Post #2: Imperium in Imperio

EDIT: Now that I'm farther in the book, I have gotten to the part where they explain the actual "state within a state." Just keep in mind when reading this that I was not yet to that portion of the book when I wrote this entry.

The aspect of Sutton Griggs' Imperium in Imperio I have chosen to look at in this post is the meaning of the title of the book, and how it is related to the plot and events that occur in it. Titles, especially in books that are socially and politically motivated such as this one, can play a huge part in finding an author's meaning in a novel. Sometimes, it is not clear until the very end, but with Imperium in Imperio, it became perfectly clear what the title meant once I looked it up.

This assignment is what prompted me to finally look up what the phrase "Imperium in Imperio" actually means or refers to (even though I had been curious since before I even started reading the book). I'm about two thirds of the way done with the book (page 87 to be exact) as of writing this post, so I'm unsure if the book ever explains it at this point. However, Wikipedia states that it is a latin phrase meaning "an order within an order." More specifically, they go onto explain that the members of this "state within a state" subordinate the interests of the larger state in order to achieve the interests of the internal group.

In Imperium in Imperio, this "state within a state" is quite obviously and most generally referring to black Americans and the United States as a whole (with the internal group quite obviously being black Americans). The entire book (at least what I have read so far) is about Bernard and Belton's struggles as black men in a white man's America, and how they attempt to empower themselves and their fellow black Americans above all else. However, I believe this is also referring to groups within groups on a more micro level as well.

Which I guess would be a state within a state within a state???

The most prominent example of this, I would consider to be when Belton is working at the school in Virginia and starts his own "colored" newspaper that spoke out against many practices of the Virginian government, including the way Virginia went about their ballot system:

"One particularly meritorious article was copied in The Temps and commented upon editorially. This article caused a great stir in political circles.

A search was instituted as to the authorship. It was traced to Belton, and the politicians gave the school board orders to dump Belton forthwith, on the ground that they could not afford to feed and clothe a man who would so vigorously 'attack Southern Institutions.'" (p. 63).

While quite obviously, in my opinion, Virginia not having rigged ballots is probably better for Virginia as a whole, this is still being insubordinate to the larger state in order to improve the wellbeing of the internal one. On the flipside, one could also argue the same is true for the democrats who were rigging the ballot boxes in Virgina: they risked the corruption of the Virginian political system as a whole in order to further the democratic cause.

Another prime example of this earlier in the novel and prior to him working in Virginia is his organizing of the black students towards their "Equality or Death" movement (p. 33).

As we follow Belton throughout the rest of the book, we see him demonstrating this concept of Imperium in Imperio time and time again, especially during his time in Louisiana, where it gets the the point where the larger state feels so threatened by him that they try and have him lynched (p.75) in order to stop his subordination.

While, as I stated before, a lot of the things Belton did throughout the book I personally feel ARE actually towards the betterment of the United States/Virginia/Louisiana, the fact of the matter is that Belton was still putting the betterment of black Americans and their rights in front of the at the time current rules of the larger state.

Discussion Questions:
1. What other "states within states," literal or figurative, can you find within the novel in it's entirety?
2. In the last quarter of the novel or so, we find out the "true" Imperium in Imperio the title was referring to. Do you think that Griggs meant to insert these other, smaller in scale "states within states?"