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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In the period after Reconstruction the position of African Americans in southern American society steadily deteriorated. After 1877 the possibilities of advancements for African Americans disappeared almost completely. African Americans experienced a loss of voting rights and political power creat...

Guns, Social Welfare, and Revolution: The Black Panther Party In late September of 1966, at a small poverty center in North Oakland, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale began to draft the Ten-Point Platform and Program, thus creating the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. From this creation rose a c...

Paula Chrystine PolingPoling 1Myths, Memories and Realities of the War Between the StatesDr. Mary Ellen Rowe and Dr. Larry OlpinDecember 15, 1999German, Irish, African and Native are all AmericanFor minorities, as for other Americans, the Civil War was an opportunity to prove their valor and loyalty...

Page 1 The literary expressions during the time noted as the Harlem Renaissance had a significant affect on the "New Negro". African American writers gathered to celebrate a new pride in black people and black culture, however there was not a unified voice for the movement. There was a definite go...

Spike LeeThe man we know as "Spike" was born Shelton Jackson Lee onMarch 20, 1957 in Atlanta ,Georgia. The first of five children, hegot the nickname Spike from his mother for being "a tough baby". Spike's tendency to be difficult is one that goes right back to thecrib. The infant Spike, much like...