Black History – Then and Now

Writer: by Dr Saër Maty Bâ

Black History Month | Business | Science and technology | Visual Arts | Literature

Literature

Black people were denied access to reading and writing in the New World as slaves and were punished severely if they demonstrated literacy.

Historically speaking therefore black writing practice was a countercultural form of resistance.

Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784)

Phyllis Wheatley was the first African American woman to be published in the USA. She was captured in Senegal aged seven, and bought by Bostonian tailor John Wheatley for his wife.

As she was a house slave, she was given access to education quickly became literate. Her widely reviewed Poems on Various Subjects (London 1773) gave an insight into black experience of slavery.

However, Wheatley died in misery unable to publish further works even though she was celebrated by her black contemporaries like Ignatius Sancho. Her intellect and struggle would later influence black intellectuals like Martin Delaney and Toni Morrison.

Toni Morrison performs at the Jazz At Lincoln Center's Concert For Hurricane Relief, New York, 2005. © Brad Barket/Getty Images

Toni Morrison (1931-  )

Toni Morrison was born into a working-class family. A single parent in the 1960s, Morrison taught English at Howard University, and then worked in publishing for 20 years. She started writing in her forties and her work focuses on experiences of African America women. In 1988 her novel Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was later adapted for a film starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.

In 1993 Morrison became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

Morrison has been attributed to calling Bill Clinton "the first Black President;" saying "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas".

From 1989 to her retirement in 2006, Morrison held the Robert F Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University.

Feature for Origination by Dr Saër Maty Bâ a researcher and university lecturer who specialises in Cultural Studies, Film and Media in connection to the Black Diasporas.
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