Celebrate African American History in February
at the Cabrillo College Library

Selected authors and titles in African American Literature available at the library.

Toni Morrison born 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, is perhaps the most celebrated contemporary American novelist. Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, Morrison powerfully evokes in her fiction the legacies of displacement and slavery that have been bequeathed to the African-American community. Morrison was born in Ohio, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, and is now a member of the faculty of Princeton University. Her most widely read novel is perhaps Beloved (1987), which won the Pulitzer Prize and was recently adapted for film. Song of Solomon (1977), which won the 1978 National Book Critics Award for fiction, is perhaps the most lyrical of her novels.

Beloved : a novel / by Toni Morrison. PS3563.O8749 B4 1987.

The bluest eye / Toni Morrison. PS3563.O8749 B58 1972b.

Jazz / Toni Morrison. PS3563.O8749 J38 1992.

Paradise / Toni Morrison. PS3563.O8749 P37 1997.

Playing in the dark : whiteness and the literary imagination / Toni Morrison. PS173.N4 M67 1992.

Song of Solomon / Toni Morrison. PS3563.O8749 S66 1977.

Sula / Toni Morrison. PS3563.O8749 S8 1987.

Tar baby / Toni Morrison.  PS3563.O8749 T37 1987.

 

Amiri Baraka, born Oct. 7, 1934, in Newark, N.J., was born LeRoi Jones and is also called Imamu Amiri Baraka. He is a playwright, poet, novelist, and essayist who wrote of the experiences and anger of blackAmericans with an affirmation of black life. A graduate of Howard University (1953), Baraka published his first major collection of poetry, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, in 1961. In 1964 Baraka's play Dutchman appeared off-Broadway and won critical acclaim. In Dutchman, an encounter between a white woman and a black intellectual exposes the suppressed anger and hostility of American blacks toward the dominant white culture.

The Autobiography Of LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka. PS3552.A583 Z463 1997

Beat Voices : An Anthology Of Beat Poetry / edited By David Kherdian. PS614 .B34 1995

Black Music / Amiri Baraka. ML3556 .B15 1967

Blues People : Negro Music In White America / by LeRoi Jones [I.E. Baraka, I. A.]. ML3556 .B16 1980

The Dead Lecturer; Poems / Amiri Baraka. PS3552.A583 D4 1964

Dutchman And The Slave, Two Plays / Amiri Baraka. PS3552.A583 D8 1964

Funk Lore : New Poems, 1984-1995 / Amiri Baraka ; Edited By Paul Vangelisti. PS3552.A583 F86 1996

The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader / by Amiri Baraka ; Edited By William J. Harris In
Collaboration With Amiri Baraka. PS3552.A583 A6 1991

The Motion Of History, And Other Plays / by Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones). PS3552.A583 M6 1978

The System Of Dante's Hell / LeRoi Jones. PS3552.A583 S97 1965

 

Audre Lorde was born in 1934 in New York to parents of West Indian heritage. She passed away in 1992, a victim of breast cancer. Her battle with the disease, which was chronicled in works like The Cancer Journals, was just one of many struggles she had to deal with in life. Audre Lorde was a black homosexual female in a world dominated by white heterosexual males. She fought for justice on each of these minority fronts. Her writings protest against the swallowing of black American culture by an indifferent white population, against the perpetuation of sex discrimination, and against the neglect of the movement for gay rights.

"Breast Cancer: Power Vs. Prosthesis" in Getting there : the movement toward gender equality / compiled by Diana Wells. HQ1421 .G48 1994

The Cancer Journals / Audre Lorde. RC280.B8 L58 1997

"How I became a poet" in My mother's daughter : stories by women / edited by Irene Zahava. PS648.M59 M9 1991.

