They are poets, playwrights, novelists and scholars, and together they
helped capture the voice of a nation. They have fearlessly explored
racism, abuse and violence as well as love, beauty and music. While
their names and styles have changed over the years, they have been the
voices of their generations and helped inspire the generations that
followed them. What follows is a list of prominent Black authors who
have left a mark on the literary world forever.
Alex Haley
Alex
Haley’s writing on the struggle of African Americans inspired
nationwide interest in genealogy and popularized Black history. Best
known for The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the novel Roots,
Haley began his writing career freelancing and struggled to make ends
meet. Eating canned sardines for weeks at a time, his big break came
when Playboy magazine assigned him to interview Miles Davis.
Proving to be such a success, the magazine contracted Haley to do a
series of interviews with prominent African Americans. Known as “The
Playboy Interviews,” Haley would eventually meet Malcolm X and ask
permission to write his biography. The Autobiography of Malcolm X would soon become an international bestseller and Haley became a literary success.
Embarking on a new ambitious project, Haley was determined to trace his ancestor’s journey from Africa to America as slaves, and tell the story of their rise to freedom. After a decade of research and travel to West Africa, the epic novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family was published in 1976. The book was a national sensation and won the Pulitzer Prize, eventually becoming a television miniseries that would shatter television viewing records when 130 million viewers tuned in. If you enjoy reading Alex Haley, consider reading Jesmyn Ward and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Image: Mickey Adair/Getty Images
Alex Haley
Alex
Haley’s writing on the struggle of African Americans inspired
nationwide interest in genealogy and popularized Black history. Best
known for The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the novel Roots,
Haley began his writing career freelancing and struggled to make ends
meet. Eating canned sardines for weeks at a time, his big break came
when Playboy magazine assigned him to interview Miles Davis.
Proving to be such a success, the magazine contracted Haley to do a
series of interviews with prominent African Americans. Known as “The
Playboy Interviews,” Haley would eventually meet Malcolm X and ask
permission to write his biography. The Autobiography of Malcolm X would soon become an international bestseller and Haley became a literary success.Embarking on a new ambitious project, Haley was determined to trace his ancestor’s journey from Africa to America as slaves, and tell the story of their rise to freedom. After a decade of research and travel to West Africa, the epic novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family was published in 1976. The book was a national sensation and won the Pulitzer Prize, eventually becoming a television miniseries that would shatter television viewing records when 130 million viewers tuned in. If you enjoy reading Alex Haley, consider reading Jesmyn Ward and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Image: Mickey Adair/Getty Images
Langston Hughes
A
primary contributor of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was one
of the first to use jazz rhythms in his works, becoming an early
innovator of the literary art form jazz poetry. While many American
poets during the 1920s were writing esoteric poetry to a dwindling
audience, Hughes addressed people using language, themes, attitudes and
ideas that they could relate to.
Influenced by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, his poetry caught the attention of novelist, critic and prolific photographer Carl Van Vechten. With Van Vechten’s help, his first collection of poetry was published in 1926. Establishing Hughes’s poetic style and commitment to Black themes and heritage, The Weary Blues had popular appeal. When his first novel Not Without Laughter was published in 1930, it won the Harmon gold medal for literature.
A prolific writer known for his colorful portrayals of Black life from the 1920s-1960s, Hughes wrote plays, short stories, poetry, several books, and contributed the lyrics to a Broadway musical. In addition to his extensive body of work, he inspired other artists and highlighted the power of art as a catalyst for change. Seen as a voice for their own experience, writers during the Harlem Renaissance often dedicated their work to Hughes. The play A Raisin in the Sun by playwright Lorraine Hansberry was named for a line from a Langston Hughes poem.
Image: Langston Hughes, 1936 Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress
A
primary contributor of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was one
of the first to use jazz rhythms in his works, becoming an early
innovator of the literary art form jazz poetry. While many American
poets during the 1920s were writing esoteric poetry to a dwindling
audience, Hughes addressed people using language, themes, attitudes and
ideas that they could relate to.Influenced by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, his poetry caught the attention of novelist, critic and prolific photographer Carl Van Vechten. With Van Vechten’s help, his first collection of poetry was published in 1926. Establishing Hughes’s poetic style and commitment to Black themes and heritage, The Weary Blues had popular appeal. When his first novel Not Without Laughter was published in 1930, it won the Harmon gold medal for literature.
