three Grammy Award nominations, with a win
for the Best Solo Rap performance for the song,
“U.N.I.T.Y.” The song received praise for its lyrics
which denounced physical violence and sexist lan-
guage against women. The next album, Order in
the Court (1998), featured songs that reflected on
the deaths of her brother, TU PAC SHAKUR, and the
Notorious B.I.G., as well as the self-explanatory
tune titled “Black on Black Love” (Ruth 93–94).
Her fifth album, The Dana Owens Album (2004),
was a collection of songs that moved away from
hip-hop and featured her vocals with jazz, R & B,
and popular tunes.
In addition to her recordings, Queen Latifah
composed the inspirational autobiography, La-
dies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman (1999).
Written to motivate women readers toward posi-
tive thinking, she states in the text: “The power to
be who I wanted to be was—and is—with me the
whole time. We all have the power to be the person
we set our sights on being.” (Latifah 170–171) Her
ambitions achieved successful results as Queen
Latifah earned a wider fan base with television
and film appearances. Her situation comedy, Liv-
ing Single (1993–1998), presented the lives of four
African-American professional women, and The
Queen Latifah Show (1999–2000), a talk show, fea-
tured celebrity guests and live music. Then, from
1991 to 2006, she appeared in 17 movies, winning
critical praise for her roles in Set It Off (1996), Liv-
ing Out Loud (1998), Chicago (2002, gaining an
Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress), Beauty
Shop (2005), and Last Holiday (2006).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Donalson, Melvin. Hip Hop in American Cinema.
Peter Lang Publishing, 2007.
Latifah, Queen. Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong
Woman. New York: William Morrow and Com-
pany, 1999.
Ruth, Amy. Queen Latifah. Minneapolis, Minn.: Ler-
ner Publications Company, 2001.
Tracy, Kathleen. Queen Latifah. Hockessin, Del.:
Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2005.
Mel DonalsonQuest of the Silver Fleece, The
W. E. B. DuBois (1 911 )
Set in rural Alabama and urban Washington, D.C.,
Quest of the Silver Fleece, W. E. B. DUBOIS’s first
novel, examines the racial, cultural, and political
tensions of the North and South. While ADDISON
GAYLE, JR., identifies Quest as the first African-
American bildungsroman, Nellie McKay argues
that DuBois depicts the first “black” heroine within
a sea of near-white female protagonists in early
African-American literature. DuBois himself re-
ferred to the novel as “an economic study of some
merit,” depicting the larger social and economic
forces acting on the African-American commu-
nity as the nation moved through swift changes
and suggesting a socialist model for change. Du-
Bois uses cotton as a thread that unifies all the
characters and critiques the manipulation of poor
southern workers through a sharecropping system
that was no less than a revised form of slavery.
Equally important, in Quest DuBois, during a time
still dominated by ideas BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
set forth in his “Atlanta Exposition Address,” also
questions racial uplift as a viable strategy for Afri-
can-American success, promotes the effectiveness
of his view of the New Negro and the concept of
the Talented Tenth leadership, and argues for black
men to value black womanhood.
Blessed Alwyn and Zora Cresswell are the cen-
tral characters. Their rise from slavery to politi-
cal empowerment and agency through education
and high moral character symbolizes the history
of their larger African-American community. On
the one hand, Blessed represents the part of the
community with available (though limited) op-
portunities; he is willing to believe in the possi-
bilities of inclusion in the nation. On the other
hand, Zora comes from the most humble begin-
nings; she is a child of the swamp. Although she
has suffered almost every baseness imaginable,
she finds joy apart from the dominant society.
Blessed and Zora are drawn to each other because
of their different backgrounds and upbringing,
each complementing the skills and talents lack-
ing in the other. Together they dream, plan, and
plant a magical crop of cotton harvested fromQuest of the Silver Fleece, The 423