Black History

A key literary figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Johnson also helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Known only as the "Ex-Colored Man," the protagonist in Johnson's novel is forced to choose between celebrating his African American heritage or "passing" as an average white man in a post-Reconstruction America that is rapidly changing. (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service)

"This collection of poems attempts to recreate a vanishing part of Black American spiritual culture - the inspirational sermons of old-time Negro preachers. Using punctuation and line arrangements he captures the fervour of the congregation and underlines the importance of these sermons in the development of Black culture. James Wheldon Johnson is the author of 'Along this Way' and 'The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man'."--Www.amazon.com (Nov. 8, 2010).

A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published [in 1937]—perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature. (descriptive content provided by Syndetics™)

The title of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel refers to the practice of light-skinned African Americans "passing" for whites. The book has received greater study in recent years, due to its themes of racial and sexual ambiguity.

Based on an actual slave rebellion, this 1936 novel was a warning cry protesting the treatment of blacks in American society.

A source of controversy upon its 1929 publication, The Blacker the Berry was the first novel to openly address color prejudice among black Americans. (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service)

Home to Harlem is an influential novel that laid bare the vigorous night life of Harlem in the 1920s.

“A breakthrough in prose and poetical writing. . . . This book should be on all readers’ and writers’ desks and in their minds.”―Maya Angelou

First published in 1923, Jean Toomer’s Cane is an innovative literary work―part drama, part poetry, part fiction―powerfully evoking black life in the South. Rich in imagery, Toomer’s impressionistic, sometimes surrealistic sketches of Southern rural and urban life are permeated by visions of smoke, sugarcane, dusk, and fire; the northern world is pictured as a harsher reality of asphalt streets. (Amazon)

Written in 1929 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance by one of its most prolific authors, Plum Bun is the story of Angela Murray, a young black girl from Philadelphia who discovers she can pass for white. After the death of her parents, Angela moves to New York to escape the racism she believes is her only obstacle to opportunity. What she soon discovers is that being a woman has its own burdens that don't fade with the color of one's skin, and that love and marriage might not offer her salvation. (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service)

In his satirical novel Black No More, George Schulyler (SKY-ler) pokes fun at both white racists and influential black leaders.

The first known mystery written by an African-American, set in 1930s Harlem. (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service)

Although best known as a poet and pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance movement, Langston Hughes proves himself one of modern literature’s most revered and versatile African-American authors withNot Without Laughter, a powerful classic novel. (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service)

Award-winning poet Langston Hughes was one of the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

"A major and sometimes controversial figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen fused a mastery of the formal lyric with a passionate engagement with themes social, religious, racial, and personal..." (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service)

Claude McKay was born in Jamaica but moved to New York, becoming one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance.

Although he was most famous for his novel Cane, Toomer was also a fine poet.

Ever since its first flowering in the 1920s, jazz has had a powerful influence on American poetry, and this scintillating anthology offers a treasury of poems as varied and vital as the music that inspired them. (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service)