FOREWORD    xiii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS    xix
PREFACE    xxi

Chapter One: INTRODUCTION       3
1.    The Negro in the United States       4

• Slaves and Free Men       5
• The Negro “Inferior and Subservient”       9
• The Mark of Oppression    14

2.    The Origins of Black Poetry    16

• Written Poetry in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries    16
• Folk Poetry    26

PART ONE: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR AND HIS TIME    37

Chapter Two:  THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN TRADITION IN DUNBAR’S TIME    39
1.    The Minstrels    40
2.    The Plantation Tradition in Poetry    48

• Irwin Russell    51
• Joel Chandler Harris    59
• Thomas Nelson Page and Armistead C. Gordon    62

3.    The South’s Revenge    66

Chapter Three: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR    73
1.    Biography    73

• Childhood Years    73
• Early Successes    75
• Fame and Its Drawbacks    77
• The End    79

2.    Dunbar and the Plantation Tradition    80

• Dunbar and the Plantation    81
• Dunbar and the South    88
• The Poet and His Theme    92

3.    Race Consciousness and History    95

• Past and Present    96
• The Search for Heroes    98
• Dunbar and Racial Injustice    101

4.    The Poet of the People    104

• The Problem of Dialect    105
• Dunbar and the Negro Popular Temperament    111
• The Themes of Dunbar’s Popular Poetry    115

5.    The Lyricism of HEARTBREAK    118

• Pessimism and Religious Doubts    121

Chapter Four: DUNBAR’S CONTEMPORARIES    127
1.    James Edwin Campbell    129

• The Theme of Interracial Love    130
• The People in Campbell’s Poetry    133

2.    Daniel Webster Davis    138
3.    J. Mord Allen    141

PART TWO: THE NEGRO RENAISSANCE    147

Chapter Five: THE NEGRO RENAISSANCE    149
1.    New Forces    151

• The Role of W. E. B. Du Bois    151
• Black Migrations    153
• Radicalism and the New Spirit    155
• The Rehabilitation of the Negro Past    157

2.    The Problem of Self-Definition    160

• The Discovery of the Negro and of Negro Art    162
• Cultural Dualism and Its Problems    165
• Art or Propaganda?    170

3.    The Poetry of the Renaissance    172

• The Poets and Their Public    173
• The Poets and Their Themes    177
• Poets in Conflict    190

Section A: IN SEARCH OF THE SPIRITUAL    195

Chapter Six: CLAUDE McKay    197
1.    Biography    198

• The Jamaican Years    198
• The Years in the United States    201
• Years of Vagabondage    201
• Home to Harlem    203

2.    The Jamaican Sources    204

• Authenticity of Form    204
• Realism of the Peasant Portraits    206
• Primacy of the Earth    211
• Rejection of the City    215

3.    The Lyricism of Militancy    222

• Racial Pride    223
• Hatred    225
• Target of Hatred: Evil    230
• The Limits of Hatred    235

4.    Exoticism and the Theme of Africa    236
5.    Harlem and Negro Art    243
6.    The Spiritual Journey    247

Chapter Seven: JEAN TOOMER    259
1.    The Destiny of Jean Toomer    260
2.    The Poetry of CANE, or, the Pilgrimage to the Origins    264
3.    Beyond Race: “Blue Meridian”    272

Chapter Eight: COUNTEE CULLEN    283
1.    Cullen’s Life    284

• A Mysterious Childhood    284
• The Productive Years    287
• The Last Years    291

2.    The Dictates of the Psyche    291

• The Burden of Inferiority    293
• Death the Liberator    297
• Pride as Solace    299

3.    Race and the African Homeland    301

• Race in Cullen’s Poetic Universe    302
• A Black among Whites    308
• Garvey and the African Heritage    315
• Africa as a Pagan Symbol    320

4.    Christ as Symbol and Reality    329

• Christ as a Sign of Self-Contradiction    330
• Mysticism and Spiritual Experience    339
• “The Black Christ”: A Spiritual Testament    341

Section B: IN SEARCH OF THE PEOPLE    349

Chapter Nine: JAMES WELDON JOHNSON    351
1.    Biography    352

• From Florida to Broadway    352
• In the Service of Country and Race    354

2.    Dunbar’s Disciple    356

• Poetry in Dialect    356
• Religious and Patriotic Conformism    358

3.    Johnson and the New Spirit    365
4.    Folklore and Race: Their Rehabilitation    372

• The Condemnation of Dialect    375
• The Experiment of God’s Trombones    377

Chapter Ten: LANGSTON HUGHES    385
1.    Biography    386

• The Restless Years    386
• Early Successes    389
• A Literature of Commitment    391

2.    From Racial Romanticism to Jazz    393

• Racial Romanticism    394
• Rebellion: Through a Glass Jazzily    400

3.    The Poetry of the Masses    416

• The Social Setting of the Blues    417
• Class Consciousness    426
• Religion and the Masses    437

4.    American Democracy: Promises and Reality    444

• The American Dream    446
• The Poet and Reality    454

5.    Toward a Synthesis    461

• Conclusion: Langston Hughes and Harlem    473

Chapter Eleven: STERLING BROWN    475
1.    Folk Strength and Folk Frailties    476
2.    The Tragic Universe of Sterling Brown    481

• The Whites’ Conspiracy    482
• The Black Man and His Fate    483
• The Inanity of Faith    490

3.    Means for Survival    496

Chapter Twelve: CONCLUSION    505

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX    513
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT    537
INDEX    547