African American Literature (Penguin Academics Series) Book

1. Middle Passage/Graveyards.

From The Interesting Narrative, Olaudah Equiano.

“Middle Passage,” Robert Hayden.

“Ark of Bones,” Henry Dumas.

From Beloved, Toni Morrison.

From Middle Passage, Charles Johnson.

From Joe Turner's Come and Gone, August Wilson.

"Homecoming," Everett Hoagland.

"Goree," Everett Hoagland.

"Dust," Everett Hoagland.

From The Souls of Black Folk , W. E. B. Du Bois.

“A Death Song,” Paul Laurence Dunbar.

“A Brown Girl Dead,” Countee Cullen.

From Black Thunder, Arna Bontemps.

From Dust Tracks on a Road, Zora Neale Hurston.

“Looking for Zora,” Alice Walker.

“Burial,” Alice Walker.

“View from Rosehill Cemetery,” Alice Walker.

From A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest Gaines.

From Daughters of the Dust, Julie Dash.

2. The Influence of the Spirituals.

“God's Going to Trouble the Water.”

“Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?”

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

“Steal Away to Jesus.”

“An Evening Thought,” Jupiter Hammon.

“On being Brought from Africa to America,” Phillis Wheatley.

“Letter to Samson Occum,” Phillis Wheatley.

“Go Down, Moses.”

From “Moses: A Story of the Nile,” Frances E. W. Harper.

"An Ante-Bellum Sermon," Paul Laurence Dunbar.

"God's Gonna Set This World on Fire."

“Dry Bones.”

“O Black and Unknown Bards,” James Weldon Johnson.

"The Judgement Day," James Weldon Johnson.

“Runagate Runagate” by Robert Hayden.

“A Change Is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke.

“Final Hour,” Lauryn Hill.

“Walk Together Children.”

From Youngblood, John Oliver Killens.

From A Different Drummer, William Melvin Kelley.

“When We'll Worship Jesus,” Amiri Baraka.

“Jesus Was Crucified,” Carolyn Rodgers.

“It Is Deep,” Carolyn Rodgers.

“There's No Hiding Place Down There.”

“People Get Ready,” Curtis Mayfield.

“I've Been 'Buked'.”

“Say It Loud,” James Brown.

“Apocalypse,” Charlie Braxton.

“The New Miz Praise De Lawd,” Nicole Breedlove.

From Jubilee, Margaret Walker.

3. The South as Literary Landscape.

“Southern Song,” Margaret Walker.

Cane, Jean Toomer.

“Big Boy Leaves Home,” Richard Wright.

From Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston.

From Mama Day, Gloria Naylor.

From Gather Together in My Name, Maya Angelou.

“Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday.

“Tennessee,” Arrested Development.

4. Folklore and Literature.

“The Signifying Monkey.”

"Goophered Grapevine," Charles W. Chestnutt.

"Po'Sandy," Charles W. Chestnutt.

“Railroad Bill.”

"Railroad Bill, A Conjure Man," Ishmael Reed.

From Flight to Canada, Ishmael Reed.

“Stackolee.”

“The Sinking of the Titanic.”

“I Sing of Shine,” Etheridge Knight.

“John Henry.”

“The Birth of John Henry,” Melvin B. Tolson.

From John Henry Days, Colson Whitehead.

From Baby of the Family, Tina McElroy Ansa.

From Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, Ntozake Shange.

5. Expressions of Blues and Jazz.

“St. Louis Blues,” W. C. Handy.

“Backwater Blues,” Bessie Smith.

“Crossroad Blues,” Robert Johnson.

“The Weary Blues,” Langston Hughes.

“Midwinter Blues” by Langston Hughes.

“Ma Man,” Langston Hughes.

“Wide River,” Langston Hughes.

“Flatted Fifths,” Langston Hughes.

“Jam Session,” Langston Hughes.

"See, See Rider," Ma Rainey.

"Sissy Blues," Ma Rainey.

"Prove it on Me Blues," Ma Rainey.

“Ma Rainey,” Sterling Brown.

“New St. Louis Blues,” Sterling Brown.

“River Town Packin House Blues,” Quincy Troupe.

“Liberation Blues,” Mari Evans.

