1961–1976. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press,
1998.
Wilfred D. SamuelsBlack Writers of America: A Comprehen-
sive Anthology Richard K. Barksdale
and Keneth Kinnamon, eds. (1972)
In 1972, coeditors RICHARD K. BARKSDALE and
Keneth Kinnamon, colleagues at the University
of Illinois–Urbana, introduced the first BLACK
AESTHETIC anthology, Black Writers of America:
A Comprehensive Anthology. This anthology was
instrumental in advancing the writings of major
20th-century writers through the early 1970s, pay-
ing particular attention to the social, political, and
cultural revolution of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT,
the BLACK POWER movement, and the BLACK ARTS
MOVEMENT, which, in combination, led to the de-
mand for and validation of a well-defined Black
Aesthetics movement for African-American litera-
ture and culture.
Black Writers of America covers works by major
authors, beginning with the slave narrator OL AU-
DAH EQUIANO, who published his commercially
successful autobiography, The Interesting Narra-
tive of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus
Vassa, The African, Written by Himself during the
18th century, and continuing with such writers as
PHILLIS WHEATLEY, BENJAMIN BANNEKER, FREDERICK
DOUGLASS, DAV I D WALKER, NAT TURNER, HENRY
HIGHLAND GARNET, FRANCES WATKINS HARPER,
CHARLES CHESNUTT, PAU L LAURENCE DUNBAR, W. E.
B. DUBOIS, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, JAMES WEL-
DON JOHNSON, CLAUDE MCKAY, LANGSTON HUGHES,
COUNTEE CULLEN, RICHARD WRIGHT, MARCUS
GARVEY, ALAIN LOCKE, ZORA NEALE HURSTON,
MARGARET WALKER, RALPH ELLISON, GWENDOLYN
BROOKS, JAMES BALDWIN, PAULE MARSHALL, ERNEST
J. GAINES, MARI EVANS, ETHERIDGE KNIGHT, Don
L. Lee (HAKI MADHUBUTI), SONIA SANCHEZ, NIKKI
GIOVANNI, NATHAN HARE, MARTIN LUTHER KING,
JR., and MALCOLM X.
Editors Barksdale and Kinnamon provide ex-
cellent biographical introductions for each author,
appropriately establishing the social and intellec-
tual context of their lives and works. Addition-
ally they provide useful, updated bibliographies
for each author. The anthology is divided into six
chronological periods: “The Eighteenth-Century
Beginnings,” “The Struggle against Slavery and
Racism: 1800–1860,” “The Black Man in the Civil
War: 1861–1865,” “Reconstruction and Reaction:
1865–1915,” “Renaissance and Radicalism: 1915–
1945,” and the “Present Generation: Since 1945.”
The editors identify the major African-American
writers for all except one of those periods, the Civil
War era of 1861–1865, where the emphasis is on
works that reflect African Americans’ involvement
in and response to the war.
Each chronological period is divided into
chapters, which precisely delineate the focus of
the works in the respective chapter, ranging from
JUPITER HAMMON and Banneker under the head-
ing “A Poet and an Intellectual” to King, and Mal-
colm X under the heading “Racial Spokesmen.”
These precise, descriptive headings may be used
to assist the teacher or scholar of the African-
American literary tradition in their selections and
instruction. Finally, each section closes with folk
literature, including tales, spirituals, work songs,
fables, and BLUES, carefully selected to reflect the
mood of the era.
Black Writers of America: A Comprehensive
Anthology’s holistic, inclusive structural and the-
matic depth and breadth has made it a classic in
African-American scholarship, as well as a model
for other anthologies in the rich tradition of Black
Aestheticism. It continues to be lauded by many
scholars in African-American literary studies,
including the editors of CALL AND RESPONSE: THE
RIVERSIDE ANTHOLOGY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN
LITERARY TRADITION, a more recent anthology that
continues its legacy.
Alexander Bell“Blueprint for Negro Writing”
Richard Wright (1937)
Originally published in the short-lived left-wing
magazine New Challenge, RICHARD WRIGHT’s essay
“Blueprint for Negro Writing” has become, over“Blueprint for Negro Writing” 59