The Norton Anthology of African American Literature

Henry Louis Gates Jr., General Editor

W. E. B. Du Bois PROFESSOR OF HUMANITIES

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Nellie Y. McKay, General Editor

PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN AND AFRO-AMERICAN LITERATURE

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON

W • W • NORTON & COMPANY • NewTdrfc'«. U

*« Hi s Contents

PREFACE: TALKING BOOKS xxvii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xliii

THE VERNACULAR TRADITION 1

[Entries marked * are included on the Audio Companion} SPIRITUALS 5 Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? 7 City Called Heaven r 8 God's A-Gonna Trouble the Water 8 Walk Together Children 9 I Know Moon-Rise 9 I'm A-Rollin' 10 I Been Rebuked and I Been Scorned 10 Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel? • 10 Soon I Will Be Done • 11 No More Auction Block 12 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 13 Steal Away to Jesus • 13 Go Down, Moses • 14 Been in the Storm So Long • 14 Oh, Freedom! 15 GOSPEL 16 This Little Light of Mine 17 Down by the Riverside 18 Freedom in the Air 20 Take My Hand, Precious Lord * 20 Peace Be Still 21 Stand by Me 21 THE BLUES 22 Yellow Dog Blues 23 St. Louis Blues • 24 Beale Street Blues 25 Down-Hearted Blues 26 See, See Rider • 27 Prove It on Me Blues 27 Gulf Coast Blues 28 Trouble in Mind 29 Backwater Blues • 29 viii CONTENTS

In the House Blues 30 How Long Blues - 31 Hellhound on My Trail 31 It's a Low Down Dirty Shame 32 Good Morning, Blues • 33 Sent for You Yesterday 34 Going to Chicago Blues 34 Fine and Mellow 34 Hoochie Coochie 35 Sunnyland • 36 SECULAR RHYMES AND SONGS, BALLADS, AND WORK SONGS 37 SECULAR RHYMES AND SONGS ' 38 [We raise de wheat] 38 Me and My Captain 38 Promises of Freedom 39 Jack and Dinah Want Freedom 39 Run, Nigger, Run , 40 Learn to Count 40 Another Man Done Gone • 40 You May Go But This Will Bring You Back • 41 BALLADS 41 Poor Lazarus 41 The Signifying Monkey 42 Wild Negro Bill 44 John Henry • 45 Frankie and Johnny 48 Railroad Bill 49 Stackolee 50 Sinking of the Titanic 51 Shine and the Titanic 51 WORK SONGS 52 Pick a Bale of Cotton 52 Go Down, Old Hannah 53 Can't You Line It? 54 JAZZ 55 Andy Razaf: (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue? • 57 Duke Ellington: It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) • 58 King Pleasure: Parker's Mood • 59 RAP 60 Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised 61 Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: The Message • 62 Public Enemy: Don't Believe the Hype 65 Queen Latifah: The Evil That Men Do 68 SERMONS 69 God 71 C. L. Franklin: The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest 71 CONTENTS ix

Zora Neale Hurston: [Faith hasn't got no eyes] 78 Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream • . . 80 Martin Luther King: I've Been to the Mountaintop 83 Malcolm X: The Ballot or the Bullet • . .' 90

FOLKTALES 102 All God's Chillen Had Wings 103 Big Talk 105 Deer Hunting Story ' 106 How to Write a Letter 107 " 'Member Youse a Nigger" 107 "Ah'll Beatcher Makin'Money" • 108 Why the Sister in Black Works Hardest 111 Why Women Always Take, Advantage of Men i . , 111 "De Reason Niggers Is Working So Hard" 114 The Ventriloquist . , 114 You Talk Too Much, Anyhow . • 115 The King Buzzard : , ., 116 A Flying Fool ' 117 Bur Rabbit in Red Hill Churchyard 118 Brer Rabbit Tricks Brer Fox Again ; 119 The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story . . 120 How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr: Fox 121 The Awful Fate of Mr. Wolf • • 123 What the Rabbit Learned 125

THE LITERATURE OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM: 1746-1865 127

