Updated: January 29, 2010
Nowadays, literature in America is as diverse as our population, but this was not always the case. Before the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation, writers like Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass shared their stories of life as a slave and their quests for freedom. Later, other authors like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston led the intellectual and creative movement for African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance.More recently, writers like Maya Angelou and Walter Dean Myers are writing about the modern African-American experience. For Myers, it's urban youth, with books like Slam! and his newest novel, Lockdown, both depicting the struggles of black teens in America.
To learn more about the these pioneers in African-American literature, check out the gallery below.
Guide: African-American Literature
Travel through history and American culture with these famous authors and poets.
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