Cotton Comes To Harlem

“The world is full of people who will do anything for enough money.”

Grave Digger makes this comment after learning he has been assigned to protect Deke, a criminal-turned-informant who turned in his colleagues thinking he would get a reward. Grave Digger hates criminals but also operates by a strange code of honor. In his mind, it would have been better for Deke to continue to be a criminal, and be loyal, than to turn on his partners. This quote also sets the tone for the rest of the novel, in which we see the lengths many characters go to just to get their hands on money.

“I just don’t want anybody to tell me that crime doesn’t pay.”

Grave Digger expresses his frustration at being ordered to protect Deke, a lowlife who—in his mind—does not deserve protection. Grave Digger has seen his fair share of crime and has become very cynical as a result. As the rest of the novel will show, his day-to-day interactions are filled with criminals, informants, liars, and cheats, which explains his worldview and the kind of jaded, tough-on-crime cop he has become.

“Harlem is a city of the homeless. These people had deserted the South because it could never be considered their home. […] But they had not found a home in the North. They had not found a home in America. So they looked across the sea to Africa, where other black people were both the ruled and the rulers. Africa to them was a big free land which they could proudly call home, for there were buried the bones of their ancestors, there lay the roots of their families, and it was inhabited by the descendants of those same ancestors—which made them related by both blood and race. Everyone has to believe in something; and the white people of America had left them nothing to believe in.”

The families who give their money to Deke for the Back-to-Africa movement may seem like simpletons for following him, but in this passage Grave Digger and Coffin Ed muse on why they sympathize with these people. Black Americans have been mistreated, misused, and displaced from their homes, and so their lives seem bleak and hopeless. Having something that they can still believe in—a true home where they can be happy and prosper—might be the only thing motivating them to keep on going. This knowledge inspires Grave Digger and Coffin Ed to fight for these people and stop at nothing to return their hard-earned money.

“That was the con-man’s real genius, to keep the suckers always believing.” 

This quote contrasts Grave Digger and Coffin Ed’s perspective with Deke’s. Rather than sympathizing with the plight of the people whose money he planned on squandering, Deke prides himself on his “genius” in being able to manipulate the hopes of those who are desperate to believe in anything. Deke revels in the fact that no matter what he does, his followers will still believe in him. This attitude allows the audience to root for Grave Digger and Coffin Ed to take Deke down, even if the detectives don’t use the most justified means to do so.

“‘All I wish is that I was God for just one mother-raping second,’ Grave Digger said, his voice cotton-dry with rage.

‘I know,’ Coffin Ed said. ‘You’d concrete the face of the mother-raping earth and turn white folks into hogs.’

‘But I ain’t God,’ Grave Digger said, pushing into the bar.” 

As Grave Digger and Coffin Ed pursue witnesses who might lead them to the stolen money, they enter the poorest, most destitute parts of Harlem, observing homelessness, drug addiction, theft, and rotting garbage. Grave Digger expresses his rage at the unfairness of it all, placing the blame on white oppression and its negative repercussions on the black community. Yet Grave Digger also feels helpless, since he isn’t God and can’t change the way things are. Instead he must find a way to operate in the world as it exists, which has turned him into a rough and cynical cop.

“The indestructible Deke O’Hara, he thought gloatingly. What do I care about eighty-seven grand as long as there are squares?”

Deke congratulates himself on escaping the police and finding shelter with Mabel Hill, one of his faithful followers. Though Deke took a loss with the hijacked $87,000, he knows he will have more opportunities to take advantage of people. Such hubris foreshadows a fall, though; Himes makes Deke particularly despicable so readers can root for his comeuppance at the end.

“When Bill emerged, the black people parted to let him pass. They didn’t know what he had said to the Colonel, but whatever it was they were for him. He had stood right up to that ol’ white man and tol’ him something to his teeth. They respected him.” 

Bill Davis, one of Deke’s followers, goes to the Back-to-the-Southland headquarters to give Colonel Calhoun a piece of his mind and to warn him to leave Harlem. Though his words have little effect on Calhoun, watchers-on cheer Bill on for bravely standing up to Calhoun. In 1965 there could be grave consequences for a black man having the audacity to speak to a white man in this manner, and Bill’s courage gives the others hope, even if it ultimately makes little difference.

“‘Come and get it, pansy,’ she taunted, lying on the bed with her legs open and her brown-nipped teats pointing at him like the vision of the great whore who lives in the minds of all puritanical men.” 

In Chapter 10 Iris uses her sexuality to distract and seduce the cop in charge of watching her, so she can leave to meet up with Deke. Himes writes the chapter from the cop’s point of view and details his lurid thoughts about Iris. The white, religious, “family-man” cop puts on a show of loathing Iris, but she goads him into risking his job, family, and morals for the chance to bed her, showing the hypocrisy of “puritanical” men who look down on “loose” women.