Sister Outsider : Essays And Speeches / by Audre Lorde. PS3562.O75 S5 1984

Zami, A New Spelling Of My Name / Audre Lorde. PS3562.O75 Z23x 1982b

 

Ann Petry's (1908-1997) first published short story was "On Saturday the Siren Sounds at Noon," which appeared in Crisis. In 1946 Petry's "Like a Winding Sheet" was named Best American short story of 1946. In 1946 Petry was awarded the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship which allowed her to finish The Street, her first of three novels. Ann Petry has also authored serveral children's books including Tituba of Salem Village

The street / Ann Petry.  PS3531.E933 S75 1991

"Like a winding sheet" in Women and fiction : short stories by and about women / edited by             Susan Cahill. PN56.W6 W6 1975

The American writer Ralph Waldo Ellison, b. Oklahoma City, Okla., Mar. 1, 1914, achieved international fame with his first novel, Invisible Man (1952). He was influenced early by the myth of the frontier, viewing the United States as a land of "infinite possibilities." The close-knit black community in which he grew up supplied him with images of courage and endurance and an interest in music.

The collected essays of Ralph Ellison / edited, with an introduction by John F. Callahan ;
preface by Saul Bellow. PS3555.L625 A6 1995

Juneteenth / Ralph Ellison. PS3555.L625 J86 1999

Flying home and other stories / Ralph Ellison ; edited, with an introduction by John F.
Callahan.  PS3555.L625 F58 1996

Invisible man / Ralph Ellison.  PS3555.L625 I5 1995

Bell Hooks grew up in a segregated community of the American South. At age 19 she began writing what would become her first full-length book, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which was published in 1981. She read English literature at Stanford University (B.A., 1973), the University of Wisconsin (M.A., 1976), and the University of California, Santa Cruz (Ph.D., 1983). She assumed her pseudonym, the name of her great-grandmother, to honour female legacies; she preferred to spell it in all lowercase letters as a statement against the ego of the author. In the 1980s Hooks established a support group for black women called the Sisters of the Yam, which she later used as the title of a book, published in 1993, celebrating black sisterhood.

Bone Black : Memories Of Girlhood / Bell Hooks. E185.97.H77 A3 1996

Reel To Real : Race, Sex, And Class At The Movies / Bell Hooks. PN1995.9.S6 H66 1996

Remembered Rapture : The Writer At Work / Bell Hooks. PE64.H66 A3 1999

 

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia, the eighth and last child of Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker, who were sharecroppers. After spending two years at Spelman College, she transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and during her junior year traveled to Africa as an exchange student. She received her bachelor of arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965. Alice Walker is a writer whose novels, short stories, and poems are noted for their insightful treatment of black American culture. Her novels focused particularly on women, most notably The Color Purple (1982; film, 1985), which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983.

Abortion / Alice Walker. PS648.A29 C65 1994

By The Light Of My Father's Smile : A Novel / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 B9 1998

The Color Purple / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 C6 1992

Diary Of An African Nun / Alice Walker. PS647.A35 C5 1995

Everyday Use / Alice Walker ; Edited, And With An Introduction By Barbara T. Christian. PS3573.A425 E9 1994

Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You In The Morning : Poems / by Alice Walker.
PS3573.A425 G6 1984

Her Blue Body Everything We Know : Earthling Poems, 1965-1990 Complete / Alice Walker
PS3573.A425 H47 1991

Horses Make A Landscape Look More Beautiful : Poems / by Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 H6 1986

How Did I Get Away With Killing One Of The Biggest Lawyers In The State? It Was Easy. / Alice Walker. PN6120.95.D45 M77 1997

In Love & Trouble; Stories Of Black Women. / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 .I5 1973

In Search Of Our Mothers' Gardens : Womanist Prose / by Alice Walker PS3573.A425 Z467 1983

Living By The Word : Selected Writings, 1973-1987 / by Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 A6 1988

Meridian / by Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 M47 1976

Once : Poems / by Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 O5 1968

Possessing The Secret Of Joy / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 P67 1992

Revolutionary Petunias & Other Poems. / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 R4 1973

The Same River Twice : Honoring The Difficult : A Meditation On Life, Spirit, Art, And The
Making Of / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 Z47 1996

A Sudden Trip Home In The Spring / Alice Walker. PS647.W6 M9 1990

The Temple Of My Familiar / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 T46 1989

The Third Life Of Grange Copeland / Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 T54 1988

To Hell With Dying / Alice Walker ; Illustrated By Catherine Deeter. PZ7.W15213 To 1988

You Can't Keep A Good Woman Down : Stories / by Alice Walker. PS3573.A425 Y6 1981 

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. He traveled all over the world-to Europe, Africa, Mexico, the Soviet Union but his heart and home were in Harlem, where he was one of the most versatile writers of the artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Though known primarily as a poet, Hughes also wrote plays, essays, novels, short stories, and books for children. His writing is characterized by simplicity and realism and, as he once said, "people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten."

