Martin Luther King Jr., Heroism, and African American Literature

Martin Luther King Jr., Heroism, and African American Literature PDF Author: Trudier Harris
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817318445
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Defiance of the law, uses of indirection, moral lapses, and bad habits are as much a part of the folk-transmitted biography of King as they are a part of writers' depictions of him in literary texts. Harris first demonstrates that during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, when writers such as Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) were rising stars in African American poetry, King's philosophy of nonviolence was out of step with prevailing notions of militancy (Black Power), and their literature reflected that division. In the quieter times of the 1970s and 1980s and into the twenty-first century, however, treatments of King and his philosophy in African American literature changed. Writers who initially rejected him and nonviolence became ardent admirers and boosters, particularly in the years following his assassination. By the 1980s, many writers skeptical about King had reevaluated him and began to address him as a fallen hero.

Martin Luther King Jr., Heroism, and African American Literature

Martin Luther King Jr., Heroism, and African American Literature PDF Author: Trudier Harris
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817318445
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 197

Get Book Here

Book Description
Defiance of the law, uses of indirection, moral lapses, and bad habits are as much a part of the folk-transmitted biography of King as they are a part of writers' depictions of him in literary texts. Harris first demonstrates that during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, when writers such as Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) were rising stars in African American poetry, King's philosophy of nonviolence was out of step with prevailing notions of militancy (Black Power), and their literature reflected that division. In the quieter times of the 1970s and 1980s and into the twenty-first century, however, treatments of King and his philosophy in African American literature changed. Writers who initially rejected him and nonviolence became ardent admirers and boosters, particularly in the years following his assassination. By the 1980s, many writers skeptical about King had reevaluated him and began to address him as a fallen hero.

Martin Luther King, Jr

Martin Luther King, Jr PDF Author: Herb Boyd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description


Martin Rising

Martin Rising PDF Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545702542
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
“A powerful celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., set against the last few months of his life and written in verse” (School Library Journal). Martin Rising is a stunning, poetic presentation of the final months of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life—told in a rich embroidery of visions, color, musical cadence, deep emotion, and multiple layers of meaning. Against a backdrop of the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, Tennessee, the book builds to its rousing crescendo as King delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech—where his life’s commitment to peaceful activism and his dream of equality ascend to their highest peak. The Pinkneys’ powerful and spiritual look at King’s legacy celebrates the courage and moral conviction of a man who changed the course of history forever. And even in the face of searing tragedy, he continues to inspire, transform, and elevate all of us who share his dream. Praise for Martin Rising A Washington Post Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year “Unique and remarkable.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Each poem trembles under the weight of the story it tells . . . Martin Rising packs an emotional wallop and, in perfect homage, soars when read aloud.” —Booklist, starred review

African-American Heroes & Heroines

African-American Heroes & Heroines PDF Author:
Publisher: Frederick Fell Publishers
ISBN: 9780811908696
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Inspiring and amazing stories that showcase 150 black heroes and heroines.

South of Tradition

South of Tradition PDF Author: Trudier Harris
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820327158
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
With characteristic originality and insight, Trudier Harris-Lopez offers a new and challenging approach to the work of African American writers in these twelve previously unpublished essays. Collectively, the essays show the vibrancy of African American literary creation across several decades of the twentieth century. But Harris-Lopez's readings of the various texts deliberately diverge from traditional ways of viewing traditional topics. South of Tradition focuses not only on well-known writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Richard Wright, but also on up-and-coming writers such as Randall Kenan and less-known writers such as Brent Wade and Henry Dumas. Harris-Lopez addresses themes of sexual and racial identity, reconceptualizations of and transcendence of Christianity, analyses of African American folk and cultural traditions, and issues of racial justice. Many of her subjects argue that geography shapes identity, whether that geography is the European territory many blacks escaped to from the oppressive South, or the South itself, where generations of African Americans have had to come to grips with their relationship to the land and its history. For Harris-Lopez, "south of tradition" refers both to geography and to readings of texts that are not in keeping with expected responses to the works. She explains her point of departure for the essays as "a slant, an angle, or a jolt below the line of what would be considered the norm for usual responses to African American literature." The scope of Harris-Lopez's work is tremendous. From her coverage of noncanonical writers to her analysis of humor in the best-selling The Color Purple, she provides essential material that should inform all future readings of African American literature.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Story

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Story PDF Author: T. S. Lee
Publisher: Joyful Stories Press
ISBN: 9780981954240
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Chronicles the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his crusade for justice and equality during the civil rights movement in the United States.

