January 22, 2024 • 35 mins
The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s established Black Americans as tastemakers. In the vibrancy of her youth, Eunice moved to Harlem and became a fixture of the literary and social scene.
But Eunice hasn’t been remembered as clearly as the artists, communists, preachers, partiers and fur-coat-wearing socialites she brushed shoulders with.
As the 1920s draws to a close, all around Eunice, there are signs that New York’s underworld is rising closer to the surface.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Novel.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I knew I wanted to be a writer very early
in life. By the time I was seven years old,
there were no more dreams of being a cowgirl in
outer space. Instead, I pretended to smoke pencils over imaginary typewriters.
I've always been a voracious reader, and I soon gravitated
toward the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, that cultural movement
(00:38):
of the nineteen twenties and thirties that established Black Americans
as taste makers, especially in regards to the arts. During
one of my more rebellious moments of junior high school,
I wrote out the full poem of Harlem Renaissance writer
Claude McKay's If We Must Die on my homeroom's chalkboard.
(00:58):
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
hunted and pinned in an inglorious spot. It's a poem
of defiance. Basically, if we go out, we're not going
out like a bunch of suckers. That day in home room,
I was fascinated by this era of the past, and
(01:19):
it was helping me aspire toward an imaginary future for myself.
I saw the Harlem Renaissance as the epitome of what
an artist community could look like.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'd like to tell people, welcome to Harlem. Are you
a local Harlem?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Every now and then? Because there is it's you know,
it's like an hour on the train. Even though I've
been living in New York for over six years, I've
yet to do any official tourist thing like take a
guided walk through Harlem. So I went uptown and let
a professional show me around.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I like to tell people no place in the world
has contributed more to American history and world history than Harlem.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
When I first cut up to my tour guide, Carolyn Johnson,
I knew I'd be in good hands. Tall and slim,
Carolyn was dressed simply for a warm day of walking, jeans,
a light denim jacket, and sensible shoes. She was on
the phone ironing out a little business wrinkle while indicating
I should approach her, and while speaking to folks passing by.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Excuse me, miss, I'm doing yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
She radiated all the energy of a quintessential multitasking New Yorker.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
And you're born to raise a hall.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, I couldn't think of living any fresh outghborhood.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, I was really excited about the tour, but also
afraid I'd be disappointed. Time and gentrification aren't friendly to
historically black neighborhoods. I didn't want to see a slick
coffee shop that doesn't take care standing in the place
where the activist Marcus Garvey may have delivered Pan African speeches,
(03:05):
or where writer Nella Larson may have once typed out
her manuscript for passing. Instead, I got to see that
a lot of buildings remain virtually unchanged, like the building
where activist poet James Walden Johnson and his brother Jay
Rosamond Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and sing.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
James Weldon Johnson, Yes, Olivia.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It took my breath to learn that the ashes of
Langston Hughes, one of the most prominent voices of the
Harlem Renaissance, are intereered in the floor of the Schomberg
Center for Research in Black Culture.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
In between Lenox and Seventh we had over one hundred
and thirty restaurants, bar speakeasy, east, churches and establishments.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I saw the home of jazz pioneer Fat Swaller, the
studio of the great photographer James vandersey So.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
On this street. Down the block is where Billy Holliday
was to stop, but it's still standing. It's not as
Phill's place today Bill Factory.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
As the tour continued, I realized I was hearing a
lot of names I already knew, and not the one
I was hoping to learn more about. I was walking
the same streets Eunice Hunting once walked, but my tour
guide hadn't mentioned her yet. Where was Eunice?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Do you have one hundred and thirty third Street? Swing Street?
They called it Jungle Alley? And that's what a real
party was.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
What does she get into as a young woman fresh
out of college?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Where did she sweat her hair out?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I came to Harlem hoping for a glimpse of Unice
and the neighborhood she moved to in the nineteen twenties,
which quickly became her playground and the vibrancy of her youth,
and would go on to be her home for the
majority of her life. But amongst this celebration of Harlem's past,
the ghost of her memory seemed determined to stay just
out of reach. That is until I asked my tour guide,
(05:05):
Carolyn about a particular building four O nine edgecomb Avenue.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It wasn't a stop on the tour.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, we can go up there. You can take that
two bus right up there, drop you right off in
front of it.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Of course Carolyn knew of it.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
They're a good marshalltt W de Boys, Walter White. That
was like the eight building.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Ever since the nineteen twenties, the movers and shakers of
Harlem had lived at four O nine Edgecomb Avenue. One
day that would include Unice two. When I think about Unis,
it can feel like someone is humming a few bars
of a song I used to know, but now I
can't remember the lyrics. But here finally was a glimpse
(05:47):
of Unis, like always perpetually just around the next corner,
out of reach and a little overshadowed by her neighbors,
but still here amidst the Harlem renaissance.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Here, this is where we live. This is where it
all happened.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
From the teams at iHeartRadio and Novel, I'm Nicole Perkins
and this is the Godmother Episode two Harlem Czarina tucked
(06:45):
between funeral notices and municipal updates of a nineteen twenty
three edition of The Yonkers Herald as a small article.
It's an announcement. Nine thousand invitations have been issued for
the largest black wedding ever held in the country. The
bride to be is the prominent and extremely wealthy socialite,
(07:06):
Miss May Walker Robinson. Her grandmother, Madame C. J. Walker,
is a hair care product pioneer and the first American
female entrepreneur of any race to become a millionaire. The
Walker Robinson's were a big deal in Harlem nineteen twenty three,
and the wedding makes headlines across the country, especially in
(07:27):
the Black press.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
All of these other black institutions of the public sphere
in the twenties and thirties look to the Black press
to sort of keep their pulse on what is hot
and sexy culturally, but also what is hot in terms
of politics. It's where the stage is being set for
who the movers and shakers in the society people are.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Units had been a socialite herself from a young age.