The Big Sea, An Autobiography / Langston Hughes. PS3515.U274 Z5 1940

The Blues I'm Playing / Langston Hughes. PS647.A35 C57 1994

The Collected Poems Of Langston Hughes / Arnold Rampersad, Editor, David Roessel,
Associate Editor. PS3515.U274 A17 1994

Cora Unashamed / Langston Hughes. PS648.A29 C65 1994

Five Plays / Langston Hughes, edited with an introd. by Webster Smalley. PS3515.U274 A19 1963

I Wonder As I Wander; An Autobiographical Journey / Langston Hughes. PS3515.U274 Z468 1956

Poems from Black Africa: Ethiopia, South Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Ivory
Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Gabon, Senegal, Nyasaland, Mozambique, South Africa, Congo,
Ghana, Liberia / Langston Hughes. PL8013.E5 H8 1963

Selected Poems / Langston Hughes. Drawings By E. McKnight Kauffer. PS3515.U274 A6 1959

Short Stories / Langston Hughes ; Edited By Akiba Sullivan Harper ; With An Introduction By
Arnold Rampersad. PS3515.U274 A6 1997

Something In Common, And Other Stories / Langston Hughes. PS3515.U274 A6 1963

 

Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the titans of twentieth-century African American literature. Although Hurston was closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance and has influenced such writers as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones, Alice Walker, and Toni Cade Bambara, interest in her has only recently been revived after decades of neglect. Hurston's four novels and two books of folklore are important sources of black myth and legend.

 

"Black Death," "Spunk" and "Story In Harlem Slang" in Harlem's glory : Black women writing, 1900-1950 / edited by Lorraine Elena Roses, Ruth Elizabeth Randolph. PS508.N3 H37 1996

Dust Tracks On A Road / Zora Neale Hurston ; With A Foreword By Maya Angelou. PS3515.U789 Z5 1996

Folklore, Memoirs, And Other Writings / Zora Neale Hurston; [Edited By Cheryl A. Wall]. GR55.H86 A3 1995

"The Gilded Six-Bits" and "Sweat" in Classic Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance / edited by William L. Andrews. PS647.A35 C57 1994

Go Gator And Muddy The Water : Writings / by Zora Neale Hurston From The Federal Writers'
Project. GR111.A47 H84 1999

I Love Myself When I Am Laughing ... And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean And
Impressive : A Zora Neal Hurston reader / edited By Alice Walker. PS3515.U789 A6 1979

Moses, Man Of The Mountain / Zora Neale Hurston. PS3515.U789 M6 1984

Mules And Men / by Zora Neale Hurston. GR103 .H8 1978

Novels And Stories / Zora Neale Hurston. PS3515.U789 A6 1995

Their eyes were watching God / Zora Neale Hurston.  PS3515.U789 T5 1998

 

Rita Dove served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995. Born in 1952 in Akron, Ohio, she has published six poetry collections, among them Thomas and Buelah, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. She is also the author of the novel Through the Ivory Gate and the drama The Darker Face of the Earth, which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1996 and was subsequently produced at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and other theaters.

