SOURCE: Butcher, Philip. “William Stanley Braithwaite's Southern Exposure: Rescue and Revelation.” The Southern Literary Journal 3, no. 2 (spring 1971): 49-61.

In the following essay, Butcher discusses the Boston-born poet's experiences as lecturer and teacher in Atlanta and how those experiences influenced his work.

Harlem's Countee Cullen, with three volumes of poetry and an anthology to his credit, could be sure the readers of his literary page shared the sentiments he expressed after a trip to what he regarded as a hostile region.

We journeyed late last month for the first time to the far South, passing with some slight tremors of the heart through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and a bit of Alabama to Talledega, [sic] a fair college brimming with eager young Negroes intent on drinking at the Pierian well despite the indifference of their native states. We had our Pullman reservation from New York, and so were not...