Jessie Redmon Fauset was an American novelist, editor, essayist and teacher known for her role in the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote four novels between 1924 and 1933, including There Is Confusion (1924) and Plum Bun (1928). As literary editor of The Crisis magazine from 1919 to 1926, she supported many writers who shaped African-American modernism.
Fauset was a key figure in early 20th-century black literature and was named an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta after her 1921 speech at the Pan-African Congress.
Jessie Redmon Fauset was born on 27 April 1882 in Snow Hill Center Township, New Jersey, later renamed Lawnside. She was the seventh child of Redmon Fauset, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Annie Seamon Fauset.
After her mother's death, her father remarried Bella, a white Jewish woman who converted to Christianity. Her household included three stepsiblings and three half-siblings, among them civil rights activist Arthur Fauset. Jessie’s parents placed strong emphasis on education.
Fauset attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls, where she graduated as valedictorian. Though this distinction traditionally led to a Bryn Mawr scholarship, the college president, M. Carey Thomas, raised money instead for her to attend Cornell University.
Thomas opposed admitting Black and Jewish students. Fauset enrolled at Cornell in 1901, studied classical languages, and graduated in 1905. She later earned a master’s degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania in 1919.
After graduation, she taught Latin and French at M Street High School in Washington, DC. She spent summers studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1919, W. E. B. Du Bois invited her to join The Crisis as literary editor. “Jessie Fauset at The Crisis… midwifed the so-called New Negro Literature into being,” Langston Hughes later wrote. She remained at the magazine until 1926, contributing essays, poems, translations and fiction. She also edited the children’s periodical The Brownies’ Book.
After leaving The Crisis, Fauset returned to teaching and continued to write. She taught at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York until 1944. Her novels focused on middle-class African-American life, racial identity, and internalised colourism. “No Ku Kluxer could stand it,” wrote critic Ernest Boyd of her first novel. Alain Locke called it a “refreshing contrast” to stereotyped portrayals of Black life.
Fauset married insurance broker Herbert Harris in 1929 and moved to Montclair, New Jersey. After he died in 1958, she returned to Philadelphia.
Jessie Redmon Fauset died on 30 April 1961 and was buried at Eden Cemetery.
Fauset was a key figure in early 20th-century black literature and was named an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta after her 1921 speech at the Pan-African Congress.
Jessie Redmon Fauset was born on 27 April 1882 in Snow Hill Center Township, New Jersey, later renamed Lawnside. She was the seventh child of Redmon Fauset, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Annie Seamon Fauset.
After her mother's death, her father remarried Bella, a white Jewish woman who converted to Christianity. Her household included three stepsiblings and three half-siblings, among them civil rights activist Arthur Fauset. Jessie’s parents placed strong emphasis on education.
Fauset attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls, where she graduated as valedictorian. Though this distinction traditionally led to a Bryn Mawr scholarship, the college president, M. Carey Thomas, raised money instead for her to attend Cornell University.
Thomas opposed admitting Black and Jewish students. Fauset enrolled at Cornell in 1901, studied classical languages, and graduated in 1905. She later earned a master’s degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania in 1919.
After graduation, she taught Latin and French at M Street High School in Washington, DC. She spent summers studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1919, W. E. B. Du Bois invited her to join The Crisis as literary editor. “Jessie Fauset at The Crisis… midwifed the so-called New Negro Literature into being,” Langston Hughes later wrote. She remained at the magazine until 1926, contributing essays, poems, translations and fiction. She also edited the children’s periodical The Brownies’ Book.
After leaving The Crisis, Fauset returned to teaching and continued to write. She taught at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York until 1944. Her novels focused on middle-class African-American life, racial identity, and internalised colourism. “No Ku Kluxer could stand it,” wrote critic Ernest Boyd of her first novel. Alain Locke called it a “refreshing contrast” to stereotyped portrayals of Black life.
Fauset married insurance broker Herbert Harris in 1929 and moved to Montclair, New Jersey. After he died in 1958, she returned to Philadelphia.
Jessie Redmon Fauset died on 30 April 1961 and was buried at Eden Cemetery.
years of life: 27 April 1882 – 30 April 1961
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