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

In Atlanta, Max is now known as Matthew Fisher. In the three months since his arrival to Atlanta, he has searched for the red-haired woman he met at the cabaret on New Year’s Eve. Though he himself has experienced twinges of disappointment and nostalgia for his old life upon entering the world of white people, Matthew is surprised at the negativity inspired by Dr. Crookman’s treatment. His confusion stems from the fact that the treatment’s goal is to rid society of black people, a goal he assumes most white people desire. Matthew determines that the dissatisfaction has to do with the fact that the treatment “was more of a menace to white business than to white labor” (36). On the Monday after Easter Sunday, Matthew sees an advertisement in the local newspaper for a meeting of the Knights of Nordica, led by Rev. Givens formerly of the Ku Klux Klan, and he wonders if the meeting might offer him an opportunity to make some money. 

Matthew walks to Rev. Givens’ office, introducing himself as an anthropologist from New York City and requesting a meeting with Rev. Givens, who had grown wealthy by embezzling money from the KKK. When Matthew meets the reverend, he talks of the “menace” (39) that is the Black-No-More treatment, offering his services to the Knights of Nordica and appealing to the reverend’s predictable sense of duty to his fellow white people.