African American Literature
This is a list of African American Literature that I have in my possession. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all African American Writers.
Maya Angelou
I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing (Memoir)
All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (Memoir)
Interview (2002) by Gary Younge
Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing by P. Walker (academic essay available online)
Maya Angelou’s Website
James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time (Essay)
The Evidence of Things Not Seen (Essay)
Nobody Knows My Name (Essays) Study Guide available online
Interview (1984) in The Paris Review available online
Video Interview with Kenneth Clark available online Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Transcript of this interview with Kenneth Clark available online
Video Interview available online Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Obituary available online
James Baldwin’s Blues and the Function of Art by Edward Lobb (essay available online)
Derrick A. Bell
Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (Social Studies)
Video Interview (1992) available online
Profile available online
Ralph Bunche
Some Reflections on Peace in Our Time (Nobel Prize Lecture 1950 available online)
Nobel Peace Prize 1950 Acceptance Speech available online
Obituary in The New York Times available online
Profile available online
Ralph Bunche: UN Mediator in the Middle East 1948-1949 by A. Sveen (article available online)
Ralph Bunche in South Africa in the 1930s by N. Masilela (essay available online)
PBS Website: Ralph Bunche An American Odyssey, Teachers’ Guide available online, Crisis in the Congo Module 10 available online
Octavia Butler
Kindred (Novel) Discussion Questions available online, Spark Notes available online
NPR-UN Racism Conference Essay available online
“Would you really rather die than bear my young?”: the construction of gender, race, and species in Octavia E. Butler’s “Bloodchild.” by Elyce Rae Helford (essay available online)
“Do I look like someone you can come home to from where you may be going?”: re-mapping interracial anxiety in Octavia Butler’s Kindred by Guy Mark Foster (essay available online)
Interview (1996) available online
Interview (2000) available online
Interview (2003) available online
Interview (2004) available online
Audio Interview (2004) available online
Obituary available online
Obituary in The New York Times available online
The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Webpage
Toni Cade Bambara
Those Bones are Not My Child (Novel) Excerpt available online
The Lesson (Short Story available online)
Raymond’s Run (Short Story available online)
The Writer’s Forum (Speech available online)
Obituary in The New York Times available online
Profile available online
Working-Class Literature Profile available online
Toni Cade Bambara’s use of African American Vernacular English in “The Lesson” by Janet Ruth Heller (essay available online)
Bambara’s feisty girls: resistance narratives in Gorilla, My Love by E. Muther (essay available online)
William Jelani Cobb
To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (Social Studies)
White Negro, Please! (Essay available online)
Past Imperfect: Independence Day (Article available online)
As Obama Rises, Old Guard Civil Rights Leaders Scowl (Article available online)
Interview available online
Interview (2006) available online
Profile available online
William Jelani Cobb’s Website
James H. Cone
A Black Theology of Liberation (Religious Studies)
Black Theology in American Religion (Essay available online)
The Black Church and Marxism: What Do They Have to Say to Each Other? (Lecture available online)
The Religious Cancer of Racism (Article available online)
Whose Earth is it Anyway? (Article available online)
Radio Interview (2008) available online
Video Interview (2008) available online
Interview (2007) available online
Interview (1971) available online
Profile available online
Profile on PBS available online
James Cone’s Hermeneutic Of Language And Black Theology by D. Hayes (essay available online)
Contrasts and Fragments: An Exploration of James Cone’s Theological Methodology by R. Cumming (essay available online)
June Cross
Secret Daughter: A Mixed Race Daughter and the Mother who Gave Her Away (Memoir) Penguin Readers’ Guide available online
Secret Daughter Website
Website for the PBS Documentary based on Cross’ memoir
Transcript from the PBS Documentary Secret Daugther, based on Cross’ memoir available online
Harold Cruse
The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership (Black Studies)
Obituary in The New York Times available online
Profile available online
More Than Just a Politician: Harold Cruse and the Origins of Black Power by Van Gosse (essay available online)
Julie Dash
Daughters of the Dust (Novel based on her film)
Interview (1997) available online
Interview (2009) available online
Profile available online
In the Old Neighborhood With: Julie Dash; Home Is Where the Imagination Took Root by F. Lee (article available online)