The Huntings didn't have the Walker Robinson's wealth, but her
parents were still very much a part of the black
social elite. In an article from The New York Age
in nineteen twenty three, there's a picture of May Walker
Robinson on her wedding day, seated in her wedding dress,
surrounded by bridesmaids and flower girls in glossy sheer, decadent,
(08:14):
bright dresses, replete with headdresses and bouquets. And if you
look closely, there in the back row, along a line
of other women honored with the role of bridesmaid, second
from the right, head turned slightly, eyes on something just
beyond the camera, is Eunice Hunting. It's not clear whether
(08:39):
Eunice in May would have really been friends, if the
number of bridesmaids is anything to go by, but her
inclusion was a mark of her emerging importance in this
elite circle. Eunice was slotting into the high falutine social
circle of black women, sometimes referred to as the czarinas
their every move was covered breath by the Black press
(09:01):
at the time, read not just by New Yorkers, but
by black people all across the country.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Whose wedding were they at, what were they wearing? Where
did they dine that evening? And in the next breath
a really cutting line about a choice that they made,
either politically, professionally or in terms of what they wore.
Even they have to be exemplars. They're supposed to be exceptional,
and they're also supposed to be engaging in behaviors that
(09:30):
help further the race right. There isn't a lot of
space for people to just be individuals and say, oh,
I don't care about that race thing over there.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
With William and Addie Hunts and as parents, Unice would
have been better prepared than most for this kind of pressure.
She had already lived a truly exceptional life after fleeing
the terrors of the nineteen oh six Atlanta race massacre.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
As a young.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Girl, she'd lived in Germany, attended a predominantly white college,
and graduated with two degrees all by the time she
arrived in Harlem aged twenty five. It's possible that Unice's
class and education made her a little sheltered at first.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
I think she.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
Didn't know what to expect in the real world. It
wasn't a matter of just living in Harlem. It was
a matter of going out in the community because that
was her job.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Pretty soon after graduating, Unice took up a job as
a social worker with Family Services in New York and
New Jersey. Work would bring her in contact with a
whole new sphere of black life.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
By the nineteen twenties, Harlem was referred to as being
like the capital of the black world.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
All right, so picture it mid nineteen twenties, Harlem. It's
Sunday morning. Unice Hunting, twenty five years old, a social worker,
a socialite. She leaves her trendy apartment and walks south
to one hundred and thirty fifth Street, Or maybe she
takes the number three train and uses the minute she
saves to stand in awe of the magic of the
(11:04):
black mecca that sits before her.
Speaker 8 (11:06):
She would have seen on one corner black communists standing
on a soapbox talking about the revolution. On the other
soapbox across the corner, she would have seen traditional politicians
urging African Americans to leave the Republican Party and come
join the Democratic Party. On the third street corner, she
would have seen a religious figure, maybe the guy called
the Barefoot Prophet, who was telling everyone they better get
(11:28):
with Jesus right away or they're can be going to Hell.
And on the fourth corner, those would have been the
race nationalists.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
The community of Harlem, unlike many of the spaces units
must have been used to by that time, was full
of diverse black life.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
You know, Harlem becomes this place where African Americans have
a chance to remake themselves all over again, securing better jobs,
better wages, and even housing conditions. Is all really a
dream from many people.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But many of those new arria to the neighborhood soon
found themselves falling into systemic traps which don't sound all
that different from the racism Unis and her family had
left in the South.
Speaker 7 (12:11):
Those dreams are complicated by Jim Crow North. They're complicated
by police violence. They are complicated by the thread of
public violence on the street.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Between nineteen ten and nineteen thirty, the number of Black
people living in just that one and a half square
mile of central Harlem increased eight times over, from a
little over eighteen thousand to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand.
The Big Apple offered new beginnings and opportunities.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
There are countless shops, clubs, tenement housing buildings. Harlem is
kind of like a melting pot.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So as Unice walks up one hundred and thirty fifth
Street that Sunday morning, she can see every facet of
black life on one corner. From the black elite and
fur coats knew ready to wear dresses off the rack.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
People at the time got very dressed.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Up, working class women and freshly laundered hand me downs
and darned.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
Stockings, donning the best that they have in their closet.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
All the good time boys and girls and their flashiest
silks and softest hankies.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
It was part of the whole atmosphere where you wore
wonderful clothes. You know, you wanted impress each other.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
When I think about the hair of nineteen twenties Harlem,
I think of the expression fried died and laid to
the side. Keeping straight hair was a matter of pride
and professionalism, regardless of the kind of job you had.
Fingerways and big body bobs were all the rage. Kinks
and tight curls weren't appreciated as much as they are today.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
We also see women dawning like not necessarily afros, but
natural hair meaning no chemicals, and you may see women
with pressed hair.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I avoided moving to New York for as long as
I could. I didn't think my country self could handle
all the excitement. Sometimes I can't, but I hope Eunice
fully enjoyed all that nighttime. Harlem had to offer with
red lipstick, finger waves, and a breezy dress made to
flutter around the Charleston and Lindy hop all night. Moving
(14:23):
to Harlem, especially at this point in this history and
at the age Unis was, must have felt exciting. What
would those communists, preachers, partiers, and fur coat wearing socialites
rushing by have seen when they looked back at Unice.
I like to think she was the kind of young
woman who yearned to be at the center of all
(14:44):
this action.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I like to think that she felt herself to be
at the foot of a great hill.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
But did she know yet which path would lead her
into her new life? For now, Unice's parents had offered
her a road map of sorts, but the glamor of
the Harlem Renaissance must have exerted a powerful pull. There's
(15:24):
a writer of the Harlem Renaissance era that reminds me
of Unus Zora nil Hurston and Zora nil Hurston's fiction.
With her anthropological attention to dialogue, I found images of
the women elders in my family. She made me want
to know more about my family member's internal worlds and
(15:44):
wonder what they may have seen her novel. Their eyes
were watching. God made me realize my elders had whole
lives before I knew them. It seems silly, but when
you're young, you know your grandmother is grandmama, and never
think about the idea that at some point in her
life she may have taken a much younger lover who
(16:06):
filled her with renewed passion. Like in the book with
Zora Neil Hurston, it wasn't just her writings I latched onto.
It was also the story of her life during the
Harlem Renaissance. She was a prolific writer an anthropologist, but
in nineteen sixty she died, broke in obscurity, and was
(16:28):
buried in an unmarked grave. In nineteen seventy three, renowned
writer Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, located her
grave and helped bring Hurston's literary career back to the
public eye, and it stayed there. How could someone like Zora,
(16:48):
who was once one of the most popular Black women
in the country disappear from history so easily. Unics and
Zora were both outspoken and determined, traits not often appreciated
in black women. But there's another comparison between the two.
