In the 1920s, as Black artists and intellectuals emerged following the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance produced prolific authors. In the United States, African American literature originated in the 19th century, mainly with slave narratives, many told from the perspective of escaped slaves such as Harriet Jacobs or Frederick Douglass. In many cases, their work has gone as far as changing policies, practices, and cultural norms-not to mention shaping how the Black experience is viewed and understood in America. The stories they’ve told-both as creative writers and documentarians-have entertained, educated, and informed. The narratives they’ve added to American storytelling have shifted perspectives and created new dialogues around race, culture, politics, religion, and sociology. They’ve contributed fiction and nonfiction, novels, short stories, essays, poetry, scholarly articles, academic writing, and everything in between. Throughout America’s history, African American authors have represented a rich and diverse body of literature.