LUCY TERRY (c. 1730-1821) 137 Bars Fight • 137

OLAUDAH EQUIANO (c. 1745-1797) 138 The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself - 140 Volume 1 140 Chapter I , . • :" .. ' 141 Chapter II : 151 From Chapter III 161 From Chapter IV 164

PHILLISWHEATLEY(1753?-1784) . ., 164 POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL' • 167 Preface .., 167 [Letter Sent by the Author's Master to the Publisher] 167 [To the Publick] • - :' 168 To Mscenas ' '' 169 To the University of Cambridge, in New-England 170 On Being Brought from Africa to America 171 On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770 171 To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth 172 CONTENTS

On Imagination 173 To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works 175 To Samson Occom 176 To His Excellency General Washington 176 DAVID WALKER (1785-1830) 178 David Walker's Appeal in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World 179 Preamble 179 Article I. Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Slavery 182 GEORGE MOSES HORTON (17977-1883?) 190 The Lover's Farewell 191 On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom 192 Division of an Estate 193 The Creditor to His Proud Debtor 194 George Moses Horton, Myself 195 SOJOURNER TRUTH (1797-1883) 196 Ar'n't I a Woman? Speech to the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851 198 From The Anti-Slavery Bugle, June 21, 1851 198 From The Narrative of Sojoumer Truth, 1878 199 MARIA W. STEWART (1803-1879) 201 Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build 202 Introduction 202 Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall 204 HARRIET JACOBS (c. 1813-1897) 207 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 209 Preface 209 I. Childhood 210 II. The New Master and Mistress 212 V. The Trials of Girlhood 216 X. A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl's Life 218 XIV. Another Link to Life 222 XVII. The Flight 224 XXI. The Loophole of Retreat 226 XXIX. Preparations for Escape 229 XXXIX. The Confession 235 XL. The Fugitive Slave Law 236 XLI. Free at Last 240 WILLIAM WELLS BROWN (18147-1884) 245 Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave 247 Chapter V 247 From Chapter VI 249 Clotel; or, The President's Daughter 255 Chapter I. The Negro Sale 255 CONTENTS xi

Chapter II. Going to the South 261 Chapter IV. The Quadroon's Home 265 Chapter XV. To-Day a Mistress, To-Morrow a Slave 267 Chapter XIX. Escape of Clotel 269

ADA [SARAH L. FORTEN] (1814-1898?) 277 Lines Suggested on Reading "An Appeal to Christian Women of the South," by A. E. Grimke 277

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET (1815-1882) 279 An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America 280

VICTOR SEJOUR (1817-1874) . 286 The Mulatto 287

FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1818-1895) 299 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself 302 My Bondage and My Freedom 369 Chapter XXIII. Introduced to the Abolitionists 369 Chapter XXIV. Twenty-One Months in Great Britain 373 From What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?: An Address Delivered in Rochester, New York, on 5 July 1852 379 Life and Times of Frederick Douglass 391 Second Part From Chapter XV. Weighed in the Balance ' 391 Third Part Chapter I. Later Life 397

JAMES M. WHITFIELD (1822-1871) 401 America 402 Yes! Strike Again That Sounding String 405 Self-Reliance 406

FRANCES E.W. HARPER (1825-1911) • 408 Ethiopia * 412 Eliza Harris 412 The Slave Mother • ' . 414 Vashti 415 Bury Me in a Free Land 417 Aunt Chloe's Politics • 418 Learning to Read • 418 A Double Standard . 419 Songs for the People - 421 An Appeal to My Country Women . ., • 422 The Two Offers . •• 423 Our Greatest Want 431 Fancy Etchings 432 [Enthusiasm and Lofty Aspirations] 432 [Dangerous Economies] 434 Woman's Political Future 436 xii CONTENTS HARRIET E.WILSON (18287-1863?) 439 Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North 441 Preface 441 Chapter I. Mag Smith, My Mother 441 Chapter II. My Father's Death 444 Chapter III. A New Home for Me 447 From Chapter VIII. Visitor and Departure 452 Chapter X. Perplexities.-^\nother Death 455 Chapter XII. The Winding Up of the Matter 458

