Here i discussed about the African American Writers and their major works, Major Figures related to Arts, Major Figures related to Music.

2. African- American writing often displays a folkloric
conception of human kind; a “double consciousness”, as
W E B Dubois called it, arising from bicultural identity,
irony, parody, tragedy, and bitter comedy in negotiating
this ambivalence; attacks upon presumed white cultural
superiority; a naturalistic focus on survival; and inventing
reframing of language itself, as in language games like
“Jiving”, “Sounding”, “Signifying”, “Playing the Dozens”
and “Rapping”.
Ellison urged black writers to trust their own
experiences and definitions of reality. He also upheld
folklore as a source of creativity; it was what “ Black
people had before they knew, there was such a thing as
art”.

3. Bell correctly stresses, no other ethnic or social group in
America has shared anything like the experience of
American Blacks: Kidnapping, the Middle Passage, Slavery,
Southern plantation life, emancipation, Reconstruction
and post- reconstruction, Northern migration,
urbanisation and ongoing racism.
Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937) signalled a
tremendous upsurge in black culture, with an especial
interest in primitives art.
African American writing continued to enter the main
stream with the protest novels of the 1940s.

4. The 1960s brought Black Power and the Black Arts
Movement, proposing a separate identification and
symbology.
Major Figures
related to Arts
•Amiri Baraka
•Margaret
Walker
•Ernest Gaines
•John Edgar
Wideman
•Ishmael Reed
Major Figures related to
Music
•Chuck Berry
•B B King
•Aretha Franklin
•Stevie Wonder
•Jimmy Hendroic

5. Zora Neale Hurston (07 January
1891) is an anthropologist and
novelist and was an fixture of the
Harlem Renaissance before writing
her masterwork “Their Eyes Were
Watching God”.
Published a collection of stories
entitled Mules and Men in 1935.
Also contributed articles to
magazines, including the Journal of
American Folklore.
First novel- Jonah’s Gourd Vine
(1934).
In 1942, Hurston published her
autobiography Dust Tracks on a
Road.

6. Margaret Walker (07 July
1915- 30 November 1998) was
an American poet and writer.
She was part of the African-
American literary Movement in
Chicago.
Notable works include the
award winning poem For my
People (1942) and the novel
Jubilee (1966), set in the south
during the American Civil War.

7. Richard Nathaniel Wright (04
September 1908- 28 November
1960) was an American author of
sometimes controversial novels,
short stories, poems and non-
fiction.
His literature concerns racial
themes, especially those including
the plight of African Americans
during the late nineteenth to mid
twentieth centuries.
He wrote many short stories.

8. Uncle Tom’s Children (1938) is
a collection of four short stories.
Was appointed to the editorial
board of New Masses and
Granville Hicks, prominent
literary critic and Communist
sympathizer.
Native Son (1940)

9. Oprah Gail Winfrey (29 January
1954) is an American media
proprietor, talk show host, actress,
producer and philanthropist.
Most influential women in the
world. In 2013, she has been
awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom by President Barrack
Obama and an honorary Doctorate
degree from Harvard.
She has co-authored five books.
Publishes magazine ‘O, The Oprah
Magazine’ from 2004-08.

10. Ernest James Gaines (15 January 1933)
is an African American author.
A Lesson Before Dying (1933), a novel
won the National Book Critics Circle
Award for fiction.
Works-
• Catherine Cornier (1964)
• Of Love and Dust (1967)
• The Autobiography of Ms. Jane
Pitman (1971)
• A Long Day in November (1971)
• The Turtles (1956)
• The Sky is Gray (1963)

11. Langston Hughes was an
American poet, novelist
and playwright. He is best
known for his work during
the 1920s Harlem
Renaissance.
With famous poems such
as “The Negro Speaks of
Rivers,” “Let America Be
America Again,” Hughes
proudly depicted the lives
of poor blacks .

12. August Wilson is an
American playwright
and best known
for The Pittsburgh Cycl
e(often referred to as
his “Century Cycle”),
which consists of ten
plays set in different
decades highlighting
the black experience
throughout the 20th
century.

13. James Baldwin was a
novelist, poet and
essayist. He explored the
unspoken intricacies of
racial, sexual and class
distinctions in Western
societies throughout 20th
century America.
His novel, Go Tell It On
the Mountain, ranked
39th on the MLA list.

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