Nella Larsen (1891-1964), novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, was born Nellie Walker in Chicago on April 13, 1891. She was the daughter of Marie Hanson, a white Danish immigrant who worked as a dressmaker, and Peter Walker, a black West Indian from the island of Saint Croix. Larsen’s father, a cook and laborer, died before Nella was old enough to know him.
Marie Hanson’s second marriage was to Peter Larsen, a
Scandinavian immigrant who worked as a teamster and Chicago
streetcar conductor. The couple had a daughter, Nella’s half-sister
Anna, in 1892. Living in a primarily white working-class
neighborhood, the mixed-race family encountered discrimination that
Nella gradually realized was caused by her presence. A…
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