LITERATURE OF THE RECONSTRUCTION TO THE NEW NEGRO RENAISSANCE: 1865-1919 461

CHARLOTTE FORTEN GRIMKE (1837-1914) 472 A Parting Hymn 473 Journals From Journal One 474 From Journal Three 480

BOOKER T.WASHINGTON (1856-1915) 488 Up From Slavery 490 Chapter I. A Slave among Slaves 490 Chapter II. Boyhood Days 498 Chapter III. The Struggle for an Education 505 Chapter XIV. The Atlanta Exposition Address 513

CHARLES W. CHESNUTT (1858-1932) 522 The Goophered Grapevine 523 The Passing of Grandison 532 The Wife of His Youth 545

ANNA JULIA COOPER (18587-1964) 553 Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race 554

PAULINE E. HOPKINS (1859-1930) 569 Contending Forces 570 Chapter VIII. The Sewing-Circle 570 Chapter XV. Will Smith's Defense of His Race 577 Famous Men of the Negro Race 581 Booker T. Washington 581 Famous Women of the Negro Race 588 Literary Workers (Frances E. W. Harper) 588 Letter from Cordelia A. Condict and Pauline Hopkins's Reply (March 1903) 593

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT (1862-1931) 595 A Red Record 596 Chapter I. The Case Stated 596 Chapter X. The Remedy 602 CONTENTS xiii

W. E. B. DU BOIS (1868-1963) . 606 A Litany of Atlanta • 609 The Song of the Smoke 612 The Souls of Black Folk 613

ALICE MOORE DUNBAR NELSON (1875-1935) 914 Violets ' 915 I Sit and Sew 916 April Is on the Way . •. 916 Violets • .918 WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE (1878-1962) ' 919 The Watchers 920 . The House of Falling Leaves 921 Sic Vita 922 Turn Me to My Yellow Leaves 923 Quiet Has a Hidden Sound 923 FENTON JOHNSON (1888-1958) J . 924 Singing Hallelujia 925 Song of the Whirlwind , 926 My God in Heaven Said to Me 926 The Lonely Mother 927 Tired 928 The Scarlet Woman 928

HARLEM RENAISSANCE: 1919-1940 929

ARTHUR A. SCHOMBURG (1874-1938) 937 The Negro Digs Up His Past ' 937 ANGELINA WELD GRIMKE (1880-1958) 943 A Winter Twilight 944 The Black Finger 944 For the Candle Light 944 When the Green Lies Over the Earth . . • 944 Tenebris 945 ANNE SPENCER (1882-1975) . 946 Before the Feast of Shushan ' ' . 947 Dunbar 948 , At the Carnival 948 Lady, Lady 949 Letter to My Sister • 949 The Wife-Woman 950 JESSIE REDMON FAUSET (c. 1884-1961) 951 Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral 952 From Home ' 952 Chapter I [Black Philadelphia] 952 Chapter II [Sundays] 957 ALAIN LOCKE (1886-1954) 960 The New Negro • 961 GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON (1886-1966) 970 The Heart of a Woman " , 971 Youth . • 971 CONTENTS XV

My Little Dreams 971 Lost Illusions . 972 I Want to Die While You Love Me 972 MARCUS GARVEY (1887-1940) 972 Africa for the Africans 974 The Future as I See It 977 CLAUDE McKAY (1889-1948) 981 Harlem Shadows 984 If We Must Die 984 To the White Fiends 984 Africa 985 America 985 My Mother 986 Enslaved 986 The White House 986 Outcast 987 St. Isaac's Church, Petrograd 987 Home to Harlem ' 988 Chapter XVII. He Also Loved 988 Harlem Runs Wild 993 ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1891-1960) 996 Sweat . 999 How It Feels to Be Colored Me 1008 The Gilded Six-Bits . 1011 Characteristics of Negro Expression 1019 Mules and Men • 1032 [Negro Folklore] 1032 Their Eyes Were Watching God . 1041 Chapter 1 [The Return] " ' 1041 Chapter 2 [Pear Tree] . 1045 Dust Tracks on a Road 1050 Chapter X. Research 1050 NELLALARSEN (1893-1964) 1065 Quicksand 1066 Chapter 12 [To Denmark] 1066 Chapter 13 [New Life] 1069 Chapter 14 [Talk of Marriage] 1073 Chapter 15 [Proposal] 1078 Chapter 16 [Good-Bye] . 1084 JEAN TOOMER (1894-1967) ; 1087 Cane 1089 GEORGE SAMUEL SCHUYLER (1895-1977) - 1170 The Negro-Art Hokum 1171 RUDOLPH FISHER (1897-1934) 1174 The City of Refuge • 1175 The Caucasian Storms Harlem 1187 xvi CONTENTS

