1856-1915

Franklinesque self-made man autobiography

didactic to teach morals and ways of living

"Up From Slavery"

early years: poor- wooden shoes, worked in salt and coal mines

blacks and whites should come together labor wise but be seperate socially

lynching

hanging or burning from a group or mob- a vigilanty murder by a mob taking it upon themself to decide death

consciousness raising journalist

tried to bring issues like lynching, beating and unfairness into the public through her writing

cultural pathology

3 justifications for white men to lynch

Ida B.

"the first excuse given to the civilized world was the necessity of white man to repress and stamp out alleged "race riots"

"no negro domination became the new legend on the banner of the sunny south"

"that negros had to be killed to avenge tehir assaults on women"

a culture has a disease not recognized

ex) strive to be thin

lynching as entertainment

Abel Meeropol

Billie Holiday

juxtaposition to contrast and create dissonance

1868-1963

"Of Our Spiritual Strivings"

"Of Mr. Booker T Washington and Others"

Dubois

"how does it feel to be a problem?"

carrying the burden alone rather than as a nation

"but shut out from their world by a vast veil"

the veil being segregation, wall between the worlds, peoples ability to see him is obscured

double consciousness

Dubois

to see yourself and the way the dominant power sees you

"this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others"

Dubois

Atlanta compromise condones a nation of inferiority, limits education opportunities(no teachers with no higher learning), deprives rights and equal privledges

burden of adjustment falls solely on African Americans

the south need criticism to change

only black student at his hs, elected class pres, only lived to be 34

"worn out", "a negro love song", "the colored soldiers", "an ante-bellum sermon", "when malindy sings", "we wear the mask"

Paul Laurence Dunbar

abcb rhyming

"but only seeks release"

happiness has left, only seeks death, everything is "dark day" and "hope is past and gone"

the first hope of emmansipation ending in segregation

Paul Laurence Dunbar

dialect poem, refrain  "jump back honey jump back" as a rejoice

debate on whether the dilect writing makes them look stupid

Paul Laurence Dunbar

egypt and moses

modeled after a spiritual "Go Down Moses" hebrew

children being freed as a metaphor for slaves

"fu to let dem chillun go"

narrator is a preacher, uses biblical allusions

asserts that the bible teaches equality for everyone

Paul Laurence Dunbar

smiling through pain

a fake smile

Paul Laurence Dunbar

extended metaphor

"i know how a caged bird feels"

after a long winter things are drawn out by the sun

narrator feels "caged" not a part of life

1914-1970

African Americans moved South to North in two waves due to war boom and the factory jobs opening up- approx 6.5mil went

Harlem Renaissance

1919-1940

First Wave

causes: need to get away from share cropping, natural disasters,boweevil,cotton gin, escape jim crow and kkk

pull: north gave job opportunities, improved access, promise of better wages, lure from black newspapers

improvement on literature: themes included shift on consciousness, social political and economic uplift(improved status), disallusionment(high expectation not met), leaving security

Jean Toomer

experimental literary form influenced by jazz and the principle of improv as a strategy for survival

uses migration narrative

modernest period

"Carma" "Georgia Dusk" "Blood-Burning Moon" "Avey" "Bona and Paul"

Cane, great migration and harlem ren period

contrasts north and south, south being more violent, dialectic and intertwined with nature

Jean Toomer

"strong as a man whose story is the cudest melodrama"

carma has an affair while husband is away

he finds out and she pretends to kill herself in the field, husbands kills a man in the heat of the fight and is sent to jail "in the gang"

"Blood Burning Moon"

Jean Toomer

South

Bob Stone: lusts after Louisa but has inner conflict of what people would think

Tom and Louisa are together in a sense which starts the fight that Tom avoids but eventually kills Bob Stone

Tom is burned alive as contrast to the peacefullness of Louisa in the end

Jean Toomer

Bona is white but loves Paul who is black "moony"

uses the petals, colors are just the surface

"Crimson Gardens Hurrah! Or so one feels"

night club filled with white people except the doorman who paul says is wrong for judging

"Gilded Six Bits"

Zora Neale Hurston

Eatonville, FL

Missy May and Joe: sweet, playful relationship

Joe envys Slemmons for his nice clothes, gold teeth and jewelry he got from all of his women

"ah aint never been nowhere and aint got nothin but you"

missy cheats with slemmons after he calls after her, joe ignores her, missy get pregnant and swears its joe's

joe buys missy molasses kisses like he used to showing a sense of normalcy

1st two lines and 2nd two lines are repeated saying the same thing to state your case, talk to your own blies

last two lines come to a conclusion or resolution

themes: love trouble, misfortune, disillusionment, general human turmoil/ confusion

trad. blues poem: ababcd

Langston Hughes

narrator is proud, sees a bright future

"theyll see how beautiful i am"

asserts his right as a citizen

"I, too am america"

Langston Hughes

to be able to be free in the "white day" to dance and spin until it is dark

"night coming tenderly, dark like me"

Langston Hughes

set up as a blues song ababcd

dissolutionment of the north

"lookin for a box car to roll me to de south"

can't leave

"i wants to go somewhere"

Langston Hughes

narrator is a frustrated tenant, everything is broken but the landlord wont do anything- no tenant rights

shows unfairness: tenant is blamed and put into jail

"Harlem"

Langston Hughes

the american dream

raisin in the sun named for this poem

1901-1989

grew up in washington to a well known middle class family

got masters at harvard and wrote symbolic, raceless poetry but father wanted him to learn in the south

taught and loved to meet people and listen to concerns and dedicated poems to folklore

became a cultural custodian

Sterling A. Brown

"they" the european masters, harsh, forceful and distant

"you" slaves, personal connection, determined

"strong men keep comin" refrain that they keep building up

atlantic slave trade

"huddled you in spoon-fashion"

slavery

"they broke you in like oxen"

post-slavery

"they penned you in their factories"

segregation

"reserved for whites only"

"Slim Greer"

Sterling A. Brown

tells stories(lies) of his travels with women

"how he passed for white an' he no lighter than a dark midnight"

a "hill billy" calls Slim out on being black

"no white man could play like that"

the women outted him in front of a white crowd

"shouted sharp- 'nigger!' an slim said 'ma'am?"

but he ran out beofre they caught him

Sterling A. Brown

ballad form: abcb

back water blues: 1927 disaster flood, homes and lives lost form illinois to new orleans

attention to audience emotions, validating their troubles, give strength

lines are echoed

"gold toofed smiles, yellow keys"

ma rainey impacts her audience, is god-like, the affect she has shows their direct impact from the flood

Sterling A. Brown

obedience that African Americans must follow to avoid lynching

"they don't come by ones they don't come by twos but they come by tens"

one man stands up to them and is killed

"he stayed in the ccountry he lays there dead"

Sterling A. Brown

folk ballad, quatrain(4 lines) abcb

"how far a frog will jump" foreshadow

Joe is obedient, the heat springs him to stand to police after hitting a women

"ast them ef they though they had done just right"

cops hit him, wakes up and gets a gun and shoot his way to the station where he fights against the cops

cops let him go if he stops "thats agreeable sir by me" joe leaves and gets shot and is polite in his departure