Part I: Our Foundations

Poem, Autobiography
Literacy and Liberation
by Frederick Douglass and Frances E. W. Harper
Two abolitionists reflect on the relationship between reading, writing, and liberation.

Novel
from Juneteenth
by Ralph Ellison
The award-winning author's second novel is a celebration of Juneteenth-June 19, 1865, the day two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation when Union Troops arriving in Galveston, Texas, brought news of freedom in the slaves.

Poems, Spiritual
Rising from the Past
by James Weldon Johnson, Sabah As-Sabah, and J. Rosamund Johnson
In "The Creation," "Jubilee," and "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" poets celebrate the ancestors and traditions of African-American heritage.

Essay
Treasures of Time
by Florida Ruffin Ridley
Civil rights advocate Ridley discovers a personal history in the contents of an old box in the kitchen of her Boston home.

Part II: Rhythms of Black Life

Short Story
Second-Hand Man
by Rita Dove
The first African-American poet laureate was also a writer of fiction. This is her story of a girl who "don't want no second-hand man," and a man who is one.

Novel
from The Wedding
by Dorothy West
The youngest member of the Harlem Renaissance writes of a father's reflections on courtship and marriage on the eve of his daughter's wedding.

Poems
Two Poems
by Gwendolyn Brooks
"If you wanted a poem," said the Pulitzer Prize-winner Brooks, "you had only to look out a window." Here, in two poems, she examines white privilege and black urban poverty.

Poem
Nikki-Rosa
by Nikki Giovanni
A popular poet from the 1960s challenges white stereotypes of black life.

Novel
from Jazz
by Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize-winner Morrison explores the rhythms of black life in New York City during the 1920s.

Poems
The Jazz of Poetry
by Jabari Asim and The Last Poets
The rhythms of poetry and music-jazz and hip-hop-are celebrated in works that pay tribute to the African-American oral tradition and the swing era.

Part III: Reflections on Growing Up

Autobiographical Essay
from Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin
Baldwin's father's funeral prompts the author to reflect on his father's legacy.

Short Story
Why I Like Country Music
by James Alan McPherson
The Pulitzer Prize-winner recalls his first love and a special teacher in this coming-of-age story of a young black boy growing up in the South.

Autobiographical Essay
Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self
by Alice Walker
This Pulitzer Prize-winner writes of a childhood accident that changed her life.

Autobiography
Washington Park
by Robert B. Stepto
Yale University professor Stepto remembers the neighborhood of his childhood and faces the pain of recognizing he has come far away from it in this excerpt from Blue as the Lake.

Memoir
from Unafraid of the Dark
by Rosemary L. Bray
Former editor of the New York Times Book Review recounts how winning a scholarship to a private school in Chicago led to her painful realization that she was poor.

Novel
A Day with My Father
by Danzy Senna
Young Birdie Lee writes of a humiliation that occurred one weekend afternoon in this excerpt from Caucasia.

Part IV: Fighting on Two Fronts: On Being Black and American

Poem, Essay
On Being Black and American
by Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois
Two prominent intellectuals explore the contradictions in being black and American.

Autobiography
from Black Boy
by Richard Wright
Wright tells about his childhood and his relationship with his father and reflects on blood ties, poverty, and race.

Editorials
World Wars and the Black Soldier
by Editors of The Crisis and Grant Reynolds
Two newspaper editorials examine the contradiction between fighting for freedoms abroad while facing inequality at home.

Letter
Letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
by Celestine Hobson
A soldier's wife writes the First Lady about the challenges she faces in her efforts to support her nation's war effort.

Speech
Beyond Vietnam
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Nobel Peace Prize-wining leader of the Civil Rights movement compares its principles with the principles of those who opposed the Vietnam War.

Autobiography
Black Men and Public Spaces
by Brent Staples
The journalist recalls his own experiences as a graduate student when white people mistook him for a mugger or a thief when they met him on the street at night.

Spiritual
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
One of the many songs of the Civil Rights movement, this anthem captures the spirit of the struggle for equality.