ERIC WALROND (1898-1966) • 1195 The Wharf Rats ' 1196 MARITABONNER (1899-1971) 1205 On Being Young—a Woman—and Colored 1206 STERLING A. BROWN (1901-1989) 1210 Odyssey of Big Boy 1211 Long Gone - 1212 Southern Road 1213 Strong Men 1215 Memphis Blues 1216 SlimGreer 1218 Tin Roof Blues 1220 Ma Rainey 1220 Cabaret 1222 Sporting Beasley 1224 Sam Smiley 1225 GWENDOLYN B.BENNETT (1902-1981) 1226 Heritage 1227 To a Dark Girl 1228 Sonnet—2 1228 Hatred 1229 WALLACE THURMAN (1902-1934) 1229 Infants of the Spring 1231 Chapter XXI [Harlem Salon], , 1231 ARNA BONTEMPS (1902-1973) 1239 Golgotha Is a Mountain 1240 A Black Man Talks of Reaping 1242 Nocturne at Bethesda ' 1242 Southern Mansion 1244 Miracles ' 1244 A Summer Tragedy 1244 LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967) ' 1251 The Negro Speaks of Rivers 1254 Mother to Son 1254 Danse Africaine .. 1255 Jazzonia 1255 When Sue Wears Red 1256 Dream Variations 1256 The Weary Blues , 1257 I Too 1258 A House in Taos 1258 Homesick Blues 1259 Po'Boy Blues 1260 Gypsy Man 1260 Lament over Love 1261 Red Silk Stockings 1262 Bad Man 1262 Song for a Dark Girl 1262 CONTENTS xvii

Gal's Cry for a Dying Lover ' 1263 Hard Daddy 1263 Sylvester's Dying Bed • 1264 Ballad of the Landlord 1265 Juke Box Love Song . 1266 Dream Boogie 1266 Harlem 1267 Motto 1267 The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain 1267 The Blues I'm Playing 1271 The Big Sea 1282 When the Negro Was in Vogue 1282 Harlem Literati 1289 Downtown 1293 The Best of Simple 1297 Feet Live Their Own Life 1297 A Toast to Harlem 1299 Jealousy 1301

COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-1946) . 1303 Yet Do I Marvel 1305 Tableau 1305 Incident 1306 Saturday's Child 1306 The Shroud of Color - ••• 1307 Heritage 1311 To John Keats, Poet at Spring Time 1314 From the Dark Tower 1315

HELENE JOHNSON (1907-1995) ' 1315 Poem 1316 Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 1317 Remember Not 1317 Invocation 1317

REALISM, NATURALISM, MODERNISM: 1940-1960 1319

MELVIN B. TOLSON (19007-1966) 1328 An Ex-Judge at the Bar 1330 Dark Symphony 1331 A Legend of Versailles 1334 Libretto for the Republic of Liberia 1335 The Birth of John Henry 1357 Satchmo 1358

DOROTHY WEST (b. 1907) 1358 The Living Is Easy 1359 Part One 1359 Chapter 1. [Cleo] 1359 Chapter 2. [Cleo's High Jinks] 1363 Chapter 3. [Cleo Goes North] 1370 xviii CONTENTS

