Anthologies of African American Writing

Forerunners: Black Poets in America

"The Forerunners: Black Poets in America" . Ed. Woodie King, Jr. Washington, DC: Howard UP, 1975. xxix+127 pp.; paperback 1981.

● Preface
● Introduction

SAMUEL ALLEN
● Samuel Allen / My Friend
● Samuel Allen / Nat Turner
● Samuel Allen / Ski Trail

RUSSELL ATKINS
● Russell Atkins / Probability and Birds in the Yard
● Russell Atkins / New Storefront
● Russell Atkins / Dark Area

ARNA BONTEMPS
● Arna Bontemps / A Black Man Talks of Reaping
● Arna Bontemps / Close Your Eyes
● Arna Bontemps / Southern Mansion

GWENDOLYN BROOKS
● Gwendolyn Brooks / The Life of Lincoln West
● Gwendolyn Brooks / Estimable Mable

STERLING A. BROWN
● Sterling A. Brown / Slim in Hell
● Sterling A. Brown / Southern Road
● Sterling A. Brown / Old Lem
● Sterling A. Brown / Strong Men

MARGARET BURROUGHS
● Margaret Burroughs / Everybody But Me

MARGARET DANNER
● Margaret Danner / The Rhetoric of Langston Hughes
● Margaret Danner / A Home in Dakar
● Margaret Danner / A Grandson is a Hoticeberg

FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS
● Frank Marshall Davis / To Those Who Sing America
● Frank Marshall Davis / Dancing Gal
● Frank Marshall Davis / “Onward Christian Soldiers”

OWEN DODSON
● Owen Dodson / The Morning Duke Ellington Praised the Lord and Six Little Black Davids Tapped Danced Unto
● Owen Dodson / Ballad of Badmen
● Owen Dodson / Job’s Ancient Lament

ROBERT HAYDEN
● Robert Hayden / Richard Hunt’s Arachne
● Robert Hayden / The Night-Blooming Cereus
● Robert Hayden / The Peacock Room

LANCE JEFFERS
● Lance Jeffers / Black Soul of the Land
● Lance Jeffers / Trellie
● Lance Jeffers / Love Pictures You as Black and Long-Faced

OLIVER LA GRONE
● Oliver la Grone / Remnant Ghosts at Dawn
● Oliver la Grone / For Kinte
● Oliver la Grone / Africland

NAOMI LONG MADGETT
● Naomi Long Madgett / Simple
● Naomi Long Madgett / Black Woman
● Naomi Long Madgett / Woman with Flower
● Naomi Long Madgett / Offspring

DUDLEY RANDALL
● Dudley Randall / Green Apples
● Dudley Randall / On Getting a Natural (For Gwendolyn Brooks)
● Dudley Randall / Langston Blues

MARGARET WALKER
● Margaret Walker / Ballad of the Hoppy-Toad
● Margaret Walker / Jackson, Mississippi
● Margaret Walker / Today

JAY WRIGHT
● Jay Wright / The Charge
● Jay Wright / Altars and Sacrifice
● Jay Wright / The Dead

• n/a

• "The 'forerunners' are the poets who 'carried the baton of poetic tradition from the [post-Harlem] Renaissance in the forties and fifties and created the foundation for the writers of the sixties and seventies.' Arrangement of the sixteen poets is alphabetical—a poor choice as it does not place the poets in time. But thee is a nice touch: after brief biographical notes for the poets, each one has written a paragraph or two about his or her views on the black poet. Sometimes (particularly in the case of Gwendolyn Brooks or Arna Bontemps), this gives the reader a better understanding of the whole movement and also of the individual voice. The strength of this anthology, one of many welcome collections of black verse, lies in the excellence of the selection. These are the best authors, and there is just enough of their poetry to be the best of the best. This is a grand place to start on a trip through African-American literature" ("The Columbia Granger's Guide to Poetry Anthologies". Ed. William Katz, Linda Sternberg Katz, and Esther Crain. 2nd enlarged ed. New York: Columbia UP, 1994. 9)

Kinnamon 1997: 472
• Indexed in "The Columbia Granger's Index to African-American Poetry" (1999)

A0204