Africans in America Many people believe that the first inhabitants of America were the pilgrims, but they are wrong. Indians and Africans were here long before pilgrims. African culture has bled through society. ... Elements of rap can be seen in early African songs such as James Weldon Johnson's Lift Every Voice and Sing. Through the readings so far in the book African American Literature I have learned that African slaves would tell stories to keep hope of becoming free someday. ...

• Word Count: 457
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The African American literature brought a lot of attention to itself. ... It also attracted society towards African American literature. ... When African Americans read literature from black writers they compare themselves to it. ... Second, was that African American literature plays an important part in shaping American literature. Third, is that African American literature is put into the same category as "white" literature. ...

• Word Count: 2368
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

I will be doing an essay on African American theater history. ... Writers like Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Fredrick Douglass, W.E.B Dubois, Gwendolyn Brook, Zoral Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, James Baldwin and many more writers have paved the way for the work's of African American literature. The term "African American Literature" is understood by most as Sub-Saharan (East and West) Africa. The primary source of language for this literature is European not Africa, which is also known as radical anomaly. African participants in colonial administrations in Afri...

• Word Count: 1283
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The Africans brought here against their will were not born slaves. ... In Africa their cultures were rich and varied, as different from one another as were the African peoples themselves. ... Aphra Gehn captures the market of literate women and gives them a different experience of literature. "Oroonoko" was a love story about an african prince put into slavery. ... He is a leader of an African Tribe, and nobleman of African descent. ...

• Word Count: 928
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

It was especially difficult for African American women. ... " African American women have had the most to overcome. ... Everyone should be questioning it; not just African Americans. ... African Americans should not give up so easy though. ... Whether it is in medicine, literature, education, style, or entertainment, African Americans have improved each and every one. ...

• Word Count: 1517
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Gwendolyn Brooks is a prominent African American poet of the twentieth century, and is known for her indelible impact in African American literature. ... In this book of poems she chronicles the laments of hardships in African American life from the quietest heart ache to the harshest violence. ... For this collection Brooks became the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize. ... She left her New York publishr in favor of smaller, African American publishing housing. ... Gwedolyn Brooks died in the year 2000, after leaving a huge legacy on the face of American literature. ...

• Word Count: 431
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

CHANGES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE 1920"S In the 1920's, African Americans were going through many changes and were doing many new things that they hadn't even thought about doing before that. ... Not only did African Americans start jazz, but some of the best jazz musicians were African American. ... This is when African American literature, art, music, dance, and social commentary began to flourish in Harlem, which is an area of New York City. ... It was a celebration of the unique culture of African Americans, and gave the world a new view of African American expressio...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

African American poetics as well as all kinds of art and literature blossomed in a ghetto of New York called Harlem, where black artists began to write and make art of the subject of African Americas" share of the apple called "America". ... Claude MacKay's "America" is a poem about the African Americans" life and the bitterness of that life resulting from the prejudice and hatred of whites" against them. ... This has almost always been the general truth of African Americans" life in America; it is bitter in the sense that they have been discriminated and even victimized by slavery and ly...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Harper was born in Baltimore to African American free slaves. ... After reading this African American Literature piece, it showed me the horrible conditions of the slaves were and which pain and sorrow they had to live with. These past few weeks, I have be studying and analyzing African American Literature in a different perspective. ... Not only did it teach me, it made me respect African American literature. ... Slave and ex-slave narratives are important not only for what they tell us about African American history and literature, but also because they expose to us the complications of the...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Alan Paton is often known worldwide for his large success in literature. ... His parents both from europe offered a strict childlife, but brought him into his love for literature and helped him to be an educated young man (South). ... Paton's writing changed many South Africans and the rest of the world. ... (Apartheid) This made the home of the colored south africans over run. ... (Paton) His love for literature kept the process of creating "Cry, the Beloved Country" alive. ...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Several authors such as Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen confronted this situation of the incomplete American dream with literature that proposed the irony of its society. ... Even though African Americans were considered free, whites found another barrier to keep them unhappy. ... His poems expressed the impatience of African Americans to become treated equally. ... There was also an African American author by the name of Langston Hughes. ... Cullen was focused on black equality; however, he was most interested in succeeding in the white dominated field of literature. ...

• Word Count: 548
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Introduction The Middle Passage is the crossing of the Ocean from Africa to America of African people, who passed from the state of liberty to the state of slavery, and took place between the XVI and XIX centuries. ... The Diaspora gives birth to a new human being: the African American, who links together the African and the American culture. ... This line is a sort of leitmotiv in slave literature, because of its incisiveness and clearness. ... For Africans the slave ship is a hell over the water. ... The first one uses many documents, reports and testimonies produced by the Eng...

• Word Count: 4160
• Approx Pages: 17
• Grade Level: High School

The Harlem Renaissance brought out powerful works of music, art, and literature. ... Thanks to the work of many African American writers the Harlem Renaissance was created. ... The literature they wrote ranged in subject, but race and racial identity was one of the common themes that many Harlem Renaissance authors wrote about. ... One of her most famous poems was "the black finger". in this poem she expresses that African Americans are beautiful people. ... This shed a whole new light onto the African American population. ...

