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The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature
Volume 2
1920 to the Present
About the website
wwwwileycomgojarrett
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature companion website features a wealth of resources created by the authors to help you use this book in university courses whether you are an instructor or a student
For Instructors and Students
bull Q amp A with Gene Andrew Jarrett Editor of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature
bull Guide to Literary Categories provides an alternative thematic table of contentsbull Useful Websites for Students featuring links to a host of companion multimedia
materialsbull Key Issues and Themes for each author and period including questions for
reflectionbull Glossarybull Timeline
For Instructors
bull Useful Websites for Instructors featuring links to a host of multimedia materials useful for sparking classroom discussion
bull Key Issues and Themes with Teaching Suggestions designed to help instructors build their syllabi and plan their class lectures
bull Sample Syllabi
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of
African American Literature
Volume 2
1920 To The PresenT
ediTed By Gene AndreW JArreTT
This edition first published 2014copy John Wiley amp Sons Ltd
Registered OfficeJohn Wiley amp Sons Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
Editorial Offices350 Main Street Malden MA 02148-5020 USA9600 Garsington Road Oxford OX4 2DQ UKThe Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
For details of our global editorial offices for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at wwwwileycomwiley-blackwell
The right of Gene Andrew Jarrett to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise except as permitted by the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 without the prior permission of the publisher
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names service marks trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book
Limit of LiabilityDisclaimer of Warranty While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom If professional advice or other expert assistance is required the services of a competent professional should be sought
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available on request
Hardback 9780470671948Paperback 9780470671931
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image Lois Mailou Jones Dans un cafeacute agrave Paris (Leigh Whipper) 1939 Oil on canvas 36 times 29 in (914 times 737 cm) Courtesy of Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and gift of Auldlyn Higgins Williams and ET Williams Jr 20121Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates
Set in 10512pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services Pondicherry India
1 2014
Table of Contents (by Chronology)
Editorial Advisory Board xvPreface xviIntroduction xxiPrinciples of Selection and Editorial Procedures xxvAcknowledgments xxviiTable of Contents (by Genre) xxxiv
Part 1 The Literatures of the New Negro Renaissance c1920ndash1940 1
Introduction 3
Claude McKay (1889ndash1948) 7
From Songs of Jamaica (1912) 9Whersquo fe Do 9Cudjoe Fresh from de Lecture 11
From Harlem Shadows (1922) 12America 12The Tropics in New York 13Harlem Shadows 13The White City 14Africa 14The Tired Worker 14If We Must Die 15
Extracts from Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15Chapter 1 The Ditch 15Chapter 2 The Breakwater 22Chapter 3 Malty Turned Down 26Chapter 16 The ldquoBlue Cinemardquo 31Chapter 17 Breaking-up 40
viC
onte
nts
Chapter 23 Shake That Thing Again 42Chapter 25 Banjorsquos Ace of Spades 45
Jessie Fauset (1882ndash1961) 58
Double Trouble (1923) 59Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Jean Toomer (1894ndash1967) 77
Extract from Cane (1923) 79Bona and Paul 79
Balo (1924 1927) 85Winter on Earth (1928) 93Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Counteacutee Cullen (1903ndash1946) 125
From Color (1925) 126Yet Do I Marvel 126Tableau 127Incident 127Heritage 128To John Keats Poet At Spring Time 131I Have a Rendezvous with Life 132
From Caroling Dusk (1927) 133Four Epitaphs 133
From Copper Sun (1927) 134Millennial 134At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 134From the Dark Tower 135Uncle Jim 135
From The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 136To Certain Critics 136
WEB Du Bois (1868ndash1963) 137
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 139The Negro Mind Reaches Out 139
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 157
Rudolph Fisher (1897ndash1934) 164
The City of Refuge (1925) 165
Blades of Steel (1927) 175
The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 185
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature
Volume 2
1920 to the Present
About the website
wwwwileycomgojarrett
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature companion website features a wealth of resources created by the authors to help you use this book in university courses whether you are an instructor or a student
For Instructors and Students
bull Q amp A with Gene Andrew Jarrett Editor of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature
bull Guide to Literary Categories provides an alternative thematic table of contentsbull Useful Websites for Students featuring links to a host of companion multimedia
materialsbull Key Issues and Themes for each author and period including questions for
reflectionbull Glossarybull Timeline
For Instructors
bull Useful Websites for Instructors featuring links to a host of multimedia materials useful for sparking classroom discussion
bull Key Issues and Themes with Teaching Suggestions designed to help instructors build their syllabi and plan their class lectures
bull Sample Syllabi
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of
African American Literature
Volume 2
1920 To The PresenT
ediTed By Gene AndreW JArreTT
This edition first published 2014copy John Wiley amp Sons Ltd
Registered OfficeJohn Wiley amp Sons Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
Editorial Offices350 Main Street Malden MA 02148-5020 USA9600 Garsington Road Oxford OX4 2DQ UKThe Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
For details of our global editorial offices for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at wwwwileycomwiley-blackwell
The right of Gene Andrew Jarrett to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise except as permitted by the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 without the prior permission of the publisher
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names service marks trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book
Limit of LiabilityDisclaimer of Warranty While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom If professional advice or other expert assistance is required the services of a competent professional should be sought
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available on request
Hardback 9780470671948Paperback 9780470671931
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image Lois Mailou Jones Dans un cafeacute agrave Paris (Leigh Whipper) 1939 Oil on canvas 36 times 29 in (914 times 737 cm) Courtesy of Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and gift of Auldlyn Higgins Williams and ET Williams Jr 20121Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates
Set in 10512pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services Pondicherry India
1 2014
Table of Contents (by Chronology)
Editorial Advisory Board xvPreface xviIntroduction xxiPrinciples of Selection and Editorial Procedures xxvAcknowledgments xxviiTable of Contents (by Genre) xxxiv
Part 1 The Literatures of the New Negro Renaissance c1920ndash1940 1
Introduction 3
Claude McKay (1889ndash1948) 7
From Songs of Jamaica (1912) 9Whersquo fe Do 9Cudjoe Fresh from de Lecture 11
From Harlem Shadows (1922) 12America 12The Tropics in New York 13Harlem Shadows 13The White City 14Africa 14The Tired Worker 14If We Must Die 15
Extracts from Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15Chapter 1 The Ditch 15Chapter 2 The Breakwater 22Chapter 3 Malty Turned Down 26Chapter 16 The ldquoBlue Cinemardquo 31Chapter 17 Breaking-up 40
viC
onte
nts
Chapter 23 Shake That Thing Again 42Chapter 25 Banjorsquos Ace of Spades 45
Jessie Fauset (1882ndash1961) 58
Double Trouble (1923) 59Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Jean Toomer (1894ndash1967) 77
Extract from Cane (1923) 79Bona and Paul 79
Balo (1924 1927) 85Winter on Earth (1928) 93Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Counteacutee Cullen (1903ndash1946) 125
From Color (1925) 126Yet Do I Marvel 126Tableau 127Incident 127Heritage 128To John Keats Poet At Spring Time 131I Have a Rendezvous with Life 132
From Caroling Dusk (1927) 133Four Epitaphs 133
From Copper Sun (1927) 134Millennial 134At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 134From the Dark Tower 135Uncle Jim 135
From The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 136To Certain Critics 136
WEB Du Bois (1868ndash1963) 137
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 139The Negro Mind Reaches Out 139
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 157
Rudolph Fisher (1897ndash1934) 164
The City of Refuge (1925) 165
Blades of Steel (1927) 175
The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 185
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
About the website
wwwwileycomgojarrett
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature companion website features a wealth of resources created by the authors to help you use this book in university courses whether you are an instructor or a student
For Instructors and Students
bull Q amp A with Gene Andrew Jarrett Editor of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature
bull Guide to Literary Categories provides an alternative thematic table of contentsbull Useful Websites for Students featuring links to a host of companion multimedia
materialsbull Key Issues and Themes for each author and period including questions for
reflectionbull Glossarybull Timeline
For Instructors
bull Useful Websites for Instructors featuring links to a host of multimedia materials useful for sparking classroom discussion
bull Key Issues and Themes with Teaching Suggestions designed to help instructors build their syllabi and plan their class lectures
bull Sample Syllabi
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of
African American Literature
Volume 2
1920 To The PresenT
ediTed By Gene AndreW JArreTT
This edition first published 2014copy John Wiley amp Sons Ltd
Registered OfficeJohn Wiley amp Sons Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
Editorial Offices350 Main Street Malden MA 02148-5020 USA9600 Garsington Road Oxford OX4 2DQ UKThe Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
For details of our global editorial offices for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at wwwwileycomwiley-blackwell
The right of Gene Andrew Jarrett to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise except as permitted by the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 without the prior permission of the publisher
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names service marks trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book
Limit of LiabilityDisclaimer of Warranty While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom If professional advice or other expert assistance is required the services of a competent professional should be sought
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available on request
Hardback 9780470671948Paperback 9780470671931
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image Lois Mailou Jones Dans un cafeacute agrave Paris (Leigh Whipper) 1939 Oil on canvas 36 times 29 in (914 times 737 cm) Courtesy of Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and gift of Auldlyn Higgins Williams and ET Williams Jr 20121Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates
Set in 10512pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services Pondicherry India
1 2014
Table of Contents (by Chronology)
Editorial Advisory Board xvPreface xviIntroduction xxiPrinciples of Selection and Editorial Procedures xxvAcknowledgments xxviiTable of Contents (by Genre) xxxiv
Part 1 The Literatures of the New Negro Renaissance c1920ndash1940 1
Introduction 3
Claude McKay (1889ndash1948) 7
From Songs of Jamaica (1912) 9Whersquo fe Do 9Cudjoe Fresh from de Lecture 11