My Uncle Martin's Big Heart

My Uncle Martin's Big Heart PDF Author: Angela Farris Watkins
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647004470
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
A moving portrait of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. from his niece My Uncle Martin’s Big Heart is a story about love: love between a young girl and her uncle, and all the love she sees her uncle share—with his family members, with his church congregation, and with all people. In this inspiring narrative about Martin Luther King Jr.—told by his niece—young readers will discover the story of the man behind the civil rights hero and activist, one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century. As Angela Farris Watkins, PhD, introduces children to her uncle, she presents them with a rare glimpse into his life at home, including special family moments. What unfolds is a story of character and service to God, family, and humankind, and of how one man’s extraordinary love changed the history of the United States and the world.

The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis

The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis PDF Author: Kathleen Benson
Publisher: Story of
ISBN: 9781620148549
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
"Presents a biography of Congressman John Lewis, whose work for civil rights includes chairing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and demonstrating on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama." --

Black Cultural Mythology

Black Cultural Mythology PDF Author: Christel N. Temple
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438477872
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Offers a new conceptual framework rooted in mythological analysis to ground the field of Africana cultural memory studies. Black Cultural Mythology retrieves the concept of “mythology” from its Black Arts Movement origins and broadens its scope to illuminate the relationship between legacies of heroic survival, cultural memory, and creative production in the African diaspora. Christel N. Temple comprehensively surveys more than two hundred years of figures, moments, ideas, and canonical works by such visionaries as Maria Stewart, Richard Wright, Colson Whitehead, and Edwidge Danticat to map an expansive yet broadly overlooked intellectual tradition of Black cultural mythology and to provide a new conceptual framework for analyzing this tradition. In so doing, she at once reorients and stabilizes the emergent field of Africana cultural memory studies, while also staging a much broader intervention by challenging scholars across disciplines—from literary and cultural studies, history, sociology, and beyond—to embrace a more organic vocabulary to articulate the vitality of the inheritance of survival. “This book not only offers a new and exciting theoretical concept, it also applies that concept to texts in unique and different ways. With this theoretical lens, we can ‘read’ and ‘see’ texts, memories, and ideas in new ways. The author examines an almost dizzying array of cultural and historical moments, scholars, artists, and activists and provides new lenses through which to read them as well. This is a brilliant and much-needed addition to the academic and cultural conversation.” — Georgene Bess Montgomery, author of The Spirit and the Word: A Theory of Spirituality in Africana Literary Criticism

Navigating the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines

Navigating the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines PDF Author: Keith Clark
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 080717338X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
One of the South’s most revered writers, Ernest J. Gaines attracts both popular and academic audiences. Gaines’s unique literary style, depiction of the African American experience, and celebration of the rural South’s oral tradition have brought him critical praise and numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a National Humanities Medal, and a National Book Critics Circle Award for his novel A Lesson before Dying. In this welcome guide to Gaines’s fiction, Keith Clark offers insightful analyses of his novels and short stories. Clark’s close readings elucidate Gaines’s more acclaimed works—including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Gathering of Old Men—while also introducing lesser-known but masterfully crafted pieces, such as the story “Three Men” and the civil rights novel In My Father’s House. Gaines’s most recent work, The Tragedy of Brady Sims, receives here one of its first critical examinations. Clark shows how the themes of Gaines’s literary oeuvre, produced over the past fifty years, dovetail with issues reverberating in twenty-first-century America: race and the criminal justice system; black masculinity; the environment; the enduring impact of slavery; black southern women’s voices; and blacks’ and whites’ interpretation of history. In addition to textual discussions, the book includes an interview Clark conducted with Gaines at the writer’s home in New Roads, Louisiana, in 2014, further illuminating the inner workings and personality of this eminent literary artist.