American essayists

UNDERSTANDING W.E. B Du Bois was an iconic essayist and sociologist of black descent. His most notable work being those he wrote about black lives in his ‘souls of black folks’ essay collection. In this critical analysis of the lives of the Negros in America, he touches upon many themes of the 20th century in relation to the colour line problem. Some of the major themes that he analyzes include, the veil, double consciousness and hope of preserving black lives heritage. Being of African descent…

Language is a system of words that humans use to communicate and get their message heard. Deborah Tannen, Scott Russel Sanders, and Langston Hughes bring mention that the greatest influence to a person’s perspective is language. In “’Bossy’ Is More Than a Word to Women”, Deborah Tannen recognizes that the word bossy is a common word used to negatively describe women; sending them the message that exercising authority deems them unlikable by various organizations. Conversely, Scott Russel Sanders…

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an era of a creative explosion that took place in the African American society between 1920 and fading out before the Depression era. Although Harlem, New York was the center of the African American cultural Renaissance, the geographical boundaries could not always be clearly distinct. The writers, poets, musicians and artists of that period came from all over the country, especially the south to escape the racial prejudices and the oppressive…

the most preeminent writers of the twentieth century African American, Zora Neale Hurston is a novelist, folklorist, essayist, short story writer, dramatist and an anthropologist. Hurston was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance and a passionate promoter of the African American culture. However, she refused to let race and racism be the only focus of her work, something that she was criticized a lot for by her African American peers. Instead Hurston’s short stories and novels reflected…

movement of social and artistic advancement that defined an era for African-Americans, not only in the United States, but around the world. The movement also laid the foundations for an entirely different future for African-Americans living in the United States. However, this racial progress would not have been possible without the imaginative genius that grew from writers, poets, and playwrights within the African-American communities. Among these historic figures was the “O. Henry of Harlem”…

various people make and energy they devote in fighting for social justice. In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, by stating the remark “Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere” (264), Martin Luther King explained the reason why African Americans should take direct action immediately rather than wait for the justice “to come.” As he suggests in the essay: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly…

The black autobiography has played an integral role in documenting the realities of African-American life in American literature. Rising to literary prominence concurrently with the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, these publications illustrated an existence permeated by struggle and provided unprecedented representation of the black reality within popular literature. These autobiographies taken together depict a collective existence…

America Maya Angelou, an African American essayist, extraordinarily performing artist, and an amazing writer, also arguably the best novelist ever lived, who was the component artist at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, where she recited her poem On the Pulse of Morning ("Introduction"). Abundance influence and inspiration behind Maya Angelou's work has really solidifies her profile as one of the best African American writers of all time. She was an excellent…

Douglas incorporated a multi-cultural experience into his artwork by combining Anglo-Saxon customs with African ones in a geometric style with his portrayal of African-Americans. This is especially emphasized in certain works like “Aspiration,” in which African-American Silhouettes gaze onto large buildings, presumably resembling American industry. The African to Anglo-Saxon connection is also emphasized in Douglas’s “Aspects of Negro Life: Song of Towers,” in which a silhouette of a black man…

And one of these is Martin Luther King, JR. which in my opinion is one of the most influential activists in American history. Born right before the threshold of the Great Depression, he was the forerunner of the civil rights movement, which was grounded upon non-violent protests and the principle that we all are equal. On his speech, “I Have a Dream”, he avowed…