(17:08):
Ever since her arrival in Harlem in the mid twenties,
units hadn't just been absorbing the sights and sounds and
smells of her surroundings. She took to her typewriter with thin,
ivory sheets of paper and began writing about them.
Speaker 9 (17:25):
Nineteen twenty five. The Corner by Unice Carter. My friend
lives in the house on the corner. She lives high
above the street, in a doll's house of white enamel
and soft blues, with lovely old furniture and oriental rugs
(17:45):
of faded brilliance on dark polished floors, in a miniature
home with a real fireplace and polished grasses and flowers
all about in crystal bowls. She lives high up there,
but below are the street and the avenue. And one
(18:07):
fall night, as I waited for her in the loveliest
room of all, I turned from watching the fire flicker
and dart across the room, and great chrysanthemums casting sleeping
shadows on the wall. I turned from this and watched
the street. It was alive with light and sound, the
(18:30):
light and sound of the city, the Black City.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The piece you just heard is called The Corner. It
was written and published in nineteen twenty five. In it,
Eunice is writing an insider's account, documenting the sensual experiences
of living in the neighborhood, sights and sounds that might
go unnoticed by visiting outsiders. Unice's early writings offer a
(19:02):
unique perspective to who she was. Her professional and activist
writings show a determined, educated, even commanding woman, and when
you add the wings of creativity, her.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Short stories were wonderful. They were celebrated by some of
the most prominent writers in Harlem. She for instance, would
go to some of the cocktail gatherings and it was
important to her because you couldn't just show up, you
had to be invited. People would get dressed up. These
(19:33):
were the top artists of the era, and she became
part of that because of her writing.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Eunice Hunting is not a name I remember reading about
in the library. I'd like to think that it's because
the era was so full of great talent and the
world was moving so fast at the time that some
people fell through history as cracks. But in this moment
of history, it feels especially important to actively remember black luminaries.
(20:05):
When I was growing up, Zora nil Hurston's their eyes
were watching. God was taught in sophomore English classes.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
All over America.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
But as I speak, Black history is being erased from
schools across the country. Who's to say that Zora nil
Hurston's work won't be buried again. Writer's works frequently get
lost to the ravages of time, and I wonder if
Unics used her fiction, her articles, and reviews as a
(20:33):
way of carving her name into history's tree trunk. Unice
was here. Maybe I'm projecting because as a writer myself,
I hope my work will last. And that's someone one hundred,
(20:54):
two hundred years from now will scroll through the library
catalog shipped into their left pink finger, probably and see
my name and know I existed. In nineteen twenty five,
Unics had another piece of writing published, but this time,
unlike the Corner, it was an essay, and unlike the Corner,
(21:15):
it shows that Unice was looking out to a world
beyond Harlem. It was called breaking Through.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
Harlem is a modern ghetto. True, that is a contradiction
in terms, but prejudice has ringed this group with invisible
lines and bars. Within the bars, you will find a
small city, self sufficient, complete in itself, a riot of
color and personality, a medley of song and tears, a
(21:49):
canvas of browns and golds and flaming reds, and yet bound.
There is also some tugging from without at the ropes
that bind the ghetto. It is the result of the
efforts of the whites, because of curiosity, self interest, a
spasm of self righteousness, or very rarely genuine interest, to
(22:12):
establish a contact with those within the ghetto.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
In the essay, Eunice argues in favor of those.
Speaker 9 (22:19):
Who often appear in the first instance to be deserting
the race.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And talks about those striving to be the first to
accomplish something.
Speaker 9 (22:27):
Whereas many who break the bonds are actuated solely by
the desire to get the best for themselves in spite
of prescription, a few realize that they are blazing a
trail that others of the race may follow. The essay
goes on there is another side of the picture.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
It is a tale of long.
Speaker 9 (22:45):
Dark years, of dismal failure, of brave struggles to rise
above mediocrity, of bitter fights for existence, A tale twisted
with heartaches and heartbreaks, a tale drenched in sweat and blood,
but still shot Through with flashes of sunlight upon pure gold.
(23:05):
It takes rare courage to fight a fight that more
often than not ends in death, poverty, or prostitution of genius.
But it is to these who make this fight, despite
the tremendous odds, despite the deterring pessimism of those who
see the tangle of prejudice that surrounds the ghetto, a
(23:26):
hopeless barrier, that we must look for the breaking of
the bonds now linked together by ignorance and misunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
It's a righteous essay.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It feels autobiographical and maybe even a bit self aggrandizing
and smug, like she was telling her readers get like me, kids,
as if you can. But it seems to show Unice
starting to turn away from the.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
Riot of color and personality.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
To pursue other goals. You can tell from reading Breaking
Through that Unice was deeply concerned with the idea of
her own legacy, and it's interesting to think about it
in the context of where Unice's life was at in
nineteen twenty five when she wrote this as a twenty
(24:18):
six year old. You see, she did not sign the
essay Breaking Through with the name Unice Hunting. She signed
it Eunice Hunting Carter because by nineteen twenty five, Eunice
was married.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
She lived in a society where women married and had children.
That was the way it was.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Writer, social worker, socialite, and now wife. But these roles
weren't keeping her satisfied.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
I think Unis did feel very strongly about being role modeled.
