They are trailblazers, pioneers, and luminaries. This collection of Black women writers represents some of the best America has to offer in terms of courageous artists and activists willing to speak truth to power. These women did so with grace, elegance, and persuasion. Their work spans the colonial period to the twentieth century, providing a definitive glimpse of what it was like to live and write at the intersection of race, gender, and class in America. Their poetry, prose, and plays provide a valuable perspective to contemporary readers grappling with the complexities of intersectionality today.
In this collection you will find the sublime poetry of Phillis/Phillys Wheatley; the fearless reportage of racial violence by Ida Wells; the literary treasures of Pauline Hopkins; the masterfully crafted short stories of Alice Ruth Moore (Dunbar); and a series of unpublished plays by Zora Neale Hurston, written during a time when she was experimenting with the stage as a medium to convey the issues she addressed so memorably in her prose. Her play, Mule-Bone, was a rare collaboration with Langston Hughes.
FULL CONTENTS:
PART 1: PHILLIS WHEATLEY – POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL by PHILLIS WHEATLEY
PART 2: IDA WELLS – Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases
PART 3: IDA WELLS The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States; What is the Remedy
PART 4: IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT – Mob Rule in New Orleans
PART 5: IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT – Lynch Law in Georgia.
PART 6: PAULINE HOPKINS – Hagar's Daughter
PART 7: PAULINE HOPKINS – Winona, A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest
PART 8: ALICE RUTH MOORE (ALICE DUNBAR)– Violets and Other Tales
PART 9: ALICE RUTH MOORE (ALICE DUNBAR) The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories
PART 10: ZORA NEALE HURSTON – De Turkey and De Law
PART 11: ZORA NEALE HURSTON – Three Plays: Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Lincoln's Prayer; Woofing.
PART 12: ZORA NEALE HURSTON – Poker!
PART 13: ZORA NEALE HURSTON & LANGSTON HUGHES – The Mule Bone a Comedy of Negro Life
