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

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

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

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

For example, Toni Morrison, in her critical text Playing in the Dark, has argued that everything that constitutes whiteness as a racial identity--from the national literature of the United States to its Constitution to the daily practices of its citizens--is a response to the absent/objectified presence of the black Other or, in her words, "to a dark, abiding, signing Africanist presence" (5). She goes on to say: Just as the formation of the nation necessitated coded language and purposeful restrictions ... so too did the literature, whose founding characteristics extend into the twentieth...

• Word Count: 301
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902 during an incredible period for African Americans in Harlem, New York. This phase in New York was called the Harlem Renaissance, which was a unique time were art inspired by African Americans flourished rapidly. ... Starting his literature career at Columbia his first limerick "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" was released, which admired the personality of the colored people. ... After Columbia, Hughes operated on a cargo vessel in Africa then later lived in Paris before returning to Harlem because he was so pleased with the artistic move...

• Word Count: 664
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography

They were essentially mute in terms of cultivating the greater portion of traditional literature regarding the topic. ... Initial literature on enslaved black women analyzes stereotypes constructed of African women brought to the new world. ... Additionally, their "monstrous" bodies suggested savagery, substantiating European conceptions of African inferiority to further legitimize African subjugation. The first comprehensive book to be written about enslaved African American women is titled Ar'n't I a Woman by Deborah White. ... With the emergence of the female gender a...

• Word Count: 1150
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

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

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

Many offered examples of the abuse and prejudice that African Americans endured. ... In Africa, black women were revered by there beauty, strength and intelligence. ... The images that are portrayed in the media and in some literature have forgotten and hidden the positions of the Queen Mother, Mother Earth, and the Black Madonna. ...

• Word Count: 618
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Pecola and her family are representative of the larger African-American community, and their name, "Breedlove," is ironic because they live in a society that does not "breed love." ... Soaphead Church represents, as his name suggests, the role of the church in African-American life. ... Morrison also uses metaphors to describe the conditions under which African-Americans in general and Pecola in particular are forced to live. ... Morrison unpacks the metaphor throughout the book, and, through Claudia, finally explains it and broadens its scope to all African-Americans on the last page. ... The...

• Word Count: 1112
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Although somewhat unappreciated by the general public, this work is held to be a classic work of literature despite its taboo themes and figurative language for its time period. ... It demonstrates how maintaining a stable character and possessing a strong passion for literature can help conquer racism and internal trauma. ... The community's involvement in forming the young girls' identity is significant because it "contributes to a discursive trifecta that shows the importance of communal affirmation in maintaining the African American community" (Ero). ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

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

Lessons in a Dream In Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," a sequence of memorable proceedings develops into a story about humiliation. The gathering in the ballroom was the start of a race against time, himself, and the darkness that white men wanted to keep his kind in. He pretends he is invisible ...

• Word Count: 499
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Interpreting her quest for freedom and self-affirmation as representative of that of many African Americans and American women-especially black American women-she presents incidents from her life that illustrate conditions faced by many persons. ... She tells, for example, of bone-weary cotton pickers caught in economic enslavement within the general impoverishment of African Americans; a threat to Uncle Willie's life by the Ku Klux Klan; the complete segregation in Stamps, with its resulting ignorance and prejudice on the part of both whites and African Americans; a confrontation between...

• Word Count: 1226
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Literature can be viewed in many lights. ... However, when reading this book, one must keep in mind that it is set in a time in which African Americans were not looked at as humans, but as animals that were only good for menial labor. ...

• Word Count: 910
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

He displays conflict to being African American and his racial identity in the twentieth century. ... Claude was very consistent in various writings with stories of black life in Jamaica and America to more firm literature speaking intelligent separation. ...

• Word Count: 764
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Dick is an African-American who possesses many qualities of the white American. ... The most prevalent attitude toward African- Americans is that they are inferior to the whites. ... Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense Eighth Edition. ...

• Word Count: 983
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it shows, "that only 6 percent of African Americans have used cocaine even once in their lives" (98). ... Literature during that time was meant to devalue the character and race of blacks and credit the white Americans such as the Ku Klux Klan. ...

• Word Count: 955
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

" That information shows that African Americans as well as Latino's are automatically considered a threat or criminal when looked at by the dominant race and law enforcement. ... From birth I was exposed to literature, art and other cultural activities. ...

• Word Count: 1150
• Approx Pages: 5