50 Black Writers Whose Impact Went Beyond the Page
By
Rachel Cavanaugh, Stacker News
On 2/23/21 at 8:00 PM EST
Harris & Ewing/Interim Archives/Getty
African American authors have created a rich body of literature: fiction and nonfiction, essays, poetry, scholarly articles and more. The narratives they've added to American storytelling have shifted perspectives and prompted fresh conversations; their writing has shaped how the Black experience is viewed and understood in America by readers of all races and backgrounds.
In the 19th century, African American literature was driven by narratives of slavery, many told from the perspective of escaped slaves such as Harriet Jacobs or Frederick Douglass. In the 1920s, as Black artists and intellectuals emerged following the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance produced a generation of authors who addressed issues of racism and segregation. By the middle of the century, Black authors played an important role in laying the foundation for political movements such as civil rights, Black power, and Black nationalism. Many feminist authors, like Mary Ann Weathers and Audre Lorde, emerged as well. Black feminist thinkers established the mode of analysis of intersectionality, laying an important foundation for the modern feminist movement.