Black No More

by

George S. Schuyler

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Black No More makes teaching easy.
Samuel Buggerie is a nervous, bald statistician who comes from one of the First Families of Virginia. He believes that the best way to tell “pure” white people from others is to study family trees. Arthur Snobbcraft hires him to study how many Americans have Black ancestry, hoping to release the results just before the election in order to rile people up and ensure support for the conservative Democratic Party. However, Buggerie’s findings illustrate that almost 50 million people have some Black ancestry—including Rev. Givens and Snobbcraft. The published findings are shocking and spark angry mobs, prompting Snobbcraft and Buggerie to flee the country via. Because the men’s pictures have been printed in the papers, when they are forced to crash land in Mississippi, Buggerie comes up with the idea to darken their faces with shoe polish so that they won’t be recognized. The residents in Happy Hill, Mississippi attempt to lynch them—thinking the men are Black—before stopping because they realize the men are white. However, soon after, they recognize Snobbcraft and brutally lynch him and Buggerie anyway because of Snobbcraft’s Black ancestry (and because they assume Buggerie has the same Black ancestry).

Samuel Buggerie Quotes in Black No More

The Black No More quotes below are all either spoken by Samuel Buggerie or refer to Samuel Buggerie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism and Oppression Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

As the cab whirled up Seventh Avenue, he settled back and thought of the girl from Atlanta. He couldn’t get her out of his mind and didn’t want to. At his rooming house, he paid the driver, unlocked the door, ascended to his room and undressed, mechanically. His mind was a kaleidoscope: Atlanta, sea-green eyes, slender figure, titian hair, frigid manner. “I never dance with niggers.” Then he fell asleep about five o’clock and promptly dreamed of her. Dreamed of dancing with her, dining with her, motoring with her, sitting beside her on a golden throne while millions of manacled white slaves prostrated themselves before him. Then there was a nightmare of grim, gray men with shotguns, baying hounds, a heap of gasoline-soaked faggots and a screeching, fanatical mob.

Related Characters: Max Disher / Matthew Fisher, Helen Givens/The Blonde Girl, Samuel Buggerie, Arthur Snobbcraft
Related Symbols: The Knights of Nordica
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

On the other hand, many so-called Caucasians, particularly the Latins, Jews and South Irish, and frequently the most Nordic of peoples like the Swedes, show almost Negroid lips and noses. Black up some white folks and they could deceive a resident of Benin. Then when you consider that less than twenty per cent of our Negroes are without Caucasian ancestry and that close to thirty per cent have American Indian ancestry, it is readily seen that there cannot be the wide difference in Caucasian and Afro-American facial characteristics that most people imagine.

Related Characters: Dr. Junius Crookman (speaker), Samuel Buggerie
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“There was so much of this mixing between whites and blacks of the various classes that very early the colonies took steps to put a halt to it. They managed to prevent intermarriage but they couldn’t stop intermixture. You know the old records don’t lie. They’re right there for everybody to see…

“A certain percentage of these Negroes,” continued Buggerie, quite at ease now and seemingly enjoying his dissertation, “in time lightened sufficiently to be able to pass for white. They then merged with the general population. Assuming that there were one thousand such cases fifteen generations ago—and we have proof that there were more—their descendants now number close to fifty million souls. Now I maintain that we dare not risk publishing this information. Too many of our very first families are touched right here in Richmond!

Related Characters: Samuel Buggerie (speaker), Max Disher / Matthew Fisher, Dr. Junius Crookman, Rev. Henry Givens, Arthur Snobbcraft
Page Number: 144
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

This section of the state had been untouched by the troubles through which the rest of the South had gone as a result of the activities of Black-No-More, Incorporated. The people for miles around were with very few exceptions old residents and thence known to be genuine blue-blooded Caucasians for as far back as any resident could remember which was at least fifty years. The people were proud of this fact. They were more proud, however, of the fact that Happy Hill was the home and birthplace of the True Faith Christ Lovers’ Church, which made the prodigious boast of being the most truly Fundamentalist of all the Christian sects in the United States. Other things of which the community might have boasted were its inordinately high illiteracy rate and its lynching record—but these things were seldom mentioned, although no one was ashamed of them.

Related Characters: Samuel Buggerie, Arthur Snobbcraft
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:

The crowd whooped with glee and Rev. McPhule beamed with satisfaction. The flames rose higher and completely hid the victims from view. The fire crackled merrily and the intense heat drove the spectators back. The odor of cooking meat permeated the clear, country air and many a nostril was guiltily distended. The flames subsided to reveal a red-hot stake supporting two charred hulks.