Fashioning the body [as] politic in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust by Angeletta K.M. Gourdine (article available online)
Repositioning: center and margin in Julie Dash’s ‘Daughters of the Dust by Joel R. Brouwer (article available online)
Rewriting Hollywood History in Julie Dash’s Illusions by Wes Felton (article available online)
Julie Dash and The Rosa Parks Story by R. A. Jones (article available online)
Body, Voice, and the Claim of Beauty in Julie Dash’s Film Daughters of the Dust by Anthony J. Cascardi (article available online)
Encountering the Familiarity of a Foreign Culture: Julie Dash’s Novel Daughters of the Dust by Katharina Gerund (article available online)
Making history: Julie Dash by Patricia Mellencamp (article available online)
The Narrative as a Statement of Identity and History In Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust by Lâmia Gülçur (article available online)
Webpage for The Film Daughters of the Dust
Geechee Girls Multimedia Website
Angela Davis
An Autobiography (Memoir)
Women, Culture, and Politics (Essays)
Are Prisons Obsolete? (Politics)
Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex (Article available online)
Interview (2007) with Gary Younge available online
Interview (1997) available online
Online Lecture about Angela Davis by Stanford Professor Clayborne Carson available online
Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (Slave Narrative available online) Spark Notes available online
Profile of Frederick Douglass from PBS.org available online
Website of the University of Rochester Frederick Douglass Project
W. E. B. Dubois
The Souls of Black Folk (Essays available online)
The Conversation of Races (Essay available online)
Socialism and the Negro Problem (Essay available online)
Excerpts from The Talented Tenth available online
Website dedicated to the life and works of W. E. B. Dubois
Tananarive Due
My Soul to Keep (Novel) Excerpt available online
Patient Zero (Short Story available online)
Allegorical Landmines: Aliens & Race in ‘District 9′ (Article available online)
On Octavia E. Butler (Tribute available online)
Interview (1997) available online
Audio Interview (2006) on NPR available online
Audio Interview (2007) on NPR available online
Interview (2008) available online
Interview available online
Audio Book Review of My Soul to Keep on NPR available online
Power Dynamics in the Novels of Tananarive Due by Mary Anne Mohanraj (article available online)
Tananarive Due’s Website
Tananarive Due’s Blog
Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man (Novel) Spark Notes available online, Teacher’s Guide available online
Juneteenth (Novel) Reading Group Guide available online
Interview (1955) in The Paris Review available online
Profile available online
VOA Learning English Site discussion on Ellison’s Novel Invisible Man available online
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the last and present Century (Autobiography available online)
B.C.’s Amazing Black Pioneer by C. Kilian (article available online)
Biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Nikki Giovanni
My First Memory (of Librarians) (Poem available online)
Possum Crossing (Poem available online)
Quilts (Poem available online)
From A Logical Point Of View (Poem available online)
The True Import Of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro (For Peppe, Who Will Ultimately Judge Our Efforts) (Poem available online)
Selected Poems available online
We are Virginia Tech (2007 Convocation Address available online)
Interviews (2004) with Julian Bond available online
Interview (2007) with Tavis Smiley available online
Interview (2009) with Bill Moyers available online
Nikki Giovanni’s Website
Chester Himes
The Quality of Hurt (Autobiography)
My Life of Absurdity (Autobiography)
Interview (1978) in French available online
Chester Himes’s Cotton Comes to Harlem: A Reparations Parable by Rosanna Cavallaro (essay available online)
Love Jones: a black male feminist critique of Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go by David Ikard (essay available online) Alternate Link
Limited options: strategic maneuverings in Himes’s Harlem by Wendy W. Walters (essay available online)
Chester Himes and Early African-American Detective Novelists by William Marling (article available online)
If He Hollers: Remembering Chester Himes by John Ridley (audio interview available online)
Chester Himes: Exile and 125th Street by M. Gonzales (article available online)
Rage in Harlem: Black Protest in the Mid-Century American Crime Novel by L. Horsley (extract available online)
Profile in the New York Times available online
Profile by N. Crawford available online
Profile available online
Interview (1999) with Lesley Himes available online
bell hooks
Black Looks: Race and Representation (Feminist Text) Excerpt available online
Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (Feminist Text)
Sisters of the Yam: Black Womena and Self-Recovery (Feminist Text)
Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics (Feminist Text)
Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism (Feminist Text, with Amalia Mesa-Bains)
Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (Philosophical Text, with Cornel West)