From Harlem Shadows (1922) 12America 12The Tropics in New York 13Harlem Shadows 13The White City 14Africa 14The Tired Worker 14If We Must Die 15
Extracts from Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15Chapter 1 The Ditch 15Chapter 2 The Breakwater 22Chapter 3 Malty Turned Down 26Chapter 16 The ldquoBlue Cinemardquo 31Chapter 17 Breaking-up 40
viC
onte
nts
Chapter 23 Shake That Thing Again 42Chapter 25 Banjorsquos Ace of Spades 45
Jessie Fauset (1882ndash1961) 58
Double Trouble (1923) 59Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Jean Toomer (1894ndash1967) 77
Extract from Cane (1923) 79Bona and Paul 79
Balo (1924 1927) 85Winter on Earth (1928) 93Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Counteacutee Cullen (1903ndash1946) 125
From Color (1925) 126Yet Do I Marvel 126Tableau 127Incident 127Heritage 128To John Keats Poet At Spring Time 131I Have a Rendezvous with Life 132
From Caroling Dusk (1927) 133Four Epitaphs 133
From Copper Sun (1927) 134Millennial 134At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 134From the Dark Tower 135Uncle Jim 135
From The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 136To Certain Critics 136
WEB Du Bois (1868ndash1963) 137
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 139The Negro Mind Reaches Out 139
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 157
Rudolph Fisher (1897ndash1934) 164
The City of Refuge (1925) 165
Blades of Steel (1927) 175
The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 185
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of
African American Literature
Volume 2
1920 To The PresenT
ediTed By Gene AndreW JArreTT
This edition first published 2014copy John Wiley amp Sons Ltd
Registered OfficeJohn Wiley amp Sons Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
Editorial Offices350 Main Street Malden MA 02148-5020 USA9600 Garsington Road Oxford OX4 2DQ UKThe Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
For details of our global editorial offices for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at wwwwileycomwiley-blackwell
The right of Gene Andrew Jarrett to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise except as permitted by the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 without the prior permission of the publisher
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names service marks trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book
Limit of LiabilityDisclaimer of Warranty While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom If professional advice or other expert assistance is required the services of a competent professional should be sought
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available on request
Hardback 9780470671948Paperback 9780470671931
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image Lois Mailou Jones Dans un cafeacute agrave Paris (Leigh Whipper) 1939 Oil on canvas 36 times 29 in (914 times 737 cm) Courtesy of Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and gift of Auldlyn Higgins Williams and ET Williams Jr 20121Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates
Set in 10512pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services Pondicherry India
1 2014
Table of Contents (by Chronology)
Editorial Advisory Board xvPreface xviIntroduction xxiPrinciples of Selection and Editorial Procedures xxvAcknowledgments xxviiTable of Contents (by Genre) xxxiv
Part 1 The Literatures of the New Negro Renaissance c1920ndash1940 1
Introduction 3
Claude McKay (1889ndash1948) 7
From Songs of Jamaica (1912) 9Whersquo fe Do 9Cudjoe Fresh from de Lecture 11
From Harlem Shadows (1922) 12America 12The Tropics in New York 13Harlem Shadows 13The White City 14Africa 14The Tired Worker 14If We Must Die 15
Extracts from Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15Chapter 1 The Ditch 15Chapter 2 The Breakwater 22Chapter 3 Malty Turned Down 26Chapter 16 The ldquoBlue Cinemardquo 31Chapter 17 Breaking-up 40
viC
onte
nts
Chapter 23 Shake That Thing Again 42Chapter 25 Banjorsquos Ace of Spades 45
Jessie Fauset (1882ndash1961) 58
Double Trouble (1923) 59Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Jean Toomer (1894ndash1967) 77
Extract from Cane (1923) 79Bona and Paul 79
Balo (1924 1927) 85Winter on Earth (1928) 93Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Counteacutee Cullen (1903ndash1946) 125
From Color (1925) 126Yet Do I Marvel 126Tableau 127Incident 127Heritage 128To John Keats Poet At Spring Time 131I Have a Rendezvous with Life 132
From Caroling Dusk (1927) 133Four Epitaphs 133
From Copper Sun (1927) 134Millennial 134At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 134From the Dark Tower 135Uncle Jim 135
From The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 136To Certain Critics 136
WEB Du Bois (1868ndash1963) 137
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 139The Negro Mind Reaches Out 139
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 157
Rudolph Fisher (1897ndash1934) 164
The City of Refuge (1925) 165
Blades of Steel (1927) 175
The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 185
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
This edition first published 2014copy John Wiley amp Sons Ltd
Registered OfficeJohn Wiley amp Sons Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
Editorial Offices350 Main Street Malden MA 02148-5020 USA9600 Garsington Road Oxford OX4 2DQ UKThe Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK
For details of our global editorial offices for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at wwwwileycomwiley-blackwell
The right of Gene Andrew Jarrett to be identified as the author of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise except as permitted by the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 without the prior permission of the publisher
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names service marks trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book
Limit of LiabilityDisclaimer of Warranty While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom If professional advice or other expert assistance is required the services of a competent professional should be sought
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available on request
Hardback 9780470671948Paperback 9780470671931
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover image Lois Mailou Jones Dans un cafeacute agrave Paris (Leigh Whipper) 1939 Oil on canvas 36 times 29 in (914 times 737 cm) Courtesy of Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and gift of Auldlyn Higgins Williams and ET Williams Jr 20121Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates
Set in 10512pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services Pondicherry India
1 2014
Table of Contents (by Chronology)
Editorial Advisory Board xvPreface xviIntroduction xxiPrinciples of Selection and Editorial Procedures xxvAcknowledgments xxviiTable of Contents (by Genre) xxxiv
Part 1 The Literatures of the New Negro Renaissance c1920ndash1940 1
Introduction 3
Claude McKay (1889ndash1948) 7
From Songs of Jamaica (1912) 9Whersquo fe Do 9Cudjoe Fresh from de Lecture 11
From Harlem Shadows (1922) 12America 12The Tropics in New York 13Harlem Shadows 13The White City 14Africa 14The Tired Worker 14If We Must Die 15
Extracts from Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15Chapter 1 The Ditch 15Chapter 2 The Breakwater 22Chapter 3 Malty Turned Down 26Chapter 16 The ldquoBlue Cinemardquo 31Chapter 17 Breaking-up 40
viC
onte
nts
Chapter 23 Shake That Thing Again 42Chapter 25 Banjorsquos Ace of Spades 45
Jessie Fauset (1882ndash1961) 58
Double Trouble (1923) 59Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Jean Toomer (1894ndash1967) 77
Extract from Cane (1923) 79Bona and Paul 79
Balo (1924 1927) 85Winter on Earth (1928) 93Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Counteacutee Cullen (1903ndash1946) 125
From Color (1925) 126Yet Do I Marvel 126Tableau 127Incident 127Heritage 128To John Keats Poet At Spring Time 131I Have a Rendezvous with Life 132
From Caroling Dusk (1927) 133Four Epitaphs 133
From Copper Sun (1927) 134Millennial 134At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 134From the Dark Tower 135Uncle Jim 135
From The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 136To Certain Critics 136
WEB Du Bois (1868ndash1963) 137
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 139The Negro Mind Reaches Out 139
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 157
Rudolph Fisher (1897ndash1934) 164
The City of Refuge (1925) 165
Blades of Steel (1927) 175
The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 185
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Table of Contents (by Chronology)
Editorial Advisory Board xvPreface xviIntroduction xxiPrinciples of Selection and Editorial Procedures xxvAcknowledgments xxviiTable of Contents (by Genre) xxxiv
Part 1 The Literatures of the New Negro Renaissance c1920ndash1940 1
Introduction 3
Claude McKay (1889ndash1948) 7
From Songs of Jamaica (1912) 9Whersquo fe Do 9Cudjoe Fresh from de Lecture 11
From Harlem Shadows (1922) 12America 12The Tropics in New York 13Harlem Shadows 13The White City 14Africa 14The Tired Worker 14If We Must Die 15
Extracts from Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15Chapter 1 The Ditch 15Chapter 2 The Breakwater 22Chapter 3 Malty Turned Down 26Chapter 16 The ldquoBlue Cinemardquo 31Chapter 17 Breaking-up 40
viC
onte
nts
Chapter 23 Shake That Thing Again 42Chapter 25 Banjorsquos Ace of Spades 45
Jessie Fauset (1882ndash1961) 58
Double Trouble (1923) 59Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Jean Toomer (1894ndash1967) 77
Extract from Cane (1923) 79Bona and Paul 79
Balo (1924 1927) 85Winter on Earth (1928) 93Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Counteacutee Cullen (1903ndash1946) 125
From Color (1925) 126Yet Do I Marvel 126Tableau 127Incident 127Heritage 128To John Keats Poet At Spring Time 131I Have a Rendezvous with Life 132
From Caroling Dusk (1927) 133Four Epitaphs 133
From Copper Sun (1927) 134Millennial 134At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 134From the Dark Tower 135Uncle Jim 135
From The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 136To Certain Critics 136
WEB Du Bois (1868ndash1963) 137
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 139The Negro Mind Reaches Out 139
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 157
Rudolph Fisher (1897ndash1934) 164
The City of Refuge (1925) 165
Blades of Steel (1927) 175
The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 185
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
viC
onte
nts
Chapter 23 Shake That Thing Again 42Chapter 25 Banjorsquos Ace of Spades 45
Jessie Fauset (1882ndash1961) 58
Double Trouble (1923) 59Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Jean Toomer (1894ndash1967) 77
Extract from Cane (1923) 79Bona and Paul 79
Balo (1924 1927) 85Winter on Earth (1928) 93Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Counteacutee Cullen (1903ndash1946) 125
From Color (1925) 126Yet Do I Marvel 126Tableau 127Incident 127Heritage 128To John Keats Poet At Spring Time 131I Have a Rendezvous with Life 132
From Caroling Dusk (1927) 133Four Epitaphs 133
From Copper Sun (1927) 134Millennial 134At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 134From the Dark Tower 135Uncle Jim 135
From The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 136To Certain Critics 136
WEB Du Bois (1868ndash1963) 137
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 139The Negro Mind Reaches Out 139
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 157
Rudolph Fisher (1897ndash1934) 164
The City of Refuge (1925) 165
Blades of Steel (1927) 175
The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 185
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
vii
Con
tent
s
Helene Johnson (1906ndash1995) 190
[Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191My Race 191The Road 191Magula 191A Southern Road 192Bottled 192Poem 194Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 194Summer Matures 195Invocation 195Remember Not 196
Alain Locke (1885ndash1954) 197
Extract from The New Negro (1925) 198The New Negro 198
Langston Hughes (1902ndash1967) 207
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
From The Weary Blues (1926) 213The Weary Blues 213Jazzonia 214Harlem Night Club 215The Negro Speaks of Rivers 215Danse Africaine 216Epilogue [I Too Sing America] 216
From Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 217Dream Boogie 217Juke Box Love Song 217Ballad of the Landlord 218
George S Schuyler (1895ndash1977) 219
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Extracts from Black No More Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 (1931) 223 Chapters 1ndash3 223
Dorothy West (1907ndash1998) 244
The Typewriter (1926) 245
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
viiiC
onte
nts
Zora Neale Hurston (1891ndash1960) 251
The Back Room (1927) 254
How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Nella Larsen (1891ndash1964) 261
Passing (1929) 263
Sterling A Brown (1901ndash1989) 318
From Southern Road (1932) 319From ldquoPart One Road So Rockyrdquo 319
Odyssey of Big Boy 319When de Saints Go Marsquoching Home 321Southern Road 324
From ldquoPart Two On Restless Riverrdquo 325Memphis Blues 325Ma Rainey 327
From ldquoPart Three Tin Roof Bluesrdquo 328Tin Roof Blues 328Cabaret 329
From ldquoPart Four Vestigesrdquo 329Salutamus 329To a Certain Lady in Her Garden 330
Richard Wright (1908ndash1960) 332
Extract from Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335Big Boy Leaves Home (1936) 335
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) 360
How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
Part 2 The Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rights c1940ndash1965 385
Introduction 387
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917ndash2000) 391
From A Street in Bronzeville (1945) 393A Street in Bronzeville (full section) 393
From Annie Allen (1949) 398Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood 398The Anniad 401The Womanhood 409
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
ix
Con
tent
s
Robert Hayden (1913ndash1980) 418
From Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419Middle Passage (1945) 419The Ballad of Nat Turner 424
Chester Himes (1909ndash1984) 426
A Night of New Roses (1945) 428
Da-Da-Dee (1948) 432
Tang (1967) 436
Ann Petry (1908ndash1997) 441
The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) 443
In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 451
James Baldwin (1924ndash1987) 472
Extracts from Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel (1949) 475Notes of a Native Son (1955) 479
Extract from Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492Sonnyrsquos Blues (1957) 492
Ralph Ellison (1914ndash1994) 512
Extracts from Invisible Man (1952) 514Prologue Chapters 1ndash4 6 9 514
Extract from Shadow and Act (1964) 585Hidden Name and Complex Fate 585
Lorraine Hansberry (1930ndash1965) 599
Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Part 3 The Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aesthetic c1965ndash1975 607
Introduction 609
Amiri Baraka (b 1934) 613
Extract from Home Social Essays (1965) 615The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo (1963) 615
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xC
onte
nts
From The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620Crow Jane 620I Substitute for the Dead Lecturer 623Political Poem 624
Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy (b 1931) 637
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Larry Neal (1937ndash1981) 649
Extract from Black Fire (1968) 650And Shine Swam On 650
Lucille Clifton (1936ndash2010) 661
From Good Times (1969) 662[in the inner city] 662[My Mama moved among the days] 662[My daddyrsquos fingers move among the couplers] 663The white boy 663Carsquolinersquos prayer 663Generations 664
Michael S Harper (b 1938) 665
From Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666Brother John 666Where is My Woman Now For Billie Holiday 667Malcolmrsquos Blues 667Dirge for Trane 668American History 669Deathwatch 669Dear John Dear Coltrane 670
Sonia Sanchez (b 1934) 672
Extract from A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673Part One Introduction (Queens of the Universe) (1970) 673
Toni Cade Bambara (1939ndash1995) 680
Extract from Gorilla My Love (1972) 681My Man Bovanne (1971) 681
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xi
Con
tent
s
June Jordan (1936ndash2002) 686
From Some Changes (1971) 687In Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr 687If You Saw a Negro Lady 688And Who Are You 689Toward a Personal Semantics 692What Would I Do White 692No Train of Thought 693I Celebrate the Sons of Malcolm 693Last Poem for a Little While 694
From New Days Poems of Exile and Return (1974) 697On the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Park 697On the Black Family 697Calling on All Silent Minorities 698No Poem Because Time Is Not a Name 699
Extract from On Call Political Essays (1985) 700The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something
Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley 700
Part 4 The Literatures of the Contemporary Period c1975 to the Present 709
Introduction 711
Samuel Delany (b 1942) 715
Extract from Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717Omegahelm (1973) 717
Ntozake Shange (b 1948) 725
Extract from for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (1975) 726
Alice Walker (b 1944) 733
Extracts from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735Looking for Zora (1975) 735Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View (1977) 747
Extract from The Color Purple (1982) 751[Celie Discovers Nettiersquos Missing Letters] 751
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xiiC
onte
nts
Audre Lorde (1934ndash1992) 761
Extracts from Sister Outsider (1984) 762Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1977) 762The Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos House 764Age Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Difference 766
From The Black Unicorn (1978) 773The Black Unicorn 773Coniagui Women 773For Assata 774In Margaretrsquos Garden 775Woman 775But What Can You Teach My Daughter 776Sister Outsider 776
Octavia Butler (1947ndash2006) 778
Extracts from Kindred (1979) 780Prologue 780The River 781The Fire 785
Gloria Naylor (b 1950) 808
Extracts from The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810Dawn 810The Block Party 812Dusk 819
Toni Morrison (b 1931) 820
Recitatif (1983) 823
Rita Dove (b 1952) 835
Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
August Wilson (1945ndash2005) 869
Fences (1986) 871
Jamaica Kincaid (b 1949) 915
Extract from Lucy (1990) 917Poor Visitor 917
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xiii
Con
tent
s
Ernest J Gaines (b 1933) 922
Extract from A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924Chapters 27ndash31 924
Suzan-Lori Parks (b 1963) 947
Extract from The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948An Equation for Black People Onstage 948
Edwidge Danticat (b 1969) 951
Extract from Krik Krak (1996) 952New York Day Women 952
Walter Mosley (b 1952) 957
Black to The Future (1998) 958
Extract from Futureland (2001) 960The Nig in Me 960
Percival Everett (b 1956) 978
Extract from Damned If I Do (2004) 979The Fix (1999) 979
John Edgar Wideman (b 1941) 988
Extract from Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990Weight (1999) 990
Harryette Mullen (b 1953) 999
From Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000All She Wrote 1000The Anthropic Principle 1000Bleeding Hearts 1001Daisy Pearl 1001Denigration 1001Dim Lady 1002Ectopia 1002Exploring the Dark Content 1002Music for Homemade Instruments 1003Natural Anguish 1003Resistance Is Fertile 1003Sleeping with the Dictionary 1004We Are Not Responsible 1004
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xivC
onte
nts
Edward P Jones (b 1950) 1005
Extract from The Known World (2003) 1006Chapter 1 1006
Charles R Johnson (b 1948) 1021
The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
Glossary 1032Timeline 1040Name Index 1053Subject Index 1058
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Editorial Advisory Board
Daphne A Brooks Princeton UniversityJoanna Brooks San Diego State UniversityMargo Natalie Crawford Cornell UniversityMadhu Dubey University of Illinois ChicagoMichele Elam Stanford UniversityPhilip Gould Brown UniversityGeorge B Hutchinson Cornell UniversityMarlon B Ross University of VirginiaCherene M Sherrard-Johnson University of Wisconsin MadisonJames Edward Smethurst University of Massachusetts AmherstWerner Sollors Harvard UniversityJohn Stauffer Harvard UniversityJeffrey Allen Tucker University of RochesterIvy G Wilson Northwestern University
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Preface
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems short stories novellas novels plays autobiographies and essays authored by New World Africans and African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present Published in two volumes it is the first such anthology to be fundamentally conceived for both classroom and online education in the twenty-first century Of equal importance the anthology marks a special way of distinguishing the canon from the tradition of African American literature a more diverse way of representing the lives and literatures of the African diaspora in the United States and an advanced if ironic way of recognizing the ambivalent expressions of race not just in these first decades of the new millennium but in generations long ago
Admittedly this two-volume anthology is presenting a canon It argues that most of the texts of African American literature selected here have been ndash or should be ndash adopted analyzed written about and taught within introductory and specialized courses Yet this canon like all useful canons is provisional It has incorporated the legendary authors who after a period of obscurity now deserve special recognition and it has included the recent emerging authors who have so upended traditional paradigms that they likewise warrant attention Long-lasting literary anthologies earn the trust of teachers students and scholars by balancing the editorial projects of cel-ebrating the best and welcoming the avant-garde of belles lettres Aiming to join this hallowed group The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to represent a canon that retains its scholarly and pedagogical worth over time with each subsequent edition
In subtle but significant ways the arrangement of literary works in this anthology does differ from what one is likely to discover in fellow anthologies Evident in the chronological table of contents the publication dates of literary works ndash as opposed to the dates on which the authors were born ndash determine the sequence in which the authors are introduced (In only a few cases where multiple works by a single author are included the initial publication date of the first work determines their collective placement in the anthology) The rationale for this arrangement is straightforward A handful of authors may share the same decade of birth and belong to the same gen-eration for example but these facts do not guarantee that their major writings and publications will cluster in the same moment of literary history Only six months in 1825 separate the births of Harriet E Wilson and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper but over three decades separate Wilsonrsquos publication of Our Nig in 1859 and Harperrsquos Iola Leroy in 1892 Periodizing literary works according to authorial birthdates also bodes
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xvii
Pre
face
poorly for those who had written multiple literary works across multiple historical periods Although WEB Du Bois had lived from 1868 to 1963 he published Africa in Battle against Colonialism Racialism Imperialism in 1960 creating a potential discrep-ancy between the literary periodizations of his birthdate and one of the final works of his career (The selection of Du Boisrsquos writings for this anthology does not face as extreme a scenario but he is in fact the only author included in both volumes to miti-gate the problem of periodization posed by literary longevity)
The birthdate periodization of literature also threatens to mischaracterize authors who released their best literature not exactly when their generational contemporaries were most productive and publicized This scenario bespeaks the legacy of Toni Morrison Although her first three novels The Bluest Eye (1970) Sula (1974) and Song of Solomon (1977) appeared in the second half of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s she does not represent this movement as much as her 1931 birthdate would suggest (By contrast the other authors born in Morrisonrsquos decade of birth such as LeRoi JonesAmiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy Larry Neal and Sonia Sanchez peaked in celebrity during this movement with which they openly affiliated) This anthologyrsquos renewed focus on the actual historical sequence and patterns of African American literature helps to redress the commonplace inconsistencies of canonical periodization