She wrote about it, how it's very important to accomplish
so people who come beyond you know, this is a woman,
this is a black person, and she's very successful. I
can be that way too.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
By this point in Unice's life, she's clearly been formulating
a plan. Looking back now, Breaking Through can be seen
as a roadmap she'd written for herself. It outlined a
strategy that Unice would continually use throughout her life, especially
the decisions she would make in the final years of
the Roaring twenties. She wanted to be different. She wanted
(25:37):
to be a trailblazer. It's nineteen twenty three. Unice meets
a wealthy man and his name is Lyle Carter.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
He was born and raised in Barbados.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Lyle arrived in New York City in nineteen thirteen and
evolved into a prominent figure in Harlem too, in a
more understated way than Eunice. He'd built his wealth through
a successful dental practice. Eunice married Lyle in nineteen twenty four.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
She and her husband lived in this beautiful house in Harlem,
and they liked to entertain.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Their wedding had been a small, intimate affair, a far
cry from the lavish May Robinson Walker extravaganza.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
A year or two later, they have a child.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
They named that child Lyle Carter Junior. Eunice's mother, Addie,
when touring the country for work, had written extensively on
the roles and responsibilities of black women in American society,
their roles both at home and in public, while their
(26:55):
husbands lead the family. And Unice's work does take a
back seat to Lyle's at this time in the nineteen
twenty five senses, while she's publishing writing as well as
holding down a social work career. Lyle is listed as
a dentist and Unice's occupation is simply housewife. I imagine
(27:15):
this must have rubbed Unis the wrong way. Eunice and
Lyle would hold social events together and they'd often have
people over.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
I mean the parties they had in their house. That
meant a lot to them. I think that bound them
their devotion to Harlem. They were very well known in
the community. As you can imagine, the pair of them
looked good together. On the surface, it probably seemed ideal,
Eunice and Lyle entertaining the who's who of the Harlem
(27:46):
Renaissance in their family home. Did Ornel Hurston ever pop by?
But scratch that surface, there were rumors that Eunice had
had an affair at some point with the musician. One
of the writers of the era mentioned in a letter
that she thought Unice might be gay, which who knows.
(28:09):
I mean, those were the rumors, But what do they
speak to. They speak to the fact that maybe her
marriage was not the best.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
For all of her mother ADDIE's advocacy on the role
of black women in America, her daughter, Eunice Hunt and
Carter still yearned for more, thanks in part to Addie.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
In many ways, she was a maverick, and Addie her
mother instilled this in her because Addie was a bit
of a maverick.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
In her own time. As a young mother, Addie had
traveled the Deep South alone documenting atrocities. She'd gone to
Germany with her young family to pursue her own education,
and later she'd returned to Europe to advocate for black
soldiers on the front lines of World War One, all remarkable,
(28:56):
exceptional feats. She never let being a mother stand in
the way of her ambition, and neither would her daughter.
Speaker 10 (29:05):
Unice was doing social work, she was writing, she married,
and she had a son who was a good mother,
a good wife. But I think she wanted to act
on the world and to be influential and known in
a different way than she would have been as a
writer and a social worker.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
So this was a tension I think in her whole life,
because she was very well educated, she was very smart.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
And she desired to make a greater contribution, to have
a greater impact.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
By nineteen twenty seven, Unice was twenty eight years old
and now on the inside looking outside of the Black city,
and her experiences had made Unis almost uniquely prepared for
the consequences of the decision she made next.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Eunice was able to venture into the white realm.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
In nineteen twenty seven, with a young child and a
fledgling writing career, Eunice decided to go back to school, law.
Speaker 11 (30:08):
School, social work, was very important work, but there were
a lot of women and black women doing social work
at the time, and that was not the case at
all in law.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
From this point in her life forward, Eunice Hunt and
Carter would leave writing behind. She would never publish another
piece of creative writing.
Speaker 10 (30:32):
I wouldn't be surprised if she just felt like, Okay,
I'm leaving that part of my life behind and We're
going to become a lawyer, or just stop because she
didn't have time to do it anymore.
Speaker 11 (30:40):
Law was a place where she could really distinguish herself.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Although she had to have known it was going to
be an uphill climb.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And Unis isn't the only one about to undergo a
major transition. As the Roaring twenties start to draw to
a close, Harlem itself is changing, and as it does,
a different side of this world is about to come
into view. Units may have thought she'd seen a lot
of what Harlem had to offer, the glitz, the glamour,
(31:11):
the tradition, and the struggle of those she walked alongside.
But there were other layers to it too. In Harlem
and across the city, New York's underworld is about to rise.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Closer to the surface.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
Lucky Luciano, an Italian immigrant, forms these different alliances. This
is someone who is interested in really expanding his empire.
So very much like other white racketeers, the millions of
dollars that they had made during the late nineteen tens
(31:46):
and throughout the nineteen twenties dries up, so for many
of them they have to look for new avenues of income.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
That's coming up in episode three of the Godmother. On
this episode of The Godmother, you heard Carolyn Johnson, my
(32:15):
Harlem tour guide.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Welcome to Harlem. That's the name of my company. I'm Stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I'm Professor Sarah Jackson.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
I'm a Presidential Associate Professor at the Annaberg School for
Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an affiliate with
the Africana and African American Studies Program.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
Here, I'm Marilyn Greenwald. I'm a professor Emerita of journalism
at Ohio University, and I'm the author of five biographies,
including one of Eunice Hunt and Carter.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
My name is Lashawn Harris. I am an associate professor
of history at Michigan State University in the Department of History.
Speaker 8 (32:48):
I'm Jonathan Gill and I'm a professor of Humanities at
Amsterdam University College in the Netherlands and the author of Harlem,
the only complete history uptown Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
My name is Leah Carter.
Speaker 10 (33:01):
I am Eunis Carter's great granddaughter. My dad, Stephen Carter,
wrote the book Invisible, the Forgotten Story of the Black
woman lawyer who took down America's most famous mobster, and
I did.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
A lot of the research for that book.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
My name is doctor Clarissa Myrik Harris, and I am
a tenured professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
The Godmother is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more
from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The Godmother is hosted
and written by me Nicole Perkins. Our producer is Leona Hammy.
Additional production from Ajuajima Broumpong, Ronald Young Junior, and Zaiana Yusuf.
(33:54):
Our editor is Ajua Jima Broumpong. Additional story editing from
Max O'Brien and Mithi Lely Raw and our researcher is
Zianna Yusuff. Additional research from Mohammed Ahmed David Waters is
our executive producer. Field production by Tnito Romani and Pallas Shaw,
Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempsen.
(34:17):
Our score was written, performed and recorded by Jeff Parker.
Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Production management
and endless patients from Sharie Houston, Sarah Tobin, and Charlotte Wolfe.
Fact checking by Fendel Fulton and Dania Suleiman. Story development
by Madeline Parr, Jess Swinburne, Ziana Yusuff. Willard Foxton is
(34:41):
our creative director of Development. Special thanks to Leah Carter,
Stephen Carter, Angela J. Davis, Andrew Fernley, Marilyn Greenwald, Sondra Lebtdy,
Katherine Godfrey, Nadia Maidie, Amalia Sortland, Sean Glenn, Neil Krish,
Non Julia Bromberg, Katrina Norvale, Carly Frankel, and all the
(35:05):
team at w Emmy
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Novel
Novel.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I knew I wanted to be a writer very early
in life. By the time I was seven years old,
there were no more dreams of being a cowgirl in
outer space. Instead, I pretended to smoke pencils over imaginary typewriters.