Postmodern Blackness (Essay available online)
Towards a World Wide Culture of Love (Article from Shambhala Sun available online)
When Men Were Men (Article from Shambhala Sun available online)
Voices and Visions (Article from Shambhala Sun available online)
Rebel’s Dilemma (Article from Shambhala Sun available online)
Ain’t She Still A Woman? (Article from Shambhala Sun available online)
Penis Passion (Article from Shambhala Sun available online)
Interview with Thich Nhat Hanh by bell hooks available online
Interview with Maya Angelou by bell hooks available online
Interview (1994) available online
Interview (2008) from Shambhala Sun available online
Profile from Shambhala Sun available online
Profile by Barry Burke
Langston Hughes
Not without Laughter (Novel)
I Wonder As I Wander (Memoir)
The Weary Blues (Poem available online)
Dream Variations (Poem available online)
Dreams (Poem available online)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Poem available online)
Po’ Boy Blues (Poem available online)
Life is Fine (Poem available online)
I, too sing America (Poem available online)
Madam and her Madam (Poem available online)
Madam and her Phone Bill (Poem available online)
Let America Be America Again (Poem available online)
Night Funeral in Harlem (Poem available online)
Will V-Day be Me-Day too? (Poem available online)
Theme for English B (Poem available online)
A Selection of Langston Hughes’ Political Poetry available online
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (Article available online)
My Adventures as a Social Poet (Article available online)
Discussion Questions for Selected Langston Hughes’ Poems available online
An Introduction to Langston Hughes available online
Lecture on the poetry of Langston Hughes available online
Langston Hughes’s Spanish Civil War Verse by L.G.G. Echevarría (essay available online)
The dialectics of homeland and identity: Reconstructing Africa in the poetry of Langston Hughes and Mohamed Al-Fayturi by Saddik M. Gohar (essay available online)
Zora Neale Hurston
Dust Tracks on the Road (Memoir)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Novel)
The Complete Stories (Short Stories)
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (Ethnography)
Mule-Bone (Play written with Langston Hughes)
Mules and Men (African American Folklore available online)
Spunk (Short Story available online)
How It Feels To Be Colored Me (Essay available online)
Letter to Countee Cullen available online
Zora Neale Hurston Audio Recordings available online
Transforming Vision: Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston by T. Bush (article available online)
“Why don’t he like my hair?”: constructing African-American Standards of Beauty in Toni Morrison’s ‘Song of Solomon’ and Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God by Bertram D. Ashe (article available online)
Voice and interiority in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God.’ – Black Women’s Culture Issue by Maria J. Racine (article available online)
Should their eyes have been watching God? Hurston’s use of religious experience and Gothic horror by Erik D. Curren (article available online)
Zora Neale Hurston and the post-modern self in ‘Dust Tracks on a Road by Pierre A. Walker (article available onilne)
Black Libertarian: The Story of Zora Neale Hurston by Marcus Epstein (article available online)
The Sounds of Black Laughter and the Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes by Mike Chasar (article available online)
Website for the Folktales of Zora Neale Hurston Lesson Plan
Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive Website
The Official Zora Neale Hurston Website
Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts Website
James Weldon Johnson
The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (Novel available online)
God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Text available online)
Passing as autobiography: James Weldon Johnson’s ‘The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man’ by Donald C. Goellnicht (essay available online)
Revising critical judgments of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by Heather Russell Andrade (essay available online)
Chronopolitics and race, rag-time and symphonic time in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by Bruce Barnhart (essay available online)
Reginald Kearney
African American Views of the Japanese: Solidarity or Sedition? (History)
The Pro-Japanese Utterances of W.E.B. Du Bois (Essay available online)
Japan: Ally in the Struggle Against Racism, 1919-1927 (Essay available online)
Bakari Kitwana
The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture (Black Studies)
Interview (2002) available online
Interview (2005) with Tavis Smiley available online
Interview (2008) available online
Profile by Jeff Chang available online
Bakari Kitwana’s articles on The Huffington Post available online
Bakari Kitwana’s Website
Nella Larsen
Passing (Novel available online) Audio Reading available online
Mixed-Race Identity Politics in Nella Larsen and Winnifred Eaton (Onoto Watanna) by S. Nakachi (doctoral thesis available online)