A prolific writer known for his colorful portrayals of Black life from the 1920s-1960s, Hughes wrote plays, short stories, poetry, several books, and contributed the lyrics to a Broadway musical. In addition to his extensive body of work, he inspired other artists and highlighted the power of art as a catalyst for change. Seen as a voice for their own experience, writers during the Harlem Renaissance often dedicated their work to Hughes. The play A Raisin in the Sun by playwright Lorraine Hansberry was named for a line from a Langston Hughes poem.
Image: Langston Hughes, 1936 Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress
Zora Neale Hurston
In
1925 as the Harlem Renaissance gained momentum, Zora Neale Hurston
headed to New York City. By the time of its height in the 1930s, Hurston
was a preeminent Black female writer in the United States. It’s said
that her apartment was a popular spot for social gatherings with the
well-known artists of the time like Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes.
Of Hurston’s more than 50 published novels, short stories, plays and essays, she wrote her most famous work Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937. Unlike the style of contemporaries Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston did not write explicitly about Black people in the context of white America. She focused on the culture and traditions of African Americans through the poetry of their speech.
Despite her earlier literary success, Hurston would suffer later in her career. Having difficulty getting published, she died poor and alone. Years later, Alice Walker would help revive interest in Hurston’s work with her essay, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston," published in Ms. magazine in 1975. This essay, alongside her edits of notable works like “I Love Myself When I am Laughing and Then Again When I am Looking Mean and Impressive,” brought Hurston to the attention of a new generation of readers.
Image: Zora Neale Hurston, Photo by Carl Van Vechten (1938) Library of Congress
In
1925 as the Harlem Renaissance gained momentum, Zora Neale Hurston
headed to New York City. By the time of its height in the 1930s, Hurston
was a preeminent Black female writer in the United States. It’s said
that her apartment was a popular spot for social gatherings with the
well-known artists of the time like Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes.Of Hurston’s more than 50 published novels, short stories, plays and essays, she wrote her most famous work Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937. Unlike the style of contemporaries Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston did not write explicitly about Black people in the context of white America. She focused on the culture and traditions of African Americans through the poetry of their speech.
Despite her earlier literary success, Hurston would suffer later in her career. Having difficulty getting published, she died poor and alone. Years later, Alice Walker would help revive interest in Hurston’s work with her essay, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston," published in Ms. magazine in 1975. This essay, alongside her edits of notable works like “I Love Myself When I am Laughing and Then Again When I am Looking Mean and Impressive,” brought Hurston to the attention of a new generation of readers.
Image: Zora Neale Hurston, Photo by Carl Van Vechten (1938) Library of Congress
Richard Wright
Born in Mississippi in 1908, Richard Wright is best known for his novels Native Son and Black Boy, that mirrored his own struggle with poverty and coming of age journey. A
staunch critic of his literary contemporary Zora Neale Hurston,
Wright’s work was overtly political, focusing on the struggle of Blacks
in America for equality and economic advancement.
Wright’s dreams of becoming a writer took off when he gained employment through the Federal Writers Project and received critical attention for a collection of short stories called Uncle Tom’s Children. The fame that came with the 1940 publication of Native Son (not to be confused with James Baldwin’s titular essay: “Notes of a Native Son,” which criticized Wright’s work) made him a household name. It became the first book by an African American writer to be selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club.
His novel Black Boy was a personal account of growing up in the South and eventual move to Chicago where he became a writer and joined the Communist Party. While the book was a great success, Wright had become disillusioned with white America and the Communist Party, and moved to Paris. He spent the rest of his life living as an expatriate and he continued to write novels.
Image: Carl Van Vechten Collection, Library of Congress
Born in Mississippi in 1908, Richard Wright is best known for his novels Native Son and Black Boy, that mirrored his own struggle with poverty and coming of age journey. A
staunch critic of his literary contemporary Zora Neale Hurston,
Wright’s work was overtly political, focusing on the struggle of Blacks
in America for equality and economic advancement.Wright’s dreams of becoming a writer took off when he gained employment through the Federal Writers Project and received critical attention for a collection of short stories called Uncle Tom’s Children. The fame that came with the 1940 publication of Native Son (not to be confused with James Baldwin’s titular essay: “Notes of a Native Son,” which criticized Wright’s work) made him a household name. It became the first book by an African American writer to be selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club.
