1. AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS

2. LANGSTON HUGHES Biographical Information
Born on Feb 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri
Raised by maternal grandmother
Mixed race
Influenced by Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman
Traveled as a young man—Africa, Spain
Among the first to use jazz rhythms and dialect to depict the life of urban blacks in his work
May 22, died due to complications from prostate cancer

4. LANGSTON HUGHES Harlem What happens to a dream deferred?
      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?
      Or fester like a sore—
      And then run?
      Does it stink like rotten meat?
      Or crust and sugar over—
      like a syrupy sweet?
      Maybe it just sags
      like a heavy load.
      Or does it explode?

5. RICHARD WRIGHT Published his first short story at the age of 16
Grandson of a slave and sharecropper
Well known for Best Sellers Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (autobiography-1945)
Native Son was the first book by an African American author to be selected by the ‘book of the month club’.
Native Son- The story of 20 year old, Bigger Thomas. Bigger works for a wealthy, white family and accidentally kills the daughter…

7. TONI MORRISON
Pulitzer Prize winner and first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature
Best known novels are Beloved, Song of Solomon, and The Bluest Eye
Her novels are known for their epic themes, exquisite language and richly detailed African- American characters
Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012

9. ZORA NEALE HURSTON Daughter of former slaves
Worked to pay her way through college
Incorporated folklore and themes of racial heritage into her work
Published her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937
Friends with Langston Hughes
Died poor and alone and is buried in an unmarked grave ☹

11. ZORA NEALE HURSTON

12. ALICE WALKER Author, CIvil Rights Activist, Women's Right Activist
Pulitzer Prize-winning, African-American novelist and poet most famous for authoring The Color Purple
Set in the early 1900s, the novel explores the female African-American experience through the life and struggles of its narrator, Celie. Celie suffers terrible abuse at the hands of her father, and later, from her husband

14. MAYA ANGELOU Poet and award winning author
Acclaimed for her biography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Best non-fiction seller by an African American woman writer
First African American cable car conductor in San Francisco
Close friends with Martin and Coretta and Oprah
One of the most prolific and respected women
President Obama called her, "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman."

16. RALPH ELLISON

18. JAMES BALDWIN
Playwright and novelist regarded as a highly insightful, iconic writer
Broke new literary ground with the exploration of racial and social issues in his many works
In 1953 published the novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, which garnered acclaim for his insights on race, spirituality and humanity
Wrote essays meant to educate white America what meant to be black