This list of Black Writers written about on this site provides much faster access to the posts than clicking on Black Writers in the Categories column to the right. It also gives a much better overview of available material. It lists writers in alpha order.
Clicking the Categories column to the right gives you the opening of each post and a “Continue reading” link. It shows them three at a time in newest-to-oldest order.
I included most of these writers in my books Black Writing from Chicago and, with David Starkey, Smokestacks and Skyscrapers. The links below take you to introductions based on those included in these books. Most are much expanded, some up to 5 or 10 times the size of the originals. Also, go to “Black Writers Picture Themselves,” a 2-part series featuring self-portraits done by 10 of the writers below.
—Links go live when material becomes available—
- Robert S. Abbott
- Elizabeth Alexander
- Maya Angelou
- William Attaway
- James Baldwin (multiple articles)
- Lerone Bennett, Jr.
- Leonidas Berry
- Tara Betts
- Marita Bonner (multiple articles)
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- Frank London Brown (multiple articles)
- Margaret T. Burroughs
- Cyrus Colter
- James David Corrothers
- D.L. Crockett-Smith
- Margaret Danner
- St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton
- Frank Marshall Davis
- Richard Durham
- Ralph Ellison
- Ronald L. Fair
- Leon Forrest
- John Hope Franklin
- Hoyt W. Fuller
- Regie Gibson
- Ken Green
- Sam Greenlee
- Dick Gregory
- Fred Hampton, Sr.
- Lorraine Hansberry
- Langston Hughes
- Charles Johnson
- Fenton Johnson (multiple articles)
- John Jones
- JWM (Colored)
- Haki Madhubuti
- Clarence Major
- Leanita McClain
- James Alan McPherson (multiple articles)
- Toni Morrison
- Willard Motley
- Barack Obama
- Clarence Page
- Lucy Parsons
- Useni Eugene Perkins
- Audrey Petty
- Sterling Plumpp
- Conrad Kent Rivers
- Carolyn Rodgers (multiple articles)
- W. Allison Sweeney
- Era Bell Thompson
- Rev. John L. Tilley
- Dempsey J. Travis
- Ida B. Wells
- The Intercollegiate Wonder Book
- Richard Wright
√ Read the Foreword, the Introduction, and the Afterword to Black Writing from Chicago. The Afterword adds many important names to the ones listed above.
√ Go to a list of Chicago Writers, most from Smokestacks and Skyscrapers.
√ Go to the Main Page for Teaching Diversity.