National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Two Views, Making of African American Identity: V. 2

Articles examining the notion of community as place. An essay by James Weldon Johnson and R. Edgar Iles provides different definitions of community by illustrating regional culture.

Letters by African Americans seeking help to leave the South. They explore issues including identity, family, community, and the struggles induced by the need to migrate north.

An audio clip of a Yoruba drum and two accounts by slaves or their descendants that offer African perspectives on life and culture in the Niger River Delta.

Excerpts from a 1941 film that depicts black and white communities in Kannapolis, NC, by H. Lee Waters (1902-1997). This two part film characterizes the differences in economy, community, and values of two separate cultures.

This resource describes popular anthem that expresses the early hopes of the civil rights movement by Curtis Mayfield. It explores the obstacles the civil rights movement had to overcome and the movement's affect on the lives of African...

A summary and questions related to an autobiography in which Booker T. Washington describes his early experience of freedom. A link to this full text is provided here as well.

A story that defines community as a connection between the past and the present. This resource links to Henry Dumas's short story, "Ark of Bones" and reviews its social commentary as it applies to African American community.

Articles illustrating how African Americans defined community according to perceptions of race. Links are provided to these works by George Schuyler, Langston Hughes, E. Franklin Frazier.

An essay that examines the relationship between racial separation and power. In this essay Stokely Carmichael advocates for the coalescence of political and economic power within the black community in a way that liberates and insulates...

Interviews with and narratives from former slaves who became free and letters from former slaves reflecting on their freedom.