scholarly journals “Obligations to Negroes who would be kin if they were not Negro”

Daedalus ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 140 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-153
Author(s):  
Werner Sollors
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
African American ◽  
First Century ◽  
Half Century ◽  
African American Authors ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
American Authors

The 1965/1966 Dcedalus issues on “The Negro American” reveal how America's racial future was imagined nearly a half-century ago, and at least one of the prophecies - voiced by sociologist Everett C. Hughes - found its fulfillment in an unexpected way at President Obama's inauguration in 2009. Short stories by Amina Gautier (“Been Meaning to Say” and “Pan is Dead”), Heidi Durrow's novel The Girl WhoFellfrom the Sky, plays by Thomas Bradshaw (Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist and Cleansed), and poems by Terrance Hayes (“For Brothers and the Dragon” and “The Avocado”) suggest trends in recent works by African American authors who began their publishing careers in the twenty-first century.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Cheryl A. Wall
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
First Century ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
African American Authors ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
American Authors

This chapter considers the status of the essay in the twenty-first century as it shifts its medium from print to digital. It is argued that given the ability for the essay to speak to moments of political and social crisis, comment on and define aesthetic debates, and reflect on the meaning of individual and collective identities, it remains a crucial genre for twenty-first century African American authors. Through analyzing the work of Brittney Cooper and Ta-Nehisi Coates amongst others, this chapter illustrates how black essayists continue to work through the subject of freedom and express the will to adorn. Deploying the vernacular process, one inflected with a hip-hop beat, these authors blur the line between the digital and print, and continue to highlight the centrality of the essay to the African American literary tradition.

Rediscovering Frank Yerby

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
African American ◽  
Richard Wright ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Langston Hughes ◽  
Racial Oppression ◽  
The Social ◽  
African American Authors ◽  
American Authors ◽  
Social Protest Novels

During his career, Frank Yerby wrote 33 novels, numerous short stories, and poetry, making him one of the most prolific and financially successful African American authors of all time. However, while some critics such as Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps initially praised Yerby, many began to become frustrated with his lack of overt engagement with segregation and racial oppression in his work and personal statements. Infamously, Robert Bone called Yerby “the prince of the pulpsters” in his 1958 The Negro Novel in America. Reconsidering Frank Yerby positions Yerby within the African American literary tradition and emphasizes his role, as Darwin Turner puts it, as the “debunker of myths.” Reconsidering Frank Yerby achieves these goals by highlighting Yerby’s shifting perceptions regarding his role as a writer throughout his career and through an examination of his work in relation to the social protest novels and literature of writers such as Richard Wright, the reactions of his readers, his exploration of religion and existentialism, his deconstruction of race, his transnational focus, and other topics.

James Baldwin

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
American History ◽  
James Baldwin ◽  
First Century ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Twenty First Century

The book is devoted to the works of James Baldwin, one of the most compelling writers of the twentieth century. The authors examine his most important contributions – including novels, essays, short stories, poetry, and media appearances – in the wider context of American history. They demonstrate the lasting importance of his oeuvre, which was central to the Civil Rights Movement and continues to be relevant at the dawn of the twenty-first century and the Black Lives Matter era.

scholarly journals Editor’s Note: CSK Awards Celebrate Fifty Years

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Sharon Verbeten
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Fiftieth Anniversary ◽  
Book Publisher ◽  
The World ◽  
African American Authors ◽  
American Authors ◽  
Martin Luther King

The world was a very different place in 1969 when the Coretta Scott King Award was instituted to honor African-American authors. Dr. Martin Luther King had recently been assassinated. And there was no organized group to advocate for We Need Diverse Books.But, thankfully, several librarians and a book publisher came together to establish the CSK Award, which will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in 2019.

Generations

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-71
Author(s):  
Lisa Woolfork
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Lost Cause ◽  
African American Authors ◽  
Black Life ◽  
A Site ◽  
Post Civil Rights ◽  
American Authors

This essay explores the ways in which African American authors of that era reclaim the slave past as a site of memory for a nation eager to forget. Lucille Clifton’s Generations (1976), Alex Haley’s Roots (1976), Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada (1976), and Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979) are the chapter’s main focus. These works resist the tide of historical amnesia and “lost cause” mythology that would minimize or relegate the enslaved to mere props in the larger Civil War drama of rupture and reconciliation. By centering the stories of the enslaved as ancestral foundations of post-civil rights black life, these authors promote a model for historical memory and genealogy that elevates black resilience.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Tyrone McKinley Freeman
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
First Century ◽  
Voluntary Action ◽  
American Life ◽  
Intellectual Inquiry ◽  
Historical Importance ◽  
Twenty First Century

The conclusion brings together the lessons and insights provided by examining Walker’s philanthropic life. After summarizing the origins, evolution, and character of Madam Walker’s gospel of giving, it underscores the historical importance of black women’s philanthropy in undermining and resisting Jim Crow and its enduring role in ultimately dismantling the institution. Further, it suggests an approach to theorizing black women’s generosity as being based on five characteristics: proximity, “resourcefull-ness,” collaboration, incrementalism, and joy. It also affirms philanthropy as a powerful interpretive and analytical lens through which to examine African American life in general and black women in particular. It urges collaboration between scholars interested in philanthropy and black women to mutually strengthen intellectual inquiry and understanding of who counts as a philanthropist and what counts as philanthropic giving. It contends that Walker’s gospel of giving is more accessible as a model of generosity than the prevailing examples offered by today’s wealthiest 1 percent. It is certainly the direct inheritance of African Americans today, but relevant to all Americans, regardless of race, class or gender, interested in taking voluntary action in the twenty-first century.

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