“Lee Morgan,” Mari Evans.

“Sonny's Blues,” James Baldwin.

From Corregidora, Gayl Jones.

“Jazz Is...,” Ted Joans.

“Jazz Is My Religion,” Ted Joans.

“Him the Bird,” Ted Joans.

“His Horn,” Bob Kaufmann.

“O-Jazz-O,” Bob Kaufmann.

“AM/TRAK,” Amiri Baraka.

“a/coltrane/poem,” Sonia Sanchez.

“Solo Finger Solo,” Jayne Cortez.

From Be-Bop, Re-Bop, Xam Wilson Cartier.

“Law Giver in the Wilderness,” Sterling Plumpp.

"Ornate with Smoke," Sterling Plumpp.

"Riffs," Sterling Plumpp.

untitled, Sterling Plumpp.

“Elegy for Thelonius,” Yusuf Komunyakaa.

“February in Sydney,” Yusuf Komunyakaa.

“Billie in Silk,” Angela Jackson.

“Make/n My Music,” Angela Jackson.

“d.c.harlem suite,” Brian Gilmore.

6. Stories of Migration.

The Sport of the Gods, Paul Laurence Dunbar.

“Traveling Blues,” Ma Rainey.

“Far Away Blues,” Bessie Smith and Clara Smith.

“The New Negro,” Alain Locke.

From Jazz, Toni Morrison.

From Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison.

From Another Good Loving Blues, Arthur Flowers.

7. Urban Landscapes.

From Makes Me Wanna Holler, Nathan McCall.

From Brothers and Keepers, John Edgar Wideman.

“City Night Storm,” Eugene B. Redmond.

“We're Tight, Soul-Tight—Like Lincolnites,” Eugene B. Redmond.

“Indigenous Daughter Awake in the Dreams of Nana,” Eugene B. Redmond.

“Choreo-Empress' Leg-a-cy Lands on East Saint Earth, 2nd Take,” Eugene B. Redmond.

“Wishing...,” Eugene B. Redmond.

From Mama, Terry McMillan.

“The Zulus,” Rita Dove.

“Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967,” Rita Dove.

“My Mother Enters the Work Force,” Rita Dove.

“Fast Eddie,” Wanda Coleman.

“Flight of the California Condor (2),” Wanda Coleman.

“Dominoes,” Wanda Coleman.

“Low English,” Wanda Coleman.

“Sears Life,” Wanda Coleman.

“South Central Los Angeles Deathtrip 1982,” Wanda Coleman.

“Window Shopping,” Lamont B. Steptoe.

“Kennywood,” Lamont B. Steptoe.

“Three Legged Chairs,” Lamont B. Steptoe.

“Spooked,” Lamont B. Steptoe.

“Seamstress,” Lamont B. Steptoe.

“A Ghosted Blues,” Lamont B. Steptoe.

“Detroit,” Mursalata Muhammad.

“Street Play,” Mursalata Muhammad.

“Women at the House of Braids Discuss Flo Jo,” Mursalata Muhammad.

“The Hatmaker,” Keith Gilyard.

“Anyone Heard from Manuel?,” Keith Gilyard.

“The Thief,” Walter Mosley.

8. A Strand of Social Protest.

From Native Son, Richard Wright.

From If He Hollers Let Him Go, Chester Himes.

From The Street, Ann Petry.

“Tell Me,” Langston Hughes.

“Harlem [2],” Langston Hughes.

A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry.

9. Jeremiads.

Article III of the Appeal, David Walker.

“The Blood of the Slave on the Skirts of the Northern People,” Frederick Douglass.

“Emancipation, Racism, and the Work Before Us,” Frederick Douglass.

“Speech at the Atlanta Exposition,” Booker T. Washington.

From The Future of the American Negro, Booker T. Washington.

From Red Record, Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

From Mob Rule in New Orleans, Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

“Address to the Country,”W.E.B. Du Bois.

Awake America, W.E.B. Du Bois.

From The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois.

“Certain Unalienable Rights,” Mary McLeod Bethune.

“Speech at Holt Street Baptist Church,” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I Have a Dream,”Martin Luther King, Jr.

From Where Do We Go From Here?, Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Beyond Multiculturalism & Eurocentrism,” Cornel West.

