If He Hollers Let Him Go

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses rape and racism.

In the United States in the 1940s, so-called Jim Crow laws were still in place, which enforced race-based segregation in Southern states. Although California, where If He Hollers Let Him Go is set, had fewer discriminatory laws, it still had some, including a marriage ban between white and Black people or white and Asian people. As well as facing legal discrimination, Black, Asian, and Latinx Americans were still recovering from the Great Depression in the 1930s, which had led to higher rates of unemployment among people of color than white people. In response, anti-racist activism was growing, such as the increasing activity of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Although progress was being made, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor led to a rise in racist discrimination. Everyday instances of racism were fueled by anti-Japanese propaganda in the media and anti-Japanese government policies, such as the forced incarceration of approximately 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent due to the offensive assumption that they were loyal to or spies for Japan (“Japanese American Incarceration.” The National WW2 Museum). Conditions at concentration camps were very poor; one such center was Santa Anita Park on the outskirts of Los Angeles, which occupies Bob’s thoughts at the beginning of the novel. He acknowledges that this rise of racist sentiment affects him as a Black person, and he draws a parallel between the incarceration of Japanese American people with high rates of incarceration among Black people.

The outbreak of World War II exacerbated racist discrimination in the US in several more ways. Many people emigrated to the West Coast during the Great Depression, and these numbers rose as war-related industries were being mobilized. There were many job opportunities in LA due to its coastal position and ties to the Navy and shipbuilding. Racial tensions grew in the city as housing shortages increased and public services did not sufficiently keep up with the growing population. Racist sentiment led to increased violence perpetuated by white city residents, who often falsely labeled working people of color, particularly Mexican Americans, as “draft dodgers”; this led to the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943, which saw white people committing violence against Mexican, Asian, and Black Americans (“The Zoot Suit Riots and Wartime Los Angeles.” The National WW2 Museum, 1 Jun. 2023). Bob notes in If He Hollers Let Him Go that his fear of racism has grown substantially since he moved to LA from Ohio for work.

African American people like Bob wanted to benefit from increasing employment in World War II just as their white counterparts did. In 1941, A. Philip Randolph, who had become a prominent spokesperson for working Black Americans since leading the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, proposed a march on Washington to demand access to and desegregation of war-related industries. Fearing unrest and embarrassment, President Roosevelt banned discrimination in defense industries before a march took place. Bob is one such American working in defense—in a shipyard. By 1944, 12% of the people working in shipbuilding were Black (“The War: Minorities.” PBS). However, Black employees were still often given dangerous or menial work, and Bob believes that he got a promotion partly to pacify Black coworkers. Bob’s white colleagues subject him to racism and resent the desegregated policies. Himes therefore uses the novel to highlight the challenges that Black people were facing, in employment or out of it.

One of these challenges, which the novel explores in detail, was the threat of violence (particularly in the form of lynching) and false accusation of rape. The NAACP estimates that between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the US (“History of Lynching in America.” NAACP), which is when someone is murdered publicly without being properly trialed for a crime. Lynchings of Black people were generally committed in the South, which is why Madge makes a point that Bob will be “lynched right here in California” (137). Lynchings did occur in California, though, and the Zoot Suit Riots were compared to lynching (Arellano, Gustavo. “Column: California has a history of racist lynchings too. Ignoring the fact is a mass delusion.” Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2021). Due to anti-racist activism and mass migration, lynchings had declined significantly by the 1940s, but Himes conveys that the threat remained present.

Lynch mobs often used false accusations of rape as justification for violence. Black men faced this threat of false accusation, and if they were not murdered by a lynch mob and were put to trial, the criminal justice system was often skewed such that white juries would believe white witnesses. The Scottsboro Boys, for example, were nine Black teenagers in Tennessee whom two white women accused of rape in 1931. A lynch mob gathered outside their jail, but the boys were instead put through a rushed trial with an all-white jury and no medical evidence of rape and convicted. The shadow of such occurrences looms over If He Hollers Let Him Go, as Bob knows that a white woman accusing him of rape is likely to be believed and flees. The judge’s implicit belief that Madge’s accusation is false suggests a growing understanding of this violent history of false accusation and lynching, yet it also conveys that the criminal justice system was not designed to protect Black men like Bob.