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Eternal Foreigners Among Eternal Strangers

© Meg Greene Malvasi

They were writers, painters, and musicians. Like the expatriates of the 1920s, they came to France during the period after World War II because Paris was still the cultural center of the Western world. They also believed that the French rewarded artists on the basis of their talent, and not because of the color of their skin. Many African Americans believed that leaving the United States was the only way to their art, and the way to live more freely.

"I left America," wrote African-American novelist James Baldwin in 1959, "because I doubted my ability to survive the fury of the color problem here." Baldwin could have been speaking for a number of African-American artists who, disillusioned and frustrated with the state of race relations in the United States, went to France. Others, such as the expatriate novelist Richard Wright, who were sympathetic to communism, found themselves the target of Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations. The appeal of France was understandable. Compared to the United States, France had a more relaxed racial climate. Parisians especially were enthusiastic in their support of African-American culture, art, and literature. For many African Americans, France seemed a safe haven, and gave them an opportunity for the first time to experience life beyond the "color line."

Many also believed that African Americans and the French shared a common experience of oppression. During World War II the French had suffered at the hands of the Nazis; African Americans had struggled against racism in the United States for centuries. Throughout the post-war period, numerous African Americans thus enjoyed French hospitality in the "times of the expatriates."

From the late 1940s until the mid-1960s, several African-American writers with established literary reputations made their homes in France. In addition to Baldwin and Wright, Chester Himes was among the most prominent members of the African-American expatriate community. Known for his hard-boiled detective fiction, Himes arrived in Paris in 1953. "I just wanted out from the United States," he explained years later. "I had had it." Several African-American artists and musicians joined the writers, establishing residence in Paris. They included political cartoonist Ollie Harrington; painters Larry Potter, Beauford Delaney, Herb Gentry, and Walter Coleman; jazz musicians Lester Young, Kenny Clarke, and Art Simmons; and singer Hazel Scott.

By the early 1950s, this sizable colony of African Americans in Paris gathered regularly at the Monaco Bar or the Cafe Le Tournon to write, exchange ideas, or talk. Another popular meeting place was the "soul food" restaurant owned by a former African American G.I., LeRoy Haynes. But the creative energies and personal freedoms that African Americans enjoyed in Paris came at a price. Many continued to feel alienated, just as they had in the United States, regarding themselves as "eternal foreigners among eternal strangers." Critics often accused the exiles of running away from the problems of African Americans, and some of the expatriates felt guilty about not being involved in the struggle for civil rights at home. Their mixed feelings toward their homeland prevented many African-American expatriates from giving up their U.S. citizenship. Baldwin again expressed the view that prevailed among them that "there isn't any way ever to leave America."

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