The Walls of Jericho

A Black lawyer’s move to a white neighborhood is anything but straightforward in this jazz-age satire by “the wittiest of the Harlem Renaissance writers” (Langston Hughes).

When Fred Merrit buys a house on Court Avenue, he knows it will be no ordinary move. Despite his education and success, the light-skinned Black man is sure to cause a stir in the exclusive white neighborhood bordering Harlem. He must hire the toughest movers in the area to help him get his belongings past the hostile neighbors. And those movers—Jinx Jenkins and Bubber Brown—have their own issues with Merrit.

The Walls of Jericho is a hilarious satire of Harlem in the Jazz Age and the social boundaries people build around themselves, especially those based on color and class. Originally published in 1928, it is the debut novel of Rudolph Fisher and a classic of African American fiction.