ABSTRACT
Ebony and Topaz was issued once in 1927 as a collection of essays, poetry, and illustrations compiled by Charles S. Johnson, the editor of Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life. Though the volume has received little scholarly attention, it articulated the theme of racial hybridity that not only proved an integral component of Harlem Renaissance cultural production but marked the diversity of American modernism between the wars. Significantly, Johnson’s editorial method in Ebony and Topaz, which promised minimal interference and direction, allowed his contributors freedom to broach controversial subjects shunned by the more conservative AfricanAmerican editors of the period, such as W. E. B. DuBois. As a result, Johnson’s compendium resisted limitation to the theme of racial uplift and challenged restrictive classifications of racial identity.
