Black No More: Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free

The day before the election, Bunny and Matthew wait for news of the birth in Bunny’s rooms at the hotel. Matthew is anxious, reflecting on his experience as a white man, and he dreads the possibility that his life as he knows it will end. Bunny agrees to flee with Matthew if the worst happens just as the phone rings with the news of Matthew’s son’s arrival. At the hospital, Helen appears happy and the nurse looks approvingly at Matthew and Bunny, who are waiting nervously; when the doctor appears, he has bad news: The baby’s skin is very dark. The doctor asks Matthew what he should do, and Matthew’s ambitious side fights with his desire to protect his family, and he considers the possibility of telling Helen that the baby has died. 

Before Matthew speaks, the butler interrupts them, bearing a newspaper with a headline announcing that Givens, Snobbcraft, and other top Democrats have been “PROVED OF NEGRO DESCENT” (127). Matthew sees Rev. Givens enter Helen’s room with a copy of the paper, and Helen faints as her father weeps and begs Matthew to help him. Bunny smiles discreetly as the doctor helps Helen regain consciousness. When Helen wakes, she apologizes profusely to her husband and begs Matthew not to leave her; Matthew responds kindly, telling her that she has “honored [him] by presenting [him] with a beautiful son” (129). Matthew goes on to tell Helen and the others in the room the truth. Helen’s reaction is one of pride, and everyone in the room expresses their wish that the Republicans will win the election. 

Soon, Matthew and his family, Bunny, Rev. and Mrs. Givens and the nurse and the doctor are on Matthew’s plane on their way to Mexico. When the plane lands, Matthew receives a telegram containing a message from Madeline Scranton, “the last black gal in the country” (131), announcing that the Republicans have won the election and that Snobbcraft and Dr. Buggerie are on the run.

The night before the election, Snobbcraft and Dr. Buggerie leave Richmond in secret, in search of safety from a mob that has gathered in front of Snobbcraft’s home. Snobbcraft takes his frustration out on both the pilot of their plane and Dr. Buggerie as they discuss their destination: Snobbcraft’s ranch in Mexico. As the mob becomes more violent and gunshots are fired, the pilot announces that they do not have enough gas to reach Mexico. As the plane gains altitude, a bullet enters the plane, and suddenly, “[a] terrible stench suddenly became noticeable” (135). The pilot smiles when he sees that the two men have changed into new pairs of trousers, one belonging to the pilot himself on Snobbcraft, and one on Dr. Buggerie belonging to Snobbcraft’s valet. The two men scheme as they realize that the plane will likely have to land in Mississippi, where they worry they will be lynched; in desperation, the men decide to black their faces and hands so that they will not be recognized. The plane lands clumsily, crashing into a ditch, and the pilot dies in the crash. 

The plane has crashed in a community called Happy Hill, Mississippi, where the members of the True Faith Christ Lovers’ Church live and worship, lynching or shooting and burning any black people who come into their midst. Thanks to Black-No-More, life has been quiet in Happy Hill but for “the old time religion and the clandestine sex orgies that invariably and immediately followed the great revival meetings” (138). The revivals are led by Rev. Alex McPhule, a recent arrival to Happy Hill, who had been visited by an angel and sent by the angel to be a preacher of a new faith, one that involved sermons about hell and sexual embraces in the dark. When the reverend’s ambition to put the other churches in the area out of business led him to pray to God for a sign, he simultaneously prayed for God to “send him a nigger for his congregation to lynch” (141). Soon after he made this plea, Rev. McPhule saw a bat fly into his room and fly out again; he interpreted the appearance of the bat as the sign he so desired, and people from miles around, having heard about this sign, come to Happy Hill for the revival to take place that will take place on Election Day, most voting for Givens and Snobbcraft on the same trip.

Meanwhile, Snobbcraft and Dr. Buggerie, their faces still blacked, are wandering the countryside in search of a train station. They discuss removing the blacking, which means they might be recognized as famous white men with black ancestry, so they decide avoiding people in general is the safest bet. Just as they make this decision, the two men look over a ravine to observe a noisy crowd; it is Rev. McPhule’s revival meeting, and as soon as the crowd spies the two men, they chase the men down yelling about a sign and threatening to lynch them. Upon capture, Snobbcraft and Dr. Buggerie try to explain that they are white, and as the lynch mob pauses, a man arrives with a newspaper announcing that the Democrat nominees for president and vice-president are black. Snobbcraft and Dr. Buggerie wash and smoke a cigar, and Rev. McPhule starts asking them questions about who they are. A moment later, the reverend recognizes Snobbcraft, and his anger at Snobbcraft’s audacity to run for public office as a black man is contagious. Within moments, they are stripped naked, maimed, chased, and shot at; before they die, they are burned at the stake. Rev. McPhule glories in the knowledge that he will named in the next day’s newspapers. 

Several years later, Dr. Crookman, who is the Surgeon-General of the United States, publishes a paper about the pigmentation of naturally white skin and whitened skin that has undergone his treatment. The newly whitened skin is even whiter than naturally white skin. This announcement led the members of the American upper class to question the value of whiteness themselves. Excessively pale people were treated badly, and they protested being discriminated against; political and social changes began to take place, and four states considered “separate schools for pale children” (149). Amongst the fashionable upper-class set, suntans became popular as well as cosmetics that darken the skin. Soon, stained skin is the most valued color.