Elizabeth Catlett is a famous African American artist. Catlett was born in 1919 in Washington D.C. Her grandparents were former slaves. Catlett's grandparents were freed from slavery, and after they were freed they decided that they wanted better lives for their children. Catlett created artwork...

THE EVOLUTION OF RAP MUSIC Rap is a form of urban music, which emerged from the 'hip-hop' movement of the South Bronx, New York, in the early 1970's. The hip-hop culture was comprised of the popular street activities of African-American youth during the 1970's such as: styl...

Harlem Renaissance During the 1920's, the spiritual, social, and literary eagerness that raced through Harlem could be called the most important period of self-discovery in African-American history after the Civil War. Black literature went through a tremendous outbreak in Harlem, which is a d...

It is no mystery to modern man that African-Americans have long been subjected to the prejudice of the contemptuous white man. Let's face it: the roots of racism can be traced back to the infancy of a nation which boldly claims "liberty and justice for all." Even following the alleged emancipati...

It seems unfair that the pages of our history books or even the lecturers in majority of classrooms speak very little of the accomplishments of blacks. They speak very little of a period within black history in which many of the greatest musicians, writers, painters, and influential paragon'' e...

The People, Leisure, and Culture of Blacks During the Harlem Renaissance It seems unfair that the pages of our history books or even the lecturers in majority of classrooms speak very little of the accomplishments of blacks. They speak very little of a period within black history in which ma...

The Black slaves of colonial America brought their own culture from Africa to the new land. Despite their persecution, the "slave culture" has contributed greatly to the development of America's own music, dance, art, and clothing. Music It is understandable that when Africans were torn from their h...

The Harlem Renaissance was a period for blacks to engage in life. Life, which consists of good, evil, happiness, sadness, communication and expression, was more like a prison built on a foundation of hardship, suppression and all the counter parts of the good things, the things worth living for. Bu...

Langston Hughes: A Poet Supreme Rachael N. Rivas Black poetry is poetry that (1) is grounded in the black experience; (2) utilizes black music as a structural or emulative model; and (3) "consciously" transforms the prevailing standards of poetry through and inconoclastic and innovative use of langu...

Langston Hughes: A Poet Supreme Black poetry is poetry that (1) is grounded in the black experience; (2) utilizes black music as a structural or emulative model; and (3) "consciously" transforms the prevailing standards of poetry through and inconoclastic and innovative use of language. No poet bet...

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...

As the poet, Jean Toomer, is talking to a prostitute, he explains how one day even a girl like her will have a world of opportunities, because of art. In the south many black women were so caught up in their own spirituality that many people forgot their identities, and only knew them for their bel...

Discrimination against African American within the United States has been a recognised problem for decades. Many were forced into sub standard accommodation in areas of cities, which came to be known as the ghettos during the first half of the twentieth century. Within the ghettos the African A...

Spike Lee The man we know as "Spike" was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957 in Atlanta ,Georgia. The first of five children, he got the nickname Spike from his mother for being "a tough baby". Spike's tendency to be difficult is one that goes right back t...

Another Negro Burned America is the number one criminal for violent offenses. They have tortured, robbed, and killed many people, cultures, and civilizations. How can anyone get away with all of these brutalities? It's simple, America is a power source that specializes in masquerading thei...

The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature seriously. It was also the first time that African American literature and art attracted significant attention from the nation at large. Although it was primarily a literary movement,...

Black Americans Black Americans are those persons in the United States who trace their ancestry to members of the Negroid race in Africa. They have at various times in United States history been referred to as African, coloured, Negro, Afro-American, and African-American, as well as black. The...

The Buck is Back .......and Baaaddderrr Than Ever! Scene 1: Outside a ticket box office in a suburban movie theater in 1967. About a dozen white couples patiently wait in line to purchase tickets to the "progressive" new film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner by Stanley Kramer. Cam...

Faith Ringgold's "God Bless America" is an expression of the emotional and physical torment of black Americans prior to and during the Civil Rights Movement. This piece of art movement had a lot of cultural ties to the population during the 1960's that also can be applied today in the year...

Much of what is learned and taught today stems from the African culture. As always many different cultures take claims for things that Africans created or long before most even thought of it. Yet in still proper credit is never given to "our" ancestors for many reasons. One being that...

Langston Hughes is considered by many readers to be the most significant black poet of the twentieth century. He is described as ³...the beloved author of poems steeped in the richness of African American culture, poems that exude Hughes¹s affection for black Americans across all divisions of...

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, was the first important African American Poet in American Literature and the first poet to write of both a black and white audience in a time when efforts were being made to re-establish slavery. He was also "the first African-American poet to garner national critical...

In order to begin to understand the literary devices used in Dudley Randall's poem, "Booker T and W.E.B.", one should understand the history of not only the man, but the times in which this form of artistic expression lends itself. Dudley Randall was born January 14, 1914. He spent ye...

Slavery: and the Re-emergence of voodoo History is a peculiarly Western form of narrative that might be argued to have its origins in the European struggles for national identity as they coincided with colonial expansionism; history is the story of the evolution of this identity as it condensed a...

Renaissance vs. Rap Everything is relative. In the latter part of the 15th century, there began a cultural revolution known as the Renaissance. This artistic rebirth changed the way people lived and thought for the next century and a half. In the last decades of the 20th century, a new vo...