RICHARD WRIGHT (1908-1960) 1376 Blueprint for Negro Writing 1380 The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, an Autobiographical Sketch 1388 Long Black Song 1397 The Man Who Lived Underground 1414 Black Boy 1450 Chapter XIII. [Booklist] 1450 Chapter XVI. [Chicago] 1457

CHESTER B. HIMES (1909-1984) 1467 Salute to the Passing 1468

ANN PETRY(b. 1911) 1476 Like a Winding Sheet 1478 The Street 1484 Chapter I. [The Apartment] 1484

ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1982) 1497 The Diver 1499 Homage to the Empress of the Blues 1500 Middle Passage 1501 O Daedalus, Fly Away Home 1505 Runagate Runagate 1506 —^ Frederick Douglass 1508 A Ballad of Remembrance 1509 Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday 1510 Soledad 1511 El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz 1512 A Letter from Phillis Wheatley 1514

RALPH ELLISON (1914-1994) 1515 Invisible Man 1518 Prologue 1518 Chapter 1. [Battle Royal] 1525 Epilogue 1535 Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke 1541 The World and the Jug 1549

MARGARET WALKER (b. 1915) 1571 For My People 1572 Poppa Chicken 1574 For Malcolm X 1575 Prophets for a New Day 1575

GWENDOLYN BROOKS (b. 1917) 1577 kitchenette building 1579 the mother 1579 a song in the front yard 1580 Sadie and Maud 1580 the vacant lot 1581 the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon 1581 The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith 1582 Maxie Allen 1585 CONTENTS xix

The Rites for Cousin Vit 1586 The Children of the Poor 1586 The Lovers of the Poor 1589 We Real Cool ,. 1591 The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock 1591 A Lovely Love 1593 Malcolm X ' 1593 Two Dedications 1594 Riot 1596 The Third Sermon on the Warpland 1597 Young Heroes . ' 1599 when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story 1601 Maud Martha 1602 JAMES BALDWIN (1924-1987) 1650 Everybody's Protest Novel • 1654 Many Thousands Gone 1659 Stranger in the Village ' 1670 Notes of a Native Son 1679 Sonny's Blues 1694 BOB KAUFMAN (1925-1986) 1717 Walking Parker Home • ' • • - ' 1718 Grandfather Was Queer, Too ' 1718 Jail Poems 1719 Unanimity Has Been Achieved, Not a Dot Less for Its Accidentalness • 1723 War Memoir: Jazz, Don't Listen to It at Your Own Risk 1724 LORRAINE HANSBERRY (1930-1965) 1725 A Raisin in the Sun 1728

THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT: 1960-1970 1791

MARI EVANS 1806 Status Symbol •• 1807 I Am a Black Woman 1808 HOYT FULLER (1923-1981) ""•• • 1809 Towards a Black Aesthetic 1810 MALCOLM X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) (1925-1965) 1816 The Autobiography of Malcolm X 1817 Chapter 11. Saved • 1817 JOHN ALFRED WILLIAMS (b. 1925) 1833 The Man Who Cried I Am " 1834 1. [In an Outdoor Cafe] 1834 2. [Memories, Margrit, and Morphine] 1840 3. [Picture of the Writer] 1849 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (1929-1968) 1853 Letter from Birmingham Jail • 1854 xx CONTENTS

ETHERIDGE KNIGHT (1931-1985) 1866 The Idea of Ancestry • 1867 Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane 1868 For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide 1869 ADDISONGAYLE JR. (1932-1991) 1869 The Black Aesthetic 1870 Introduction 1870 AMIRI BARAKA (b. 1934) ' 1877 Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note 1879 In Memory of Radio ' 1880 A Poem for Black Hearts 1881 I don't love you ' 1881 Three Movements and a Coda • , .• 1882 SOS 1883 Black Art ' . , 1883 The Invention of Comics 1884 ^ Dutchman , 1885 The Revolutionary Theatre 1899 SONIASANCHEZ (b. 1934) .. ' 1902 • homecoming . 1903 poem at thirty 1903 for our lady 1904 Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict 1905 A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women . 1905 Part Three 1905 Present 1905 ED BULLINS (b. 1935) 1907 Goin'a Buffalo: A Tragifantasy 1908 ELDRIDGE CLEAVER (b. 1935) 1946 Soul on Ice 1947 The Primeval Mitosis 1947 A. B. SPELLMAN (b. 1935) 1955 Did John's Music Kill Him? 1955 JAYNE CORTEZ (b. 1936) . 1956 How Long Has Trane Been Gone • : 1957 LARRY NEAL (1937-1981) 1959 The Black Arts Movement 1960 MAULANA KARENGA (b. 1941) 1972 Black Art: Mute Matter Given Force and Function 1973 HAKIR. MADHUBUTI (b. 1942) - 1977 Back Again, Home 1978 Introduction [to Think Black]' ' . 1978 The Long Reality . 1979 CONTENTS xxi

