African American Poetry
African American Literature produced in the Uinited States by writeers of African decent. It begins with the works in the liat 18th century writers Philis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with slave narratives of the 19th centruy. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a time of flowering of literature and the arts. Writers of African American literature have been recognized by the highest awards, including the Nobel Prize to Toni Morrision and award winning Walker Mosley being ranked among the top writers inthe United States . Among the themes and issues explored in the literature are the roles of African Americans with in the larger American Societies. African-American culture, racism, slavery and equality. African American writing as tended to incorporate froms such as spriritual, sermons, gospel music, blues, rap and Hip-Pop.
As African Americans place in American Society has changed over the centries, so has the focus of African American literature. Before the American Civil War the literature primarily consisted of memoirs by people who had esscaped from Slavery; the gnre of slave narratives included accounts of life under slavery and the path of justiced and redemptipon to freedom. A the turn of the 20th century, non fiction works by authors such as W.E.B.Du Bois and Booker T. Washington debated wheather to conront or appease racist attitudes in the United States. During the American Civil Rights Movemnt, authors such as Rich Wright and Gwendolyn Broks Wrote About issues of racial segregations and black nationalism. Today African American literature as become accepted as an intergral part of American literature.
From: African American Poetry