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Fooling Our White Folks
By: Langston Hughes Langston Hughes writes of light-skinned Black people who “pass” as white, in order to get privileges denied to Black people. |
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How It Feels to be Colored Me
By: Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston writes of having pride in her culture while living in an a Black community, then attending school in a white town where residents try to diminish her cultural pride. |
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Invisible Man
By: Ralph Ellison A nameless narrator tells his story from the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. He describes growing up in a Black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," before retreating amid violence and confusion. |
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Native Son
By: Richard Wright It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s. While not apologizing for Bigger's crimes, Wright portrays a systemic causation behind them. |
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Passing
By: Nella Larsen Clare, who is Black and white, and Irene, who is Black, were two childhood friends who lost touch when Clare moved away. Clare later decides to 'pass' as a white woman and marry a white racist. Irene lives in Harlem, commits herself to racial uplift, and marries a black doctor. The novel centers on the meeting of the two childhood friends later in life, and the unfolding of events as each woman is fascinated by the other's lifestyle. |
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Poems
By: Langston Hughes Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "Harlem was in vogue." |
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The Book of American Negro Poetry
By: James Weldon Johnson Published in 1922, the book is a compilation of poetry from Paul Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and more. |
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