By; Zach Pottle, Contributing Writer
To celebrate Black History Month, here is a list of some of the most influential African American Writers from past to present.
They are poets, novelists, playwrights, and scholars, but most importantly, they were the voice for those who had been silenced. These writers explored the harsh reality of slavery, racism, inequality, and civil rights, inspiring not only great change, but generations of writers to come. With so many prominent, influential African American writers, below is a list of just a few who have left their mark on the world with their writing.
Phillis Wheatley
Born in West Africa in 1753, Phillis Wheatley was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry. Captured from Africa in her youth, she was brought to America and enslaved in Boston, where her work was written and published. Although enslaved, Wheatley’s poems are among the most well-known of any pre-19th century writers. Her poems quickly became a household name among colonists, with her work inspiring abolitionists, showing that African Americans could be intellectual and literate.
Phillis Wheatley had to prove to a court in Massachusetts that her poems were, in fact, hers.
W.E.B. Du Bois
Sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer, and editor, W.E.B. Du Bois was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. Best known for works such as “The Souls of Black Folk,” a call to action to end segregation and Jim Crow laws, Du Bois quickly became the leading voice amongst African American activists and helped co-found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Du Bois’s wide-ranging success, including his most well-respected essays on the psychology of colonization, solidified his standing amongst the greatest minds of his time.
Du Bois’s views gained larger support after the Atlanta race riots of 1906.
Langston Hughes
Perhaps one of the greatest contributors to the Harlem Renaissance; poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist, Langston Hughes was a prolific writer known for his colorful portrayals of black life from the 1920s – 1960s. Hughes was the first poet to introduce jazz music into his works, inspiring a new genre called jazz poetry. Along with his vast body of work, Hughes was seen as a voice for African Americans across the country, inspiring artists of all forms, including Lorraine Hansberry, who dedicated her Broadway play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” to Hughes in 1959.
Hughes worked as a columnist for the Chicago Defender for over 20 years.
Zora Neal Hurston
With over 50 short stories, plays, and essays, as well as four novels, Zora Neal Hurston was one of the most prominent American authors of the early 20th century. Her most famous work, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” published in 1937, has been regarded as one of the most influential pieces of African American literature, with TIME magazine placing it in its “100 best English-language books published since 1923.” Sadley, Hurston passed away in 1960, unable to see the success of her work, which was popularized in 1975 by an essay written by Alice Walker entitled, “In Search of Zora Neal Hurston.”
Zora Neal Hurston’s father was the Mayor of America’s first all-black incorporated communities, Eatonville, Florida (1887).
Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison has long been considered the voice of African American women across the nation. Born in Lorain, Ohio, in 1931, Morrison was no stranger to racial inequality and the hardships endured by African Americans, which inspired her writings. Her most well-known novel, “Beloved” (1987), which won her several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was named by Cosmopolitan as “A profound and shattering story that carries the weight of history.” Morrison passed away on Aug. 5, 2019, at the age of 88, but not before leaving behind a legacy that would include over 40 awards and honors, including a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, and a reputation that will inspire writers for years to come.
Upon entering the first grade, Toni Morrison was the only black child, as well as the only student who was able to read.
