Part 1. The short fiction: The ways of white folks -- Laughing to keep from crying -- The Jesse B. Simple stories and Something in common -- Character types and narrative modes -- Part 2. The writer -- Part 3. The critics: Alain Locke -- Arna Bontemps -- Carl Van Vechten -- Luther Jackson -- Melvin Tolson -- Arnold Rampersad -- Onwuchekwa Jemie -- R. Baxter Miller -- Arthur P. Davis -- Houston A. Baker, Jr. -- Steven C. Tracy -- Phyllis R. Klotman -- Susan Blake -- Edward Margolies -- James O. Young -- Mary Rohrberger -- Jeffrey Walker -- James Emanuel -- Hoyt Fuller -- Adam David Miller -- Amiri Baraka.