SOURCE: "Sutton E. Griggs: Militant Black Novelist," in PHYLON: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture, Vol. XXXIV, No. 1, March, 1973, pp. 73-7.

In the following essay, Fleming explores aspects of violence—real and imagined—in Griggs's novels.

Sutton E. Griggs has customarily been held up as an early example of the militant black novelist, especially in his first novel, Imperium in Imperio (1899). The most vigorous promoter of this point of view has been Hugh M. Gloster; Robert A. Bone, while differing with Gloster on the degree of militance which Griggs displays, is in basic agreement with his view of Imperium in Imperio. However, the recent republication of Grigg's best-known novel makes it available to a greater number of readers, who must question the degree to which Griggs subscribes to his characters' beliefs and attitudes. An examination of the novel as a whole and of the techniques used...