Today, we are happy to bring you our conversation with Verner D. Mitchell and Cynthia Davis, editors of In Flaming Letters: Lucia Pitts, Poet of the Six Triple Eight

What inspired you to write this book? 

We met in 1997 at the College Language Association (CLA) Conference in Atlanta. We were on the same panel and presented papers on the Boston cousins, Dorothy West and Helene Johnson. Verner’s first book This Waiting for Love was on the poetry of Helene Johnson. Our first joint book Where the Wild Grape Grows, on Dorothy West and her circle, was published in 2005. While researching West’s literary journal Challenge (1934-1937), we were intrigued by the frank and erotic poetry of a contributor and friend named Lucia M. Pitts. In 2024 we published a book on the life and work of Waring Cuney (another close friend of West and Johnson). Cuney wrote some of his best poetry while serving in the Pacific in WWII. We then became interested in African American WWII veterans and writers and re-discovered the poetry of Chicagoan Lucia M. Pitts.

What did you learn and what are you hoping readers will learn from your book? 

Lucia Pitts was a true Renaissance woman: poet, editor, journalist, musician, administrator with the Federal Government, mentor, entrepreneur, and soldier. Although virtually unknown now, Pitts was once nationally recognized and published poetry for over twenty years in the famous literary column “Lights and Shadows” in The Chicago Defender. Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Frank Marshall Davis praised her love poems. She bucked prejudice and discrimination in the Illinois State and Federal Governments and opened employment opportunities to African Americans in the Civil Service. In 1943 she joined the WAC (Women’s Army Corp) and was a member of the first Black unit to serve in Europe. In a memoir about her experiences, included in our book, she corroborates the account of the famous 6888 Battalion celebrated in Tyler Perry’s film. Although active in Civil Rights, Pitts never allied herself with members of the Harlem Renaissance, the Chicago Renaissance, or the Black Arts Movement. While she is difficult to categorize, she remains a role model for young people who refuse to be labeled or defined by artificial boundaries.

What surprised you the most in the process of writing your book? 

We were surprised at the fact that no one ever published a collection of Pitts’s poetry; she certainly advocated tirelessly for publication, writing to many editors and enlisting the support of important African American pundits and influencers, all of whom encouraged publication.

What’s your favorite anecdote from your book?

Pitts refused to limit her ambitions or to be constrained in any way by racial, economic, or gendered parameters. She used her personal charm to diffuse resistance and to smooth over obstacles. After WWII, she decided to drive across country with friends. However, when all of her companions backed out, Pitts bought a second-hard car and drove through the Jim Crow South, from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. Despite wild weather, poor roads, mechanical breakdowns, and the occasional unwelcoming motel, she persevered. She then published an upbeat account of her travel adventures in the African American press, thus encouraging others to follow their dreams.

What’s next? 

We continue to explore the contributions of unsung African American soldiers, particularly those who have written about their experiences in war and peace. We are completing a chapter, “The WWII Writings of Waring Cuney, Lucia Pitts, and Alston Anderson,” for “That Pageant Terrible”: Cultural Representations of African American War Experience from the American Revolution to the Twenty-First Century, co-edited by Professors Jennifer James and Steven Trout for the University of Virginia Press’s series, “The Black Soldier in War and Society.”

We are pleased that our first book, Where the Wild Grape Grows, will soon be issued in paperback; we will be updating the information in the introduction and will include several unpublished stories by Dorothy West. In addition, we are working on the Second Edition of our Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement, which will include many new entries. As members of the editorial board of the new Journal of Black Military Studies, we also look forward to mentoring and encouraging new scholars.