• Word Count: 407
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Negro's Contribution to American Art and Literature. ... The American Negro, His History and Literature; Variation: American Negro, His History and Literature. ... The critics, like the writers, were monolithic thinkers, some critics considered the literature a "disservice" to African American interests, some praised the freedom of expression and experimentation of the writers; and others called on the conjoining of the literature with political, social, and literary agendas. ... Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition. ... ...

• Word Count: 2542
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The Negro's Contribution to American Art and Literature. ... The American Negro, His History and Literature; Variation: American Negro, His History and Literature. ... The critics, like the writers, were monolithic thinkers, some critics considered the literature a "disservice" to African American interests, some praised the freedom of expression and experimentation of the writers; and others called on the conjoining of the literature with political, social, and literary agendas. ... Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition. ... ...

• Word Count: 2542
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point for many African Americans. A large volume of literature was written specifically, for this group, during this era. ... This new idea was big in many types of literature. Many writers began exploring the darker side of this movement with literature that concentrated on the negative parts of race issues in America. ... Clare's desire to return to her African American heritage is obvious. ...

• Word Count: 949
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

African-American women had been under the racism and sexism of their environment for centuries. ... Even during slavery, African-Americans did indeed still manage to stand tall in the public eye. ... CHAPTER 3 Chapter 3 discusses the prejudice that African-American women faced. ... False science has somehow been able to dictate literature and the recording of history. ... The second stanza represents the attitudes to African-Americans over the course of the past few decades, when African-Americans have experienced a relatively significant rise in status. ...

• Word Count: 4173
• Approx Pages: 17
• Grade Level: High School

Art's Animus: Black American Literature By Christine Gould "We are the only people whose name is always a trend. / When is this shit gonna end? ... In her article "Black Art," Maulana Karenga says it best: "Tradition teaches us that all African art has at least three characteristics: that is, functional, collective, and committing or committed" (1973-4). ... The black writer can also define black literature. ... Black American literature is a vast, multi-faceted field with a halo of controversy around it. ... African American Literature. ...

• Word Count: 1006
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Sweeney had 2 PhD's and that he had them reading black literature. ... In the dinner scene Derek explains that he is reading black literature in English class. ... Derek realized that African Americans were treated unfairly by the legal system after hearing Lamont's story. ... Derek is socialized into believing certain things about African Americans from his father. ... The movie is bitter because I and African American had to see some and hear words that I truly dislike. ...

• Word Count: 1172
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

I would then like to insert the argument that the area of literature in which Wheatley published her works was highly censored since she was first African American slave to be formally recognized as a writer. ... In Wheatley's poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America", the similarity of her writing to the message of the spirituals is apparent in carefully placed lines throughout the poem. ... In her poem Wheatley reminds not only her fellow African American's but Christians as well that all Christians, black and white, are admitted into heaven. ...

• Word Count: 295
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

Throughout the history of literature, authors have told their readers of the time periods they have lived in. ... The style of poetry was a greatly made use of during the Harlem Renaissance, which was when the African-American arts were at its peak. ... Despite the racism that prevailed in the 1920s, Langston Hughes used his poetry to encourage himself and his fellow African-Americans to be proud of their race regardless of their problems. ... Langston Hughes spoke of the broad range of African-American experiences in his writings. ...

• Word Count: 359
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

His grandmother, Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston, was very prominent in the African American community of Lawrence. ... In the second grade Langston was introduced to books and soon became fascinated with literature. ... His writing consistently exhibits a voice that embraces the African-American experience through symbolism in an act of glorification rather than shame. ... Langston worked at various jobs, including that of seaman, traveling to Africa and Europe. ... "Not without Laughter, which was published in 1930, was the novel that won the Harmon gold medal for literature.""...

• Word Count: 758
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Also it has been banned because many African Americans view this novel as one that contains racial slurs and racism (Zwick 1). ... Ernest Hemingway wrote that "all modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.... ... Another author to approve of this novel is David Bradley, who says "Huckleberry Finn must be taught because it is a specific point of intersection between White American Literature and Black American Literature" (Zwick 1). ... The racist comments in the novel are not offensive to me simply because I am not African American. Because I am not African ...

• Word Count: 1219
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

He was the first African awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. ... When the speaker says he is "West-African" it is assumed that he speaks of Nigeria. ... The instant she knows he is African, she pauses to think about what to do. ... Between 1954 and 1968, Martin Luther King raised up to fight for African-American rights. That caused a chain-reaction, an outburst of African-American's who fought for their rights. ...

• Word Count: 705
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

It was time for the African American people to express their culture. ... During that time many African Americans started showing their different talents. ... The African American way of life was changing. ... Harlem became one of the largest African American communities in the United States and also a center for the arts and literature. ... The ship visited thirty-two ports on the West African Coats. ...

• Word Count: 1984
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School