The years from 1920 to 1941 saw radical changes in the popular genres of crime and detective fiction in the US, none more radical than the sudden appearance of detectives of color created by white, non-white, and mixed-race authors alike. This course will focus on three exemplary authors from this period, along with comparative and contrastive examples, in order to explore, in detail, the complex realizations of the interplay of race and genre at this crucial moment in the un-whitening of a traditionally white popular genre.