Category Archives: Black Writers
Drake and Cayton’s Black Metropolis
St. Clair Drake (1911-1990) and Horace R. Cayton, Jr. (1903-1970) will forever be bound together for their collaboration on the groundbreaking Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (1945). Drake was born in Suffolk, Virginia, graduated … Continue reading
Lerone Bennett, Jr.: Before the Mayflower
Born in iconic Clarksdale, Mississippi, October 17, 1928, Lerone Bennett, Jr., came to Chicago in 1953 to become associate editor of Jet magazine, then associate and senior editor at Ebony starting in 1954. He has also been a visiting professor … Continue reading
Conrad Kent Rivers: Of Mourning Songs and Revolutions
Conrad Kent Rivers’ success with poetry began in high school where his “Poor Peon” won the Savannah, Georgia, State Poetry Prize in 1951. He went on to publish poems in such magazines as the Antioch Review, the Kenyon Review, Negro … Continue reading