The Life of E. Lynn Harris E. Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan, but was raised with his three sisters in Little Rock, Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he became the school’s first black yearbook editor, the first black male cheerleader, and the president of his fraternity. He was an honors graduate in journalism. Harris worked for IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T for 13 years while living in Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. E. Lynn quit his job to write his first novel, Invisible Life, but could not find a publisher, so he published it himself in 1991 and sold only to black owned bookstores, hair salons, and book clubs, before Anchor Books discovered him.
Dave Barry was born on July 3rd, 1947 in Armonk, New York to a Presbyterian minister, also named David Barry. He grew up with the dream of writing, and his sense of humor was present from a very early point in life. He was labeled Class Clown of his graduating class at Pleasantville High School in 1965. Barry attended Haverford College outside of Philadelphia, and he received a bachelor’s degree in English in 1969. Then he married his college sweetheart, Ann Shelnutt in 1970, though they got divorced six years later.
The Raven Theatre Company presented Radio Golf, by August Wilson, which was performed at the Raven Theatre and was directed by Aaron Todd Douglas. Radio Golf was the last play that August Wilson wrote before he died in 2005 caused by liver cancer. This play won the 2007 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. The playwright, August Wilson was trying to demonstrate how life was still tough in the 1990’s for African American people. He intended to show how being black affected the role in being a politician, but at the same time he showed the devotion that African American people had in doing what they dreamt to do.
Slavery has been a part of our history for hundreds of years. Eventually abolitionist movements helped outlaw slavery, but still today it is a controversial topic in society. Gary Collison, who is a Caucasian English professor at Pennsylvania State University, wrote the novel Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen. He wrote this book to voice the truth about hardships of slavery and discrimination. Collison follows Minkins throughout the continent as he is a slave in Norfolk, VA, a fugitive in Boston, and a free black man in Montreal.
Tenaja Jennings Chris Conlon Literature & Composition Friday, March 14th, 2013 Where do I Belong? Helga Crane and Emma Lou Morgan The Harlem Renaissance was a great burst of creative energy from African Americans of the 1920's which included dance, painting, music, and literature. Nella Larsen, the writer of Quicksand, and Wallace Thurman, the author of The Blacker the Berry, are the two of the most remembered novelists of the Harlem Renaissance. The main characters of these books (Helga Crane and Emma Lou Morgan), both journey through Harlem and other places seeking to find where they belong. Yet, while Helga and Emma Lou share similar racial issues and journey to find the "right sort of people" (B.50), they are fundamentally different
Charles L. Reason Algebra II Trig Charles L. Reason was born July 21, 1818 in New York City to West Indies immigrants Michael and Elizabeth Reason. Charles attended the African Free School along with his brothers Elmer and Patrick both who are important historical figures in their own right. An excellent student in mathematics, Reason became an instructor in 1832 at the school at age fourteen this became a striking matter for the news, receiving a salary of $25 a year. He used some of his earnings to hire tutors to improve his knowledge. Later, he decided to enter the ministry but was rejected because of his race by the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City.
The book then develops as an autobiographical diary, recounting almost on a day to day basis, till August 17, 1960, the author’s multiple experiences as a Negro; the good, the bad and the ugly that he personally encounters. How he is denied the very basics of life like food, water, rest, shelter, toilet. How even his mind is destroyed through hate and fear. How his only identity is as a consumer or laborer, or for the leisure or pleasure of the whites. PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS The entire novel is in the form
Biography The collective experience with which Lawrence identified was one of nearly four centuries of slavery, oppression, discrimination and exploitation. No one might be better positioned to understand the contradiction at the heart of American society, the hypocrisy of its proclaimed ethos of freedom, equality and “justice for all” than a black American. Modernist painter and educator Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) was born in 1917 as Jacob Armstead Lawrence in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He began his art studies at the Utopia Children’s Center in New York City’s Harlem district where he studied under the painter Charles Alston. Lawrence dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen to continue his art instruction with Alston but this time at the Harlem Art Workshop where he met several artists associated with the
Tyrek Maycock February 6, 2012 Music Class Ms.Casalta Malcolm X He was born as “Malcolm little” in Nebraska. His father Earl, an outspoken Baptist minister and supporter of Marcus Garvey, the president of the UNIA-ACL and leader of the African Redemption Movement, was murdered in Lansing, Michigan in 1931. Malcolm later dropped out of high school, and moved to Boston; where he worked as a shoe shiner at a Lindy Hop nightclub; in his autobiography, he says that he once shined the shoes of Duke Ellington (and other notable musicians); after some time, he moved to Harlem, New York, where he became involved in drug dealing, gambling, prostitution, racketeering, and robbery; he also faked insanity, in order to avoid the World War II draft; Little was arrested for burglary, in 1946, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment (he was paroled after seven). Nation of Islam: While incarcerated, he was introduced to the religion of Islam and became a member of the Nation of Islam. By the time he was released in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower.
Woodson’s road to creating this special month of celebration was not an easy one. Coming from a family with both parents being former slaves, he did not have the opportunity to an education until the age of thirty, when he finally enrolled in high school. Woodson eventually became one of only two black men in history to achieve his Ph. D, and later founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life with four other friends in 1915. He spent most of his free time as a powerful journalist and in 1926, finally convinced the government to officially have a week dedicated to black history.