After extensive instructional scholarly commercial and collaborative research reliable metrics have been developed to ensure that the texts readers encounter in the following pages are those that either are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers or have come to embody legitimate reasons why they should be Copyright expenses and restrictions and practical word count limits posed the greatest challenges to fulfilling this anthologyrsquos mission of reprinting all the texts most ideal for teaching and learning The data on course adoptions commercial sales scholarly cita-tions and historical acclaim (or lack thereof ) helped to calibrate this anthologyrsquos selec-tion of African American literature The result is a list of authors whose statures are in proper proportion to each other and whose lives and literatures remain especially meaningful today Regularly monitoring and adjusting these data over time will help keep as negligible as possible the divide between how teachers and students are exam-ining African American literature in the classroom and how experts are doing so in the scholarly field
Even if this anthology succeeds in harmonizing scholarship and pedagogy the gamut of specialties intrinsic to each mode of inquiry must be addressed Scholars and teachers ndash and by extension students ndash are more specialized now than ever before Specialties may include first a century or a movement in African American litera-turersquos history such as the ldquolongrdquo nineteenth or twentieth centuries the New Negro Renaissance modernism postmodernism or the contemporary period second a literary form or genre as specific as poetry drama performance or science fiction and third a methodology such as diaspora transnationalism psychoanalysis performance print culture or literary history The stratification inherent to African American literary studies translates into the comparable stratifications of English and of African AmericanAfricana curricula The students who try to understand the diversity of courses emerging from these circumstances are also more predisposed than ever before to technologically advanced multimedia and online education
The scholarly and pedagogic ecosystem of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature has been carefully constructed and deeply integrated to meet the contemporary and evolving demands of educational specialization and technology Along with the typical preface volume introductions period introductions headnotes textual annotations glossary and timeline this anthology features after every authorrsquos
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xviiiP
refa
ce
headnote a copious scholarly bibliography of articles book chapters books and edited collections published recently (usually within the past two decades) and capturing the latest approaches to the author the text or the circumstances of literary production This anthology features information pointing students and instructors to the web-site (wwwwileycomgojarrett) Maintained by Wiley Blackwell the website will in turn refer to this anthology yet it is also specially designed to enhance the experiences of readers with this anthology In addition it will provide new material such as syllabi classroom discussion questions and paper topics reorganizations of the table of contents audio and video links links to Wiley Blackwellrsquos own online library and links to other relevant websites The ecosystem includes the print and electronic ver-sions of this anthology alongside Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature a comprehensive overview of the scholarly field from the eighteenth cen-tury to the present Comprising close to 30 article-length essays and embracing the full range of African American literature the collection explores this literaturersquos forms themes genres contexts and major authors while presenting the latest critical approaches This ecosystem of scholarship and pedagogy are suited to take full advan-tage of the multiple ways in which African American literature is being consumed and circulated today
Rare for a comprehensive anthology of African American literature the structural division of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature into two volumes advances the study of African American literature (Previously Howard University Press published The New Cavalcade African American Writing from 1760 to the Present edited by Arthur P Davis J Saunders Redding and Joyce Ann Joyce in two volumes in 1991 but since then it has been out of print) We are now in an age when introductory or survey courses on this literature similar to those on broader American literature are taught over multiple semesters not just one We are also in an age when specialized courses tend to revolve around historical periods far shorter than the sestercentennial life of African American literature The two-volume format of the print and electronic editions of this anthology ideally accounts for these changing circumstances
Pedagogy and scholarship dictate today just as they did during the academic matura-tion of American literature anthologies in the 1970s and 1980s that a comprehensive anthology of African American literature must be portable enough to cater to the spe-cialized needs of teachers and students who may wish to mix and match each volume within a course The two-volume format also enhances this anthologyrsquos self-sufficiency Few if any competing anthologies reprint more long works than this one Many of the selected works in Volume 1 alone ndash including those of John Marrant Frederick Douglass William Wells Brown Harriet E Wilson Harriet Jacobs Pauline E Hopkins Charles W Chesnutt WEB Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson ndash would have been excerpted for an anthology but here they are reprinted in their entireties Although facing at times exorbitant copyright expenses and gross restrictions even Volume 2 exhibits a remark-able share of fully reprinted long works such as those by Jean Toomer Nella Larsen Amiri Baraka Adrienne Kennedy August Wilson and Rita Dove
Logically and evenly split at the outset of the New Negro Renaissance the two volumes of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature mark an impor-tant step toward a refined organization of literary texts according to more appropriate periods of African American literary history dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual cultural and political movements Specifically Volume 1 reprints African American literature from its beginnings to 1920 its three sections span the early national period the antebellum and Civil War periods and the New Negro period Proceeding from 1920 to the present Volume 2 includes four sections the New Negro Renaissance modernism and civil rights nationalism and the Black Aesthetic
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xix
Pre
face
and the contemporary period Showcasing the literature of 70 authors spread across both volumes this may not be the largest anthology in terms of the number of pages Nor may it be the most comprehensive in terms of the number of authors and texts Nonetheless it encourages sustained close reading to take advantage of its inclusion of not only more reprints of entire long works but also longer selec-tions of major works than any other anthology of its kind At the same time this anthology concedes ndash as all anthologies do ndash that as much as it can function on its own to anchor introductory or specialized courses to assigned readings in African American literature it still can serve to complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books whose large size copyright costs and page restrictions prohibit their inclusion in any anthology
Concerned as it is with reprinting African American literature this anthology of course affirms the political attitude of previous anthologies even as it tries to pave a new road ahead In recognizing African American literature as a crucial part of American literature this anthology recalls the academic growth of early anthologies from on the one hand advocating for the inclusion of the ldquomajor writers of Americardquo in English Department curricula toward on the other tailoring the canon to accommodate the historical and contemporary realities of ldquoracerdquo among other categories of diversity Over the years these comprehensive anthologies of American literature accumulated more and more African American writers who wrote literary texts that with presumable racial authenticity depict the underrepresented experiences of African Americans
The 1990s marked a turning point In this decade a consensus of scholars and instructors argued rightly that this incremental accumulation of African American writers and experiences in the American canon practically did not ndash and theoretically could not ndash account for the centuries-long lives and literatures of New World Africans and African Americans Comprehensive anthologies emerged to fill the void ndash both to declare a tradition of African American literature and because they were indeed anthologies to represent a canon of this literature at the same time The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature likewise asserts the centrality of race to the American canon reaffirms the salience of New World African and African American experiences in United States (and world) literary history and celebrates the compre-hensive array of literary examples attesting to these qualities
Yet this anthology resists the particular conflation of ldquotradition-buildingrdquo and ldquocanon formationrdquo found in fellow comprehensive anthologies of African American literature This conflation anoints texts with canonical significance only insofar as they attest to the traditional heritage and genealogy of ldquoblacknessrdquo such as the spirituals gospel work songs folklore the blues proverbs sermons prayers orations jazz black urban vernacular and rap lyrics that people of African descent created circulated and con-sumed It goes without saying that all comprehensive anthologies of African American literature should refer to the cultural traditions of the black vernacular This one does as well One cannot fully comprehend the selected writings of Frederick Douglass and WEB Du Bois without appreciating work songs and the spirituals those of Phillis Wheatley Jupiter Hammon and Harriet Jacobs without proverbs sermons and prayers those of Charles W Chesnutt Paul Laurence Dunbar Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker without folklore those of James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes Sterling A Brown and Michael S Harper without jazz and the blues and those of Gwendolyn Brooks Amiri Baraka Lucille Clifton and Gloria Naylor without codes of black urban vernacular In this anthology more connections and overlaps of this sort are made across African American literary history
The fact remains however that contemporary specialists have now begun on their own to compile and republish examples of the black vernacular providing readers
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxP
refa
ce
with a selection more copious a background more thorough than what is possible in even the most comprehensive anthologies of African American literature1 As these independent collections rightly continue to make the case that texts of black vernacu-lar culture deserve more scholarly and classroom attention The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature seeks to play a role more complementary than substitutive Belletristic texts are selected here mainly for their pedagogic scholarly and intellectual value in literary studies which in countless cases includes the black vernacular But this approach is not preoccupied with justifying the canonical inclu-sion of any and all notable texts for the sake of reestablishing an authentic tradition of African American literature in the name of the black vernacular African American literature is more complex and diverse than that Indeed the selected fiction and essays of Frank J Webb Jean Toomer George S Schuyler Samuel Delany Toni Morrison and Charles S Johnson unsettle traditional conceptions of race that presume the unvariegated quintessence of African American literature experiences communities and politics
