ENG 429 African American Biographies (3)

This class will introduce students to the biographical writing of a number of significant figures in African American history including W.E.B Dubois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Martin Luther King, and Toni Morrison. The class will examine secondary material as well as personal writings in an attempt to better understand the character of men and women who played pivotal roles in ante-bellum reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement. Examining the experiences of these notable literary and political icons, we will also attempt to discern how individual memory has shaped black identity in the African Diaspora.