'Double Consciousness' in The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man While Johnson was a highly celebrated and versatile literary figure, his most well known work is The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. Even though this title suggests that this work was his story, it was actually a...

In this coming of age autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angleou goes from a young, awkward girl to a confident independent mother at the age of 16. Maya wrote this book in the early 1970s when women autobiographies were informing readers of the importance of all women in America, ...

Tribute to Maya Angelou Renaissance Woman Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. A true Renaissance woman, Ms. Angelou is an author, poet, songwriter, dancer, actor, director, and producer. She has been nominated for a Tony award for her acting, has received ...

1. According to Henry Louis Gates, almost 50% of the Afro-American literary tradition was created when "it's authors and their black readers were either slaves or former slaves". 2. Slave narratives were produced for many reasons. One was to inform others of the hardships that slaves...

The Blacks Insatiable Demands I grew up in Africa, Ghana and Liberia to be exact. My image of the Blacks, was formed by what I would later come to understand that a form of indentured servants still exist in parts of the world. My grandfather as an architect lucked out on a contracted job to bui...

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...

The Coming of Age in Mississippi, is the autobiography of Anne Moody's life and personal of her experience growing up poor in the south. The story is about a young black woman coming of age and the racism she encountered in the southern town of Centerville, Mississippi. The basis of this book is inf...

In Richard Wright's excerpt "The Library Card", from his autobiography "Black Boy", he writes of him self as a young man in the 1930's. Wright tells his story about what happen to him during a time when African Americans where considered to be inferior. He was living the typical life of a young Afri...

In being a poet, educator, best selling author, actress, playwright, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has been deemed one of the most incredible voices of contemporary literature. She began to read widely during her four year period of silence, which started after she was tragically raped by ...

Richard Wright's Black Boy is a social critique as well as an autobiography. Part I of his novel seems to be an indictment of the South while Part II, an indictment of the North. Richard Wright gives a vivid portrayal of the hardships in the South. Ella struggles to raise her children in Memph...

Rosellen Brown resides in Chicago, Illinois and is the author of five novels: Before and After (1992), Civil Wars (1984), Tender Mercies (1978), The Autobiography of my Mother (1976), and Half a Heart (2000). Brown was the recipient of an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and ha...

Published in 1965 "Learning to Read' is an excerpt from the autobiography of Malcolm X. 1965 marks a period in American history that is tainted with widespread abuse of African Americans at the hands of White oppression. The target audience for this piece is predominately African American. Malcolm...

Coming of Age in MississippiIn the autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi, anger and hate are permeated throughout. Anne Moody writes about her feelings of rage and hate from her childhood through early adulthood. In many ways, Moody's anger is a direct result of her environment. As she grew up ...

The autobiography of John P. Parker, a former slave and "conductor" of the Underground Railroad, could be best described as the life time battle of one man against slavery of the African American people. In his own definition of this great injustice, that sadly effected many lives, Parker describes ...

Maya Angelou, born, Marguerite Johnson, was sent along with her brother to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, when her parents were divorced. Growing up, she learned what it was to be a black girl in a world whose boundaries were set by whites: "As a child she always dreamed of w...

The Childhood, Education and Achievements of Richard Wright Richard Wright was the son of an illiterate sharecropper. He was brought up in a dysfunctional home where he suffered poverty and abandonment. He became an essential figure in the development of African American literature, and has ...

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...

Strength through Suffering The world is not fair; people get stuck at traffic lights, there are accidents and good people die. There are so many complexities in life that prove that the world is impartial. In the autobiography, The Color of Water, by James McBride, Ruth McBride is a prime example ...

Langston Hughes is often referred to as of one of the most important originators and exponents of African American literature. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on 1st February, 1902. After his father deserted the family Langston was brought up by his grandmother. At an early age he was intro...

Throughout our country\'s history, many African Americans have contributed to the success of our country. Although we have not given African Americans the credit that they deserve, the month of February has been set aside to recognize all of their many achievements. I think one of the greatest and...

Amy Goldich In his Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man, James Weldon Johnson explores the meaning of "passing" in an American society. The reader never learns the name of the narrator in the novel, but you learn that it's of little importance. The crisis throughout the novel centers on the ...

Up From Slavery Booker T. Washington, the author of Up From Slavery, is the subject of his novel as well. In Booker's autobiography, he tells the story of what life was like growing up as a colored person after the revolution. Where most slavery novels tell stories of hardships faced while in b...

Some of the most popular cultural people of American history have been African American. By showing the richness of African American heritage and tradition, black authors greatly encouraged culture today. Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, and Langston Hughes are among the most popular and the m...

The year was 1925, and someone special was born. His birth name was Malcolm Little, however there were big things in store for this child. Born in Omaha, Nebraska. The seventh of eleven children born to Earl Little, an organizer for Marcus Garvey's "back-to-Africa" movement (Comp...