Tag Archives: Ralph Ellison

Sterling Plumpp: Survival Blues

Born in rural Mississippi in 1940, Sterling Plumpp has for thirty years taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and produced a body of poetry giving him considerable claim to be one of the country’s most distinguished blues-jazz poets. Somber … Continue reading

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William Attaway: Banana Boats and Civil Rights

One of the most versatile black writers in American history, William Attaway wrote poems, stories, plays, music, and scripts for radio, television, and film.  With the appearance of his first novel Let Me Breathe Thunder in 1939, and especially Blood … Continue reading

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Leonidas Berry and the Strength of Black Families

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

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