Malcolm Spoke / who listened? 1980 a poem to complement other poems 1981 NIKKI GIOVANNI (b. 1943) . 1982 For Saundra 1983 Beautiful Black Men 1984 Nikki-Rosa . 1984 JAMES ALAN McPHERSON (b. 1943) 1985 A Solo Song: For Doc 1986 QUINCY TROUPE (b. 1943) 2002 In Texas Grass 2003 Conversation Overheard 2004 Impressions / of Chicago; For Howlin' Wolf 2006 CAROLYN M. RODGERS (b. 1945) 2007 Jesus Was Crucified 2007 It Is Deep 2009 For Sistuhs Wearin' Straight Hair 2010

LITERATURE SINCE 1970 2011

ALBERT MURRAY (b. 1916) 2021 Train Whistle Guitar 2023 [History Lessons] 2023 MAYAANGELOU(b. 1928) 2037 . Still I Rise 2039 t^" My Arkansas . 2040 I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings 2040 £- Chapter 15. [Mrs. Flowers] 2040 Chapter 16. ["Mam"] 2046 PAULE MARSHALL (b. 1929) ' 2050 Reena ' , 2052 To Da-Duh, in Memoriam 2065 The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen 2072 ADRIENNE KENNEDY (b. 1931) 2079 \ A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White 2081 TONI MORRISON (b. 1931) • 2094 Sula 2098 ERNEST J.GAINES(b. 1933) ' ' 2180 The Sky Is Gray , ; 2182 AUDRELORDE (1934-1992) 2203 Father Son and Holy Ghost 2204 The Winds of Orisha 2205 Coal 2207 Now That I Am Forever with Child 2207 A Litany for Survival 2208 xxii CONTENTS

The Evening News 2209 Poetry Is Not a Luxury 2210

COLLEEN MCELROY (b. 1935) 2212 Pike Street Bus 2213 The Griots Who Know Brer Fox 2214 Tapestries 2216 Caledonia 2218

LUCILLE CLIFTON (b. 1936) 2219 [the bodies broken on] ' 2220 the lost baby poem 2221 prayer 2222 malcolm • . 2222 [Kali] 2222 [if mama / could see] 2223 homage to my hips 2223 [what spells raccoon to me] 2224 1. at Jonestown 2224 [a woman who loves] 2224 wishes for sons •' 2225 move 2226

JUNE JORDAN (b. 1936) 2227 In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr. 2229 I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies 2230 Poem about My Rights 2231 Poem for Guatemala 2234 The Female and the Silence of a Man 2235 Intifada 2236 A New Politics of Sexuality 2238

CLARENCE MAJOR (b. 1936) . 2241 Swallow the Lake 2243 Round Midnight 2244 On Watching a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly 2246 Chicago Heat 2247

LEON FORREST (b. 1937) 2250 There Is a Tree More Ancient Than Eden 2252 The Epistle of Sweetie Reed 2252

MICHAEL S. HARPER (b. 1938) 2275 Dear John, Dear Coltrane 2277 Deathwatch 2278 Here Where Coltrane Is 2279 Br'er Sterling and the Rocker 2280 Grandfather 2280 "Goin' to the Territory" 2282 In Hayden's Collage 2283 The Ghost of Soul-Making 2284 CONTENTS xxiii