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature thus marks a new long-awaited turn in the tone structure and purpose of canon formation No longer must a comprehensive anthology sound an existential urgency to disprove condemnations of the tradition or canonicity of African American literature No longer must it bear the burden of representing all versions of the written and spoken word communicated by ldquothe racerdquo And no longer should it presume the hunger of contemporary readers for authentic racial self-reflection Rather this kind of anthology should delight in an ironic corpus of literature that at one moment asserts the shared diasporic experience and history of African Americans yet at another wonders whether this assertion rings hol-low as often as it rings true In the new millennium the ambivalent life literature and literary historiography of race demand this canonical turn
1 Specialized books republishing examples of the black vernacular include The Anthology of Rap (Yale University Press 2010) edited by Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois African American Folktales Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon 1985) edited by Roger D Abrahams Talkinrsquo to Myself Blues Lyrics 1921ndash1942 (Routledge 2005)
edited by Michael Taft The Oxford Book of Spirituals (Oxford University Press 2002) edited by Moses Hogan and Preaching with Sacred Fire An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present (WW Norton amp Company 2010) edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A Thomas
Notes
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Introduction
Volume 2 of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature reprints African American literature from around the end of World War I in the early twentieth century until the present day in the new millennium Including 49 different writers the volume settles into four chronological sections ndash the New Negro Renaissance modernism modernity and civil rights nationalism militancy and the Black Aesthetic and the contemporary period These sections illustrate the historical challenges African Americans faced along with the artistic or intellectual creativity they demonstrated despite or because of these challenges in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries Key topics include the aesthetic and political formations of African American litera-ture against the backdrop of Americarsquos technological modernization its societal shifts from rural to urban regions its economic oscillations between insolvency and solvency its Cold War anxieties the racial politics of its civic upheavals and its postmodern meditations on race and ethnicity in the age of multiculturalism
The first section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the New Negro Renaissancerdquo includes selections of literature starting with the early poetry and fiction of Claude McKay in the 1910s and 1920s about Jamaica Harlem and Marseilles and closing with the essays and fiction of Richard Wright in the 1930s and 1940s Despite the strength-ening of nationalism and isolationism the massive transnational movement of capital people and information distinguished this period as did the increased stratification standardization and industrialization of US society Modernist American literature responded to these circumstances by alternately attacking tradition and transforming it by challenging the conventions of storytelling and language while demonstrating a vexed and ambivalent relationship to American popular culture and European high culture alike For African Americans modernism was conjoined with the Great Migration and the rebirth of the New Negro movement They left rural segregation violence and discrimination for potential opportunity and dignity in Harlem among other cities where African Americans concentrated major African American literary journals circulated and the New Negro Renaissance primarily staked its fortunes As the Roaring rsquo20s came to a close upon the 1929 stock market crash American writers spearheaded a brand of social realism in which the desperation and dignity of com-mon people in the face of socioeconomic travail became a salient theme Socialism as a mode of political agitation also became an attractive alternative to industrial capital-ism In this vein Richard Wright eventually emerged as a leading figure in the effort to reconcile racial nationalism and Marxism and thereby eclipse the New Negro
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxiiIn
trod
ucti
on
Renaissance Works of political militancy embraced African American folk traditions in conjunction with the Marxist call for proletarian revolution
The next section ldquoThe Literatures of Modernism Modernity and Civil Rightsrdquo runs from Gwendolyn Brooksrsquos books of poetry in the 1940s about African Americans in Chicago to Lorraine Hansberryrsquos writing on the development of American theater by the 1950s In these years the United States ascended as the worldrsquos preeminent superpower in which Americans largely relished the erarsquos material comforts their own increased social mobility and the national self-assurance of wielding unmatched eco-nomic and political power But underneath prosperity and faith in American excep-tionalism lurked civic unrest and the threat of nuclear war while serious racial gender and class inequality persisted The modern Civil Rights Movement emerged alongside Cold War anxieties over decolonization and the rise of the Soviet Union Looming front and center on the domestic front was the struggle by African Americans and a growing number of their white supporters for full racial equality During the war Americarsquos racial system was under duress both domestically and internationally African Americans pushed for racial equality on a global scale Against this backdrop African American writers in the 1940s drew on naturalism and Communist sympathies to indict Americarsquos system of racial humiliation economic deprivation and systemic inequality A decade later the grim determinism of the protest novel gave way to nuanced genres of African American literature that incorporated jazz and the blues Soon the rise of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality forced many African American writers and intellectuals to confront politics and specu-late on their own roles in the Civil Rights Movement
The third section ldquoThe Literatures of Nationalism Militancy and the Black Aestheticrdquo covers the years from the 1960s political art and criticism of Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) to the poetry of June Jordan in the mid-1970s At this time ldquoBlack Powerrdquo was a slogan representing the movement revolutionizing the cultural and political consciousness of African Americans Black Power belonged to a broader political if not radical protest against social prejudices and institutional strictures in the United States Anti-establishment rhetoric invigorated activists across the coun-try and the violent backlash that these revolutionary actions and symbols consist-ently elicited turned out to bolster the resurgence rather than the retreat of political conservatism The partisanship and uncertainty of the 1960s and 1970s found some formal and thematic resonance in the postmodernism of American literature Fragmented narratives unreliable narrators the dissolution of boundaries between ldquohighrdquo and ldquolowrdquo culture and the blurring of fact and fiction all apply heavy doses of irony in the literary claim to truth More importantly the era was a fruitful one for authors seeking to reveal yet overcome the traditional ways in which race eth-nicity gender and region alternately or collectively relegated underrepresented experiences to the margins of society Postmodernism also held an allure for African American literature whose aesthetics could owe more to pastiche than to protest Nonetheless many African American writers and activists were convinced that a revolution was at hand The nonviolent direct action protest of the southern Civil Rights Movement they believed failed to solve the issues of urban poverty inequal-ity segregation and economic disrepair afflicting African American communities The growing militancy of the Civil Rights Movement channeled the frustration of working-class African Americans through the cultural and political critiques waged in African American literature The Black Arts legacy would continue in the aca-demic field of Black Studies the emergence of hip hop and rap music and the ongo-ing appreciation of African American language and culture by contemporary scholars historians and critics
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxiii
Intr
oduc
tion
The final section of Volume 2 ldquoThe Literatures of the Contemporary Periodrdquo spans from the science fiction of Samuel Delany in the early 1970s to the essay by Charles R Johnson published in the first decade of the new millennium about how ldquothe old black American narrative has outlived its usefulnessrdquo The broader cultural shift in Americarsquos post-Civil Rights era from overt protests to pluralistic consensus under-writes contemporary cultural and political declarations of ldquopostracialismrdquo in addition to intellectual questions about the nature and function of African American literature in an age when the categories of race and ethnicity in particular are no longer immu-table and absolute Multiculturalism and diversity had long been lightning rods of an increasing almost insurmountable partisan divide yet these doctrines reflect the cul-tural reality of the United States at the outset of the twenty-first century American lit-erature published after 1975 reflects the increasing cultural racial sexual and ethnic diversity of its writers and readership even if at times the political implications or consequences of this diversity have been understated or muted in the literature itself Even though American literature continues to be packaged and marketed according to ethnic categories and identity politics the racial identities of contemporary writers and their writings are not as politicized in the sense of agitation or protest as they were decades ago such as during the 1960s African Americans have faced similar cultural and commercial conditions as those experienced by fellow ethnic American writers although they responded in unique ways to the political conservatism of the 1970s and 1980s and the countervailing shift toward multicultural pluralism The politics of African American literature thus has been alternately explicit and implicit An irony of contemporary racism is that the image of the African American welfare queen emerged at the same time that a revolution in the practice and study of African American wom-enrsquos writing was taking place in the US academy The Black Power and feminist move-ments of the 1970s provided space for African American women both within the literary establishment and at its margins Contemporary African American writers have also been drawn toward such genres as speculative fiction in which they could interrogate and deconstruct identity and do so unbound by the conventions of racial representation in canonical African American literature The so-called Culture Wars have largely been decided in favor of diversity and multiculturalism not only in human identity but also in literary forms The ldquobroad celebrationrdquo potentially defining African American litera-ture at the dawn of the new millennium ndash whereby as Charles R Johnson puts it one can witness ldquoa fiction of increasing artistic and intellectual growthrdquo ndash continues even as he happens to assert elsewhere indeed with equal fervor that this growth may portend ldquothe end of black American narrativerdquo
