1. African American Authors Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915 )

2. Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance is a period in American history where the influence of African-Americans in politics, literature, music, culture and society grew and became a part of the mainstream. The period has its roots in the early 1900’s when a migration of middle class African-Americans to a newly built suburb called Harlem in New York City caused a stir.

3. Maya Angelou Maya Angelou born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928)is an American autobiographer and poet.Her best-known, and most highly acclaimed work, I Know why the Caged Bird Sings focuses on the first seventeen years of her life. Angelou has been highly honored for her body of work.

4. Toni Cade Bambara Bambara was born Miltona Mirkin Cade on March 25, 1939. She is considered one of the best African American short story writers, her first collection, Gorilla, My Love, was published in 1972. Her stories include “Blues Ain’t No Mocking Bird" as well as "Raymond's Run."

5. Bill Cosby William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby show, in 1969.

6. Eric Jerome Dickey Eric Jerome Dickey was born in Memphis, Tennessee on July 7, 1961. Dickey wrote several comedy scripts for his personal comedy act, and later began writing short stories. In 1994, his first published short story "Thirteen" appeared in the IBWA's River Crossing, Voices of the Diaspora--an Anthology of the International Black Experience.

7. Olaudah Equiano After ten years of enslavement throughout the North American continent, Equiano bought his freedom. At the age of forty four he wrote and published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. More than two centuries later, this work is recognized not as one of the first works written in English by a former slave.

8. Antwone Fisher Antwone Quenton Fisher (born August 3, 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American author, screenwriter, and film producer. His 2001 autobiographical book Finding Fish was the basis for the 2002 motion picture Antwone Fisher, directed by Denzel Washington.

9. Nikki Giovanni The civil right sand black power movements inspired her early poetry that was collected in Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967), Black Judgment (1968), and Re: Creation (1970). She has since written more than two dozen books including volumes of poetry, illustrated children's books, and three collections of essays.

10. Alex Haley Haley was born in Ithaca, New York August 11, 1921. In 1976, Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based loosely on his family's history. Haley's work on the novel involved ten years of research, intercontinental travel and writing.

11. James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore.

12. Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid (born as Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson on 25 May 1949 is an American novelist, gardener, and gardening writer. In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid because her family disapproved of her writing.

13. Audre Lorde Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Huges’s1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements.

14. Walter Dean Myers Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers, on August 12, 1937) is an African American author of young adult literature. Myers has written thirty books, including niovels and nonfiction works. He has won Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times.

15. Gloria Naylor Gloria Naylor (born January 25, 1950 in New York City) is an African American novelist. Her novel The Women of Brewster Place was adapted into a 1989 film of the same name by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.

16. Ann Petry Ann Petry (October 12, 1908 – April 28, 1997) was an African American Author who became the first black woman writer with book sales topping a million copies for her novel The Street.

17. Al Roker Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an African American American television broadcaster, best known as the weather anchor forNBC’s Today show. He is the author of a new murder mystery entitled, "The Morning Show Murders" about a celebrity chef and morning tv show host drawn into international intrigue and mayhem.

18. Sonia Sanchez Sonia Sanchez is an African American poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement She has authored over a dozen books of poetry, as well as plays and children's books.

19. Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth (1797 – November 26, 1883) was the self-given name, from 1843, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Her best-known speech, Ain’t I a Woman? was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio

20. Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American author She has written at length on issues of race and gender, and is most famous for the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was born and raised in Georgia.

21. Frank Yerby Frank Garvin Yerby (September 5, 1916(1916-09-05) – November 29, 1991) was an African American historical novelist. He is best known as the first African American to write a best-selling novel and to have a book purchased by a Hollywood studio for a film adaptation.

22. Ahmos Zu-Bolton II Ahmos Zu-Bolton II (October 21, 1935 – March 8, 2005) was an activist, poet and playwright also known for his editing and publishing endeavors on behalf of African-American culture.

23. The End… The diverse and distinguished body of writing that is African American literature presents some of the best examples of the American investigation of the question of identity.