I've always been a voracious reader, and I soon gravitated
toward the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, that cultural movement
(00:38):
of the nineteen twenties and thirties that established Black Americans
as taste makers, especially in regards to the arts. During
one of my more rebellious moments of junior high school,
I wrote out the full poem of Harlem Renaissance writer
Claude McKay's If We Must Die on my homeroom's chalkboard.
(00:58):
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
hunted and pinned in an inglorious spot. It's a poem
of defiance. Basically, if we go out, we're not going
out like a bunch of suckers. That day in home room,
I was fascinated by this era of the past, and
(01:19):
it was helping me aspire toward an imaginary future for myself.
I saw the Harlem Renaissance as the epitome of what
an artist community could look like.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'd like to tell people, welcome to Harlem. Are you
a local Harlem?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Every now and then? Because there is it's you know,
it's like an hour on the train. Even though I've
been living in New York for over six years, I've
yet to do any official tourist thing like take a
guided walk through Harlem. So I went uptown and let
a professional show me around.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I like to tell people no place in the world
has contributed more to American history and world history than Harlem.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
When I first cut up to my tour guide, Carolyn Johnson,
I knew I'd be in good hands. Tall and slim,
Carolyn was dressed simply for a warm day of walking, jeans,
a light denim jacket, and sensible shoes. She was on
the phone ironing out a little business wrinkle while indicating
I should approach her, and while speaking to folks passing by.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Excuse me, miss, I'm doing yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
She radiated all the energy of a quintessential multitasking New Yorker.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
And you're born to raise a hall.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, I couldn't think of living any fresh outghborhood.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, I was really excited about the tour, but also
afraid I'd be disappointed. Time and gentrification aren't friendly to
historically black neighborhoods. I didn't want to see a slick
coffee shop that doesn't take care standing in the place
where the activist Marcus Garvey may have delivered Pan African speeches,
(03:05):
or where writer Nella Larson may have once typed out
her manuscript for passing. Instead, I got to see that
a lot of buildings remain virtually unchanged, like the building
where activist poet James Walden Johnson and his brother Jay
Rosamond Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and sing.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
James Weldon Johnson, Yes, Olivia.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It took my breath to learn that the ashes of
Langston Hughes, one of the most prominent voices of the
Harlem Renaissance, are intereered in the floor of the Schomberg
Center for Research in Black Culture.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
In between Lenox and Seventh we had over one hundred
and thirty restaurants, bar speakeasy, east, churches and establishments.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I saw the home of jazz pioneer Fat Swaller, the
studio of the great photographer James vandersey So.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
On this street. Down the block is where Billy Holliday
was to stop, but it's still standing. It's not as
Phill's place today Bill Factory.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
As the tour continued, I realized I was hearing a
lot of names I already knew, and not the one
I was hoping to learn more about. I was walking
the same streets Eunice Hunting once walked, but my tour
guide hadn't mentioned her yet. Where was Eunice?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Do you have one hundred and thirty third Street? Swing Street?
They called it Jungle Alley? And that's what a real
party was.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
What does she get into as a young woman fresh
out of college?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Where did she sweat her hair out?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I came to Harlem hoping for a glimpse of Unice
and the neighborhood she moved to in the nineteen twenties,
which quickly became her playground and the vibrancy of her youth,
and would go on to be her home for the
majority of her life. But amongst this celebration of Harlem's past,
the ghost of her memory seemed determined to stay just
out of reach. That is until I asked my tour guide,
(05:05):
Carolyn about a particular building four O nine edgecomb Avenue.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It wasn't a stop on the tour.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, we can go up there. You can take that
two bus right up there, drop you right off in
front of it.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Of course Carolyn knew of it.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
They're a good marshalltt W de Boys, Walter White. That
was like the eight building.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Ever since the nineteen twenties, the movers and shakers of
Harlem had lived at four O nine Edgecomb Avenue. One
day that would include Unice two. When I think about Unis,
it can feel like someone is humming a few bars
of a song I used to know, but now I
can't remember the lyrics. But here finally was a glimpse
(05:47):
of Unis, like always perpetually just around the next corner,
out of reach and a little overshadowed by her neighbors,
but still here amidst the Harlem renaissance.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Here, this is where we live. This is where it
all happened.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
From the teams at iHeartRadio and Novel, I'm Nicole Perkins
and this is the Godmother Episode two Harlem Czarina tucked
(06:45):
between funeral notices and municipal updates of a nineteen twenty
three edition of The Yonkers Herald as a small article.
It's an announcement. Nine thousand invitations have been issued for
the largest black wedding ever held in the country. The
bride to be is the prominent and extremely wealthy socialite,
(07:06):
Miss May Walker Robinson. Her grandmother, Madame C. J. Walker,
is a hair care product pioneer and the first American
female entrepreneur of any race to become a millionaire. The
Walker Robinson's were a big deal in Harlem nineteen twenty three,
and the wedding makes headlines across the country, especially in
(07:27):
the Black press.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
All of these other black institutions of the public sphere
in the twenties and thirties look to the Black press
to sort of keep their pulse on what is hot
and sexy culturally, but also what is hot in terms
of politics. It's where the stage is being set for
who the movers and shakers in the society people are.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Units had been a socialite herself from a young age.
The Huntings didn't have the Walker Robinson's wealth, but her
parents were still very much a part of the black
social elite. In an article from The New York Age
in nineteen twenty three, there's a picture of May Walker
Robinson on her wedding day, seated in her wedding dress,
surrounded by bridesmaids and flower girls in glossy sheer, decadent,
(08:14):
bright dresses, replete with headdresses and bouquets. And if you
look closely, there in the back row, along a line
of other women honored with the role of bridesmaid, second
from the right, head turned slightly, eyes on something just
beyond the camera, is Eunice Hunting. It's not clear whether
(08:39):
Eunice in May would have really been friends, if the
number of bridesmaids is anything to go by, but her
inclusion was a mark of her emerging importance in this
elite circle. Eunice was slotting into the high falutine social
circle of black women, sometimes referred to as the czarinas
their every move was covered breath by the Black press
(09:01):
at the time, read not just by New Yorkers, but
by black people all across the country.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Whose wedding were they at, what were they wearing? Where
did they dine that evening? And in the next breath
a really cutting line about a choice that they made,
either politically, professionally or in terms of what they wore.
