James Baldwin was born in Harlem on August 2, 1924. His name at birth was James Arthur Jones. Baldwin never knew his father; his mother, who was originally from Maryland, was named Emma Burdis Jones. In 1927, she married David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher and factory worker from New Orleans with a tw...

The Inferior/Superior Dichotomy Ebonics, which comes from the words "ebony" and "phonics" is a term that Linguistics use to describe Black Dialect or Black English. The debate over Ebonics has several sides. Almost everyone has an opinion. Rachel Jones and Sonja Lanehart a...

Film critics, industry flaks, and even some black entertainers have tumbled over themselves shouting the praises of Hollywood for picking three blacks for its top awards. They repeatedly toss around the words "history-making" to describe the feat. It isn't. In 1973, Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield...

BLACK RAGE: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS Outline Thesis Statement: Throughout the history of the United States, as seen through an analysis of African-American literature and rhetoric, black rage has not only existed, but has grown. As the momentum toward equality is clearly evi...

The Evolution of Rap Music All one has to do is simply observe their surroundings to realize the huge impact of rap music on today's society. The way people dress, talk, and act have all been influenced by the cultural phenomenon known as rap music. Almost every aspect of American culture has b...

Jack Johnson Breaking Barriers Arthur John (Jack) Johnson (1878 -1946) was the first black, and first Texan, to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world. Johnson was born in Galveston on March 31, 1878. He was the second of six children of Henry and Tiny Johnson. Henry was a fo...

Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance: The term Harlem Renaissance refers to an artistic, cultural, and social time of writing about race and the African American's place in American life during the early 1920's and 1930's. It is hard to put a specific time and date in terms ...