Rhetorical Contents. Preface. I. UNDERSTANDING THE WRITING PROCESS.
1. Planning Writing. 2. Writing the First Draft. 3. Revising and Editing. 4. Writing About Literature. II. THEMATIC CONTENTS.
5. Slavery. On Being Brought from Africa to America, Phyllis Wheatley.
Bury Me in a Free Land, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
And Arn't I a Women?, Sojourner Truth.
How a Slave Was Made a Man, Frederick Douglass. Student Essay:
Fruits of Labor, Fruits of Sorrow, Fruits of Love, Hakimah Alim Gregory.
6. African American Women. The Spirit of March Must Be Kept Alive, Margaret G. Lee.
I Am a Black Woman, Mari Evans.
Everyday Use, Alice Walker.
Slavery and Womanhood, Angela Y. Davis. Student Essay:
Islam and African American Women, Vernell Mundadi.
7. African American Men. A Fling on the Track, Bill Cosby.
Blacks in Vietnam, Robert Mullen.
Black Men and Public Space, Brent Staples.
Respect on the Streets, Elijah Anderson. Student Essay:
Are Black Males Becoming an Endangered Species?, Dwayne Griffin.
8. Childhood/Adolescence/Growing Up. Girl, Jamaica Kincaid.
Alice, Paulette Childress White.
Living Jim Crow, Richard Wright.
Finishing School, Maya Angelou. Student Essay:
Stone City, Jerome Mason.
9. Family. Mother to Son, Langston Hughes.
Such a Paradise That I Lived, Jamaica Kincaid.
Those Winter Sundays, Robert Hayden.
Dear Mama, Wanda Coleman. Student Essay:
The Positive Environment in Black Female-Headed Families, Camille Gray.
10. Male-Female Relationships. Like a Winding Sheet, Ann Petry.
Different Zones, Marita Golden.
A Summer Tragedy, Arna Bontemps.
Just Don't Never Give Up on Love, Sonia Sanchez. Student Essay:
Positive Affirmations Among African American Men and Women, Jason Orr.
11. Civil Rights. Emmett Till Is Dead, Anne Moody.
Howard University: A Rude Awakening, Cleveland Sellers.
Don't Let Them See You Cry, Elizabeth Eckford.
Looking Back at "Brown," Adolph Reed, Jr. Student Essay:
The Criminal Justice System and Poor Blacks, Marshall Mercy.
12. Freedom/Equality/Unity/Protest. Freedom, Joyce M. Jarrett.
We Wear the Mask, Paul Laurence Dunbar.
If We Must Die, Claude McKay.
The Rap on Frederick Douglass, Roger Guenvuer Smith.
U.N.I.T.Y., Queen Latifah. Student Essay:
Reparations for Slavery, Andreer Henderson.
13. Arts/Science/Media. Black Like Me, Margot Lee.
Artists of the Harlem Renaissance, Federal Writers' Project.
The Slave Inventor, Portia James. Student Essay:
AIDS in the African American Community, Stephanie Haynes.
14. Religion/Church. Salvation, Langston Hughes.
The Creation, James Weldon Johnson.
The Dynamic Tension in the Black Church, Michael A. Battle, Sr.
The Stumbling Block, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Student Essay:
The Tradition of IFA, Karl Nichols.
15. Heritage/Identity. To Know One's History Is to Know Oneself, John Henrik Clarke.
Kunta Kinte Is Born, Alex Haley.
To Those of My Sisters Who Kept Their Naturals, Gwendolyn Brooks.
My Blackness Is the Beauty of This Land, Lance Jeffers.
I Get On The Bus, Reginald McKnight. Student Essay:
Kwanzaa: An African American Holiday, William Weir.
16. Reading/Writing/Education. Discovering the Writer in Me, Terry McMillan.
Send Your Children to the Libraries, Arthur Ashe.
My Self-Education, Malcolm X.
Bringing Technology to the African American Community, Grady Wells. Student Essay:
Public Schools for African American Males: Are They Necessary?, Byron T. Thompson.
17. Political Philosophies. Double Consciousness, W.E.B. DuBois.
Atlanta Exposition Address, Booker T. Washington.
Garvey Speaks at Madison Square Garden, Marcus Garvey.
Becoming a Republican, Tony Brown. Student Essay:
The Black Panther Party, Khadijah A. Mayo.
18. African American Language. Mommy, What Does Nigger Mean?, Gloria Naylor.
African American Youth Resist Standard English, Felicia R. Lee.
BlackTalk, Geneva Smitherman.
If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?, James Baldwin. Student Essay:
The Question of Name: African or African American?, Cyril Austin Greene.
19. Folklore. How Buck Won His Freedom, Anonymous.
Brer Rabbit and the Goobers. I Get Born, Zora Neale Hurston.
The Ghost of Orion, John Edgar Wideman. Student Essay:
Folktales: An African American Treasure, Elizabeth Mitchell.
20. Racism/Discrimination. Incident, Countee Cullen.
A Difference of Opinion, Toni Morrison.
For My People, Margaret Walker.
Sometimes Symbols Don't Symbolize Much of Anything, William Raspberry.
Jazz and the Cold War: The Trick Bag, Elliott Bratton.
WHEN THE "PARANOIDS" TURN OUT TO BE RIGHT, Brent Staples. Student Essay:
Poverty and Education, Melinda Elaine Edmond.
21. Interracial Relationships. Becky, Jean Toomer.
Betrayal?, Why Black Men Date White Women, Bebe Moore Campbell.
Color Me Real, J. California Cooper.
What's American About America?, Ishmael Reed. Student Essay:
Society Rejects Mixed Children, Mia Elliott.
22. Interracial Prejudice. The Revolt of the Evil Fairies, Ted Poston.
Debut, Kristin Hunter.
Homecoming Queens, JoNina M. Abron. Student Essay:
Black Is Beautiful - All Shades, Andrea Providence Robinson.
23. Supplemental Readings. My Life in Black and White, Pauli Murray.
My Blackness is the Beauty of this Land, Lance Jeffers.
The True Nature of Racism, R. Benjamin Lee.
Multiculturalism: What Is It, And Is It Good or Bad?, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Am I Blue?, Alice Walker.
Cowards from the Colleges, Langston Hughes. Student Essay:
Female Genital Mutilation and Castration, Anika Yetunde.
Literary and Writing Terms. Glossary of Grammatical Terms. Suggested Bibliography. Video List to Supplemental Readings. Acknowledgements. Index. 