The Inspiration For The Invisible Man

Some of you know that Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man is one of my favorite books of all time - thanks to Dr. McGinnis for giving me his copy as a graduation gift from Henderson. 

Here is the inspiration for the classic:

On this day in 1943, Robert Bandy, a private in the 730th Military Police Battalion in Jersey City, New Jersey, was entering the lobby of the Braddock Hotel in Harlem, New York, with his mother and girlfriend when he heard an African-American woman named Margie Polite shout out, “Protect me from this white man!” as she wrestled with a policeman named James Collins. When Bandy intervened, Collins tried to smack him with the nightstick. Bandy caught the nightstick and used it on Collins. After falling to the ground, Collins shot Bandy. When a false rumor spread that Bandy was dead, a riot ensured for days. Five people were killed, 400 were wounded, and 500 were arrested. It was the most violent event in Harlem’s history in a year filled with violence against African Americans including against other soldiers. Poet Langston Hughes described the inequities of fighting Nazism abroad while white supremacist violence terrorized African Americans across the U.S.: “You say we’re fighting for democracy. Then why don’t democracy include me?” The riot inspired Ralph Ellison’s novel "Invisible Man."