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How did Rudolph Fisher portray Harlem’s class and ethnic diversity in his fiction?

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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.

Rudolph Fisher was a prominent novelist and short-story writer of the Harlem Renaissance whose work provided a nuanced, realistic depiction of Black urban life in Harlem.1

Fisher expertly explored the ethnic and class diversity of the Black metropolis as it was shaped by the arrival and adjustment of rural Southern and Caribbean migrants. His fiction often focused on the tensions and interactions between these diverse groups, as well as the broader social dynamics of the city.21

In his 1928 novel, The Walls of Jericho, Fisher specifically addressed the challenge of sympathetically portraying both the upper and lower classes of Black Harlem. Through a humorous and gently satirical lens, he presented a vision of progress that encouraged African American men to overcome mutual distrust and unite to succeed in the urban North. His work is noted for its psychological depth and its groundbreaking use of Black music and performance contexts to enhance his thematic explorations of modern urban identity.12