What constitutes an African American Writer

Blueprint for Negro Writing by Richard Wright (1937) defines the role of Negro writing after the Harlem Renaissance. Wright suggests that Negro writing should first be “a sort of conspicuous ornamentation, the hallmark of achievement;” and, second, it should be the “voice of the educated Negro pleading with White America for justice” (966). In defining what constitutes a Negro writer, Wright explains how the Negro writer may be influenced in expressing himself or herself. Wright states, “the Negro writer has lagged sadly, and as time passes the gap widens between them and their people” (966). This gap produces writers whose creations are based on the approval of white America— writing that does not represent the Negro community and institutions such as the Negro church and the folklore of the Negro people. W.E.B DuBois, in his essay “Criteria for Negro Art” expressed, “the white public today demands from its artist, literary and pictorial, racial pre-judgment w...