Even they have to be exemplars. They're supposed to be exceptional,
and they're also supposed to be engaging in behaviors that
(09:30):
help further the race right. There isn't a lot of
space for people to just be individuals and say, oh,
I don't care about that race thing over there.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
With William and Addie Hunts and as parents, Unice would
have been better prepared than most for this kind of pressure.
She had already lived a truly exceptional life after fleeing
the terrors of the nineteen oh six Atlanta race massacre.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
As a young.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Girl, she'd lived in Germany, attended a predominantly white college,
and graduated with two degrees all by the time she
arrived in Harlem aged twenty five. It's possible that Unice's
class and education made her a little sheltered at first.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
I think she.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
Didn't know what to expect in the real world. It
wasn't a matter of just living in Harlem. It was
a matter of going out in the community because that
was her job.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Pretty soon after graduating, Unice took up a job as
a social worker with Family Services in New York and
New Jersey. Work would bring her in contact with a
whole new sphere of black life.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
By the nineteen twenties, Harlem was referred to as being
like the capital of the black world.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
All right, so picture it mid nineteen twenties, Harlem. It's
Sunday morning. Unice Hunting, twenty five years old, a social worker,
a socialite. She leaves her trendy apartment and walks south
to one hundred and thirty fifth Street, Or maybe she
takes the number three train and uses the minute she
saves to stand in awe of the magic of the
(11:04):
black mecca that sits before her.
Speaker 8 (11:06):
She would have seen on one corner black communists standing
on a soapbox talking about the revolution. On the other
soapbox across the corner, she would have seen traditional politicians
urging African Americans to leave the Republican Party and come
join the Democratic Party. On the third street corner, she
would have seen a religious figure, maybe the guy called
the Barefoot Prophet, who was telling everyone they better get
(11:28):
with Jesus right away or they're can be going to Hell.
And on the fourth corner, those would have been the
race nationalists.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
The community of Harlem, unlike many of the spaces units
must have been used to by that time, was full
of diverse black life.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
You know, Harlem becomes this place where African Americans have
a chance to remake themselves all over again, securing better jobs,
better wages, and even housing conditions. Is all really a
dream from many people.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But many of those new arria to the neighborhood soon
found themselves falling into systemic traps which don't sound all
that different from the racism Unis and her family had
left in the South.
Speaker 7 (12:11):
Those dreams are complicated by Jim Crow North. They're complicated
by police violence. They are complicated by the thread of
public violence on the street.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Between nineteen ten and nineteen thirty, the number of Black
people living in just that one and a half square
mile of central Harlem increased eight times over, from a
little over eighteen thousand to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand.
The Big Apple offered new beginnings and opportunities.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
There are countless shops, clubs, tenement housing buildings. Harlem is
kind of like a melting pot.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So as Unice walks up one hundred and thirty fifth
Street that Sunday morning, she can see every facet of
black life on one corner. From the black elite and
fur coats knew ready to wear dresses off the rack.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
People at the time got very dressed.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Up, working class women and freshly laundered hand me downs
and darned.
Speaker 7 (13:10):
Stockings, donning the best that they have in their closet.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
All the good time boys and girls and their flashiest
silks and softest hankies.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
It was part of the whole atmosphere where you wore
wonderful clothes. You know, you wanted impress each other.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
When I think about the hair of nineteen twenties Harlem,
I think of the expression fried died and laid to
the side. Keeping straight hair was a matter of pride
and professionalism, regardless of the kind of job you had.
Fingerways and big body bobs were all the rage. Kinks
and tight curls weren't appreciated as much as they are today.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
We also see women dawning like not necessarily afros, but
natural hair meaning no chemicals, and you may see women
with pressed hair.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I avoided moving to New York for as long as
I could. I didn't think my country self could handle
all the excitement. Sometimes I can't, but I hope Eunice
fully enjoyed all that nighttime. Harlem had to offer with
red lipstick, finger waves, and a breezy dress made to
flutter around the Charleston and Lindy hop all night. Moving
(14:23):
to Harlem, especially at this point in this history and
at the age Unis was, must have felt exciting. What
would those communists, preachers, partiers, and fur coat wearing socialites
rushing by have seen when they looked back at Unice.
I like to think she was the kind of young
woman who yearned to be at the center of all
(14:44):
this action.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I like to think that she felt herself to be
at the foot of a great hill.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
But did she know yet which path would lead her
into her new life? For now, Unice's parents had offered
her a road map of sorts, but the glamor of
the Harlem Renaissance must have exerted a powerful pull. There's
(15:24):
a writer of the Harlem Renaissance era that reminds me
of Unus Zora nil Hurston and Zora nil Hurston's fiction.
With her anthropological attention to dialogue, I found images of
the women elders in my family. She made me want
to know more about my family member's internal worlds and
(15:44):
wonder what they may have seen her novel. Their eyes
were watching. God made me realize my elders had whole
lives before I knew them. It seems silly, but when
you're young, you know your grandmother is grandmama, and never
think about the idea that at some point in her
life she may have taken a much younger lover who
(16:06):
filled her with renewed passion. Like in the book with
Zora Neil Hurston, it wasn't just her writings I latched onto.
It was also the story of her life during the
Harlem Renaissance. She was a prolific writer an anthropologist, but
in nineteen sixty she died, broke in obscurity, and was
(16:28):
buried in an unmarked grave. In nineteen seventy three, renowned
writer Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, located her
grave and helped bring Hurston's literary career back to the
public eye, and it stayed there. How could someone like Zora,
(16:48):
who was once one of the most popular Black women
in the country disappear from history so easily. Unics and
Zora were both outspoken and determined, traits not often appreciated
in black women. But there's another comparison between the two.
(17:08):
Ever since her arrival in Harlem in the mid twenties,
units hadn't just been absorbing the sights and sounds and
smells of her surroundings. She took to her typewriter with thin,
ivory sheets of paper and began writing about them.
