma Williams in 1897. In 1899, while serving as pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in East Nashville, Griggs published his novel Imperium in Imperio, a powerful story of a separate African American state. Recognized as a pioneering work of utopian literature and science fiction, the novel launched Griggs’ literary career and allowed him to open the Orion Publishing Company in 1901. Devoted to alleviating social issues within the Black community, Griggs supported the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, educated himself through the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, and advocated for both separatism and integration in his literary works. Towards the end of his life, having published several novels and dozens of political and religious pamphlets, Griggs devoted himself to his work in the Baptist Church, serving for 19 years as a pastor in Memphis and for one year as president of the American Baptist Theological Seminary.