ISHMAEL REED (b. 1938) 2285 I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra ' 2286 Railroad Bill, a Conjure Man 2288 Dualism: In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man 2292 Chattanooga 2293 Oakland Blues 2296 Neo-HooDoo Manifesto 2297 Mumbo Jumbo 2301 Chapters 1-2 2301 TONI CADE BAMBARA (1939-1995) 2305 Raymond's Run 2307 AL YOUNG (b. 1939) 2313 A Dance for Ma Rainey 2314 Conjugal Visits 2315 The Seduction of Light 2317 2A. [Ben Franklin] 2317 3. [Secondhand Business] 2322 JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN (b. 1941) 2325 Brothers and Keepers 2328 [Robby's Version] 2328 Damballah 2335 SAMUEL R. DELANY (b. 1942) 2342 Atlantis: Model 1924 [d] 2343 SHERLEY ANNE WILLIAMS (b. 1944) 2361 The Peacock Poems: 1 2363 I Want Aretha to Set This to Music 2363 Tell Martha Not to Moan 2365 ALICE WALKER (b. 1944) 2375 Women 2377 Outcast . 2378 On Stripping Bark from Myself 2379 "Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning" 2380 In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens 2380 Everyday Use 2387 Advancing Luna—and Ida B. Wells 2394 The Color Purple 2405 [God Love All Them Feelings] 2406 AUGUST WILSON (b. 1945) 2409 Fences 2411 MICHELLE CLIFF (b. 1946) 2462 Within the Veil 2463 Columba 2466 WANDA COLEMAN (b. 1946) 2472 Emmett Till 2473 Today I Am a Homicide in the North of the City 2476 xxiv CONTENTS

be quiet, go away . • 2477 At the Record Hop •' .; . 2477 " American Sonnet (10) . 2478 Bedtime Story , . 2478 Mastectomy 2479 OCTAVIA BUTLER (b. 1947) . . 2479 Bloodchild 2480 YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA (b. 1947) 2495 February in Sydney . 2495 Facing It 2496 Sunday Afternoons 2496 Banking Potatoes 2497 Birds on a Powerline 2498 NATHANIEL MACKEY (b. 1947) 2499 Falso Brilhante 2500 • Song of the Andoumboulou: 8 • . 2501 Djbot Baghostus's Run 26.IX.81 • - " •'' 2502 CHARLES JOHNSON (b. 1948) . 2507 The Education of Mingo . 2509 NTOZAKE SHANGE (b. 1948) 2518 From for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf 2519 Nappy Edges ' 2521 Bocas: A Daughter's Geography 2523 JAMAICA KINCAID (b. 1949) 2524 Annie John 2526 Chapter Two. The Circling Hand 2526 DAVID BRADLEY (b. 1950) 2535 The Chaneysville Incident '• • 2536 • [Old Jack]' • ' ' 2536 GLORIA NAYLOR (b. 1950) 2542 The Women of Brewster Place ' 2544 The Two • 2544 TERRY McMILLAN (b. 1951) 2571 Quilting on the Rebound 2572 RITA DOVE (b. 1952) 2582 David Walker (1785-1830) ' • 2584 Parsley 2585 Receiving the Stigmata 2587

THOMAS AND BEULAH ' ' 2587 The Event 2587 Motherhood • • 2588 CONTENTS XXV

Daystar 2589 The Oriental Ballerina 2589 Pastoral 2591 MOTHER LOVE 2591 Persephone Abducted 2591 Statistic: The Witness 2592 Mother Love 2592 Demeter Mourning 2593 History 2593 Derneter's Prayer to Hades 2594 WALTER MOSLEY (b. 1952) 2594 Devil in a Blue Dress 2596 Chapter 1. [DeWitt Albright] 2596 Chapter 2. [Joppy] 2598 Chapter 3. [Daphne Monet] 2601 ESSEX HEMPHILL (1957-1995) 2608 Conditions 2609 XXI 2609 XXII 2610 XXIV 2610

TIMELINE: AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE IN CONTEXT 2612

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIES 2625

PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 2649

INDEX 2657