African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Race: Black Identity

Poems by African American Authors dealing with race-consciousness -- engagement with what it means to be Black.

Contents of this tag:

  1. A Note on Historical Language: 'Negro,' 'Colored,' 'Black,' and 'African American'
  2. Countee Cullen, "Heritage" (1925)
  3. Langston Hughes, "Dream Variation" (1924)
  4. Alain Locke, "The New Negro: Introduction" (1925)
  5. Zora Neale Hurston, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928)
  6. Mary Ashe Lee, "Afmerica" (1894 version)
  7. Josephine Heard, "The Black Samson" (1890)
  8. Zora Neale Hurston, "The First One" (Full text of one-act play) (1927)
  9. Poems by Langston Hughes in "The New Negro" (1925)
  10. Ethel Caution-Davis (Ethel M. Caution), "A Man" (1916)
  11. Anne Spencer, "White Things" (1923)
  12. Langston Hughes, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (1926)
  13. Mary Ashe Lee, "Afmerica" (1886 version)
  14. John Wesley Work (J.W. Work), "It's Great To Be A Problem" (1920)
  15. T. Thomas Fortune, “Who Are We? Afro-Americans, Colored People, or Negroes?” (essay) (1906)
  16. Katherine D. Tillman, "Color" (1902)
  17. Walter Everette Hawkins, "Ode to Ethiopia" (1909)