Sterling Brown’s Southern Strategy:Poetry as Cultural Evolution in Southern Road

Abstract

Abstract With the publication of Southern Road in 1932, Sterling Brown portrayed, and sought to address, what he perceived to be a profound cultural crisis facing African Americans: the gradual disappearance of their rural cultures as they entered the urban, industrialized economies of the North and South, and their consequent loss of autonomous art. Brown especially feared the loss of folk- lore, which he believed helped African American culture renew itself, not only by preserving and strengthening traditions and social practices, but also by serving as a conduit through which individuals devised and communicated new strategies for surviving racial oppression. Once African Americans moved to urban areas, Brown believed that they would no longer produce songs and stories reflecting their communities’ needs and interests and, accordingly, would no longer devise and communicate new strategies for survival. Instead, he feared they would passively consume a bigoted popular culture, or worse yet, be co-opted into producing art that pandered to the economic demands and stereotypes of the dominant culture.