Category: African American Author

— Andru Okun, The Washington Post Set against the backdrop of virulent racism seen throughout the South during the civil rights movement, Matthew Van Meter’s “Deep Delta Justice” takes readers through “one of the most important — and improbable — criminal cases in American history.” A legal saga with an emphasis on storytelling, it’s a […]

By Josh Jones, Open Culture Nina Simone’s creative and political community meant everything to her, and the many losses she suffered in the 60s sent her deeper into the depression of the last decades of her life. “Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry [were] prominent,” writes Malik Gaines at LitHub, “among… socially engaged writers and […]

“To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.” By Maria Popova, Brain Pickings In 1845, as the forgotten visionary Margaret Fuller was laying the foundation of modern feminism, advocating for […]

Fifty years after its Broadway debut, the play remains as vital as it was in 1970. Lorraine Hansberry was a master scribe. She used her writing to redefine difference. The award-winning playwright — whose 90th birthday would have been this week — first captured the public eye during the civil rights movement. Hansberry was perhaps best […]