"Signifying the American experience" : an intraracial study of political protest literature in the African American canon from the Reconstruction to the Native son

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to look at the African American political writings and protest literature from the failure of Reconstruction 1877 to the publication of "Native Son" in 1940. This study analyzes in depth black activist reaction to white oppression in the aftermath of Reconstruction, an era also known as the "nadir of race relations." This failure of Reconstruction, which is symbolized by the end of the black political representation and racial violence, continued a fundamental discussion within black leadership which led to the creation of organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, whose primary aims were the end of legal segregation and the push for political equality. By looking the works of African America poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay we will see how African American literature reflects the struggle for civil rights from the last two decades of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. In this framework Richard Wright's "Native Son" acquires a fundamental role which testifies to an important formal change in the African American literature canon because it fueled the Black Arts movement of late 1960's as a blueprint for art as political propaganda.