It is important that each person has a positive mindset about the subject, but due to racial oppression and slavery, many African American writers have opposing views on sexuality. ... One of the main highlights of the twentieth century is the Harlem Renaissance, which permitted blacks to flourish in the arts and literature. ... A few authors who discuss the various ideas of sexuality in their writings are Gwendolyn Bennett, "To a Dark Girl, " Claude McKay, "America, " Langston Hughes, "Red Silk Stockings," and Harriet Jacobs, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. " In this essay, I will be ...

• Word Count: 2535
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography

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

In a diverse and constantly changing society, the issue of censoring classic literatures has long been controversial; does the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn perpetuate racism, or does it have literature value? ... The highly debated arguments make it one of the most controversial novel in American literature. ... African American students and their parents do not believe that the racial slur in the novel such as "nigger," that occurs throughout the entire novel, should be exposed in literature. ... Both African Americans students and parents find it tremendously offensive and are adama...

• Word Count: 640
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

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

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

Types of literature she wrote A. ... She wanted a reform of the treatment to African Americans in society. ... Wells-Barnett was an extremely influential African American woman. ... Wells lived in was very hard and troubling for African Americans. ... As a writer she began to criticize the differences of treatment in schools between African Americans compared to whites she later lashed out against lynching and beatings of African Americans. ...

• Word Count: 1282
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• 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

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

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

Different books will talk in different voices, and books that have fallen into the African American genre speak "a distinctively African voice". This "voice" will do many things, not the least of which is "demonstrate that people of African descent possessed the requisite degrees of reason and whit to create literature, that they were, indeed, full and equal members of the community of rational, sentient beings". ... In addition to African American Literature testifying to the intellect of African Americans, Gates also asserts that the genre "at once testified against their captors and bore ...

• Word Count: 1334
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography

Due to his mother's inaccessibility and his stepfather's stern and remote manner, Baldwin felt isolated and retreated into the world of literature. ... He argues that the lives and futures of whites and African Americans are inextricably intertwined. He asserts the independence of African Americans and the possible necessity of violence against whites. ... Baldwin seemed offended by the possibility that an African-American would even want to become president of a country. ... "Baldwin plays an important role in a canon of gay literature" (Thorsson 617). ...

• Word Count: 1511
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography

Not only are they all great American authors, but their great pieces of literature have been banned. ... Township schools (1981), To Kill A Mockingbird was challenged because the book does "psychological damage to the positive integration process" and "represents institutionalized racism under the guise of "good literature."" ... Without doubt, To Kill A Mockingbird and many other timeless classics are generally recognized as among the best literature to come out of the U.S. in the 20th Century. ... The derogatory terms in the book are not used to put down African Americans, but to provide ...

• Word Count: 942
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The influence of the African-American arts and writing gave James Baldwin the confidence to become an African-American writer. ... In the middle of all the chaos in him home, James Baldwin discovered an appetite for literature (Als 139). ... The Harlem Renaissance was an era that experienced the flowering of African-American literature in the 1920's. ... Harlem was an area where many African-Americans resided. ... When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 Baldwin lost all hope for African-Americans. ...

• Word Count: 2437
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Washington had on reconstruction and the role of African Americans in the society, and then he proceeds to attack Washington's position. ... This collection of essays became the backbone of a generation of thought for African Americans in the 20th century. ... (Du Boise, 149) The Judge goes even farther in his belittling of African Americans, and all to a person who until recently had almost been treated as an equal. ... Washington had on the place of African Americans in society and how they should go about getting equal treatment. ... This work became a mold that ...

• Word Count: 1047
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

This statement summarizes a significant issue that most African Americans recognized and sought to change during this era. ... However, both men left behind a legacy that contributed in paving the way for equal opportunity for African Americans today. ... DuBois combined his knowledge of literature from his educational background, his understanding of American Culture as a result of his numerous studies, and taking direct force by protesting for equality to represent what he believed would solve racial discrimination of blacks. ... In this article, he described the dreadful effects of segr...

