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.
Maya Angelou
Acclaimed American poet, author and activist Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. Often referred to as a spokesman for African Americans and women through her many works, her gift of words connected all people who were “committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States.” [1]
“I want to write so that the reader … can say, ‘You know, that’s the truth. I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t a six-foot black girl, but that’s the truth.’ ” [2]
Influenced by Black authors like Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, her love of language developed at a young age. Her most famous work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969 and became the first in seven autobiographies of Angelou’s life.
A prolific poet, her words often depict Black beauty, the strength of women and the human spirit, and the demand for social justice. Her first collection of poems Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972, the same year she became the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced. Writing for adults and children, Angelou was one of several African American women at the time who explored the Black female autobiographical tradition. Other female authors and contemporaries include Paule Marshall who published the novel Brown Girl, Brownstones and Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, many of whose poems lyricize the urban poor.
Learn more about Maya Angelou.
Maya Angelou
Acclaimed American poet, author and activist Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. Often referred to as a spokesman for African Americans and women through her many works, her gift of words connected all people who were “committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States.” [1]
“I want to write so that the reader … can say, ‘You know, that’s the truth. I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t a six-foot black girl, but that’s the truth.’ ” [2]
Influenced by Black authors like Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, her love of language developed at a young age. Her most famous work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969 and became the first in seven autobiographies of Angelou’s life.
A prolific poet, her words often depict Black beauty, the strength of women and the human spirit, and the demand for social justice. Her first collection of poems Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972, the same year she became the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced. Writing for adults and children, Angelou was one of several African American women at the time who explored the Black female autobiographical tradition. Other female authors and contemporaries include Paule Marshall who published the novel Brown Girl, Brownstones and Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, many of whose poems lyricize the urban poor.
Learn more about Maya Angelou.
[1] “Southern Women Writers: The New Generation,” Carol E. Neubauer
[2] "10 Questions with Maya Angelou," TIME Magazine
Image: 1970 Photo of Maya Angelou by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Image: 1970 Photo of Maya Angelou by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
James Baldwin
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 Harlem in 1924, Baldwin caught the attention of fellow writer Richard Wright who helped him secure a grant in order to support himself as a writer. He left to live in Paris at age 24 and went on to write Go Tell it on the Mountain which was published in 1953, a novel unlike anything written to date. Speaking with passion and depth about the Black struggle in America, it has become an American classic.
Baldwin would continue to write novels, poetry and essays with a refreshingly unique perspective for the rest of his life. In 1956, Giovanni’s Room raised the issues of race and homosexuality at a time when it was taboo. And during the Civil Rights Movement, he published three of his most important collections of essays, “Notes of a Native Son” (1955), “Nobody Knows My Name” (1961) and “The Fire Next Time” (1963).
James Baldwin provided inspiration for later generations of artists to speak out about the gay experience in Black America like Staceyann Chin and Nick Burd.
Image: Baldwin, 1982, MDCarchives
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 Harlem in 1924, Baldwin caught the attention of fellow writer Richard Wright who helped him secure a grant in order to support himself as a writer. He left to live in Paris at age 24 and went on to write Go Tell it on the Mountain which was published in 1953, a novel unlike anything written to date. Speaking with passion and depth about the Black struggle in America, it has become an American classic.
Baldwin would continue to write novels, poetry and essays with a refreshingly unique perspective for the rest of his life. In 1956, Giovanni’s Room raised the issues of race and homosexuality at a time when it was taboo. And during the Civil Rights Movement, he published three of his most important collections of essays, “Notes of a Native Son” (1955), “Nobody Knows My Name” (1961) and “The Fire Next Time” (1963).
James Baldwin provided inspiration for later generations of artists to speak out about the gay experience in Black America like Staceyann Chin and Nick Burd.
Image: Baldwin, 1982, MDCarchives
Amiri Baraka
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.
Inciting controversy throughout his career, he was accused of fostering hate while at the same time being lauded for speaking out against oppression.
Often focusing on Black Liberation and White Racism, he spent most of his life fighting for the rights of African Americans. With a writing career that spanned nearly fifty years, Baraka is respected as one of the leading revolutionary cultural and political leaders, especially in his hometown of Newark, NJ. His representations of race and wisdom have made him an influential part of the Black Arts Movement along with Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez and Maya Angelou. Together they have gone on to inspire younger generations like Terrence Hayes.
Image: Poet Amiri Baraka on May 10, 1975 (Photo by Santi Visalli/Getty Images)
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.Inciting controversy throughout his career, he was accused of fostering hate while at the same time being lauded for speaking out against oppression.
