Part 3, The Shadow and the Act, Section 1 Summary and Analysis

The essays in this part of the book focus on other socio-cultural manifestations and/or explorations of the so-called "Negro experience".

"Some Questions and Some Answers" (published 1958). This essay takes the form of, as the title suggests, questions and answers - the questioner, however, is never named. The first questions relate to the nature of Negro culture, which the author claims doesn't in fact exist. There is, he suggests, no one Negro culture in the same way as there is no one definition of Negro, since those generally believed to fit into that category don't originate from any one background. The author says that in terms of the American Negro, their so-called "culture" is deeply and inextricably influenced by that which defines America. He concludes the answer to this...