His novel Black Boy was a personal account of growing up in the South and eventual move to Chicago where he became a writer and joined the Communist Party. While the book was a great success, Wright had become disillusioned with white America and the Communist Party, and moved to Paris. He spent the rest of his life living as an expatriate and he continued to write novels.
Image: Carl Van Vechten Collection, Library of Congress
BONUS | Toni Morrison
Nobel
Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison is considered
the voice of African American women. Growing up in an integrated
neighborhood, Morrison was not fully aware of racial divisions until her
teenage years.
Dedicated to her studies, she went on to earn her master’s degree before moving to Howard University to teach. It was in the 1960s when Morrison became an editor at Random House that she began to write.
While she had published The Bluest Eye in 1970 and Sula in 1973, The Song of Solomon was the book that set her on the course of literary success. It became the first work by an African American author since Native Son by Richard Wright to be a featured selection in the Book-of-the-Month Club. The publication of Beloved in 1987 is considered to be her greatest masterpiece and won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Young authors Danielle Evans and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins cite Toni Morrison as one of their influences.
Image: Toni Morrison, 1986, MDCarchives
Read more
Nobel
Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison is considered
the voice of African American women. Growing up in an integrated
neighborhood, Morrison was not fully aware of racial divisions until her
teenage years.Dedicated to her studies, she went on to earn her master’s degree before moving to Howard University to teach. It was in the 1960s when Morrison became an editor at Random House that she began to write.
While she had published The Bluest Eye in 1970 and Sula in 1973, The Song of Solomon was the book that set her on the course of literary success. It became the first work by an African American author since Native Son by Richard Wright to be a featured selection in the Book-of-the-Month Club. The publication of Beloved in 1987 is considered to be her greatest masterpiece and won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Young authors Danielle Evans and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins cite Toni Morrison as one of their influences.
Image: Toni Morrison, 1986, MDCarchives
Read more
Though
he spent most of his life living abroad to escape the racial prejudice
in the United States, James Baldwin is the quintessential American
writer. Best known for his reflections on his experience as an openly
gay Black man in white America, his novels, essays and poetry make him a
social critic who shared the pain and struggle of Black Americans.
Born
in 1934, poet, writer and political activist Amiri Baraka used his
writing as a weapon against racism and became one of the most widely
published African American writers. Known for his social criticism and
incendiary style, Baraka explored the anger of Black Americans and
advocated scientific socialism. Often confrontational and designed to
awaken audiences to the political needs of Black Americans, Baraka was a
prominent voice in American literature.
In
a genre known for being traditionally white and male, Octavia Butler
broke new ground in science fiction as an African American woman. Born
in California in 1947, Butler was an avid reader despite having
dyslexia, was a storyteller by 4, and began writing at the age of 10.
Drawn to science fiction because of its boundless possibilities for
imagination, she was quickly frustrated by the lack of people she could
identify with so she decided to create her own. 
As
an activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian and
prolific writer, W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most influential African
American thought leaders of the 20th century. Growing up in
Massachusetts as part of the Black elite, it wasn’t until attending Fisk
University in Tennessee that issues of racial prejudice came to his
attention. He studied Black America and wrote some of the earliest
scientific studies on Black communities, calling for an end to racism.
His thesis, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 remains an authoritative work on the subject.
Born
Ralph Waldo Ellison after the famous journalist and poet Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Ellison was known for pursuing universal truths through his
writing. A literary critic, writer, and scholar, Ellison taught at a
variety of colleges and spent two years overseas as a Fellow of the
American Academy. In an effort to transcend the starkly defined racial
categories of the 1950s, he was sometimes criticized for choosing white
society over his African American identity. Identifying as an artist
first, Ellison rejected the notion that one should stand for a
particular ideology, refuting both Black and white stereotypes in his
collection of political, social and critical essays titled Shadow and Act.