“‘You chickenshit cheat,’ she mouthed, spittle flying from her popping lips. ‘You sneaking pimp. You get me out of the way and shack up with some chippy whore.’

‘Shut up,’ he said dangerously. ‘I had to hide out.’

‘Hide out? Between this slut’s legs?’

From the doorway in the sitting-room, Mabel said, ‘Reverend O’Malley is just trying to get our money back; he doesn’t want it all bungled by the police.’

Iris turned on her. ‘I suppose you call him Reverend O’Malley in bed,’ she stormed. ‘If your mouth isn’t too full.’

‘I’m not like you,’ Mabel said angrily. ‘I do it the way God intended.’”

Iris confronts Deke and Mabel after learning of their affair. Mabel tries to defend Deke and take the moral high road, espousing the false logic sometimes used by religious people who argue one sexual act is more perverse than another. Deke cheated on Iris, no matter the logistics of his sex with Mabel, but Mabel remains blind to this innate hypocrisy.

“‘There ain’t any more dangerous job in Harlem than collecting bills.’

They lapsed into silence, thinking of all the reasons folks in Harlem didn’t pay bills. And they thought about the eighty-seven thousand dollars taken from those people who were already so poor they dreamed hungry.” 

Coffin Ed and Grave Digger muse over the dire poverty in Harlem and how this can drive people to desperation. They sympathize with the families who lost their contributions to the Back-to-Africa movement, but also with anyone who can’t afford to pay bills and who often go hungry. This moment suggests Grave Digger and Coffin Ed are aware that some of the criminals they pursue are just as desperate, but they can’t afford to let this stop them from doing their jobs.

“The city lived and breathed and slept as usual. People were lying, stealing, cheating, murdering; people were praying, singing, laughing, loving, and being loved; and people were being born and people were dying. Its pulse remained the same. New York. The Big Town.”

This description of New York City offers insight into the cynical worldview Himes creates in the novel. The city has multiple sides, some good and some bad, but no matter how bad things get, it will continue on as usual. This quote follows the showdown under the bridge where Deke’s gunmen shoot and kill Barry and Calhoun’s goons. Even though it seems like this kind of carnage should shut the city down, things carry on; a few more dead bodies barely make a ripple in the pond.

“‘Swindled my ass,’ Deke said. ‘It was all legitimate.’ Grave Digger slapped him so hard his body bend one-sided like a rubber man, and Coffin Ed slapped him back. They slapped him back and forth until his brains were addled, but left no bruises.”

Grave Digger and Coffin Ed finally get a hold of Deke, but he refuses to help their investigation. Deke is portrayed as a detestable conman, and the reader may be tempted to feel he has gotten his just desserts in being slapped around so much by the police. Yet the fact that Coffin Ed and Grave Digger know enough to not leave bruises indicates they have used this kind of violence on witnesses before and will do so again, making it questionable whether they should be cheered on for these methods.

“Anderson sighed. ‘I hate to see people tearing at one another like rapacious animals.’

‘Hell, what do you expect?’ Grave Digger said. ‘As long as there are jungles there’ll be rapacious animals.’” 

After the confrontation between Iris and Deke in the interrogation room—in which Iris vows to do anything to take Deke down, including testifying that Deke killed Mabel Hill—Lieutenant Anderson seems embarrassed by all the commotion and comments that Deke and Iris are behaving like animals. Grave Digger’s response indicates that he blames the environment more than the people; Deke and Iris are a direct product of Harlem. His comment further suggests that Anderson, who works in the area but lives in a white neighborhood, can never fully understand, and should therefore withhold his judgment.

“‘Good old war,’ Coffin Ed said. ‘It got us out of the South.’

‘Yeah, now the white folks want to start another war to get us back.’”

After meeting a black French waiter, Coffin Ed and Grave Digger comment on World War II’s impact on black Americans. Coffin Ed notes that the war gave black people the opportunity to leave the South and experience the world. Grave Digger remains more pessimistic, commenting that the war for people of color is far from over. Black American soldiers proved useful to the country in the war, but many had trouble reintegrating into society afterward, and 20 years later, some whites (like Calhoun) still strive to put blacks back under their thumbs.

“‘Listen, Mr. Goodman, the other eighty-seven poor colored families lost their life savings in a robbery—’

‘Yes, yes, I read in the papers. They wanted to go back to Africa. I want to get back to Israel where I’ve never been either. It comes to no good, this looking for bigger apples on foreign trees. Here every man is free—.’”

After his worker Joshua is found murdered in the junkyard, Mr. Goodman initially refuses to come in so late at night for questioning. Here he debates with Grave Digger over the phone about the Back-to-Africa movement, comparing it to the plight of many Jewish people who wish to return to their homeland of Israel. Like many African Americans, many Jewish Americans have never been to the homeland in question (Africa and Israel, respectively) but nonetheless wish to escape there to avoid the prejudice and oppression they’ve experienced elsewhere. Like Israel, Africa is held up to an impossible, idealized standard.