“A Twilight Civilization,” Cornel West.

10. Discourses of Black Nationalism.

Preamble plus Articles I and II of the Appeal, David Walker.

“Address at the African Masonic Hall,” Maria Stewart.

"A Glance at Ourselves," from The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered, Martin R. Delany.

A Project for an Expedition of Adventure, to the Eastern Coast of Africa," from The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered, Martin R. Delany.

“The Conservation of Races,” W.E.B. Du Bois.

"Africa for the Africans," Marcus Garvey.

"The Future as I See It," Marcus Garvey.

"First Speech after Release from Tombs Prison Delivered at Liberty Hall, New York City, September 13, 1923," Marcus Garvey.

"God Helps Those Who Help Themselves," Elijah Muhammad.

“The Black Revolution,” Malcolm X.

“The Ballot or the Bullet,” Malcolm X.

“Standing as an African Man” by Haki Madhubuti.

11. Statements of Feminism.

“Speech Delivered to the Women's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio,” (Campbell version and Gage Version) Sojourner Truth.

“Speech Delivered to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association,” Sojourner Truth.

“The Awakening of the Afro-American Woman,” Victoria Earle Matthews.

“The Heart of a Woman,” Georgia Douglas Johnson.

“My Little Dreams,” Georgia Douglas Johnson.

“Free,” Georgia Douglas Johnson.

Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks.

“A Song of Sojourner Truth,” June Jordan.

“Where Is the Love?,” June Jordan.

From The Color Purple, Alice Walker.

“A Name Is Sometimes an Ancestor Saying Hi, I'm With You,” Alice Walker.

“Feminism: It's a Black Thing,” bell hooks.

"The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," Audre Lorde.

11. Rituals (Masking, Trickster, and Literacy).

“We Wear the Mask,” Paul Laurence Dunbar.

“Goophered Grapevine,” Charles W. Chesnutt.

From Passing, Nella Larsen.

From The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, James Weldon Johnson.

From Clotel, William Wells Brown.

From The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass.

From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs.

From Flight to Canada, Ishmael Reed.

“The Mask,” Wyclef Jean.

12. “The Black Aesthetic.”

“My People,” Langston Hughes.

“Heritage,” Countee Cullen.

“From the Dark Tower,” Countee Cullen.

“If We Must Die,” Claude McKay.

“Enslaved,” Claude McKay.

“Outcast,” Claude McKay.

“Poem,” Helene Johnson.

“Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem,” Helene Johnson.

“For My People,” Margaret Walker.

“the mother,” Gwendolyn Brooks.

“Malcolm X,” Gwendolyn Brooks.

“Old Black Ladies Standing on Bus Stop Corners #2,” Quincy Troupe.

“A Poem Some People Will Have to Understand,” Amiri Baraka.

“Black Art,” Amiri Baraka.

“A Poem for Black Hearts,” Amiri Baraka.

“From The Man Who Cried I Am, John A. Williams.

“Back Again, Home,” Haki Madhubuti.

“We Walk the Way of the New World,” Haki Madhubuti.

“Black Power,” Nikki Giovanni.

“Poem for Black Boys,” Nikki Giovanni.

“The Great Pax White,” Nikki Giovanni.

“Black Writing,” Larry Neal.

“One Spark Can Light a Prairie Fire,” Larry Neal.

“Black Man's Feast,” Sarah Webster Fabio.

“Evil Is No Black Thing,” Sarah Webster Fabio.

“Tripping with Black Writing,” Sarah Webster Fabio.

“The Lesson,” by Toni Cade Bambara.

“Listenen to Big Black at S.F. State,” Sonia Sanchez.

“This is Not a Small Voice,” Sonia Sanchez.

“Reflections on Margaret Walker: Poet,” Sonia Sanchez.

“Remembering and Honoring Toni Cade Bambara,” Sonia Sanchez.

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Gil Scott Heron.

“The Revolution Will Be on the Big Screen,” Derrick Gilbert.

“Reparation,” Derrick Gilbert.

“Why I Would Never Buy a Jeep Cherokee,” Derrick Gilbert.

“On Watching the Republican Convention,” Kenneth Carroll.

“So What!,” Kenneth Carroll.