Darwin Turner, The Wayward and the Seeking (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1980), 91. Toomer “formed and formulated” his racial position in the summer of 1914. This racial position is set forth in “Outline of an Autobiography,” which Toomer wrote, according to Darwin Turner, between 1931 and 1932. Toomer claims that as a student at the University of Wisconsin that he “had no use” for his racial position because the “question [of race] was never raised.” He contradicts himself here for in a later section of his autobiography he recounts the experience of having to contend with the campus rumor that he was a “Hindu” and an “Indian,” as well as the racism of a white male classmate. See pp.
