In his article, The Sound of Black Laughter and the Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Mike Chasar addresses the theme of laughter as a form of power and strength especially in blacks. He analyses the poems of Claude McKay, Sterling Brown, and Langston Hughes, pointing out the instances of black laughter and how it challenges white power in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Before addressing this idea of black laughter as strength, Chasar offers a brief history of how black laughter or the lack of it was a form of control for whites. According to Chasar, it was not until the introduction of the Emancipation Proclamation that black laughter became a strength and weapon to fight for social justice.
Claude McKay
Before laughter served as a form of empowerment for blacks, Chasar explains how whites controlled this form of expression in blacks. Slaves were expected to keep quiet and when they were allowed to laugh it was to appease the master so that he would believe his slaves were content. After the Emancipation Proclamations, slaves gained new freedoms, one of which was laughter. Black laughter was so important in this time because it serve as a combative force rather than humor. Chasar asserts that “black laughter could go where the physical black body…could not …[challenging] white control of public space. This idea influences the poetry of McKay, Brown, and Hughes, as they illustrated the freedom of, not only laughter, but all noise—once silenced—in their poetry.
Brown in particular illustrated this laughter in his poem Slim in Atlanta as the character, Slim, exercises his freedom to laugh in the “telelfoam” booth while others wait their turn, all the while having to suppress their own desire to burst into laughter. This went on for hours until authorities took Slim away. According to Chasar, this idea is inspired by the “’laughing barrel’” tale in which blacks were only allowed to laugh in the “COLORED ONLY” barrel, giving whites a chance to save face in these instances. This small yet powerful gesture gave blacks control of their expression. It was not only a personal freedom, a political one that allowed blacks to express their new gained power and confidence in the world.