Every section of Volume 2 contains a pedagogical and scholarly apparatus Each has an introduction with three main goals to paint in broad strokes the social cultural intellectual political economic and international circumstances of the United States at a particular moment in history outline briefly the relationship of these circum-stances to the nature of American literature being written and published at that time and finally to indicate the potential implications of these broader literary and histori-cal forces on the formal and thematic principles of African American literature Next a biographical and critical headnote introduces each selected author describing the full trajectory of the authorrsquos thinking and writing in order to put the selected text in proper perspective After the headnote is a bibliography that advises teachers and stu-dents on the most relevant journal articles book chapters books and edited collec-tions of scholarly essays they should consider for ldquofurther readingrdquo This scholarly bibliography has been honed down to recognize only scholarship published recently (such as within the past two decades) and specializing on the author or the selected text The bibliography also almost always views as a complementary resource the
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxivIn
trod
ucti
on
recent essays published in Wiley Blackwellrsquos A Companion to African American Literature Volume 2 is not the most comprehensive selection of African American literature pub-lished since 1920 ndash but it does not intend to be Rather the authors and texts which with few exceptions are laid out in chronological order and selected with citation and commercial research in mind together capture the complexity and range of African American literary history from the modern era to the present
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is carefully designed to incorporate as many reprints of entire works and as many longer selections of major works as possible Between the genesis and publication of the anthology multiple stages of peer-review assessed its mission structure contents and viability Professors at colleges and universities were consulted to comment on and help revise the anthol-ogy and its corresponding website while the Editorial Advisory Board contributed deeper critical engagement with the anthologyrsquos principles of selection The outcome of this collaboration is an anthology that despite the breadth and depth afforded by its two-volume format focuses not on being the most comprehensive collection of African American literature in terms of the number of authors and texts Rather it concentrates on encouraging instructors to cultivate the sustained close reading of any combination of the 70 authors but with recognition that students teachers and scholars are now more specialized than ever before in analyzing movements genres or methodologies The anthology can function alone in introductory or spe-ci alized courses and it can complement an instructorrsquos independent adoption of separate books
The principles of selection have sought to balance the availability of African American literature with its affordability On the one hand the anthology provides a representative yet diverse range of belletristic texts for literary study The responses of external evaluators and of the Editorial Advisory Board coupled with reliable metrics mined from extensive scholarly and commercial data helped to refine the anthologyrsquos table of contents The texts readers encounter in the following pages thus are actually being adopted in the classroom in great numbers New archival discoveries and the discernible cultural turn in higher education toward realizing the ambivalent life lit-erature and literary historiography of race also necessitate this anthologyrsquos implicit argument that certain other exemplary texts should likewise be adopted
On the other hand this anthology seeks to ensure that the purchase of one volume or both volumes of the anthology remains within the financial means of students Editorial decisions to feature entire novels plays and collections of poems by individ-ual authors inevitably faced the challenges of accounting for their large size in terms of word count paying their copyright costs if in the private domain and in the latter case accommodating copyright owners or their agents who understandably wish to winnow down the anthologyrsquos selection so that it does not detract from the separate independent sales of these entire texts Even on a smaller textual scale such as the short stories and individual poems of renowned authors these structural limitations
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxviP
rinc
iple
s of
Sel
ecti
on a
nd E
dito
rial
Pro
cedu
res
played a role in the editorial decision to include or exclude them All comprehensive anthologies past and present have had to endure circumstances in which the peda-gogic and intellectual arguments to include entire texts ran up against the practical and budgetary arguments to excerpt or exclude them The current edition and format of The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature represent the successful negotiation of these conditions The comprehensive list of esteemed authors and texts is herein more available affordable and portable than ever before for both classroom and online use
Compiling and editing the selected literature followed a series of guidelines and procedures The reprintings of primary texts largely hew to original editions For the benefit of readers the texts have been lightly edited to correct errors of spelling punc-tuation syntax and capitalization born in the original editions Where no semantic meaning is involved in the change typographic elements have been made consistent across the volumes and arabic numbering has been used in preference to roman Annotative footnotes (which are enumerated by the editor) occasionally include these corrections or translate incomprehensibly archaic language into contemporary form More often they define obscure words explain complex or meaningful phrases and trace the historical significance of individuals groups places and events When known the year of first publication which generally dictates the chronological order of the contents follows each selection on the right-hand side sometimes adjoined to the year of a subsequent revised edition If relevant the year of composition is also provided on the left-hand side Finally in the table of contents a bracketed title which states a central theme or quotes a poemrsquos first line for example is editorially provided in case the original primary text lacks a title
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Acknowledgments
The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature was the most difficult edito-rial project I have ever taken up in my career In the past I have compiled and reprinted the writings of canonical and obscure African American authors edited and published the essays of contemporary scholars and along the way dealt with the literary estates or agencies of authors whose works still exist in the private domain and require copy-right permission for republication Preparing this two-volume anthology demanded that I recall these experiences and endure them again Doing so was equivalent to put-ting together multiple kinds of collections in one and addressing a large group of collaborators and constituencies with varying interests and needs in this enterprise Unenviable to some this was no small task
Yet multiple things helped bring everyone together in the spirit of consensus and contribution There was either a deep-seated admiration for the literatures of New World Africans and African Americans from centuries ago to the present an ineluc-table sense of belonging to and support of this historic community of writers or an abiding commitment to examining and circulating this literary corpus on behalf of higher education both in the United States and around the world Or the senti-ment included all the above This shared focus inspired me as I tried to shepherd this project from inception to conclusion as did the opportunity to work closely with great literary artists and critics academic instructors scholars editors and students
Located in both England and the United States an outstanding group of editors and staff at Wiley Blackwell advocated for this enormous and complex book and I wish to thank them here Emma Bennett Executive EditorPublisher of Literature was receptive to my idea first proposed in 2009 of a new comprehensive anthology of African American literature released in multivolume format She was patient and con-siderate as we hammered out contractual details about the parameters and resources of the project Our regular conversations since then were crucial to the anthologyrsquos current shape and focus Ben Thatcher Project Editor skillfully managed the projectrsquos unwieldy materials With an eye always to buoying my soul he eloquently negotiated with copyright holders and literary estates and agencies so that I did not have to enter the fray Deirdre Ilkson Senior Development Editor and Bridget Jennings Senior Editorial Assistant helped to usher the project to completion especially in the final stages Possessing a keen eye Giles Flitney patiently copy-edited these very long volumes and worked with me to resolve issues both big and small Finally Felicity Marsh managed the project with a steady hand that kept me at ease at all times
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxviiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
My literary agent Wendy Strothman of the Strothman Agency LLC meticulously worked on my behalf during the very important and time-consuming negotiation with Wiley Blackwell over the contractual details of the project
The anthology would not be where or what it is today without the members of the Editorial Advisory Board They generously gave their time and insight their advice and encouragement cooperating with me and the countless staff either at the pub-lisher or at my home institution Boston University working on my behalf By name I thank them again here even though they are already spotlighted on another page in the front matter Daphne A Brooks Joanna Brooks Margo Natalie Crawford Madhu Dubey Michele Elam Philip Gould George B Hutchinson Marlon B Ross Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson James Edward Smethurst Werner Sollors John Stauffer Jeffrey Allen Tucker and Ivy G Wilson Over the course of preparing this anthology I also consulted several other professors most notably Brent Hayes Edwards Harryette Mullen Lawrence P Jackson William Maxwell and Margaret B Wilkerson
The essays in the Wiley Blackwell Companion to African American Literature (2010) figure prominently in the scholarly rationale or apparatus for the anthology I thank their authors here (some also appearing above) Vincent Carretta James Sidbury Frances Smith Foster Kim D Green Michael J Drexler Ed White Joanna Brooks Tyler Mabry Philip Gould Maurice S Lee Robert S Levine Ivy G Wilson Marlon B Ross Andreaacute N Williams Shirley Moody-Turner Michelle Ann Stephens Cherene M Sherrard-Johnson Mark Christian Thompson Michelle Yvonne Gordon Keith D Leonard James Edward Smethurst Glenda Carpio Madhu Dubey Robin V Smiles Jeffrey Allen Tucker Theresa Delgadillo Guy Mark Foster and Arlene R Keizer Finally the many professors and instructors who responded to questionnaires and solicitations about the anthology were invaluable
Completing this project would have been impossible without my former and current research assistants at Boston University John Barnard diligently worked on the project at a very early organizational stage Kerri Greenidge possesses exhaustive knowledge of African American cultural political and intellectual history and her tireless application of this knowledge to the project was a godsend Iain Bernhoft demonstrated remarkable acumen discipline and leadership as he handled the anthologyrsquos literary and scholarly materials and served as interlocutor between me and Wiley Blackwell Joyce Kim gener-ously and energetically came onto the project very late in the process to help rescue the preparation of key parts of the anthology Anne Austin as Department Administrator helped to keep me organized and attentive as I necessarily attended to my other duties as Professor and Chair of the Department of English And I thank my colleagues and administrators at Boston University for their longstanding support
This anthology builds on the previous accomplishments of teachers writers schol-ars and anthologists of African American literature I express gratitude to the selected writers and their literary estates and agencies willing to work with us to include their writings I also extend thanks to the editors of fellow anthologies who provided advice as I consulted them on the viability of this project Henry Louis Gates Jr William L Andrews Robert S Levine Ivy Schweitzer and Richard Yarborough
