Booker T. Washington's body of work, study, and his life as a whole, as most notably encompassed within the text his own autobiography, entitled, Up From Slavery, is often set against the live of W.E.B. Du Bois. As noted by the scholar Louis T. Harlan, conventional wisdom holds that Booke...

Chad MertzBooker T. Washington EssaySeptember 25, 2000Throughout the life of Booker T. Washington expressed in his autobiography, Up From Slavery, one element has remained the same through his influences, education, public speaking, and teaching of others. This is the fact that one cannot succeed s...

Richard Wright's Black Boy chronicles his southern childhood and adolescence and shows his struggle for physical, mental, and psychological fulfillment. More than simply an autobiography, Black Boy represents the result of Wright's passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world aroun...

"Coming of Age in Mississippi" Coming of Age in Mississippi is an autobiography written by an African-American woman exploring the social significance of race in Mississippi and the deep South and the impact it had on her life and her perspective. The author depicts her life story, both her exper...

Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Rosa Parks...Upon hearing these names, many people immediately think of the arduous and prolonged struggle that these leaders endured to achieve racial equality. In fact, famous figures such as these are often given most of the credit for the Civil Rights Movemen...

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, "Maud Martha" and Societal Perception of Skin Deep Beauty "was spurned by members of her own race because she lacked social or athletic abilities, a light skin, and good grade hair." (Galegroup.com) Gwendolyn Brooks throughout her life had to deal...

"Coming of Age in Mississippi" Coming of Age in Mississippi is an autobiography written by an African-American woman exploring the social significance of race in Mississippi and the deep South and the impact it had on her life and her perspective. The author depicts her life story, both her exper...

Imagine being in a position that gave you the power to inspire a race and gain the respect of another. Booker T. Washington, a prominent and extremely successful African-American had that opportunity. This opportunity came in the times of the emancipation of slavery, and when given the chance, he ex...

Brought about by the pain, inhumanity, and suffrage of their people, African American writers sought to necessitate change. Through their prose and poetry, these writers have vividly portrayed the way blacks were mistreated, their feelings toward this oppression, and their ability to endure in spit...

" Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches." Throughout the life of Zora Neale Hurston, she has accomplished all that a woman in her time could achieve. She has been a best selling author, and she...

Maya Angelou is an unprecedented renaissance woman who is recognized as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. She is an educator, historian, multi-lingual, mother, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer, director, and is best known for her works of poetry and her best-sel...

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a political, legal, and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights for Blacks and to gain racial equality. The goals of the civil rights movement was to end segregation, the system of laws and separating of blacks and whites that whites used to...

Blackness is not an abstract concept; rather it is a sense of being. Blackness in America has been determined by the ideas of society and every day experiences within the Black Community. However, members of the Black community did not always accept being black. Members within the community saw the ...

Autobiography/Biography: Black Boy The novel "Black Boy," written by Richard Wright takes you back in the deep south of Jackson, Mississippi where whites attempted to tame into submission blacks by hard discipline. It seemed that the more Richard had gained in life, the more he was h...

The women in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Color Purple have been raped and forced to live life harshly as African Americans during the time when civil rights for many people of the United States of America was still very much a dream. The novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya An...

December 1, 1853 Dr. David Hendricks Cooperstown, New York Dear Dr. Hendricks, How do you do? I am very excited to be writing to you today because I just read an amazing book. There is a new book out on the market called Twelve Years a Slave, an autobiography written by a fellow named S...

Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was born under the name Marguerite Johnson, but her brother, Baily, renamed her Maya. Her parents, Baily and Vivian Baxter Johnson, got divorced when she was very young. Maya grew up in a very racist town. There were many problems in...

Male And Female Slavery Seen Through The Lives Of Frederick Douglass And Harriet Jacobs Female and male narratives of the enslaved African-Americans of the 19th century take different forms because of the nature of their experiences. Thus, Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Fr...

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., The first African American voted to congress from New York, he combined a flair for militant speech ethics that drew crowds of African Americans and his social protest was a resemblance some of his political ambitions; Powell career was a symbol ...

A Taste of Brown: A Black Panther's Movement CritiqueAnd, we sat and we talked About freedom and things. And, he told me about what he dreamed. But I knew of that dream Long before he had spoke And a feeling familiarly came around.I said, Man, where have you been for all these years Man, w...

Black Boy I. Summary Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiographical look at his life. It covers his life from the ageof 4 years to his mid 20's. The book shows the life of a young black man growing up in the southwith Jim Crow laws and the general hate for blacks by whites. After realizi...

Malcolm XMalcolm X is considered one of the greatest civil rights activists in history. He was known for his somewhat violent message of blacks defending themselves. Despite his original message, he eventually became more peaceful toward whites. However, as his legacy was just beginning to change...

Words the World Was Not Ready to HearThe period of slavery in America and issues surrounding slavery, such as the inhumane treatment of colored people, division of the Union and the Civil War, can perhaps be considered the darkest period in American history. A great number of Africans were transpor...

Kate Chopin's short story "Désirée's Baby" is much more than a simple narrative; the story expresses very strong political and societal assertions. The story takes place in the 1840s on the Louisiana plantations in the midst of the disputes between the abolitionists...

A former slave during the antebellum era, Lewis Clarke, said, "How would you like to see your sisters, and your wives, and your daughter, completely, teetotally, and altogether, in the power of the master. – You can picture to yourselves a little, how you would feel; but oh, if I could te...