Of One Blood

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (born 1859) was an African American author, editor, and activist who came of age during the Reconstruction Era. She began her career as a dramatist, first as an actress and singer, then as a playwright. Her first published work was a musical called The Underground Railroad. She pivoted toward fiction at the turn of the century and soon made a name for herself as a popular contributor and later editor for the Colored American Magazine. She published three serial novels in the Colored American, culminating in Of One Blood in 1903. She went on to establish her own African American literary magazine, New Era Magazine, in 1916. In every medium she explored, Pauline Hopkins tackled race relations and feminism with creative fearlessness. Her works deftly intertwine science, romance, and spirituality. She is considered one of the earliest African American female playwrights to pen mysteries, and Of One Blood was a pioneering venture into the then-nascent science fiction genre. While relatively unknown in her time, Hopkins is an enduring inspiration to the women of color still fighting for recognition in the world of genre fiction today.