The Civil Rights Movement

This book places canonical texts of African American literature in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, a watershed moment in time that framed the composition, publication, and reception of these works.

This book examines how literature dovetailed with democratic struggle during the Civil Rights Movement, providing a panoramic view of the era that presents broad developments like segregation side by side with more specific phenomena like New York nightclub singing. The range of important texts covered-including essays, works of literature, and memoirs- provides a breadth of coverage that allows readers to gain a true understanding of the African American literati of the 1940s through the 1960s.



Organized chronologically, the book shows how literary themes and social change pursued parallel tracks during the Civil Rights era, demonstrating how the time period represented in the examined literature reinvigorated the strenuous moral negotiations that determined the nation's identity. It also presents supplemental material that will help high school and undergraduate students contextualize key themes within primary works.









Devotes attention to a literary period that is rapidly gaining popularity



Provides supplemental material that illuminates primary texts



Examines writers of several genres, enabling readers to achieve a deeper appreciation of the work of African American literati of the 1940s-1960s



Explores the balance in gender in important literary works