Protests of African American Women Writers

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African-American women have come out to protest over issues that they term as injustices. These protests appear in various forms including literature. Some of the African-American writers express their opinions overtly and thus not hiding behind euphemism. Lucile Clifton is one such writer.

Bruce Bennet of the New York Times describes her as passionate, angry, sensual, and shrewd, in his review of her book, Quilting (1991). This masterpiece is Lucile’s seventh poetry book. She insists that a poet needs to “be the pistol/ be the mad woman/ be free or die” (Gates and Mckay 2033).

The history of slavery in her lineage is a likely contributor to these views. A majority of her works reflect upon genealogy, with the focus being on women in the family with the exclusion of men.

For instance, in her third volume, An Ordinary Woman (1974), she evokes a spiritual sisterhood among Harriet Tubman, her grandmother and other ‘ordinary women’. In her poem, Lost Baby Poem (1972), she reflects on the sensuality and emotional attachment of a mother to her child.

The poem is about a mother’s regret of losing her child and her vow to take care of her children in the future.

The poem Move also depicts women as emotional and caring even in the state of nature where there are “wild-haired women”, in the phrase, “she cried as the child stood hesitant in the last clear sky he would ever see” (Gates and Mckay 2038).

Many refer to Maria Stuart as America’s first black woman political writer. Her production, Mrs. Maria W. Stuart (1835), a collection of essays and speeches that were reflective of view on slavery, women’s rights, and the uplift of African Americans, was an inspiration for women activists.

Scholars hold that she is the first woman to step onto a lecture platform and address a mixed gender audience and openly expressing her views regarding liberty and equality. Critics categorize the action as an open defiance to the role that the society had advocated concerning women at the time.

Stuart became an orphan at the age of five and thus she was forced to work as a servant girl for a clergyman, in exchange for basic needs. However, the family denied her the privilege of education.

This aspect is reflected in her Lecture delivered at Franklin Hall, Boston, held on 21 September 1832 and its extension, From Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on which we must build.

In the speech, she urges the African-American community to fight for their liberty through the improvement of talents. She states that she “does not advocate for anyone to kill, burn or destroy” (Gates and Mckay 252), a sign that she understands these as possible consequences of her speech.

However, she admits that although her work provided psychological liberation, particularly for the African American women, it fueled public opposition of proportions that necessitated her move from Boston to New York.

June Jordan created a reputation of bravery for herself, as evidenced by the description by Alice Walker that she is the bravest poet. Jordan also bore the reputation of being universal, with the basis of her work being experiences from people all over the world.

She was born of Jamaican parents who had moved to the United States to evade the bouts of poverty. However, her childhood was not as rosy as she grew up with a violent father and a mother who had given up on her desire to be an artist. Her mother later committed suicide.

Her work is reflective of these experiences as she uses her mother’s experience in the context of the neglected history of black women, as is the case with Many Rivers to Cross (1985) and Getting down to Get Over (1977).

Jordan sought to correct this neglect through criticism of western feminism by pointing that it did not adequately address issues such as race, class, and womanhood.

In her work Poem about My Rights, she expressly refuses to accept the label of ‘wrong’ stating, “I am not wrong…wrong is not my name…my name is my own” (Gates and Mckay1980).

The poem is mainly about gender discrimination against women, who she refers to as the ‘wrong sex’ in the poem.

Jordan also bore the reputation of being overt in her opinions concerning war by openly expressing her support for the Palestinian Liberation Movement, an act that resulted in controversy and the refusal of her publisher to publish her work in the 1980s.

Her work, In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968), is reflective of this perspective by describing the United States as turning to a land of “monsters teach to kill to violate pull down destroy the weakly freedom growing fruit from being born” (Gates and Mckay 1986).

However, some writers are more subtle in their approach to issues of gender representation, womanhood, and their expression of fury. They choose to use language that is less likely to inflame or cause strong reactions from readers. Zora Hurston is one such writer.

Critics are of the opinion that she is subtle in her description of the issue of racism and her encounter with white people.

For instance, her work Men and Mules (1935) elicited mixed reactions from critics and one of them, Sterling A. Brown, stating that it would have been “nearer to the truth” if she had been “more bitter”. However, not all writers were furious about racial discrimination.

Some of them, like Hurston, had a positive attitude toward their situation by choosing to embrace the differences and change as part of life. Zora was born in Eatonville, Florida, the first black township incorporated in the United States.

In her opinion, the absence of white people in the township negated the presence of racism and allowed black people to express themselves openly. In her poem, How It Feels to be Colored Me, she describes her fascination with the white people as they passed through her town.

Langston Hughes, in his autobiography, describes Zora as a bizarre character, which proves true in her description of her favorite spot for watching the white people.

Her place of choice was “atop the gate post”. She was always comfortable with her color, even amidst white people and she describes black people as noble in a conversation between Missy May and Joe in The Gilded Six Bits.

Sonia Sanchez spent most of her career life as a writer and activist.

During her time at the San Francisco State College, she led in the formation of the Movement for Black Studies, which received opposition from the administration and board of trustees and they eventually shut the program down.

In 1934, while working for the Congress of Racial Equality, her work was mainly integrationist. However, this aspect changed in the 1960s after listening to a speech by Malcolm X. She chose to change her perspective by focusing on vernacular poetry.

Her poetry possesses a dramatic flare by using an African-American intonation that adds to the flare and entertainment. In her poem, Homecoming, she takes the term ‘nigger’ to refer to African-American, which brings a sense of casualness to the piece.

She refers to niggers as “my beauty” thus expressing her love for the African-American people and negating the possibility of viewing the phrase as an insult.

In For our Lady, which is a poem celebrating the life of Jazz artiste Billie Holiday, she is of the opinion that had the black community appreciated him, his music might have had an effect on the “country’s white mind”, thus subtly expressing her view of the white community.

Gwendolyn Brooks’ wish was to reach as far within the black community as she could through her work. She strived to achieve this goal by making her work more affordable to the people.

For instance, in 1981, her volumes Primer for Blacks and Black Love sold for less than five dollars a piece. She was passionate about teaching and nurturing the literary talents of African American Youth, using poetry as a means of self-expression.

Maud Martha is an example of such self-expression, with the ugliness of the character Maud Martha used as a euphemism for the ugliness of racism, class, and gender discrimination. In her poem, The Mother, she describes the caring and nurturing nature of a woman.

The poem is an apology of a mother who aborts her unborn. A song in the Front Yard also depicts the character of women as subtle and submissive creatures, with the poem displaying a hunger for change and rebellion from the norm.

Works Cited

Gates, Louis, and Nellie Mckay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. Print.

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Protests of African American Women Writers

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