Category Archives: Writing

Leonidas Berry and the Strength of Black Families

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Richard Guzman

In 1981, after a successful career as an M.D. specializing in gastroenterology, Leonidas Berry wrote I Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now: Two Centuries of an Afro-American Minister’s Family. The title echoes a famous black spiritual, a testament of … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Writers, Chicago Writing, Diversity & Multiculturalism, Social Change | Tagged Black Writing from Chicago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Herbert Gutman, I Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Judith Berry Griffin, Leonidas Berry, Pathways to College, Ralph Ellison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom | Leave a comment

Meeting Oprah

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Richard Guzman

Actually, though Oprah Winfrey makes a show-stopping appearance in this story, it’s really about meeting the person Oprah calls mother: poet-actress-activist MAYA ANGELOU. I re-posted this by request on the occasion of Maya Angelou’s death in late May, 2014. In 1989 I, … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Writers, Diversity & Multiculturalism | Tagged Gayle King, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, North Central College, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, Teaching Diversity | Leave a comment

Black Writers List

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Richard Guzman

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Writers, Chicago Writing | Tagged Black Writing from Chicago, Richard R. Guzman, Smokestacks and Skyscrapers | Leave a comment