Nella Larsen’s ‘Passing’ and the fading subject” by Neil Sullivan (essay available online)
“Still Seeking for Something”: The Unspeakable (Loss) in “Passing” by Nella Larsen by A. Mrozik (essay available online)
Discovering Parallels to Nella Larsen by S. Austin (article available online)
Profile on Voices from the Gaps available online
David Levering Lewis
When Harlem Was in Vogue (History)
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963 (History) Excerpt available online
W.E.B. Du Bois as a Historical Novelist (Audio Lecture available online)
Interview (2001) available online
Interview available online
Alain Locke
Enter The New Negro (Essay available online)
The New Negro (Essay available online)
Four Talks (Speeches available online)
The Gospel for the Twentieth Century (Article available online)
Peace Between Black and White in the United States (Article available online)
Five Phases of Democracy (Address available online)
Introduction to The New Negro (Forward available online)
The Moon Maiden (Poem available online)
Excerpts from the essay The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts available online
Profile by Christopher Buck available online
Shorter Profile by Christopher Buck available online
Alain Locke and the New Negro Movement by Eugene C. Holmes (essay available online)
The New Negro Movement by Christopher Buck (article available online)
Audre Lorde
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Memoir)
A burst of light (Memoir)
Zami: Portrait of the Artist as a Black Lesbian by Barbara DiBernard (essay available online)
Website of the Audre Lorde Project
Manning Marable
The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life (Black Studies available online)
Beyond Black and White: Transforming African American Politics (Black Studies)
Obama, Race and Representation (Article available online)
Beyond Color-Blindness (Article available online)
Racism, Prisons and the Future of Black America (Article available online)
The Iraq War and America’s Economic Imperialism (Article available online)
Gore’s Defeat, Don’t Blame Nader (Article available online)
Obituary in The New York Times available online
Interview (2006) with Tavis Smiley available online
Interview (2007) available online
Interview (2008) available online
Interview available online
James McBride
The Color of Water (Memoir)
Discussion Questions available online
Hip Hop Planet (Article available online)
Interview (2008) with Tavis Smiley available online
Obituary of Ruth Jordan, McBride’s mother available online
James McBride’s Website
Reginald McKnight
He Sleeps (Novel)
Interview (2001) available online
Toni Morrison
Jazz (Novel) Spark Notes available online
Sula (Novel) Excerpt available online, Spark Notes available online
Beloved (Novel)
The Bluest Eye (Novel) Spark Notes available online
Nobel Prize for Literature 1993 Lecture available online
Interview (1998) available online
Walter Mosley
Devil in a Blue Dress (Novel)
Interview (2000) available online
Interview (2002) available online
Script Adaptation of Devil in a Blue Dress by Carl Franklin available online
Power and Knowledge in Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress by M. C. Wesley (essay available online)
Easy Call: A case for Walter Mosley’s inclusion in the American Jewish literary canon by H. Heft (article available online)
Walter Mosley’s Website
Gloria Naylor
The Women of Brewster Place (Novel) Spark Notes available online
Gordon Parks
Voices in the Mirror (Memoir)
Legends Online Gordon Parks Website
Obituary in The New York Times available online
Profile from the National Visionary Leadership Project available online
Interview (1998) available online
Interview with Tavis Smiley about Gordon Parks’ Family Portrait: A Picture of Poverty available online
Big Momma and Boy Picture by Gordon Parks available online
Gordon Parks’ Photography: Breaking Down Racial Barriers with Real Life Stories by Sandra K. Friday (lesson plan available online)
A Portrait of African American Photography: Through The Eyes of Gordon Parks by Debra A. Fisher (lesson plan available online)
The Importance of Being Gordon Parks by Desa Philadelphia (article available online)
Lucy Parsons
Principles of Anarchism (Lecture available online)
TO TRAMPS, The Unemployed, the Disinherited, and Miserable (Speech available online)
Speech to the International Workers of the World (Speech available online)
Lucy Parsons and Haymarket Days by Altha J. Cravey (Essay available online)
A Fury For Justice: Lucy Parsons And The Revolutionary Anarchist Movement in Chicago by Jacob McKean (academic essay available online)
The Lucy Parsons’ Project Website
J. Saunders Redding
A Scholar’s Conscience (Selected Writings, edited by Faith Berry)
Obituary in The New York Times available online
Profile available online
Irredeemable Promise: J. Saunders Redding and Negro New Liberalism by Lawrence Jackson (essay available online)
Ismael Reed
Flight to Canada (Novel)
Fade to White (Article about the film Precious available online)
Interview (1998) available online
Images of subversion: Ishmael Reed and the hoodoo trickster by James Lindroth (article available online)
