African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

African American Poetry: a Digital Anthology (1870-1926)

This digital anthology is intended as a resource for students, teachers, and researchers interested in African American poetry, published roughly in the historical period from 1870 to 1926. 

All materials on this site are in the public domain. I have brought together material from digital editions in two other digital projects I have edited, "Claude McKay's Early Poetry," and "Women of the Early Harlem Renaissance," and also taken advantage of new materials entering the public domain, including Langston Hughes' The Weary Blues (1926), and Countee Cullen's Color (1925). Other materials intended for inclusion in this project include the poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, and William Stanley Braithwaite.

Students contributing to this project include: Hannah Provost, Amira Shokr, and Joanna Grim. 

--Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University. January 2022



 

Contents of this path:

  1. "The Weary Blues" By Langston Hughes (1926)
  2. "Color" by Countee Cullen (1925)
  3. "The New Negro: an Interpretation." Anthology Edited by Alain Locke (1925) (Focus on poetry and criticism)
  4. Claude McKay, "Harlem Shadows" (Full text) (1922)
  5. Carrie Williams Clifford, "The Widening Light" (Full Text) (1922)
  6. "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922) Edited by James Weldon Johnson
  7. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Bronze" (Full Text) (1922)
  8. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Heart of a Woman" (Full Text) (1918)
  9. Waverley Turner Carmichael, "From the Heart of a Folk" (Full Text) (1918)
  10. James Weldon Johnson, "Fifty Years and Other Poems" (1917) (Full text)
  11. Fenton Johnson, "A Little Dreaming" (Full Text) (1913)
  12. William Stanley Braithwaite, "House of Falling Leaves" (Full Text) (1908)
  13. William Stanley Braithwaite, "Lyrics of Love and Life" (Full Text) (1904)
  14. Olivia Ward Bush Banks, "Original Poems" (Full Text) (1899)
  15. Frances E.W. Harper, "Poems" (Full Text) (1895)
  16. Eloise A. Bibb, "Poems" (Full text) (1895)
  17. Josephine Heard, "Morning Glories" (Full Text) (1890)