Anthologies of African American Writing

Anthology of Negro Poets in the U.S.A.—200 Years (Audio recording)

"Anthology of Negro Poets in the U.S.A.—200 Years" . Read by Arna Bontemps. Folkways Records (9792), 1955. 33 1/3 rpm phonograph record. CD, 2004.

• Internet Archive

Includes poems by: Arna Bontemps – Sterling Brown – Countee Cullen – William Waring Cuney – Paul Laurence Dunbar – Angelina Weld Grimké – Robert Hayden – Donald Jeffrey Hayes – Frank Horne – Langston Hughes – Fenton Johnson – Georgia Douglas Johnson – Helene Johnson – James Weldon Johnson – Claude McKay – Lucy Terry – Jean Toomer – Phillis Wheatley.

Side 1:
• Lucy Terry / Bars Fight
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / Dawn
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / Little Brown Baby
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / Compensation
• Angelina Weld Grimké / The Black Finger
• Jean Toomer / Song of the Sun
• James Weldon Johnson / The Creation
• Georgia Douglas Johnson / My Little Dreams
• Fenton Johnson / The Banjo Player
• Frank Horne / To James
• Sterling A. Brown / Sister Lou
• Langston Hughes / Havana Dreams
• Langston Hughes / Song for a Dark Girl
• Countee Cullen / For a Poet,
• Countee Cullen / For a Lady I Know,
• Countee Cullen / Saturday's Child
• Countee Cullen / Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds

Side 2
• Countee Cullen / From the Dark Tower
• Countee Cullen / Yet Do I Marvel
• Donald Jeffrey Hayes / Poet
• Waring Cuney / No Images
• Helene Johnson / The Road
• Robert E. Hayden / Frederick Douglass
• Arna Bontemps / A Black Man Talks of Rivers
• Arna Bontemps / Miracles
• Arna Bontemps / Nocturne at Bethesda
• Arna Bontemps / Southern Mansion
• Arna Bontemps / A Note of Humility
• Arna Bontemps / The Daybreakers
• Phillis Wheatley / The Return His Excellency General Washington
• Claude McKay / Flame-Heart by Claude Mckay

• "Published version of the selections here recorded are included in The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949, An Anthology Edited by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps and published by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1949." -- text from notes.

"Anthology of Negro Poets in the U.S.A. is the aural complement to “The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949,” edited by Langston Hughes along with Arna Bontemps - who reads the selections heard on this album. This collection characterizes the rich history of poetry in the African American community, including slaves such as Phyllis Wheatley who “won” their freedom with this skill and whose poem “His Excellency General Washington” may be heard here" (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings website)

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