Alesia Johnson: My Favorite African-American Literature

African American women have long been stereotyped, discriminated against and generalized in this country. They have had to face both being black in America while also being a woman in America. African American women encountered and still do encounter double discrimination of both sex and race (Cuthbert, 117). Women like Elise Johnson McDougald, Marion Vera Cuthbert and Alice Dunbar-Nelson all tried to shed light on what it was like to be an African American woman living in the 20th century yet literature often portrayed them as emotional, hypersexual, unintelligent and of lesser worth. The literature highlighted that African American women have to serve both their employer and their husbands and families. They are not supposed to have an opinion or stand up for themselves, especially to a white man. ***Concluding sentence?

Ernest Everett Just, born August 14, 1884 in Charleston, South Carolina passed away in Washington, D.C. on October 27, 1941. Ernest Just was an African –American biologist, scientist, and educator. He spent most of his adult life collecting, classifying, and caring for his marine specimens. He is a Dartmouth alumnus. He has faced racial discrimination all through his life that caused him many opportunities.

Slavery was common in the eighteenth century. Slaves were seen as property, as they were taken from their native land and forced into long hours of labor. The experience was traumatic for both black men and black women. They were physically and mentally abused by slave owners, dehumanized by the system, and ultimately denied their fundamental rights to a favorable American life. Although African men and women were both subjected to the same enslavement, men and women had different experiences in slavery based on their gender. A male perspective can be seen in, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. A female perspective is shared in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Upon reading both of the viewpoints provided, along with outside research, one can infer that women had it worse.

The focus of this paper is detail commentary and evaluation of four different readings. The reviews will summarize the readings, provide authors arguments, and evaluate them. The readings are: An End to the Neglect of the Problem of the Negro Woman by Claudia Jones, Black Macho and Myth of the Super Woman by Michele Wallace, The Myth of Black Macho by Robert Staples and The Negro Family by Daniel Moynihan.

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. New York, NY: Random House, 2010.

A fresh, personal, bottom-up approach to the women’s labor movement in the early 20th century

When the topic of which African American writes are my favorite, the first name that comes to mind is Frederick Douglass. After escaping from slavery, he later became a leader of the abolitionist movement while gaining notes for his impressive rhetoric and perceptive antislavery writing, my favorite being A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. After its release It was so desirable that it and was reprinted numerous times, later to be translated in French and Dutch, then widely distributed throughout Europe. Douglass’ speeches may have also contributed to his success because his British friends admired enough that they purchased his freedom from his owner in 1847, thus allowing him to return to the United States

In a time when Africans were stolen from their native lands and brought through the middle passage to a land that claimed was a free country, a small African girl, who would later be known as Phillis Wheatley, was sold in Boston in 1761. In the speech, “The Miracle of Black Poetry in America”, written by June Jordan, a well respected black poet, professor and activist, wrote the speech in 1986, 200 years after Phillis walked the earth, to honor the legacy of the first black female poet for the people of the United States. Jordan, passionately alludes to the example of Phillis Wheatley’s life, to show the strength and perseverance of African-American people throughout difficult history and how they have overcome the impossible.

As an eminent artist of her time, Augusta Savage played a vital role for the Harlem Renaissance as she provided support and received support throughout her life. Savage had received support through the early stages of her career, as a young artist in New York City she received financial support from her college. In 1921, Savage had been officially enrolled into an art class in Cooper Union which had not costed her a penny. Unfortunately, Savage lived in an impoverished family and did not have enough money to afford the accommodations she needed to continue her studies here. With much effort Savage had tried to afford the food and housing in New York but had to make the decision of moving back to Florida, but Savage’s hard work had payed off,

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of “Rebirth” of the African heritage. In a quest for racial identity and equality. This made way for various African American musicians, artists and writers to emerge. A few of those became central figures of the Harlem Renaissance. One of those central figures was Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston was a writer, folklorist and anthropologist. Hurston made use of African American dialect to create some of the strongest female characters in the earliest twentieth century fiction. Langston Hughes was another central figure. He was a musician, journalist and a novelist. He became a rare poets that included powerful phrases. Gwendolyn Brooks was a central figure. Brooks was a writer. She was the first African-American

After twelve years of school I have been forced to study many different authors, but not many of them have been African-American. I did not know a single author whose work was read, other than Martin Luther King; because of my ignorance every piece was fascinating. One o f my favorite works was a short story written by Shirley Chisholm. She was the first African-American woman elected to the United States and her story

Nella Larsen was one of the few female American writers that were part of the Harlem Renaissance. Due to her success in both her novels Quicksand and Passing she was the first African American woman to receive the Guggenheim award in 1930. The novels took place in the late 1920’s; it focuses on the lives of African American women and their struggle of acceptance in society. In finding their own identity through race, class, and gender these two novels Quicksand and Passing show the struggles and misguiding of how African American women faced during the Harlem Renaissance.

In "A Worn Path", a short story by Eudora Welty, the main character, an old colored woman named Phoenix, slowly but surely makes her way down a "worn path" through the woods. Throughout her journey, she runs into many obstacles such as a thorny bush and a hunter. She overcomes these obstacles and continues with her travels. She finally reaches her destination, the doctor’s office, where she gets medicine for her sick grandson back home. Many critics have speculated that this short story represents the love a grandmother shows for her grandson. Others say this story represents life and death, where Phoenix represents an immortal figure. Dennis J. Sykes disagrees with the other critics by saying,

Throughout American history, there is a variety of great authors who have brought the many genres of literature we have today. Many hear names like Edgar Allan Poe and automatically think of a dark short story, or two, from his collection of works. But how many authors are there which give strong visualization and experiences that not many individuals may get the chance to examine in their life? Around the early 20th century, African Americans were slowly progressing into being intergraded in society as citizens of America. As there were many complications with this adjustment, African Americans were held back from living what everyone else would call “The American Dream” through the next few decades and still fighting for it. About 1955, the Civil Rights movement began for equal rights of African American citizens to be treated equally as everyone one else. Many activists got involved with the movement to help pave the way for a brighter future. There were powerful leaders like Martin Luther King Jr; Malcom X who was more on the religious side and their voices heard through media around the nation. Then there were leaders like James Baldwin, an author and a Samaritan to African Americans.

Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black