Harlem Renaissance

Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961): Fauset graduated from Cornell University in 1905. In 1919, she received her master's degree in French. From 1919 to 1926, she was the editor of The Crisis. Besides serving as editor, she wrote and published poetry. In her novels, which include There is Confusion, Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral, The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life, and Comedy American Style, she explored race. Jessie Redmon Fauset was born in Fredericksville, New Jersey. Her father was a minister and her mother died when she was a child. In 1905, Fauset graduated from Cornell University, and began working as a teacher in Washington, D.C. In 1919, she received her master’s from the University of Pennsylvania.

Fauset soon moved to New York City to work as the editor for the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine. She published works written by Harlem Renaissance writers Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, and Claude McKay. She also edited the children’s periodical, The Brownies’. In 1926, she left The Crisis and began teaching in New York City schools.