• Word Count: 1561
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

When assessing a novel to see whether it qualifies for high school curriculum, one of the criterion follows that the piece of literature must offer a new perspective and truthful sense of the time period and its cultural elements that cannot be found in less controversial material, such as textbooks. ... Huck's preconceived notions that African-Americans lack the ability to care of their children and family stem from white society's teachings that African Americans are devoid of human emotion and fail to have normal relationships with the people they love. ... Huck's father str...

• Word Count: 2046
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

(Biography.com, 2015) Maya moved to California at age of thirteen and became the first African American conductor in San Francisco. ... For the first time in history, Maya Angelou's book became the first non-fiction best-seller by an African American. ... All her life, Angelou lived as a proud and independent African American woman. Her literature contributions received so many honors and awards. She became a living symbol of African American culture. ...

• Word Count: 962
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

He applied to work on a ship that went up the west coast of Africa. There, in Africa, he was treated like he was White and found that it was, in many ways, like reverse discrimination from what was in America. ... He then began greatly influencing society with his works of literature. ... Over the next few years, Hughes wrote many books, recorded a jazz album, and wrote many other works of literature (Harper 4). ...

• Word Count: 1218
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

During the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, well-educated African-American people began producing literature that explained the horrors of racism. ... After World War I, huge numbers of African-Americans migrated to the industrial North from the South; this movement is referred to as the Great Migration. ... " This beautiful piece of literature shows the frustration of Claude McKay and his race that has been deemed powerless to the white culture. McKay shows that black people were forcefully taken from their home land of Africa and were turned into slaves for white people. ... Irene is t...

• Word Count: 2640
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

But I never realized that the African-Americans of today still feel now, the way the African-Americans of that time felt towards the white-Americans. ... He also made fun of African-Americans and their "Ebonics." ... Next, I saw pictures and videos on African-Americans and how they were discriminated against. ... There were also many African-American pioneers of Industrial Revolution in America. ... During this time Hitler ordered great works of literature to be destroyed. ...

• Word Count: 2208
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

During the time of its premiere, The Octoroon, inspired conversations about the abolition of slavery as well as the overall mistreatment of the African Americans. ... Boucicault's play focuses on the denial of liberty, identity, and dignity, while ironically preserving common African-American stereotypes of the antebellum period. ... While the author attempts to evoke anti-slavery sentiments, the play is largely in ineffectual of being a true indictment of slavery by further perpetuating the African American stereotypes. ... She plays the role of the "tragic mulatto" a stock character th...

• Word Count: 1218
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

LITERARY ANALYSIS - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain, the author of the one of the greatest novels in American literature, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, portrays his opinion of prejudice of African Americans during the 19th Century in the United States by criticizing the white people who have "racism". ... By breaking Huck's prejudice over African Americans during his journey with Jim, Twain is trying to reflect the foolishness of prejudice which uncountable number of white people had during the time period. ... Mark Twain criticizes the racism which mos...

• Word Count: 1186
• Approx Pages: 5

Rufus was an African American seized by the world's battles and intolerance. ... She is illustrated as a youthful, intellectual, attractive, and ingenious African American girl with a mind of her own. ... He equally uses French jargon to strengthen and empower his literature. ... African Americans would frequently strike whites, and whites would recurrently affray blacks. ...

• Word Count: 1203
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Students should know that though the Chinese were never enslaved in this country, as were Africans, they were brought here in large numbers as indentured laborers or coolies. The Chinese Exclusion Act was only repealed in 1943 and naturalized citizenship for Asians was permitted in 1954, long after African-Americans and American Indians were recognized as American citizens. ... Like Howells, Sui Sin Far demands in fiction a truthful depiction of Americans; her rewriting, however, represents an adaptation of mainstream realism because it focuses on Americans who had, before she wrote, little vo...

• Word Count: 2633
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate