Zora Neale Hurston Civil Rights Activist

Kimberly Vasquez
Professor Cook
BLST 113
05/14/15
Final Exam
Zora Neal Hurston
African American Civil Rights Activist & Author
She is Best known for her work in “Their Eyes were watching God” (1937) and many other literary works.
When she moved to Harlem in the 1920’s that is when her writing career began and flourished. (after graduating college)
Historical Significance: Despite all her accomplishments, it was a struggle for her writing to get published and she struggled financially throughout her early career. Hurston overcame this and even received backlash for her strong criticism of the board decision in Brown V. Board. She was a strong woman that voiced her opinion and stood by it.
Arna Bontemp
African-American poet, novelist, and

Also as head librarian at Fisk University, he was put in charge of expanding the world’s largest collection of African American cultural items.
Langston Hughes
Famous African American poet
Wrote novels, short stories, plays, but best known for his poetry and his engagement with the world of Jazz. One of the first to innovate and write Jazz poetry.
His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920’s.
Langston wanted to tell the story of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, which included both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language.
Historical Significance: Langston Hughes was an inspiration to many during the Harlem Renaissance and he paved the way for future artist and their success in arts. He was a social activist and believed in the Black Power Movement to a certain extent. We should value his legacy and what he contributed with his writings.
Richard Wright
Arguably the most influential African American writer of the 20th

: Brathwaite through his poetry reexamines the history of Black Diaspora and how the culture needs to come together in Caribbean life. He shows racial pride and how to overcome prejudice and malice, as a leader for his country and people.
Jamaica Kincaid
From Antigua in the West Indies, Renowned Writer from there.
Her most know literary works are, “Annie John”, “At the Bottom of the River”, and “The Autobiography of My Mother”, plus many more.
Kincaid left Antigua to New York and later started her career as writer during the late 1970’s
Her writing is handled with sharp emotion as she identifies herself with a “partially remembered, partially dreamed reality” style.
Themes that she uses are issues of race, gender, colonialism, adolescent angst, loss.
H.S. : Kincaid’s writing is captivating as she writes about complex emotions and exposes harming issues in a simple matter. She still continues to influence people and is a professor at Harvard University for creative writing.
Walter Rodney
A prominent Guyanese writer, scholar, political activist, and historian developed into an intellectual scholar and is recognized as one of the caribbean’s most brilliant minds.
Rodney’s most influential book was “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”(1972). Also he joined the Working People’s Alliance.( Leading figure in the resistance