{"id":3827,"date":"2018-04-10T15:28:32","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T20:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/?p=3827"},"modified":"2018-04-10T15:29:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T20:29:34","slug":"documenting-black-literary-culture-1926-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/coolathoole\/2018\/04\/10\/documenting-black-literary-culture-1926-1976\/","title":{"rendered":"Documenting Black Literary Culture, 1926-1976"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently published a new research guide called From Jim Crow to Black Power: African American History and Culture, 1877-1970<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0<\/strong>which is designed to help researchers navigate our holdings on life during the post-Reconstruction, pre-Civil Rights era, as well as the ideas and cultural touchstones that marked the period. Please check it out and tell us what you think!<\/p>\n

We have those materials because of the work of pioneering writers and intellectuals who began documenting what the white establishment sometimes forgot or dismissed. In 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson championed the first national commemoration of African American history: Negro History Week. Between that time and the widespread celebration of Black History Month in 1976, there was a growing interest in chronicling and sharing all aspects of African American culture. Literature was a longstanding and especially accessible part of that narrative.<\/p>\n

Below are 20 published collections focused on African American (then “Negro” or “Afro-American”) literature — from poetry, prose, and drama to critical and biographical works — all published in the fifty year period between the first Negro History Week and the national recognition of Black History Month. They are listed in chronological order and, where possible, some information is provided about the editor(s). The call number is also given, if you’d like to request the book in our reading room.<\/p>\n

\"Front<\/a>Cullen, Countee. Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets<\/em>. Harper & Bros., 1927. [Wade Hall Collection PS591.N4 C8]<\/strong><\/p>\n