Afro-American Literature After 1940

1. Parenthood

1.1. August Wilson, Fences

1.2. Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Song in the Front Yard”

1.3. Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

1.4. Toni Morrison, “Recitatif”

1.5. Ann Petry, The Street

2. Race

2.1. Ralph Ellison, from Invisible Man

2.2. Margaret Walker, “For My People”

2.3. Black Power Mixtape

2.4. Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman

2.5. Audre Lorde, “Power”

2.6. Audre Lorde, “Uses of Anger”

3. Forgiveness

3.1. Toni Morrison, “Recitatif”

3.2. August Wilson, Fences

3.3. Octavia Butler, “Amnesty”

3.4. Sonia Sanchez, “Summer Words of a Sistah Addict”

4. Black Womanhood

4.1. Paule Marshall, from Brown Girl, Brownstones

4.2. Ntozake Shange, “Somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff” from For Colored Girls

4.3. Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Song in the Front Yard”

4.4. Nikki Giovanni, “Ego Tripping”

4.5. Nafissa Thompson-Spires, “Belles Lettres”

4.6. Octavia Butler, “Amnesty”

4.7. Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

4.8. Ann Petry, The Street

5. Generational Trauma

5.1. August Wilson, Fences

5.2. Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

6. Black Manhood

6.1. Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman

6.2. August Wilson, Fences

6.3. Imani Perry, “The Glorious Outlaw”

6.4. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”