The Darker Face Of The Earth : A Verse Play In Fourteen Scenes / by Rita Dove.             PS3554.O884 D68 1994

Grace Notes : Poems / by Rita Dove. PS3554.O884 G7 1991

On The Bus With Rosa Parks : Poems / Rita Dove. PS3554.O884 O52 1999

"Second-Hand Man" in Children of the night : the best short stories by Black writers, 1967 to the present / edited by Gloria Naylor. PS647.A35 C5 1995

Selected Poems / Rita Dove. PS3554.O884 A6 1993

Through The Ivory Gate : A Novel / Rita Dove. PS3554.O884 T48 1992

 

James Baldwin, born Aug. 2, 1924, New York City, was an American essayist, novelist, and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made him an important voice, particularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the United States and, later, through much of western Europe. The eldest of nine children, he grew up in poverty in the black ghetto of Harlem in New York City. From 14 to 16 he was a preacher in a small revivalist church, a period he wrote about in his semiautobiographical first and finest novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), and in his play about a woman evangelist, The Amen Corner (performed in New York City, 1965).

Another Country / James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 A56 1962

Blues For Mister Charlie, A Play / James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 B5 1964

Collected Essays / James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 A16 1998

The Devil Finds Work : An Essay / by James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 Z515 1976

Early Novels And Stories / James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 A6 1998

Giovanni's Room : A Novel / by James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 G5 1956

Go Tell It On The Mountain / James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 G62 1995

If Beale Street Could Talk / James Baldwin. PS3552.A45 I4 1974

Notes Of A Native Son / James Baldwin. E185.61 .B33 1968

Sonny's Blues / James Baldwin. PN6120.2 .C58 1993

Tell Me How Long The Train's Been Gone / James Baldwin. PS647.A35 C5 1995

 

Maya Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman. She began producing books after some notable friends, including author James Baldwin, heard Angelou's stories of her childhood spent shuttling between rural, segregated Stamps, Arkansas, where her devout grandmother ran a general store, and St. Louis, Missouri, where her worldly, glamorous mother lived. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a chronicle of her life up to age sixteen (and ending with the birth of her son, Guy) was published in 1970 with great critical and commercial success.

And Still I Rise / Maya Angelou. PS3551.N464 A8 1978

Even The Stars Look Lonesome / Maya Angelou. PS3551.N464 E94 1997b

Gather Together In My Name / Maya Angelou. PS3551.N464 Z464 1974

The Heart Of A Woman / Maya Angelou. PS3551.N464 Z465 1997

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings / Maya Angelou. PS3551.N464 Z466 1969

I Shall Not Be Moved / Maya Angelou. PS3551.N464 I17 1990

Just Give Me A Cool Drink Of Water 'fore I Diiie; / the Poetry Of Maya Angelou.              PS3551.N464 J8 1971

Life Doesn't Frighten Me / poem By Maya Angelou ; Paintings By Jean-Michel Basquiat.                 PS3551.N464 L54 1993

Steady Going Up" in Children of the night : the best short stories by Black writers, 1967 to the present / edited by Gloria Naylor. PS647.A35 C5 1995

Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now / Maya Angelou. PS3551.N464 W68 1993

 

Richard Wright, novelist and short-story writer,  was among the first black American writers to protest white treatment of blacks, notably in his novel Native Son (1940) and his autobiography, Black Boy (1945). He inaugurated the tradition of protest explored by other black writers after World War II.

12 Million Black Voices / Richard Wright. E185.6 .W9 1969

Black Boy : A Record Of Childhood And Youth, / by Richard Wright. PS3545.R815 Z5 1945

Bright And Morning Star / Richard Wrigth. PS648.S5 B4 1999

Haiku : This Other World / by Richard Wright ; Edited And With Notes And Afterword By Yoshinobu
Hakutani And Robert L. Tener. PS3545.R815 H35 1998

Native Son / Richard Wright. PN6112 .B47 1940-41

The Outsider / Richard Wright. PS3545.R815 O98 1953

Images and selected text from:      (Click on box to link)

Other African American Literature titles of interest:

Harlem's glory : Black women writing, 1900-1950 / edited by Lorraine Elena Roses, Ruth
Elizabeth Randolph. PS508.N3 H37 1996

Spirit & Flame : An Anthology Of Contemporary African American Poetry / edited By Keith
Gilyard. PS591.N4 S65 1997

The Norton Anthology Of African American Literature / Henry Louis Gates, Jr., General Editor, Nellie
Y. McKay, General Editor. PS508.N3 N67 1997