Speaker 9 (17:25):
Nineteen twenty five. The Corner by Unice Carter. My friend
lives in the house on the corner. She lives high
above the street, in a doll's house of white enamel
and soft blues, with lovely old furniture and oriental rugs
(17:45):
of faded brilliance on dark polished floors, in a miniature
home with a real fireplace and polished grasses and flowers
all about in crystal bowls. She lives high up there,
but below are the street and the avenue. And one
(18:07):
fall night, as I waited for her in the loveliest
room of all, I turned from watching the fire flicker
and dart across the room, and great chrysanthemums casting sleeping
shadows on the wall. I turned from this and watched
the street. It was alive with light and sound, the
(18:30):
light and sound of the city, the Black City.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The piece you just heard is called The Corner. It
was written and published in nineteen twenty five. In it,
Eunice is writing an insider's account, documenting the sensual experiences
of living in the neighborhood, sights and sounds that might
go unnoticed by visiting outsiders. Unice's early writings offer a
(19:02):
unique perspective to who she was. Her professional and activist
writings show a determined, educated, even commanding woman, and when
you add the wings of creativity, her.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Short stories were wonderful. They were celebrated by some of
the most prominent writers in Harlem. She for instance, would
go to some of the cocktail gatherings and it was
important to her because you couldn't just show up, you
had to be invited. People would get dressed up. These
(19:33):
were the top artists of the era, and she became
part of that because of her writing.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Eunice Hunting is not a name I remember reading about
in the library. I'd like to think that it's because
the era was so full of great talent and the
world was moving so fast at the time that some
people fell through history as cracks. But in this moment
of history, it feels especially important to actively remember black luminaries.
(20:05):
When I was growing up, Zora nil Hurston's their eyes
were watching. God was taught in sophomore English classes.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
All over America.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
But as I speak, Black history is being erased from
schools across the country. Who's to say that Zora nil
Hurston's work won't be buried again. Writer's works frequently get
lost to the ravages of time, and I wonder if
Unics used her fiction, her articles, and reviews as a
(20:33):
way of carving her name into history's tree trunk. Unice
was here. Maybe I'm projecting because as a writer myself,
I hope my work will last. And that's someone one hundred,
(20:54):
two hundred years from now will scroll through the library
catalog shipped into their left pink finger, probably and see
my name and know I existed. In nineteen twenty five,
Unics had another piece of writing published, but this time,
unlike the Corner, it was an essay, and unlike the Corner,
(21:15):
it shows that Unice was looking out to a world
beyond Harlem. It was called breaking Through.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
Harlem is a modern ghetto. True, that is a contradiction
in terms, but prejudice has ringed this group with invisible
lines and bars. Within the bars, you will find a
small city, self sufficient, complete in itself, a riot of
color and personality, a medley of song and tears, a
(21:49):
canvas of browns and golds and flaming reds, and yet bound.
There is also some tugging from without at the ropes
that bind the ghetto. It is the result of the
efforts of the whites, because of curiosity, self interest, a
spasm of self righteousness, or very rarely genuine interest, to
(22:12):
establish a contact with those within the ghetto.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
In the essay, Eunice argues in favor of those.
Speaker 9 (22:19):
Who often appear in the first instance to be deserting
the race.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And talks about those striving to be the first to
accomplish something.
Speaker 9 (22:27):
Whereas many who break the bonds are actuated solely by
the desire to get the best for themselves in spite
of prescription, a few realize that they are blazing a
trail that others of the race may follow. The essay
goes on there is another side of the picture.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
It is a tale of long.
Speaker 9 (22:45):
Dark years, of dismal failure, of brave struggles to rise
above mediocrity, of bitter fights for existence, A tale twisted
with heartaches and heartbreaks, a tale drenched in sweat and blood,
but still shot Through with flashes of sunlight upon pure gold.
(23:05):
It takes rare courage to fight a fight that more
often than not ends in death, poverty, or prostitution of genius.
But it is to these who make this fight, despite
the tremendous odds, despite the deterring pessimism of those who
see the tangle of prejudice that surrounds the ghetto, a
(23:26):
hopeless barrier, that we must look for the breaking of
the bonds now linked together by ignorance and misunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
It's a righteous essay.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It feels autobiographical and maybe even a bit self aggrandizing
and smug, like she was telling her readers get like me, kids,
as if you can. But it seems to show Unice
starting to turn away from the.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
Riot of color and personality.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
To pursue other goals. You can tell from reading Breaking
Through that Unice was deeply concerned with the idea of
her own legacy, and it's interesting to think about it
in the context of where Unice's life was at in
nineteen twenty five when she wrote this as a twenty
(24:18):
six year old. You see, she did not sign the
essay Breaking Through with the name Unice Hunting. She signed
it Eunice Hunting Carter because by nineteen twenty five, Eunice
was married.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
She lived in a society where women married and had children.
That was the way it was.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Writer, social worker, socialite, and now wife. But these roles
weren't keeping her satisfied.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
I think Unis did feel very strongly about being role modeled.
She wrote about it, how it's very important to accomplish
so people who come beyond you know, this is a woman,
this is a black person, and she's very successful. I
can be that way too.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
By this point in Unice's life, she's clearly been formulating
a plan. Looking back now, Breaking Through can be seen
as a roadmap she'd written for herself. It outlined a
strategy that Unice would continually use throughout her life, especially
the decisions she would make in the final years of
the Roaring twenties. She wanted to be different. She wanted
(25:37):
to be a trailblazer. It's nineteen twenty three. Unice meets
a wealthy man and his name is Lyle Carter.
Speaker 6 (25:59):
He was born and raised in Barbados.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Lyle arrived in New York City in nineteen thirteen and
evolved into a prominent figure in Harlem too, in a
more understated way than Eunice. He'd built his wealth through
a successful dental practice. Eunice married Lyle in nineteen twenty four.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
She and her husband lived in this beautiful house in Harlem,
and they liked to entertain.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Their wedding had been a small, intimate affair, a far
cry from the lavish May Robinson Walker extravaganza.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
A year or two later, they have a child.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
They named that child Lyle Carter Junior. Eunice's mother, Addie,
when touring the country for work, had written extensively on
the roles and responsibilities of black women in American society,
their roles both at home and in public, while their
(26:55):
husbands lead the family. And Unice's work does take a
back seat to Lyle's at this time in the nineteen
twenty five senses, while she's publishing writing as well as
holding down a social work career. Lyle is listed as
a dentist and Unice's occupation is simply housewife. I imagine
(27:15):
this must have rubbed Unis the wrong way. Eunice and
Lyle would hold social events together and they'd often have
people over.
