Occultism, Whiteness, Normativity: On LW De Laurence

Drawing on newspaper archives and court records, this paper explores how (representations of) hypnotist and publisher Lauron William De Laurence (1868-1936) challenged and reinforced normative constructions of whiteness. De Laurence was the founder of De Laurence, Scott, and Co., an influential occult publishing house. De Laurence’s books are used in many Black religions and religious practices, including the Nation of Islam and hoodoo. This paper will first demonstrate that De Laurence had an immensely complex and ambiguous relationship to dominant US racial schemas, categories, and boundaries. Subsequently, this relationship will serve as “case study” to challenge and probe the often-held assumption—in academic and public domains—that occult praxis is by definition subversive, deviant, or rejected. This paper shows, in contrast, that (representations of) occult praxis can also form a locus for dominant norms, specifically normative constructs of whiteness.