“It is as though God was testing this man with the trials of Job to ascertain the strength of his faith and his endurance and courage for some great task ahead.”

After Deke’s arrest, preacher T. Booker Washington (not to be confused with Booker T. Washington) takes over preaching for his congregation. Washington claims Deke’s innocence and compares his plight to the Biblical story of Job, in which Job is so righteous that God allows Satan to tempt him and cause chaos in his life to see if he’ll lose faith. Like Deke, Washington uses the Bible to manipulate the parishioners, encouraging Deke’s followers to keep believing in Deke despite all the evidence that he was lying, cheating, and swindling them all along.

“The Back-to-Africa followers believed. They wanted to believe. They didn’t have any other choice.”

Washington’s sermon persuades Deke’s followers that he is still a man of God worth supporting. Some readers might be tempted to believe them ignorant or gullible, but Himes uses this passage to reiterate the complexity of the situation. The Back-to-Africa followers might blindly believe Deke, but they have nothing else. Poor, disdained, and oppressed, these families need something to believe in, and Deke is the only one offering them any hope that their lives can get better.

“He turned the pages and his gaze lit on an advertisement for the Cotton Club, showing a picture of Billie Belle doing her exotic cotton dance. I’ve got cotton on the brain, he thought disgustedly and threw the paper aside.”

On one of his rare days off, Grave Digger reads the newspaper and comes across an advertisement for Billie Belle’s cotton dance. At this point in the story readers are aware that the bale of cotton is connected to the missing $87,000, but Grave Digger and Coffin Ed remain in the dark. This moment teases that Grave Digger might be about to piece things together, but he ultimately dismisses the ad and moves on without making the connection. Himes also foreshadows that the bale of cotton will come into the hands of Billie Belle, who will ultimately lead Grave Digger and Coffin Ed back to Colonel Calhoun.

“His attitude seemed that of a man dealing with children who might be unruly but never dangerous.”

Calhoun leads a march of Back-to-the-Southland supporters through the streets of Harlem, nearly causing a riot when he starts to guide his followers into the territory of a Black Muslim group. Calhoun remains unbothered by the chaos that might ensue. His attitude reflects his belief that white men are inherently superior to black men, who must be treated like children in need of guidance, discipline, and care.

“If I could only rape you, you dirty bastard.”

Iris makes this comment to Coffin Ed after he and Grave Digger explain their plan to use her to find Deke. Iris eventually agrees to cooperate but expresses her displeasure at being forced into the job. Grave Digger and Coffin Ed threaten to kill her if she tries to cross them, and Iris comments on the unfairness of their power dynamic. They are male cops, and she is a female criminal; she will forever be at a disadvantage when it comes to brute strength and legal authority.

“Iris snatched a clean towel and began frantically rubbing her face to see if the black would come off. Yellow skin appeared. Reassured, she became less frantic.”

The text repeatedly refers to Iris as a “yellow woman,” meaning she is half-white, half-black. To aid her escape from jail, Coffin Ed and Grave Digger give Iris dye to darken her skin. After she escapes, she immediately washes off the dye, worried that she will become permanently stained. Here Himes points to colorism, or long-held prejudice against people of color with darker skin. Iris wields her sexuality to control others and fears she will lose this power if she loses some of her “whiteness.”

“‘Cotton is graded,’ Grave Digger said. ‘It can be identified. There were fibers from this bale of cotton left in Goodman’s junkyard where the boy was murdered.’

‘Fibers? What Fibers?’ the Colonel challenged.

Grave Digger stepped to the pile of cotton on the floor and picked up a handful and held it out to the Colonel. ‘These fibers.’”

Grave Digger and Coffin Ed bend the law many times in the novel, including beating witnesses and springing Iris from jail. Grave Digger knows they need more evidence to connect Calhoun with Joshua’s murder and openly acknowledges that he will forge evidence if necessary. Calhoun has lied, cheated, stolen, and killed, so the reader may feel that he deserves this treatment. However, the moment also illustrates once again that Grave Digger and Coffin Ed are not so far removed from the criminals they track down.

“‘I suppose he thought it was the American thing to do to rob those colored people out of their money,’ Anderson said sarcastically.

‘Well, ain’t it?’ Coffin Ed said.” 

Lieutenant Anderson discusses Calhoun’s motivations with Grave Digger and Coffin Ed after everything is resolved, making this sarcastic comment about robbing colored people being the “American thing to do.” Coffin Ed’s reply indicates their very different viewpoints on the subject. Anderson is sympathetic to the black community he serves but cannot fully understand everything they go through. He still believes that people like Calhoun are rare and that the country treats everyone fairly. Coffin Ed offers a different, more cynical view of America, most likely echoing Himes’s own beliefs about the treatment of people of color.