Paul Laurence Dunbar

African Americans suffered through oppression in the past. Many people were afraid to talk about the struggles they faced daily. They were afraid that their voice would not be heard or that it was a crime to speak on how they felt. Thankfully, two poets became that voice; Maya Angelou and Paul Laurence Dunbar in their extraordinary poems about the deserved freedom of African-Americans. In Sympathy by Paul Dubar and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, they both use the image of a bird in a cage to communicate their thoughts on life and freedom.

The purpose of this essay is to clearly acknowledge similarities as well as differences amongst two great writers: Phyllis Wheatley and Paul L. Dunbar. Wheatley and Dunbar were two brilliant African American writers born of two different centuries. Both began writing at an early age and were seen as black child prodigies of their times.

Knowing this man is to love this man. He has been a great role model for and during the civil rights movement and so much more. This man’s name is John Lewis Others may say he is someone who just wanted to start trouble and he should leave things the way they were. By analyzing his early life, his education, becoming a civil rights activist, and a U.S. Congressman, I will be able to show you why I think he is a great person all around. It is also clear that John Lewis shaped his time.

Poetry has changed over the course of many years and numerous events in history.Music, as well, changed the sound and lyrical meanings due to many events in history. Whether music is poetry or not can be argued, but I believe music is an art represented through sound and lyrics. Music is a form of poetry with a little tune to it. Music has a message to it just as poetry would. Modern day music can reflect on many things, just as poetry sometimes refers to events going on in the world. Many years ago a very controversial topic was the discussion of slavery, and later the inequality of colored men to whites. Popular American poets, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, are two of the very few who would talk about these controversies. Their poetry consisted of slavery, racial relations and inequality, opportunity, and hope. Their poetry captures the despair and faith in the colored people through all their oppression. Modern day music genre and style of hip hop or rap is a style created by African Americans. Present day rap artists, J Cole and Kendrick Lamar, are two rap artists who have revolutionized music and have become idolized by many African Americans. The two are known for discussing the reality of what it is like being a black man in today’s society. The poems of Hughes and Dunbar are very comparable to the songs of Cole and Lamar that discuss oppression, inequality, and hope within black

Paul Laurence Dunbar is another great poet of the Harlem Renaissance Era, Writing about equality and the lack there of for the African American brothers and sisters. His father served in the 55 regiment Army in Massachusetts when the war broke out between the North and the South inspiring young Paul to write several poems celebrating the role of African American soldiers in winning the Civil War and ending slavery. Paul’s mother fought hard and sacrificed much for him to be able to obtain a good education, he was the only African American in his class at Central High School where he excelled and had many friends. He became the editor of his school paper, was elected president of the literacy club, and was given the honor of composed and presented

Dually Randall and Paul Laurence Dunbar are two African American writers living during the early twentieth century. These men did not know each other, however, they both encountered the same hardship of being an African American living before the civil rights movement. Both men use poems that emphasize sound, structure and imagery to express what they experienced during that harsh time. A careful analysis of “We Wear the Mask” and “Ballad of Birmingham” expose that the shadows cast on their skin has a lasting impression.

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most famous civil rights activists in the history of the United States. He gave several important speeches and promoted non-violent protests. His most famous speech was “I Have A Dream”, around a quarter of a million patrons, black and white, attended this empowering speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The reason his speech was vastly successful in the movement against segregation and injustice was because of its repetitiveness.

you must speak to them in a calm and sensitive way (one would do so at all other times, but this is currently even more important)

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who claimed he could run backward faster than most men could go forward, was the most famous of all African American tap dancers in the twentieth century. Dancing upright and swinging, his light and exacting footwork brought tap "up on its toes" from an earlier flat-footed shuffling style, and developed the art of tap dancing to a delicate perfection.

Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. recognized for being the first Black Air Force General, paved the way for the Black soldier. Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. was born December 18, 1912, to Benjamin, Sr. and Elnora Dickerson Davis. Due to complications from childbirth, Elnora dies when Benjamin is four years old. His father Benjamin, Sr. the first Black General in the United States Army, serving in various capacities such as the Spanish-American War and the original Buffalo Soldier regiments was a pioneer for the black soldier and an influence to his son.