My longtime wife and best friend Reneacutee has long believed in me she was the first to support this project and she encouraged me as I tried to finish it I thank her our lovely children Nyla Noah and Nadia and the rest of our family who supported me all the while from beginning to end
A book of this complexity and magnitude will inevitably have factual and conceptual errors Even though everyone above contributed to this anthology in some way I accept ultimate responsibility and apologize for any such errors that happen to wind their way into print
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxix
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
The editor(s) [or author(s) as appropriate] and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book
Claude McKay ldquoWhersquo fe Dordquo and ldquoCudjoe Fresh from de Lecturerdquo from Songs of Jamaica 1912 Claude McKay ldquoAmericardquo ldquoThe Tropics in New Yorkrdquo ldquoHarlem Shadowsrdquo ldquoThe White Cityrdquo ldquoAfricardquo ldquoThe Tired Workerrdquo ldquoIf We Must Dierdquo from Complete Poems ed William J Maxwell Urbana IL University of Illinois Press 2004 Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations From Claude McKay Banjo ndash A Story Without Plot San Diego New York London Harper amp Bros 1929 (copyright renewed in 1957) Used by permission of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations Jessie Fauset ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 26 no 4 August 1923 pp 155ndash159 and ldquoDouble Troublerdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 26 no 5 September 1923 pp 205ndash209 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jessie Fauset ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part 1 from The Crisis Vol 29 no 6 April 1925 and ldquoDark Algiers the Whiterdquo Part II from The Crisis Vol 30 no 1 May 1925 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC Jean Toomer ldquoBona and Paulrdquo from Cane New York Boni amp Liveright 1923 Copyright copy 1923 by Boni amp Liveright renewed 1951 by Jean Toomer Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation Jean Toomer ldquoBalordquo from Plays of Negro Life A Sourcebook of Native American Drama ed Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory New York Harper and Brothers 1927 Used by permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoWinter on Earthrdquo from Second American Caravan A Yearbook of American Literature eds Alfred Kreymborg Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfield New York Macaulay Co 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Jean Toomer ldquoRace Problems in Modern Societyrdquo from Man and His World Northwestern University Essays in Contemporary Thought VII Chicago Van Nostrand 1929 Used permission of The Yale Committee on Literary Property Yale University Counteacutee Cullen ldquoYet Do I Marvelrdquo ldquoTableaurdquo ldquoIncidentrdquo ldquoHeritagerdquo ldquoTo John Keats Poet At Springtimerdquo and ldquoI Have a Rendezvous with Liferdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoFour Epitaphs lsquoFor My Grandmotherrsquo lsquoFor John Keats Apostle of Beautyrsquo lsquoFor Paul Laurence Dunbarrsquo and lsquoFor a Lady I Knowrsquordquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoMillenialrdquo from Copper Sun New York Harper amp Bros 1927 copy 1927 Harper amp Bros NY renewed copy 1954 by Ida Cullen Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permis-sion Counteacutee Cullen ldquoAt the Wailing Wall in Jerusalemrdquo ldquoFrom the Dark Towerrdquo ldquoUncle Jimrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission Counteacutee Cullen ldquoTo Certain Criticsrdquo from My Soulrsquos High Song New York Doubleday 1991 Copyrights held by Amistad Research Center Tulane University Administered by Thompson and Thompson Brooklyn NY 11202 Used by permission WEB Du Bois ldquoThe Negro Mind Reaches Outrdquo from Foreign Affairs 3 no 3 (1925) Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of the David Graham Du Bois Trust WEB
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxxA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Du Bois ldquoCriteria of Negro Artrdquo from The Crisis 32 October 1926 290ndash297 Used by permission of Gordon Feinblatt LLC ldquoThe City of Refugerdquo Rudolph Fisher 1925 ldquoBlades of Steelrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 ldquoThe Caucasian Storms Harlemrdquo Rudolph Fisher 1927 Helene Johnson ldquoMy Racerdquo ldquoThe Roadrdquo ldquoMagulardquo ldquoA Southern Roadrdquo ldquoBottledrdquo ldquoPoemrdquo ldquoSonnet to a Negro in Harlemrdquo ldquoSummer Maturesrdquo ldquoInvocationrdquo ldquoRemember Notrdquo from This Waiting for Love Helene Johnson Poet of the Harlem Renaissance ed Verner D Mitchell Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 2000 Used by permission of University of Massachusetts Press Alain Locke ldquoThe New Negrordquo from The New Negro Readings on Race Representation and African American Culture 1892ndash1938 ed Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene A Jarrett Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 2007 Copyright copy 2007 by Henry Louis Gates Jr and Gene Andrew Jarrett Used by permission of Princeton University Press Langston Hughes ldquoThe Negro Artist and the Racial Mountainrdquo from The Nation Magazine 1926 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd Langston Hughes ldquoThe Weary Bluesrdquo ldquoJazzoniardquo ldquoHarlem Night Clubrdquo ldquoThe Negro Speaks of Riversrdquo ldquoDanse Africainerdquo Epilogue (ldquoI Too Sing Americardquo) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited Langston Hughes ldquoDream Boogierdquo ldquoJuke Box Love Songrdquo ldquoBallad of the Landlordrdquo from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes ed Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel Associate Editor New York Alfred A Knopf 1994 copy 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes Used by permission of Alfred A Knopf a division of Random House Inc and David Higham Associates Limited George S Schuyler ldquoThe Negro-Art Hokumrdquo from The Nation 16 June 1926 Used by permission of the publisher From George Schuyler Black No More an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free AD 1933ndash1940 New York Macaulay Co 1931 Dorothy West ldquoThe Typewriterrdquo pp 9ndash17 from The Richer The Poorer Copyright copy 1995 by Dorothy West Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House Inc and Virago an imprint of Little Brown Book Group UK Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Zora Neale Hurston ldquoThe Back Roomrdquo 1927 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Zora Neale Hurston ldquoHow It Feels to Be Colored Merdquo 1928 Used by permission of The Zora Neale Hurston Trust via Victoria Sanders amp Associates Sterling A Brown ldquoOdyssey of Big Boyrdquo ldquoWhen de Saints Go Marsquoching Homerdquo ldquoSouthern Roadrdquo ldquoMemphis Bluesrdquo ldquoMa Raineyrdquo ldquoTin Roof Bluesrdquo ldquoCabaretrdquo ldquoSalutamusrdquo and ldquoTo a Certain Lady in Her Gardenrdquo from The Collected Poems of Sterling A Brown ed Michael S Harper Evanston IL TriQuarterly Books Northwestern University 1989 Copyright copy Sterling A Brown Used by permission of The Estate of Sterling A Brown co The Blakeslee Law Firm Richard Wright ldquoBig Boy Leaves Homerdquo from Uncle Tomrsquos Children New York HarperCollins 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc Richard Wright ldquoBlueprint for Negro Writingrdquo from Within the Circle An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present ed Angelyn Mitchell Durham NC Duke University Press 1994 pp 97ndash106 Copyright copy 1994 Duke University Press All rights reserved Used by permission of Duke University Press Richard Wright ldquoHow lsquoBiggerrsquo Was Bornrdquo from Native Son and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born New York NY Harper Perennial 1991 Used by permission of HarperCollins USA and John Hawkins amp Associates Inc and The Random House Group Ltd UK Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoA Street in Bronzevillerdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by per-mission of Brooks Permissions Gwendolyn Brooks ldquoNotes from the Childhood and
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxxi
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
the Girlhoodrdquo ldquoThe Anniadrdquo ldquoThe Womanhoodrdquo from Selected Poems New York Perennial Classics 1999 Used by permission of Brooks Permissions Robert Hayden ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden ed Frederick Glaysher New York Liveright 1985 ldquoMiddle Passagerdquo Copyright copy 1962 1966 by Robert Hayden ldquoThe Ballad of Nat Turnerrdquo Copyright copy 1966 by Robert Hayden Used by permission of the Liveright Publishing Corporation Chester B Himes ldquoA Night of New Rosesrdquo ldquoDa-Da-Deerdquo ldquoTangrdquo from The Collected Stories of Chester Himes Ann Arbor The University of Michigan 1990 Used by permission of The Estate of Chester Himes Ann Petry ldquoThe Bones of Louella Brownrdquo ldquoIn Darkness and Confusionrdquo from Miss Muriel and Other Stories New York Kensington Publishing Corp Mariner Book 1999 Copyright copy 1971 by Ann Petry Renewed 1999 by Elizabeth Petry Used by permission of Russell amp Volkening as agents for the author James Baldwin ldquoEverybodyrsquos Protest Novelrdquo ldquoNotes of a Native Sonrdquo from Notes of a Native Son Boston MA The Beacon Press 1955 Copyright copy 1955 renewed 1983 by James Baldwin Used by permission of Beacon Press Boston James Baldwin ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo from Going to Meet the Man New York Vintage 1995 ldquoSonnyrsquos Bluesrdquo copy 1957 by James Baldwin Originally published in Partisan Review Copyright renewed Collected in Going to Meet the Man published by Penguin and Vintage Books Used by permission of the James Baldwin Estate From Ralph Ellison Invisible Man New York Vintage International Random House Inc 1995 Copyright copy 1947 1948 1952 by Ralph Ellison Copyright copy renewed 1975 1976 1980 by Ralph Ellison Used by per-mission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply direct to Random House Inc for permission Ralph Ellison ldquoHidden Name and Complex Faterdquo from Shadow and Act New York Vintage International Edition 1995 copy 1964 and renewed 1992 by Ralph Ellison Used by permission of Random House Inc and The Wylie Agency Ltd Lorraine Hansberry ldquoWillie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Liverdquo from Village Voice Vol 4 No 42 Copyright copy by Lorraine Hansberry Used by permission of David Black Agency on behalf of the Author Amiri Baraka ldquoThe Myth of a lsquoNegro Literaturersquordquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Amiri Baraka ldquoCrow Janerdquo ldquoFor Crow JaneMama Deathrdquo ldquoCrow Janersquos Mannerrdquo ldquoCrow Jane in High Societyrdquo ldquoCrow Jane The Crookrdquo ldquoThe dead lady canonizedrdquo ldquoI Substitute for the Dead Lecturerrdquo ldquoPolitical Poemrdquo from Amiri Baraka Reader ed by William J Harris New York Avalon Publishing Group 2000 Copyright copy by Amiri Baraka Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc LeRoi Jones ldquoDutchmanrdquo from Dutchman and the Slave New York William Morrow amp Company 1964 Used by permission of SLLSterling Lord Literistic Inc Adrienne Kennedy ldquoFunnyhouse of a Negrordquo from In One Act Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1988 copy 1962 1988 by Adrienne Kennedy Used by permission of the author and University of Minnesota Press Larry Neal ldquoAnd Shine Swan Onrdquo from Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing eds Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal New York Black Classic Press 2007 Used by permission of Evelyn Neal Lucille Clifton ldquoin the inner cityrdquo ldquomy mamma moved among the daysrdquo ldquomy daddyrsquos fingers moved among the couplersrdquo ldquoThe white boyrdquo ldquoCarsquolinersquos prayerrdquo and ldquoGenerationsrdquo from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton Copyright copy 1987 by Lucille Clifton Used by permission of The Permissions Company Inc on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd wwwboaeditionsorg Michael S Harper ldquoBrother Johnrdquo ldquoAmerican Historyrdquo ldquoDeathwatchrdquo ldquoDear John Dear Coltranerdquo from Songlines in Michaeltree New and Collected Poems Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 2000 Copyright copy 2000 by Michael S Harper ldquoWhere Is My Woman
