A Cultural Historical Analysis of Louise Thompson Patterson, Dorothy West and Constance White in 1932 Russia

The migration of African Americans during the Reconstruction Era is a testament to the lengths that Black people took to escape racial oppression. The movement to escape racial injustices continued into the 20th century and was not just confined to the United States either, as waves of thousands of Africans-American entertainers, writers and skilled workers sought refuge in one of the Whitest countries: Russia (Keys, 2009). One trip hosted by the Russian film company Mezhrabpomfilm in 1932, gave several Black musicians, writers and artists the opportunity to be in a feature film about the racism in the United States. More than half of the members of the trip were women. Yet, the most popularized accounts of the voyage are from Langston Hughes, Henry Lee Moon and Theodore “Ted” Poston. This case study focuses on three women – Louise Thompson Patterson, Dorothy West and Constance White – who went on this trip to Russia and their experiences before, during and after their time in the country. These three Black women were pioneering literary, political and social figures within the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and have heavily documented their experiences. Using the framework of intersectionality and queer theory, this study centers on the Black women’s experience in this historical event as well as provides an alternative narrative to the current male perspective. Using a cultural-historical analysis of written, audio, and visual documents, this case study investigates how a trip to Russia affected the women’s lives socially, politically and economically as well as how they described their experiences through their gender, racial and sexual lenses. The implication of this study disrupts the dominant narrative of African Americans in Russia and explores how a disempowered group, Black women, experienced and documented international travel.