Black No More

In this sharp 1931 satire, a Black physician named Junius Crookman perfects a treatment that turns Black skin white in three days, and overnight the color line that organized American life starts to collapse. Max Disher is first through the door, remaking himself as a white man and cheerfully infiltrating a racist fraternal order for profit. Schuyler uses the premise to skewer everyone in reach, white supremacists and race hustlers, segregationists and civil rights leaders alike, arguing that money and vanity drive the whole machinery of prejudice. Often called the first full-length satirical novel by an African American writer, it is bracing, cynical, and still uncomfortably pointed. A free PDF and EPUB edition are available here.