Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1958-11-15
Time Magazine 49,.

AAOILiItdG0 AZ 66G 0ttGl
a long time" and praised by Jean
Cocteau as "a prodigious master
piece" Sculptor Harold Cousins,
from Washington. ID. C.. has lived
nine years in Paris. sold . scuIp-
ture last month to the Claude Ber-
nard Gallery. and has been COM
missioned by SUISSE. the famed
bronze caster. to do q mobile.
Painter Beauford Delaunay. from
Tennessee, lives in q small cottage
in suburban Clamart and exhibits
his work at the avant-gsrde Fac
chetti Gallery on the Left Bank.
Racial discrimination in the u. s.
gave most Of the Partisan Negroes
the initial push toward self-exile,
but they stay in France for other
reasons. Chester Hines comedies
that Gin America you have this
personal problem, of course. But
that's not what / mean about
France. l like France, and can
work here because everybody, and
| mean everybOdy-the concierge as
well as the intellectual-respects
creative work. They understand
writer's and help them"
Philadelphia William Gardner
Smith, author Of Last of the Con-
querors, study of Negro G.I.'s in
Germany, lives in working-class
quarter in Paris where Americans
are seldom seen. He feels that in
the u. s. zone wastes too much
time being angry. Life here is
more natural, more leisurely. In
discussions with French people,
they never say, How do you, a
Negro, see this?' They simply
ask, How do you see it?' In Paris
you forget the color of your skin"
Painter Ollie Harrington, who
earns his living as a cartoonist
for the Pittsburgh Courier and
other Negro newspapers, enjoys
the freedom to travel. 81 like to
swim and ski and deep-sea fish,
all strictly restricted in the U. S.
Here l can step into my car and
drive wherever l like, certain that
at the end of the day will find
a good hotel and good restaurant,
and that l can sit down without
attracting the slightest attention,
or exciting couriosty. In Sweden,
that's still another matter; they
run after you there. l can do
without that, too"
Richard Native SOM Wright,
the dean Of Negro writer's abroad,
says bluntly: 81 like to live in
France because it is free country.
Then there are my daughters. They
are receiving an excellent educa-
ton in France" What of the
danger of getting out Of touch
with U. s. life? Snaps Wright:
"The Negro problem in America
has not changed in 800 years."
Other Negro writer's are not so
sure. William Gardner Smith con-
fesses that "the biggest problem I
have is missing my roots. I've no
intention of writing about France,
much as l like France. It's not my
homeland. But if I'm going to be
writing about the States, some
thing may be wrong, little nuances.
Pm very far from my country"
Welcome Home. Richard Gibson,
in Manhattan from Paris for the
publication of his new novel. A
Mirror for Magistrates, points out
that other Negro writers (Ralph
Ellison, William DENNY, Ben john
son have chosen Rome for their
voluntary exile. He says: Cali
these people are in Europe because
of social and political causes which
everyone knows. The bright young
white boys, after the end of their
Fulbright scholarships, are able to
return with reasonably light hearts
to the ends of Madison Avenue or
to the provincial Ph.D. factories.
1t is still impossible for an Amer
lean Negro to return to the land
of his birth in the same spirit"
nations. It functions in more than