By Gabbie Burton
Contributing Writer

It is the unfortunate fate of some writers to have their work confined to obscurity in life before receiving their recognition in death. Such was the fate of Vincent O. Carter – a fate that passionate readers, fans and his own alma mater are looking to rewrite.

At a conference honoring Carter on Feb. 20. at Lincoln University’s Wellness Center, “Unveiling the Legacy: Race, identity, and social justice in the works of Vincent O. Carter” highlighted the work, life and legacy of Carter, who graduated from Lincoln in 1950.

Carter, who died in 1983 at the age of 59, is an author of two published works, The Bern Book and Such Sweet Thunder, as well as several unpublished works. Carter grew up in Kansas City, Mo. before serving in World War II and attending Lincoln University. He later moved to Europe where he eventually settled in Bern, Switzerland and lived the rest of his life in a self-imposed exile.

The conference revolved around the importance of exposing Carter’s works to larger audiences and ensuring he receives the recognition his work deserves. Opening remarks from Lincoln University alum and Honorary British Consul Oliver Franklin CBE, emphasized this point.

“We are putting Vincent O. Carter into the American canon,” said Franklin. “That means five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when your children are going to university for liberal arts education that they’ll be able to see, they can read works by Vincent O. Carter.”

The conference featured student presentations, a panel discussion from relevant professionals on Carter and a keynote address. The day began with student presentations on Carter’s book Such Sweet Thunder that highlighted the themes and topics they found important, while providing analysis of the work in an English course at the university.

Gelin St. Fleur-Simeon, the current editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Lincolnian, gave a presentation on Carter’s time as editor-in-chief at the newspaper, highlighting Carter’s commitment to shining a light on civil rights issues in the news.

The conference then turned to a panel of honored guests that included the Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed, Ph.D., who lived in Switzerland at the same time as Carter and wrote his Master’s thesis on Carter; June Graham, Ph.D., who is working on a biography on Carter; Chip Flesicher, who published Carter’s Such Sweet Thunder in 2003; and keynote speaker, Jesse McCarthy, Ph.D., a Harvard University assistant professor and writer whose research centers on the intersection of politics and aesthetics in African American Literature.

“Literature has a much longer sense of time, so it really doesn’t matter to us whether or not somebody is famous or how many books they sell,” McCarthy said. “The life of literature just kind of moves on a completely different timeline and I think we need to think about Vincent O. Carter in that way. My wager is that his name will actually be very, very significant and maybe even more significant 20, 40, 50, 100 years from now.”

An important figure in this timeline of Carter’s work is Lisolette Haas, Carter’s long-term partner. Haas kept the manuscript of Such Sweet Thunder -- originally titled The Primary Colors -- under her bed in Bern for 20 years after Carter’s death before Fleishman learned about the manuscript and sought to publish it in 2003. The novel, which tells the story of a boy living in Kansas City during the jazz age, racial segregation and injustices of the 1920s and 30s, was important for Fleishman to publish as a Kansas City local himself.

“In my 30 years publishing a few hundred books, the only writer we’ve published who I felt was a soulmate and a friend and got things and explained things to me in a way that I really appreciated was Vincent O. Carter,” Fleishman said.

A key component in Carter’s works that was emphasized by the panelists is how geography played an indelible part in his writing. Bern and Kansas City are the two locations that Carter spent most of his life in and they appropriately feature heavily in his work. However, one location Carter lived in that is not the subject of a novel, is Lincoln University.

The panelists described the impact they feel the university and surrounding area had on Carter.

“Carter’s work is shaped by his literary education, and he acquired that education here,” McCarthy explained. “Lincoln allowed him to be a writer, and he got a world-class literary education here.”

Morrison-Reed and Graham noted Carter’s involvement in extracurriculars at the university including the paper, drama club, glee club and philosophy club as having an impact on his writing. Graham also highlighted how segregated Oxford may have been unwelcoming to the Black students of the HBCU at the time and that university was in turn a “safe space” for Carter to receive his education.

The conference concluded with a keynote address from McCarthy at Dickey Auditorium. The address covered a range of relevant topics, all reinforcing the argument that Carter and his novel Such Sweet Thunder deserve greater recognition and a permanent place in the literary canon.

“I feel this book to be like an arc on the ocean with a little bit of everything inside of it,” McCarthy said. “It shows us what can be done, what can be dared when a sense of total freedom with respect to form meets a serious purpose.”

Following the keynote address attendees were invited to view the exhibit titled, “A Journey Through the Mind,” at the Langston Hughes Memorial Library that displays photographs through Carter’s life, that will remain on display until August.

Though Carter’s work and legacy extend far beyond his time at Lincoln University, McCarthy made sure to credit the institution in his address as the effects of the rigorous education he received cannot be understated.

“A lot of it comes back to right here,” McCarthy said. “It has to do with the kind of education that he got here at Lincoln which I think it has to be said, is a kind of education that somebody from his background – his class background, the way he grew up, very poor in the depression and Black in America – he would not have got, almost certainly, in any other institution.”

To contact Contributing Writer Gabbie Burton, email [email protected].