African American Literature

  • Slavery

    Slavery was first started in 1619 and continued through the 19th century.
  • Phyllis Wheatley

    Second published African American poet.
  • Abolitionist Movement

    Middle and Northern States started passing legislation abolishing slavery around this time period.
  • Frances Harper

    An African American anolitionist, poet and author.
  • Frederick Douglass

    Slavery Escapee and a huge social reformer.
  • Reconstruction

    This was the time following the Civil War.
  • W.E.B. duBois

    He was an American Socialogist and historian.
  • Jim Crow Era

    This was the year when the first Jim Crow laws were passed.
  • Claude McKay

    Wrote a lot of social and political concerns from his perspective.
  • Booker T. Washington

    Was an African American educator.
  • Zora Neale Hurston

    Was an American folklorist and author.
  • Naturalism

    the belief that only nature rules the world.
  • Oral Story Telling

    The passing down of stories through oral means.
  • Pan-Africanism

    An idealology and movement that encourages solidarity of Africans worldwide.
  • Sterling Brown

    Was an African American professor and author.
  • Langston Hughes

    Was an American poet and socialist.
  • Countee Cullen

    Was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
  • Richard Wright

    Was an African American author of some controversial novels.
  • Harlem Renaissance

    Was an African American cultural movement that spanned the 1920s.
  • Maya Angelou

    Is an American author and poet.
  • Lorraine Hansbery

    Was an American playwright and writer.
  • Toni Morrison

    She is an American novelist.
  • Amiri Baraka

    An American writer in many different forms and Mrs. Levy's favorite writer.
  • Everett Hoagland

    Was a poet.
  • Civil Rights Movement

    Movements in the United States whose goal was to end racial segregation.
  • Migration

    Migration of African Americans up to the North.
  • Black Arts Movement

    The artistic brand of the Black Power movement.