African American literature: Media
Videos
The colorful life of Alice Walker
Alice Walker published The Color Purple in 1982. With it, she became the...
Images
frontispiece and title page of Phillis Wheatley's book of poetry
Frontispiece and title page of African-born poet Phillis Wheatley's Poems on...
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, London, 1773
title page of Olaudah Equiano's autobiography
Title page from the first edition of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of...
title page of David Walker's Appeal
Title page from the 1830 edition of David Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles;...
Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist, orator, and author Frederick Douglass, 1862.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ds-07422)
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Author and social reformer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZ62-75978)
Charlotte Forten Grimké
Abolitionist and diarist Charlotte Forten Grimké, c. 1870s.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division. The New York Public Library
Elizabeth Keckley
A portrait of Elizabeth Keckley from the frontispiece to her autobiography, Behind...
"Behind the Scenes," by Elizbeth Keckley
Poems of Cabin and Field
The embossed cover of Dodd, Mead and Company's 1899 illustrated edition of Paul Laurence...
Between the Covers Rare Books, Merchantville, NJ
Charles W. Chesnutt
Novelist Charles W. Chesnutt, 1898.
Special Collections Department, Cleveland Public Library
Booker T. Washington
Educator and reformer Booker T. Washington, 1903.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Christopher Ethelbert Cheyne, (digital file number cph.3a49671)
W.E.B. Du Bois
Sociologist, historian, and author W.E.B. Du Bois.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The Crisis magazine
A 1914 issue of The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association...
The New York Public Library
God's Trombones cover
Dust jacket by the African American artist Aaron Douglas for James Weldon Johnson's...
Between the Covers Rare Books, Merchantville, NJ
A Long Way from Home
Dust jacket by the African American artist Aaron Douglas for Claude McKay's autobiography,...
Between the Covers Rare Books, Merchantville, NJ
Langston Hughes
Poet Langston Hughes, 1943.
Gordon Parks—OWI/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-fsa-8d39489)
The Weary Blues cover
Dust jacket designed by the Mexican illustrator and writer Miguel Covarrubias for...
James S. Jaffe Rare Books, Haverford, PA
Countee Cullen
Poet Countee Cullen.
Carl Van Vechten Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File No. cph 3a42847)
Nella Larsen
Novelist and short story writer Nella Larsen, photographed in 1927 by James L. Allen.
James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Zora Neale Hurston
Novelist and short story writer Zora Neale Hurston, c. 1935–43.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (cph 3b10040)
James Weldon Johnson
Editor and poet James Weldon Johnson.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (cph 3a43308)
Richard Wright
Novelist Richard Wright, 1943.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USW3-030278-D)
Arna Bontemps
Novelist and children's book author Arna Bontemps.
Carl Van Vechten Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital file no. van 5a51737)
Robert Abbott
Editor Robert Abbott, founder of the newspaper Abbott's Monthly.
Courtesy of Chicago Defender
James Baldwin
Novelist, essayist, playwright, and activist James Baldwin, 1975.
© Anthony Barboza—Archive Photos/Getty Images
Nobody Knows My Name
Dust jacket for the 1961 Dial Press first edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows...
Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Between the Covers Rare Books, Merchantville, NJ
scene from A Raisin in the Sun
(From left) Stephen Perry, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, and Sidney Poitier...
Copyright © 1969 Columbia Pictures Corporation; all rights reserved.
James Baldwin and the civil rights movement
James Baldwin (center with checked shirt) addressing the crowd from the speaker's...
© Robert Abbott Sengstacke—Archive Photos/Getty Images
Ishmael Reed
Novelist, poet, and playwright Ishmael Reed, 1977.
© Janet Fries—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Fences
Denzel Washington (left) and Viola Davis in the film Fences (2016). The...
© 2016 Paramount Pictures Corporation, all rights reserved; photograph, David Lee
wood engraving of the 1856 Margaret Garner case
Wood engraving depicting the Margaret Garner case of 1856, in which a woman who had...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. ( LC-USZ62-84545)
Toni Morrison receiving the Nobel Prize
Novelist Toni Morrison (left) receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature from King...
© AP/Shutterstock.com
Amanda Gorman
Poet Amanda Gorman reciting her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the presidential inauguration...
Pool/Getty Images News
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