African American Literature: History, Movements and Key Works

African American Writing and Pluralism

Sacvan Bercovitch’s The Cambridge History of American Literature: American literature is described as fundamentally pluralistic. He characterizes his volume as "a federated history of American literatures."

African Americans After the Civil War

Abolition of slavery did not end racial discrimination. African Americans continued to face inferior status and white supremacy.

In the South

Jim Crow laws, the doctrine of "separate but equal," and violent organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan enforced racial segregation and oppression.

In the North

Segregation and social exclusion produced ghettos and economic marginalization. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, founded 1909) worked to advance civil rights through legal action and advocacy.

Separation and the Civil Rights Movement

Strategies included acts of civil disobedience inspired by Gandhi, peaceful but direct confrontation, boycotts, marches, sit-ins, and lawsuits to challenge segregation and discrimination.

Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement

• Civil Rights Acts (1964, 1968) banning discrimination in employment, public accommodations, and housing.
• Voting Rights Act (1965) protecting the voting rights of African Americans.

Black Nationalism and Black Power (1960–1970)

This ideology opposed Martin Luther King Jr.'s strictly nonviolent methods and emphasized separatism over integration. It promoted racial pride and cultural affirmation. Notable cultural expressions included James Brown's "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" and the motto "Black is beautiful." The movement encouraged a search for cultural roots in Africa, a return to ancestral traditions, emphasis on Black heritage (names, languages, crafts), and, for some, conversion to Islam as a central religious identity.

African American Writing Landmarks

African American literary production includes 19th-century novels, slave narratives, and autobiographies. Key movements and works include the Harlem Renaissance (1920s–30s) and later landmark novels and plays:

• Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) — Zora Neale Hurston
• Native Son (1940) — Richard Wright
• Invisible Man (1952) — Ralph Ellison
• A Raisin in the Sun (1959) — Lorraine Hansberry
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) — Maya Angelou
• The Bluest Eye (1970) — Toni Morrison
• "Everyday Use" (1973) — Alice Walker
• The Color Purple (1982) — Alice Walker

Development of African American Writing

The focus of African American literature shifted over time from primarily representing the male Black experience of racism (as in Wright and Ellison) to including female voices, exploring gender issues, and examining the heterogeneous character of the Black community, including Black-on-Black oppression (Morrison, Walker).

Well, in the 1960s our principal interpreters were Black men... (continuation)

Toni Morrison (1931–)

After her divorce she went to work as an editor in New York. As an editor she played an important role in bringing Black literature into the mainstream, editing books by authors such as Toni Cade Bambara and Alice Walker.

African American Literary Star

After the publication of her early novels — The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Song of Solomon — she became a professor at Princeton University in 1989 and continued to produce significant works. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.