Walter White

Flight Walter White

Published amid controversy in 1926, Flight focuses on the dilemma of Mimi Daquin, a light-complexioned African American woman who "passes", for a time, as white. The complexities and state of race relations in the early 1900s unfortunately mirror much of which is taking place in our current society. From the Atlanta riot of 1906 to her shameful expulsion from black bourgeois society because of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, to her working-class status in Philadelphia and Harlem, Mimi eventually decides to escape her miseries by passing for white in New York City. "Often mentioned as a major text in the literature of passing and listed as a groundbreaking novel of the Harlem Renaissance, Walter White's Flight may be one of the least read 'important' books telling the story of black migration, urbanization, and segregation. This compelling narrative with the unforgettable, feisty Mimi at its center is 'must' reading. Bold and nuanced, Flight illuminates the inner workings of racism, classism, and sexism by following Mimi's search for a space in which to be black and female in a modern world."-Thadious M. Davis, author of Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance"Flight belongs to an extinct but historically crucial genre of African-American fiction: the passing novel. Here, Walter White, himself light enough to pass, explores the many dimensions of the path not taken. Along the way, he reflects on the American propensity for personal reinvention and the arbitrariness of racial designation." -Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University