Calvin C. Hernton Papers, 1969-1998 | Oberlin College Archives

Hernton, Calvin C. (1932-2001)

Calvin Coolidge Hernton was born on April 28, 1932 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After graduating from Howard High School in Chattanooga in 1950, he attended Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, graduating with a B.A. in sociology in 1954. He then undertook graduate studies in sociology at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and received an M.A. degree in 1956. During the following nine years, he worked as a social worker with children in metropolitan New York City.

During these years, he continued to hone his skills in writing poetry, skills he had developed at Fisk University. Styling himself a “Bohemian” and wanting to hit the literary jackpot, Calvin frequently gave readings in Manhattan’s lower east side. As a founder and editor of the literary magazine Umbra he published works by black writers Langston Hughes, Ismael Reed, and Alice Walker as well as many up-and-coming young writers. In 1965 he published with Doubleday and Grove Press (paperback edition) his landmark study Sex and Racism in America, which was provocative and timely. Therein he argued that “the connection between skin color and sexuality is ‘so immaculate and yet so perverse, so ethereal and yet so concrete, that all race relations tend to be, however subtly, sexual relations.’” (The New York Times, n.d.) It was during these years that Calvin joined the black literary inner-circle—less because of his artistic skill and more because he was bone tolerant and able to get along with all people.

Hernton spent the years 1965-1969 in London, England as a fellow at the Institute of Phenomenological Studies where he studied with the psychiatrist R.D. Laing (b. 1927). As part of his work at the Institute he co-authored, along with Laing and Dr. Joseph H. Berke, The Phenomenology of Psychoavtivates.

Returning to the United States, Hernton spent the years 1969 and 1970 as a writer-in-residence at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. In 1970, he moved to Oberlin College, where he first served as a writer-in-residence and then, in 1972, as an associate professor in the newly established Black Studies program. He was eventually promoted to the rank of full professor in 1979. He was not prone to involve himself in campus politics or committee work, and was basically a shy person.

During his teaching career, Professor Hernton was noted for his conservative pedagogical teaching methods (as opposed to his black colleagues in his department) and for his successful mentoring of students like Avery Brooks ’70 and Bruce Wiegl ’73. Students taken under the wing often developed a life-long relationship with him. This was the case with Avery Brooks, with whom Hernton collaborated on the ABC (American Broadcasting Company) series “A Man Called Hawk.” According to one observer, teaching for Calvin was “very draining and demanding.”

From his New York years when he first emerged as a leading voice in the black arts movement, Hernton was a prolific writer. Among his works are: The Coming of Chronos to the House of Nightsong (poetry, Interim Books: New York, 1964); Sex and Racism in America (Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y., 1965); White Papers for White Americans (Greenwood Press: Westport, Conn., 1982); Medicine Man (poetry, Reed, Cannon & Johnson: New York, 1976); The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers (Anchor Press: New York, 1987); The Cannabis Experience (with Joseph Berke, P. Owen: London, 1974); works on Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, and Chester Himes; Scarcrow (a novel, Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y., 1974); many short stories; and a dramatic work. He published widely in journals and magazines including Dissent, Negro Digest, Evergreen Review, Scottish International, and The Carleton Miscellany. In his New York Times obituary Margalit Fox wrote, “Uniting his diverse output was a propulsive desire to question—and at times to subvert—received wisdom about how social institutions function.”

Calvin C. Hernton, who for many years battled his own demons, counted among his town friends Glenn and Sandy Hodge, Gigi, his barber, and Vern Carroll. In 1998 he married a second time to Mary O’Callaghan (b. ?), who Calvin came to know in London. He died in Oberlin, Ohio, on September 30, 2001, survived by Mary and a son, Antone (b. ?), from his previous marriage.

Sources Consulted

Fox, Margalit, “Calvin Hernton, 69, Scholar of American Race Relations,” The New York Times (October 10, 2001), n.p.

Hernton, Calvin C., Oberlin College Faculty Information [vita], June 19, 1970.

Saaka, Yakuba, “Memorial Minute: Calvin C. Hernton,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine (Summer 2002): 49.

Author: Elizabeth Brinkman

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