African American Contemporary Literature

1. African AmericanContemporary Literature

2. The Changing Face of African American Literature • From the Roaring 20’s to the volatile, depressed 1930’s • Harlem Renaissance movement withered due to lack of money • Some writers and artists continued writing and performing however the mood was far less optimistic

3. New Economic & Social Opportunities • World War II (ended in 1945) brought about an end to the poverty and economic depression; it created an increase in economic and social opportunities for African Americans • New forms of music emerged - Bebop was invented by African American musicians • Charlie Parker • Dizzy Gillespie • Thelonious Monk • Ella Fitzgerald • Billie Holiday

4. Accomplishments in Literature • Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” – won the National Book Award in 1952 • Poets – Robert Hayden & Gwendolyn Brooks • Merged concern for black America with the standards and practices of innovative American & European poets • In 1950 Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for story “Annie Allen”, she was the first African American to be so honored

5. A Renewed Effort Against Jim Crow • The NAACP had been fighting for over 30 years at this time for black civil rights in the courts and elsewhere • 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas • Racially segregated educational facilities are unequal • Hailed as the most important public act on behalf of African Americans in the US since Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 • The Brown decision was specifically about SCHOOLS!! White southerners did not rush to carry out the decision

6. The Civil Rights Movement • Encouraged by the courts decision, blacks and whites committed to integration began a campaign of open challenge to Jim Crow, this was known as the Civil Rights Movement. • The decade following 1954 was the most turbulent in Southern history since the Civil War. • MLK Jr. & the NAACP led the way • From blacks required to sit in the back of buses (Rosa Parks) to insistence on the desegregation of lunch counters, these efforts were met with severe resistance. • Marches, Counter-Demonstrations, Bombings, Beatings, Lynchings and Lawsuits all followed • 1963 was considered to be the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement with MLK Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. with over a quarter million people in attendance

7. Concept of Black Power • “I Have a Dream” was not the total end of the struggle for justice on the part of African Americans • Stokely Carmichael, honorary Prime Minister of the Black Panther Party, promoted this movement which asked questions of morality and legality • Marcus Garvey displayed a similar idea in the early 1920’s with the “Back to Africa” movement • Malcolm X was perhaps the strongest power behind this movement • He promoted the “Black is Beautiful” slogan of this era • The death of MLK Jr. in 1968 caused explosions of rage among the African American communities which led to several riots • The Detroit riots occurred in 1967 due to civil unrest with political, economic, and social factors including police abuse, lack of affordable housing, job loss, etc.

8. “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry • Debuted on Broadway in 1959 • The title comes from the poem “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes • It was the first play written by an African American women that was to be produced on Broadway • Themes: • Dreams • Family • Fighting racial discrimination • You will be reading the original screenplay version of this play which includes instruction for camera shots and angles, entrances, exits and Hansberry’s precise notes for the actors