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxxiiA
ckno
wle
dgm
ents
Now For Billie Holidayrdquo ldquoMalcolmrsquos Bluesrdquo ldquoDirge for Tranerdquo from Dear John Dear Coltrane Champaign IL University of Illinois Press 1985 Copyright copy 1970 by Michael S Harper Used with permission of the poet and the University of Illinois Press From Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman pp 11ndash20 Detroit MI Broadside Press 1974 Toni Cade Bambara ldquoMy Man Bovannerdquo from Gorilla My Love New York Vintage Contemporaries 1992 Copyright copy 1971 by Toni Cade Bambara Used by permission of Random House Inc Any third party use of this material outside of this publication is prohibited Interested parties must apply directly to Random House Inc for permission June Jordan ldquoIn Memoriam Martin Luther King Jrrdquo ldquoIf You Saw A Negro Ladyrdquo ldquoAnd Who Are Yourdquo ldquoToward a Personal Semanticsrdquo ldquoWhat Would I Do Whiterdquo ldquoNo Train of Thoughtrdquo ldquoI Celebrate the Sons of Malcolmrdquo ldquoLast Poem for a Little Whilerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoOn the Black Poet Reading His Poems in the Parkrdquo ldquoOn the Black Familyrdquo ldquoCalling on All Silent Minoritiesrdquo ldquoNo Poem Because Time Is Not a Namerdquo from Directed by Desire The Collected Poems of June Jordan eds Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles Port Townsend WA Copper Canyon Press 2005 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust and Copper Canyon Press June Jordan ldquoThe Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatleyrdquo from On Call Political Essays Boston MA South End Press 1985 Used by permission of the June M Jordan Literary Estate Trust Samuel R Delany ldquoOmegahelmrdquo from Aye and Gomorrah Stories New York Vintage Books 2003 Copyright copy 1973 2000 by Samuel R Delany Used by permission of the author and his agents Henry Morrison Inc From Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have consid-ered suicide when the rainbow is enuf a choreopoem New York Macmillan publishing company 1977 Copyright copy 1975 1976 1977 2010 by Ntozake Shange All rights reserved Used by permission of Scribner Publishing Group and Russell amp Volkening Inc Alice Walker ldquoLooking for Zorardquo ldquoZora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan Viewrdquo from In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens Womanist Prose London Orion Books Ltd 2005 Used by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd From Alice Walker The Color Purple pp 116ndash140 London Orion Books Ltd 1983 Used by permis-sion of David Higham Associates Ltd Audre Lorde ldquoPoetry is Not a Luxuryrdquo ldquoThe Masterrsquos Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masterrsquos Houserdquo ldquoAge Race Class and Sex Women Redefining Differencerdquo from Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches Berkeley CA Crossing Press 2007 Used by permission of Abner Stein Audre Lorde ldquoThe Black Unicornrdquo ldquoConiagui Womenrdquo ldquoFor Assatardquo ldquoIn Margaretrsquos Gardenrdquo ldquoWomanrdquo ldquoBut What Can You Teach My Daughterrdquo ldquoSister Outsiderrdquo from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde New York WW Norton ampCompany 2000 Copyright copy 1978 by Audre Lorde Used by permission of WW Norton amp Company Inc and Abner Stein From Octavia Butler Kindred pp 9ndash51 Boston MA Beacon Press 2003 Copyright copy 1979 by Octavia E Butler Used by permission of Beacon Press Gloria Naylor ldquoDawnrdquo ldquoThe Block Partyrdquo ldquoDuskrdquo from The Women of Brewster Place New York Penguin Books 1992 Copyright copy 1980 1982 by Gloria Naylor Used by permission of Viking Penguin a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc Toni Morrison ldquoRecitatifrdquo from Confirmation An Anthology of African American Women eds Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Amina Baraka New York William Morrow amp Company Inc 1983 Copyright copy 1983 by Toni Morrison Used by permission of International Creative Management Inc Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Pittsburgh PA Carnegie-Mellon University Press 1986 copy 1986 by Rita Dove Used by permission of the author August Wilson Fences New York Plume 1986 Copyright copy 1986 by August Wilson Used by permission of
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxxiii
Ack
now
ledg
men
ts
Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc From Jamaica Kincaid Lucy New York Farrar Straus and Giroux 1990 pp 3ndash15 copy 1990 by Jamaica Kincaid Used by permission of Farrar Straus and Giroux LLC and The Wylie Agency From Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying pp 211ndash256 New York Vintage 1993 Copyright copy 1993 by Ernest J Gaines Used by permission of Profile Books Limited and Alfred A Knopf an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group a division of Random House LLC All rights reserved Suzan-Lori Parks ldquoAn Equation for Black People Onstagerdquo from The America Play and Other Works Ann Arbor Theater Communications Group 1995 Copyright copy 1992 1994 by Suzan-Lori Parks Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group Edwidge Danticat ldquoNew York Day Womenrdquo from Krik Krak New York Soho Press 1995 Copyright copy 1995 by Edwidge Danticat Used by permission of Soho Press Inc All rights reserved Walter Mosley ldquoBlack to the Futurerdquo from New York Times Magazine 148 (1998) 32 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis Walter Mosley ldquoThe Nig in Merdquo from Futureland Nine Stories of an Imminent World New York Warner Books 2001 Used by permission of Watkins Loomis and Open Road Integrated Media Percival Everett ldquoThe Fixrdquo from Damned if I Do Minneapolis Graywolf Press 2004 Copyright copy Percival Everettt 2000 Used by permission of the author John Edgar Wideman ldquoWeightrdquo from Godrsquos Gym New York Houghton Mifflin Company 2005 Copyright copy 2005 John Edgar Wideman Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited Harryette Mullen ldquoAll She Wroterdquo ldquoThe Anthropic Principlerdquo ldquoBleeding Heartsrdquo ldquoDenigrationrdquo ldquoDaisy Pearlrdquo ldquoDim Ladyrdquo ldquoEctopiardquo ldquoExploring the Dark Contentrdquo ldquoMusic for Homemade Instrumentsrdquo ldquoNatural Anguishrdquo ldquoResistance is Fertilerdquo ldquoSleeping with the Dictionaryrdquo ldquoWe Are Not Responsiblerdquo from Sleeping With the Dictionary Berkeley University of California Press 2002 Used by permission of University Of California Press From Edward P Jones The Known World pp 1ndash28 New York Amistad Press 2003 Copyright copy 2003 by Edward P Jones Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Charles R Johnson ldquoThe End of the Black American Narrativerdquo from The American Scholar ( June 1 2008) Copyright copy 2008 by Charles Johnson Used by permission of Georges Borchardt Inc on behalf of the author
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Table of Contents (by Genre)
Poetry or Poetics
Claude McKay Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Harlem Shadows (1922) 9 12
Counteacutee Cullen Color (1925) Caroling Dusk (1927) Copper Sun (1927) and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929) 126 133 134 136
Helene Johnson [Selected Poems] (1925ndash1929) 191
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) and Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 213 217
Sterling A Brown Southern Road (1932) 319
Gwendolyn Brooks A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949) 393 398
Robert Hayden Ballad of Remembrance (1962) 419
Amiri Baraka The Dead Lecturer (1964) 620
Lucille Clifton Good Times (1969) 662
Michael S Harper Dear John Dear Coltrane (1970) 666
June Jordan Some Changes (1971) New Days (1974) and On Call (1985) 687 697 700
Sonia Sanchez A Blues Book for a Blue Black Magic Woman (1974) 673
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
Audre Lorde Sister Outsider (1984) and The Black Unicorn (1978) 762 773
Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah (1986) 836
Harryette Mullen Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002) 1000
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxxv
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Autobiography
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
Richard Wright How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 367
James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475
Alice Walker Looking for Zora in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1975) 735
Essay
Jessie Fauset Dark Algiers the White (1925) 68
WEB Du Bois The Negro Mind Reaches Out in The New Negro (1925) and Criteria of Negro Art (1926) 139
Alain Locke The New Negro in The New Negro (1925) 198
Langston Hughes The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) 210
George S Schuyler The Negro-Art Hokum (1926) 221
Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928) 258
Jean Toomer Race Problems in Modern Society (1929) 109
Richard Wright Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) and How ldquoBiggerrdquo Was Born (1940) 360 367
James Baldwin Everybodyrsquos Protest Novel and Notes of a Native Son in Notes of a Native Son (1955) 475 479
Lorraine Hansberry Willie Loman Walter Younger and He Who Must Live (1959) 601
Ralph Ellison Hidden Name and Complex Fate in Shadow and Act (1964) 585
Amiri Baraka The Myth of a ldquoNegro Literaturerdquo in Home Social Essays (1965) 615
Larry Neal And Shine Swam On in Black Fire (1968) 650
Alice Walker Looking for Zora and Zora Neale Hurston A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View in In Search of Our Mothersrsquo Gardens (1983) 735 747
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Walter Mosley Black to The Future (1998) 958
Charles R Johnson The End of the Black American Narrative (2008) 1023
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxxviTa
ble
of C
onte
nts
(by
Gen
re)
Drama
Jean Toomer Balo (1924 1927) 85
Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) 624
Adrienne Kennedy Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 638
Ntozake Shange for colored girls who have considered suicide hellip (1975) 726
August Wilson Fences (1986) 871
Suzan-Lori Parks An Equation for Black People Onstage in The America Play and Other Works (1994) 948
Fiction
Jean Toomer Bona and Paul in Cane (1923) and Winter on Earth (1928) 79 93
Rudolph Fisher The City of Refuge (1925) Blades of Steel (1927) The Caucasian Storms Harlem (1927) 165 175 185
Dorothy West The Typewriter (1926) 245
Zora Neale Hurston The Back Room (1927) 254
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Richard Wright Big Boy Leaves Home in Uncle Tomrsquos Children (1938) 335
Chester Himes A Night of New Roses (1945) Da-Da-Dee (1948) and Tang (1967) 428 432 436
Ann Petry The Bones of Louella Brown (1947) and In Darkness and Confusion (1947) 443 451
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
James Baldwin Sonnyrsquos Blues in Going to Meet the Man (1965) 492
Toni Cade Bambara My Man Bovanne in Gorilla My Love (1972) 681
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Toni Morrison Recitatif (1983) 823
Jamaica Kincaid Poor Visitor in Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
xxxvii
Tabl
e of
Con
tent
s (b
y G
enre
)
Edwidge Danticat New York Day Women in Krik Krak (1996) 952
Walter Mosley The Nig in Me in Futureland (2001) 960
Samuel Delany Omegahelm in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories (2003) 717
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
Percival Everett The Fix in Damned If I Do (2004) 979
John Edgar Wideman Weight in Godrsquos Gym (2005) 990
Novel or Novella
Nella Larsen Passing (1929) 263
Claude McKay Banjo A Story without a Plot (1929) 15
George S Schuyler Black No More (1931) 223
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1952) 514
Octavia Butler Kindred (1979) 780
Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place (1982) 810
Alice Walker The Color Purple (1982) 751
Jamaica Kincaid Lucy (1990) 917
Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying (1993) 924
Edward P Jones The Known World (2003) 1006
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