The African-American literature holdings of the Harris Collection range from rare 18th century works by Phillis Wheatley, through the abolitionist writings of William Wells Brown and the late 19th century dialect poetry and lyrics of Paul Laurence Dunbar, to extensive holdings of major 20th century figures such as Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, Sterling Brown,Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Alain Locke, Arna Bontemps, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, Robe rt Hayden, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry, among many others.

Contemporary authors held in strength include Ai, Gwendolyn Brooks, Michael Harper, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Amiri Bara ka, Ishmael Reed, and many hundreds of others. Modern small press poetry is collected heavily. There are, in addition, holdings of African-American literary periodicals, including current subscriptions.

The Harris Collection and the Sheet Music Collection also include vocal music from the musical stage in the late 19th century and in the 1920's, when the African-American musical stage flourished, and include works by Dunbar, J. Rosamund Johnson, Bob Cole, George Williams and Bert Walker, Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, and many more. The published works of contemporary African-American popular music composers and performers are acquired extensively. In addition, there are older works rela ting to African-American folk and religious music, the abolitionist movement, and the minstrel stage.

The African American Sheet Music Digitizing Project, part of the Library's Center for Digital Initiatives, includes digitized images of the covers and texts of 1,44 pieces of sheet music from the Library's collections.

See Also:

Music

Sources for the Study of 19th and 20th Century Blackface Minstrelsy

In addition to the holdings of the Harris Collection, African-American literary materials in the John Hay Library will be found in the Broadsides Collection and the Sheet Music Collection. Supplementary and associated materials will be found in the McLellan Lincoln Collection, the Starred Books Collection, the Richard G . Katzoff Collection, the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, and the Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda.

The Broadsides Collection includes a considerable body of finely printed modern broadsides of poetry, including those by African-American authors, as well as many 19th century works relating to slavery, the Civil War, and the abolitionist movement. The Starred Books Collection, the general rare book collection at the John Hay Library, includes prose works by African-Americans. The Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection includes published works relating to African-American soldiers, particularly of the Civil War era, as well as a wealth of illustrative material. Similar materials a re to be found in the McLellan Lincoln Collection. The Richard G. Katzoff Collection includes contemporary literary works by gay and lesbian African-Americans. The Hall-Hoag Collection includes post-Wor ld War II materials on racism, politics, and the civil rights movement in America, mostly ephemeral and controversial in nature.

American Literature
Holdings in Special Collections

Race and Gender Studies
Holdings in Special Collections

Brown University Library Resources: Online Exhibitions

Celebrating Michael Harper
Brown University Library Online Exhibition

Imamu Amiri Baraka
Brown University Library Online Exhibition

Langston Hughes: The Black Bard at 100
Brown University Library Online Exhibition

Other Internet Resources

African American History Collections

African American Review
The official publication of the Division on Black American Literature and Culture of the Modern Language Association

African American Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century
The Digital Schomburg; New York Public Library Digital Library Collections

Archives of African American Music and Culture
Indiana University Library (fix)

Callaloo (Project Muse)
Callaloo (JSTOR)
An African-American literary journal

Center for Black Music Research

Dubose Heyward's Porgy. A Hypertext Edition.
University of Virginia

The Harlem Renaissance
Perspectives in American Literature

Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel and the Fort Valley Music Festivals
Library of Congress American Memory

The Red Hot Jazz Archive: A History of Jazz Before 1930

Tom Morgan's Jazz and Blues

Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
University of Virginia

Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color
University of Minnesota

"We'll Sing to Abe our Song": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War
Library of Congress American Memory


Author Pages

Ai
Academy of American Poets

Maya Angelou
Academy of American Poets

Amiri Baraka
Academy of American Poets

Arna Bontemps
Academy of American Poets

Gwendolyn Brooks
Academy of American Poets

Sterling A. Brown
Academy of American Poets

Countee Cullen
Academy of American Poets

Rita Dove: Lady Freedom Among Us
University of Virginia Library

Paul Laurence Dunbar Home Page
University of Dayton

Paul Laurence Dunbar Digital Text Archives
Wright State University Library

Cornelius Eady
Academy of American Poets

Michael S. Harper
Academy of American Poets

Robert Hayden
Academy of American Poets

Langston Hughes
Academy of American Poets

James Weldon Johnson
Academy of American Poets

Etheridge Knight
Academy of American Poets

Audre Lorde
Emory University

Claude McKay
Academy of American Poets

Jean Toomer
Academy of American Poets