There were in the assemblage two or three whitened Negroes, who, remembering what their race had suffered in the past, would fain have gone to the assistance of the two men but fear for their own lives restrained them. Even so they were looked at rather sharply by some of the Christ Lovers because they did not appear to be enjoying the spectacle as thoroughly as the rest. Noticing these questioning glances, the whitened Negroes began to yell and prod the burning bodies with sticks and cast stones at them. This exhibition restored them to favor and banished any suspicion that they might not be one-hundred-per-cent Americans.

Related Characters: Samuel Buggerie, Arthur Snobbcraft, Alex McPhule
Page Number: 176-177
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Black No More LitChart as a printable PDF.
Black No More PDF

Samuel Buggerie Quotes in Black No More

The Black No More quotes below are all either spoken by Samuel Buggerie or refer to Samuel Buggerie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism and Oppression Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

As the cab whirled up Seventh Avenue, he settled back and thought of the girl from Atlanta. He couldn’t get her out of his mind and didn’t want to. At his rooming house, he paid the driver, unlocked the door, ascended to his room and undressed, mechanically. His mind was a kaleidoscope: Atlanta, sea-green eyes, slender figure, titian hair, frigid manner. “I never dance with niggers.” Then he fell asleep about five o’clock and promptly dreamed of her. Dreamed of dancing with her, dining with her, motoring with her, sitting beside her on a golden throne while millions of manacled white slaves prostrated themselves before him. Then there was a nightmare of grim, gray men with shotguns, baying hounds, a heap of gasoline-soaked faggots and a screeching, fanatical mob.

Related Characters: Max Disher / Matthew Fisher, Helen Givens/The Blonde Girl, Samuel Buggerie, Arthur Snobbcraft
Related Symbols: The Knights of Nordica
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

On the other hand, many so-called Caucasians, particularly the Latins, Jews and South Irish, and frequently the most Nordic of peoples like the Swedes, show almost Negroid lips and noses. Black up some white folks and they could deceive a resident of Benin. Then when you consider that less than twenty per cent of our Negroes are without Caucasian ancestry and that close to thirty per cent have American Indian ancestry, it is readily seen that there cannot be the wide difference in Caucasian and Afro-American facial characteristics that most people imagine.

Related Characters: Dr. Junius Crookman (speaker), Samuel Buggerie
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“There was so much of this mixing between whites and blacks of the various classes that very early the colonies took steps to put a halt to it. They managed to prevent intermarriage but they couldn’t stop intermixture. You know the old records don’t lie. They’re right there for everybody to see…

“A certain percentage of these Negroes,” continued Buggerie, quite at ease now and seemingly enjoying his dissertation, “in time lightened sufficiently to be able to pass for white. They then merged with the general population. Assuming that there were one thousand such cases fifteen generations ago—and we have proof that there were more—their descendants now number close to fifty million souls. Now I maintain that we dare not risk publishing this information. Too many of our very first families are touched right here in Richmond!

Related Characters: Samuel Buggerie (speaker), Max Disher / Matthew Fisher, Dr. Junius Crookman, Rev. Henry Givens, Arthur Snobbcraft
Page Number: 144
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

This section of the state had been untouched by the troubles through which the rest of the South had gone as a result of the activities of Black-No-More, Incorporated. The people for miles around were with very few exceptions old residents and thence known to be genuine blue-blooded Caucasians for as far back as any resident could remember which was at least fifty years. The people were proud of this fact. They were more proud, however, of the fact that Happy Hill was the home and birthplace of the True Faith Christ Lovers’ Church, which made the prodigious boast of being the most truly Fundamentalist of all the Christian sects in the United States. Other things of which the community might have boasted were its inordinately high illiteracy rate and its lynching record—but these things were seldom mentioned, although no one was ashamed of them.

Related Characters: Samuel Buggerie, Arthur Snobbcraft
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:

The crowd whooped with glee and Rev. McPhule beamed with satisfaction. The flames rose higher and completely hid the victims from view. The fire crackled merrily and the intense heat drove the spectators back. The odor of cooking meat permeated the clear, country air and many a nostril was guiltily distended. The flames subsided to reveal a red-hot stake supporting two charred hulks.

There were in the assemblage two or three whitened Negroes, who, remembering what their race had suffered in the past, would fain have gone to the assistance of the two men but fear for their own lives restrained them. Even so they were looked at rather sharply by some of the Christ Lovers because they did not appear to be enjoying the spectacle as thoroughly as the rest. Noticing these questioning glances, the whitened Negroes began to yell and prod the burning bodies with sticks and cast stones at them. This exhibition restored them to favor and banished any suspicion that they might not be one-hundred-per-cent Americans.

Related Characters: Samuel Buggerie, Arthur Snobbcraft, Alex McPhule
Page Number: 176-177
Explanation and Analysis: