Black Empire

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.