National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: The Trickster in African American Literature
Trudier Harris, Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains the role of tricksters in African American literature.
Smithsonian Institution
Anacostia Community Museum: All the Stories Are True: African American Writers Speak
An online companion site for an exhibit showing at the Anacostia Community Museum. Read biographical information on many African American writers while viewing video clips and photos.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Wallace Thurman
This site includes the author's credits as an editor and playwright, a biography, and links to three of his books.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Jazz and the African American Literary Tradition
Article explores the influence of jazz on African American literature from the early history of jazz, noted jazz artists, the black-white tensions within jazz, to its literary influence after World War II.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Literature by and About African Americans
A bibliography collection of literature by and about African Americans. Includes a selection of memoirs, fiction and non-fiction work.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Alain Locke
A biography of African-American writer Alain Locke, chief interpreter of the Harlem Renaissance, the video [5:30] "Ossie Davis: Dr. Alain Leroy Locke's Influence," and links to three of his books.
PBS
Pbs: Literature & Life Givens Collection (Afr. Am. Lit)
This PBS site explores African-American literature from its beginnings to the present. Includes an on-line study guide.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Dorothy West
This biography of Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West includes a video [2:42] of West in New York and links to book reviews for all of West's works.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Zora Neale Hurston
This site focuses on Zora Neale Hurston including a bibliography, the video [2:30] "Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun" and links to 11 of her books including her most famous work There Eyes Were Watching God.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Alex Haley
This site provides a concise biography of Haley, the video [12:28] "Alex Haley Interview Roots (Merv Griffin Show 1977)" and links to six of his books.
Yale University
Examining African American Culture Through the Use of Children's Literature
This curriculum unit is designed for third grade students to address the issue of diversity during many different core areas via the use of African-American children's literature. The unit incorporates a variety of children's books, both...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: American Literature and Composition: The Harlem Renaissance
This lesson is an introduction to a unit on The Harlem Renaissance, the period between the end of WW I through mid 1930s when African Americans were recognized for their literature, music, and art. It discusses their themes and lists...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: American Literature and Composition: Realism: Spirituals
This lesson focuses on the spirituals sung by the African American slaves as a way to express feeling and relay information in coded messages. as well as, to pass the time. It includes a PDF of the lyrics to two spirituals, "Go Down,...
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Chinua Achebe
This site includes a brief biography of Achebe, the video [9:13] "Nigerian Writer Chinua Achebe on CNN's 'African Voices'" and links to 17 of his books.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Becoming Visible: James Baldwin
James Baldwin is presented in this biography as a great African American contributor to the literary world during the civil rights movement. See "James Baldwin Activities" for more information.
University of Illinois
University of Illinois: Modern American Poetry: Langston Hughes: Hughes's Life and Career
Lengthy, detailed biography of Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, from the Oxford Companion to African American Literature.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Becoming Visible: Gwendolyn Brooks
Writer Gwendolyn Brooks is presented in this biography for her contributions to African American literature. Click on "Gwendolyn Brooks Activities" for related artifacts and activities.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Becoming Visible: Ralph Ellison
Author Ralph Ellison is presented in this biography for his contributions to African American literature. See "Ralph Ellison Activities" for further information.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: The Image of Africa in the Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
Overview of African Americans and their relationship to Africa. a myth which was embraced by the Harlem Renaissance.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: John Henrik Clarke
This site focuses on the historian John Henrik Clarke including a biography, the full video of "John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk" [134:00], and links to ten of his books.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Shay Youngblood
This site includes a brief biography of Shay YoungBlood, a video clip [5:34] of "Shay Youngblood reading from Black Girl in Paris at the Dent" and links to three of her works.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Jean Toomer
A biography of Jean Toomer and links to two editions of his book Cane.
African American Literature Book Club
African American Literature Book Club: Ann Petry
This site focuses on Ann Petry including a short biography, the video [10:12] "Ann Petry and Harlem's History" and links to seven of her literary works.
Digital History
Digital History: American Ethnic Literature
Educated white men weren't the only ones contributing to a truly American literature. Read about the literature written by Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Irish Americans. All added to the melting pot of...