African-American literature

Obama the Ellisonian: Another Reading of the President’s Worldview
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Obama the Ellisonian: Another Reading of the President’s Worldview

ByFrank Strong

Early in the speech that Barack Obama gave last year to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” standing in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, the president asked, “What can be more American than what happened in this place?” That line deserved more attention than it got. To recap what happened there:…

Round-Down: The Black and White Business of Confronting Racism in Literature

Round-Down: The Black and White Business of Confronting Racism in Literature

ByCathe Shubert

Like most Americans, I’ve been stunned the last few months by the verdicts in Ferguson and New York. Tens of thousands of protestors, black, white and brown, have taken to the streets and to social media to voice their protest and outrage at the implicit message received from these verdicts that black lives don’t matter—but…