Langston Hughes’ style of poetry renounced the classical style of poetry and sought out a more jazz and folk rhythm style. Most of Hughes’ poems were written during the Harlem Renaissance, named after the cultural activity African Americans participated in, such as: literature, music, art, theatre, and political thinking. William Blake, on the other hand, was a nonconformist who was associated with the leading radical thinkers of his day. Although, considered a lyric poet and a visionary, Blake’s poetry was not read by many, yet he still believed that his poetry could be understood by common people and was determined not to sacrifice his vision to become popular.

August 28, 1963 (Eidenmuller) marked a very important day in history that had an impact not only on America, but the whole world. On this day, Martin Luther King Jr. presented his well known I Have a Dream speech that aimed to eliminate racism, inequality and discrimination. He strongly believed that one day people would put their differences aside and come together. So, what happened to that dream? Along with other equality initiative ideas, they rarely make it past the idea stages or end in the actual eradication result. It is clear to us that even after 51 years, our societies still struggle with accepting full equality. Within those 51 years we have made a mass amount of progress but, a common thought would be that after this long the issue should have been eradicated. Two essays that can be used as an example of proof that racial inequality still exists in our society are, Black Men in Public Spaces by Brent Staples and Who Shot Johnny? by Debra Dickerson. In these essays, both provide solid evidence to support their main goal with the use of different writing styles, tone, and rhetorical devices to display how African Americans are perceived and treated by society.

This short story written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Ingrate has three main characters, Mr. and Mrs. Leckler, white farmers who owns a large plantation in the South, and Josh Leckler, their slave. In this story, Josh is determined to escape to Canada called the ‘land of freedom’. Mr. and Mrs Leckler are clueless about Josh plan to escape from slavery. Mrs. Leckler, taught Josh the “three R’s (reading, writing. ‘rithmetic), by her husband’s request. Mr. Leckler being the slave master is breaking the law by allowing Josh to be educated. Although, Mr. Leckler breaks the law to teach Josh, to read, he still use language such as “teaching a nigger to cipher!” Josh would dream about “the forbidden vision of freedom.” After he awaken from his dream, he heard a voice (metaphor) “out of the woods and whispered to him “Courage!” –and on that night the shadows beckoned him as the white hills had done, and the forest called to him, “Follow.” Josh envisioned slavery as a “deep night.”

Should people help someone who everyone else is against? The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in the 1930’s in the South in Maycomb. In Maycomb, there is a lot of prejudice and racism. Later in the novel, Tom Robinson-a black man- is accused of raping a white woman. Tom Robinson doesn’t have much of a chance because it’s a white person's word against a black man's word, so Judge Taylor assigns Atticus Finch-the guy with the most compassion and integrity in Maycomb-to fight for Tom Robinson in the trial. Atticus FInch should defend Tom Robinson because Atticus knows it’s the right thing to do and this trial could change the way Maycomb treats

When reading poetry, it can often be difficult to interpret the exact meaning of the poem the author was trying to transmit. A reader must learn to construe a poem without getting confused on what the author was trying to convey. We must scrutinize the work so that we may understand it better. In Langston Hughes “Harlem,” to analyze what this poem is trying to interpret we must understand line for line. The poem has eleven lines and all but one is asking a question. In each line except line seven, the last syllable stressed. Six of the seven sentences in the poem are questions. All of the sentences except the first and the last contain similes using like. Line three rhymes with line five; line six rhymes with line eight; line ten rhymes with line eleven. Lines four, seven, and eleven begin with or. Lines three, eight, and ten begin with like. The narrator is asking these questions to have the reader envision the lurid analogies to evoke the illusion of a postponed dream. One must also uncover the hidden meanings that stated in this poem. Written in 1951, Harlem addresses one of the most common themes of the time, inadequacies of the American Dreams of African Americans.