Ismael Reed Between Amiri Baraka and George S. Schulyer by N. Masilela (essay available online)
Website of Ismael Reed’s Konch Magazine
Paul Robeson
Here I Stand (Memoir)
Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956 available online
Interview (1935) available online
Paul Robeson’s FBI Files available online
Paul Robeson’s Here I Stand: The Book They Could Not Ban by Lloyd L. Brown (article available online)
The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist’s Journey, 1898–1939 by Paul Robeson Jr (biographical essay available online)
Tricia Rose
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Black Studies)
Hip Hop Futures (Video Lecture available online)
Interview available online
Tricia Rose’s Website
Gil Scott-Heron
The Vulture (Novel)
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Poem available online) Review available online
Whitey on the Moon (Poem available online)
Interview (2007) available online
Interview (2010) with The Guardian available online
Interview (2010) with The Telegraph available online
Audio Interview (2007) available online
Audio Interview (2010) available online
Video for “Me and The Devil” available online
Video for “I’m New Here” available online
Video for “Where Did The Night Go” available online
Profile in American Visions available online
Profile on All Things Deep available online
Profile by David Dacks available online
Profile in The Miami Herald available online
Gil Scott-Heron’s Rap: Probable Cause and a Poet’s Problems by Geoffrey Grey (article available online)
Gil Scott-Heron’s Website
Pieces of a Man Website
Rebecca Walker
Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self (Autobiography) Excerpt available online
Rebecca Walker’s Website
Michele Wallace
Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (Black Studies) 1979 review available online
Invisibility Blues: From Pop To Theory (Black Studies)
To Hell and Back: On The Road with Black Feminism in the 60s & 70s (Essay available online)
When Black Feminism Faces The Music, and the Music Is Rap (Essay available online)
Michele Wallace’s Website
Booker T. Washington
Up from Slavery (Autobiography available online)
The American Negro (Audio of Speech available online)
Cornel West
Race Matters (Philosophy)
Democracy Matters (Philosophy) Excerpt available online
Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America (Philosophy)
Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (Philosophical Text, with bell hooks)
Toward a Socialist Theory of Racism (Essay available online)
Review of Black Marxism (Book Review available online)
Exiles from a city and from a nation (Article about Hurricane Katrina available online)
Interview (2002) available online
Interview (2004) available online
Interview (2007) available online
Interview (2008) available online
Interview (2009) available online
Interview (2010) available online
Video Interview with Avi Lewis available online
Cornel West Gives Black Scholars a Bad Rap by John McWhorter (article available online)
Cornel West’s Website
Website of The Cornel West Academy of Greatness
August Wilson
The Piano Lesson (Play) Sparks Notes available online
Fences (Play) Sparks Notes available online, Study Guide available online
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Play) Study Guide available online
Interview (1999) in The Paris Review available online
Interview (2001) available online
Interview (2005) with Charles Dutton about Wilson’s Play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for NPR available online
Harriet Wilson
Our Nig or Sketches from the life of a Free Black (Novel available online) Penguin Reading Guide available online
Review of “Our Nig” available online
Speaking of the body’s pain: Harriet Wilson’s ‘Our Nig’ by Cynthia J. Davis (essay available online)
Website of The Harriet Wilson Project
Richard Wright
Native Son (Novel) Spark Notes available online, Reading Group Guide available online
Black Power (Memoir) Excerpt available online
American Hunger (Memoir)
Richard Wright’s long journey from Gorky to Dostoevsky D. E. Peterson (essay available online)
Richard Wright and Africa by Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi (essay available online)
A Western Man of Color: Richard Wright and the World by G. Reynolds (essay available online)
Richard Wright’s Lawd Today! And the political uses of modernism by B. Costello (essay available online)
The ‘Exile’ Years? How the ’50s Culture Wars Destroyed Richard Wright by Hazel Rowley (essay available online)
Richard Wright on Black Power by E. E. Miller (interview available online)
Website dedicated to the life and work of Richard Wright
Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Memoir with Alex Haley) Spark Notes available online, Teacher’s Guide available online
By Any Means Necessary (Video of a Speech available online at Democracy Now)
Interview (1963) with Kenneth Clark available online
Video Interview (1965) with CBC available online
The Malcolm X Project at Columbia University Website
PBS Website: American Experience Documentary Make it Plain about Malcolm X
Website dedicated to the life and work of Malcolm X
