How did Jessie Redmon Fauset portray the Black middle class in There Is Confusion?

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The Weary Blues cover — Harlem Renaissance Dust jacket designed by the Mexican illustrator and writer Miguel Covarrubias for Langston Hughes's *The Weary Blues* (1926), a book of experimental poetry.

In her 1924 novel There Is Confusion, Jessie Redmon Fauset focused on the lives of middle-class Black characters during the Harlem Renaissance.

Fauset’s portrayal of this demographic was characterized by an exploration of the complex challenges they faced, specifically the intersection of racial prejudice and internal struggles with self-hate. While some contemporary critics argued that her depictions of the Black middle class were overly idealistic, others identified a nuanced, subtle sense of underlying frustration within her narratives. By centering her work on these characters, Fauset highlighted the unique social and psychological pressures experienced by Black individuals striving for success and identity within a racially stratified society.1