Speaker 6 (27:26):
I mean the parties they had in their house. That
meant a lot to them. I think that bound them
their devotion to Harlem. They were very well known in
the community. As you can imagine, the pair of them
looked good together. On the surface, it probably seemed ideal,
Eunice and Lyle entertaining the who's who of the Harlem
(27:46):
Renaissance in their family home. Did Ornel Hurston ever pop by?
But scratch that surface, there were rumors that Eunice had
had an affair at some point with the musician. One
of the writers of the era mentioned in a letter
that she thought Unice might be gay, which who knows.
(28:09):
I mean, those were the rumors, But what do they
speak to. They speak to the fact that maybe her
marriage was not the best.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
For all of her mother ADDIE's advocacy on the role
of black women in America, her daughter, Eunice Hunt and
Carter still yearned for more, thanks in part to Addie.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
In many ways, she was a maverick, and Addie her
mother instilled this in her because Addie was a bit
of a maverick.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
In her own time. As a young mother, Addie had
traveled the Deep South alone documenting atrocities. She'd gone to
Germany with her young family to pursue her own education,
and later she'd returned to Europe to advocate for black
soldiers on the front lines of World War One, all remarkable,
(28:56):
exceptional feats. She never let being a mother stand in
the way of her ambition, and neither would her daughter.
Speaker 10 (29:05):
Unice was doing social work, she was writing, she married,
and she had a son who was a good mother,
a good wife. But I think she wanted to act
on the world and to be influential and known in
a different way than she would have been as a
writer and a social worker.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
So this was a tension I think in her whole life,
because she was very well educated, she was very smart.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
And she desired to make a greater contribution, to have
a greater impact.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
By nineteen twenty seven, Unice was twenty eight years old
and now on the inside looking outside of the Black city,
and her experiences had made Unis almost uniquely prepared for
the consequences of the decision she made next.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Eunice was able to venture into the white realm.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
In nineteen twenty seven, with a young child and a
fledgling writing career, Eunice decided to go back to school, law.
Speaker 11 (30:08):
School, social work, was very important work, but there were
a lot of women and black women doing social work
at the time, and that was not the case at
all in law.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
From this point in her life forward, Eunice Hunt and
Carter would leave writing behind. She would never publish another
piece of creative writing.
Speaker 10 (30:32):
I wouldn't be surprised if she just felt like, Okay,
I'm leaving that part of my life behind and We're
going to become a lawyer, or just stop because she
didn't have time to do it anymore.
Speaker 11 (30:40):
Law was a place where she could really distinguish herself.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Although she had to have known it was going to
be an uphill climb.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And Unis isn't the only one about to undergo a
major transition. As the Roaring twenties start to draw to
a close, Harlem itself is changing, and as it does,
a different side of this world is about to come
into view. Units may have thought she'd seen a lot
of what Harlem had to offer, the glitz, the glamour,
(31:11):
the tradition, and the struggle of those she walked alongside.
But there were other layers to it too. In Harlem
and across the city, New York's underworld is about to rise.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Closer to the surface.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
Lucky Luciano, an Italian immigrant, forms these different alliances. This
is someone who is interested in really expanding his empire.
So very much like other white racketeers, the millions of
dollars that they had made during the late nineteen tens
(31:46):
and throughout the nineteen twenties dries up, so for many
of them they have to look for new avenues of income.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
That's coming up in episode three of the Godmother. On
this episode of The Godmother, you heard Carolyn Johnson, my
(32:15):
Harlem tour guide.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Welcome to Harlem. That's the name of my company. I'm Stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I'm Professor Sarah Jackson.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
I'm a Presidential Associate Professor at the Annaberg School for
Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an affiliate with
the Africana and African American Studies Program.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
Here, I'm Marilyn Greenwald. I'm a professor Emerita of journalism
at Ohio University, and I'm the author of five biographies,
including one of Eunice Hunt and Carter.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
My name is Lashawn Harris. I am an associate professor
of history at Michigan State University in the Department of History.
Speaker 8 (32:48):
I'm Jonathan Gill and I'm a professor of Humanities at
Amsterdam University College in the Netherlands and the author of Harlem,
the only complete history uptown Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
My name is Leah Carter.
Speaker 10 (33:01):
I am Eunis Carter's great granddaughter. My dad, Stephen Carter,
wrote the book Invisible, the Forgotten Story of the Black
woman lawyer who took down America's most famous mobster, and
I did.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
A lot of the research for that book.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
My name is doctor Clarissa Myrik Harris, and I am
a tenured professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
The Godmother is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more
from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The Godmother is hosted
and written by me Nicole Perkins. Our producer is Leona Hammy.
Additional production from Ajuajima Broumpong, Ronald Young Junior, and Zaiana Yusuf.
(33:54):
Our editor is Ajua Jima Broumpong. Additional story editing from
Max O'Brien and Mithi Lely Raw and our researcher is
Zianna Yusuff. Additional research from Mohammed Ahmed David Waters is
our executive producer. Field production by Tnito Romani and Pallas Shaw,
Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempsen.
(34:17):
Our score was written, performed and recorded by Jeff Parker.
Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Production management
and endless patients from Sharie Houston, Sarah Tobin, and Charlotte Wolfe.
Fact checking by Fendel Fulton and Dania Suleiman. Story development
by Madeline Parr, Jess Swinburne, Ziana Yusuff. Willard Foxton is
(34:41):
our creative director of Development. Special thanks to Leah Carter,
Stephen Carter, Angela J. Davis, Andrew Fernley, Marilyn Greenwald, Sondra Lebtdy,
Katherine Godfrey, Nadia Maidie, Amalia Sortland, Sean Glenn, Neil Krish,
Non Julia Bromberg, Katrina Norvale, Carly Frankel, and all the
(35:05):
team at w Emmy
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Novel
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