Often focusing on Black Liberation and White Racism, he spent most of his life fighting for the rights of African Americans. With a writing career that spanned nearly fifty years, Baraka is respected as one of the leading revolutionary cultural and political leaders, especially in his hometown of Newark, NJ. His representations of race and wisdom have made him an influential part of the Black Arts Movement along with Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez and Maya Angelou. Together they have gone on to inspire younger generations like Terrence Hayes.
Image: Poet Amiri Baraka on May 10, 1975 (Photo by Santi Visalli/Getty Images)
Octavia Butler
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.
Butler took the science fiction world by storm. Her evocative novels featuring race, sex, power and humanity were highly praised and attracted audience beyond their genre. They would eventually be translated into multiple languages and sell more than a million copies. One of her best-known novels Kindred, published in 1979, tells the story of a Black woman who must travel back in time in order to save her own life by saving a white, slaveholding ancestor. Over her career, she won two Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and in 1995 she became the first science fiction writer to win the MacArthur fellowship. The self-described “outsider’s” legacy inspired future generations of women including Valjeanne Jeffers, Nnedi Okorafor and even singer/songwriter Janelle Monáe.
Image: Butler at book signing, released by Nikolas Coukouma.
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. Butler took the science fiction world by storm. Her evocative novels featuring race, sex, power and humanity were highly praised and attracted audience beyond their genre. They would eventually be translated into multiple languages and sell more than a million copies. One of her best-known novels Kindred, published in 1979, tells the story of a Black woman who must travel back in time in order to save her own life by saving a white, slaveholding ancestor. Over her career, she won two Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and in 1995 she became the first science fiction writer to win the MacArthur fellowship. The self-described “outsider’s” legacy inspired future generations of women including Valjeanne Jeffers, Nnedi Okorafor and even singer/songwriter Janelle Monáe.
Image: Butler at book signing, released by Nikolas Coukouma.
W.E.B. Du Bois
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.
The horrific lynching of Sam Hose in 1899 prompted Du Bois to begin writing The Souls of Black Folk. Calling for organized action and an end to segregation, Jim Crow laws, and political disenfranchisement in America, the prophetic work was not well received at the time of its publication. Du Bois eventually went on to help to establish the NAACP where he became editor of its newspaper the Crisis, and a well-known spokesman for the cause. Many of his essays from Crisis were published in book form under the title The Emerging Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois: Essays and Editorials from "The Crisis."
In addition to The Souls of Black Folk and the articles and editorials for the Crisis, Du Bois wrote several books. While these attracted less attention than his scholarly works, the also focused on the Black race covering the topics of miscegenation and economic disparities in the South. Most respected for his scholarly writing, Du Bois’ concepts such as the psychology of colonization explored by Frantz Fanon continued being researched years later.
Image: W.E.B. Du Bois, 1919, Library of Congress
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.The horrific lynching of Sam Hose in 1899 prompted Du Bois to begin writing The Souls of Black Folk. Calling for organized action and an end to segregation, Jim Crow laws, and political disenfranchisement in America, the prophetic work was not well received at the time of its publication. Du Bois eventually went on to help to establish the NAACP where he became editor of its newspaper the Crisis, and a well-known spokesman for the cause. Many of his essays from Crisis were published in book form under the title The Emerging Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois: Essays and Editorials from "The Crisis."
In addition to The Souls of Black Folk and the articles and editorials for the Crisis, Du Bois wrote several books. While these attracted less attention than his scholarly works, the also focused on the Black race covering the topics of miscegenation and economic disparities in the South. Most respected for his scholarly writing, Du Bois’ concepts such as the psychology of colonization explored by Frantz Fanon continued being researched years later.
Image: W.E.B. Du Bois, 1919, Library of Congress
Ralph Ellison
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.
However, it was Ellison’s first novel that established his place as an important literary figure in America. Published in 1952, the first lines of Invisible Man struck a chord with hundreds of thousands of readers, “I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me . . ." Considered one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century, Ellison was heavily influenced by Zora Neale Hurston and is often cited as an influence with many writers today such as ZZ Packer and Toni Morrison.
Image: National Archives, United States Information Agency staff photographer
Read more
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.However, it was Ellison’s first novel that established his place as an important literary figure in America. Published in 1952, the first lines of Invisible Man struck a chord with hundreds of thousands of readers, “I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me . . ." Considered one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century, Ellison was heavily influenced by Zora Neale Hurston and is often cited as an influence with many writers today such as ZZ Packer and Toni Morrison.
Image: National Archives, United States Information Agency staff photographer
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