Author Portraits

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a formerly enslaved person who became a well-known public speaker and author. He used his words to transform a world that often refused to recognize his humanity. Eventually, he found his home in Washington, DC, where he continued his activism for racial and social justice.

Highlighted Work: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (1852)

“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

In this speech Douglass charged his white audience to consider what independence meant for enslaved people. His forceful words highlight the hypocrisy of slaveholders celebrating freedom. Douglass closes his speech by reminding his audience that they have the power to bring about change if they are willing to do so.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s (1872-1906) thoughtful gaze would have been well-known to those around him. He became known for writing in the Black dialect of his time. The oak leaves represent his first book of poetry, Oak and Ivy, which contained many poems that discussed racial prejudice.

In high school, Dunbar was already showing promise as a published poet in the Dayton Herald, and an editor for the Dayton Tattler. The Tattler was a short-lived Black paper in Ohio published by Dunbar’s classmate Orville Wright (later known as the co-inventor of the airplane). His poetry only represents a small part of his many novels, short stories, essays, and poems. He was quite prolific for years despite becoming ill, and started to gain wider recognition outside of Ohio, particularly after going on several “reading tours.” He died when he was only 33, leaving behind a literary legacy as one of the foremost Black poets of his day.

Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey (1886-1939) inspired a generation of Black musicians as the “Songbird of the South.” As one of the earliest blues singers, her music was full of life and soul. Sadly, the importance of her contributions has often been downplayed by historians, and much of her music lost over the years.

Born Gertrude Pridgett, Rainey began her stage career by performing in her parents’ minstrel show. She acquired the nickname “Ma Rainey” through her marriage to William “Pa” Rainey in 1904. Together, the duo toured the South as the “Assassinators of the Blues.” Already a beloved figure in the Southern theater circuit, Ma Rainey became wildly popular during the Blues craze of the 1920s with hits such as “Moonshine Blues” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” She established herself in the music industry as a prolific songwriter and a shrewd businesswoman, recording nearly a hundred records between 1923-1928. Ma Rainey’s legacy went on to inspire Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, and Alice Walker.

Listen to “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

Nella Larsen

With a white mother and half-sister, Nella Larsen (1891-1964) never felt like she fit in. Her skin was too dark for the immigrant community her mother came from, and too light for the Black community. The hourglass here represents her internal conflict.

Nella Larsen was a brilliant writer who was lost to obscurity for many years after her death. She published 2 novels, Quicksand and Passing, as well as several short stories. In 1930, she was the first Black woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, but she never published again. Her novels and stories encapsulated her experience as a biracial woman. In addition to her literary career and a brief stint as a librarian, Larsen worked as a nurse for more than 20 years. Today, her work is celebrated and studied in universities across the country.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) used poetry to address racial justice. He was inspired by many things, particularly blues and jazz music. His writing helped shape the Harlem Renaissance.

Highlighted Work: “The Weary Blues” (1925)

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
‘Ain’t got nobody in all this world,
Ain’t got nobody but ma self.
I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’
And put ma troubles on the shelf.’

Langston Hughes’ famous poem, “The Weary Blues,” is both a celebration of Black culture and a lament for the hardship faced by Black people. He directly references Harlem in several instances, showing the neighborhood’s importance. Hughes used his narrative voice and the musician’s lyrics to convey a community overwhelmed with problems, but determined to move forward.

Richard Wright

Richard Wright (1908-1960) criticized the whitewashed myth of the American Dream. His protest novel Native Son and his autobiography Black Boy received critical acclaim and showed the challenges poor Black people faced. The Adinkra symbol near Wright’s papers literally means “bite not one another,” which suggests his connection to the Black solidarity movement.

Richard Wright was the grandchild of former enslaved people, and was well acquainted with poverty. He moved from relative to relative as a child and as an adult moved from one unskilled job to another until he ended up in Chicago. In 1937, he went to New York where he became the editor of the communist paper Daily Worker. He moved to Paris permanently after World War II.

Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was a poet, activist, lawyer, and priest who fought for justice and equality. Murray was the first African American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. The cross in the background emphasizes her strong commitment to religion, while the bus in the foreground represents her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

Highlighted Work: Dark Testament and Other Poems (1970)

This is our portion, this is our testament,

This is America, dual-brained creature,

One hand thrusting us out to the stars,

One hand shoving us down in the gutter.

The poem “Dark Testament” inspired the name of this exhibit because it exemplifies the complexity of Black life in America. Murray faced violence, struggled with belonging, fought tirelessly for justice, and preached about joy. Their epic poem captures that experience beautifully.

Visit the online exhibit Pauli Murray: Survival With Dignity

Ethel Payne

Ethel Payne (1911-1991) was a fearless reporter who would not back down from contentious social issues. She became known as the “First Lady of the Black Press” due to her commitment to justice and journalistic excellence.

Payne began writing about the Korean War in her journal around 1950, and was hired by the Chicago Defender after a reporter saw her journals. Using simple and straightforward language, Payne reported on topics ignored by the white press. These issues included the poor treatment of African American troops, General MacArthur’s refusal to desegregate the American military, the abandoned babies of Black soldiers and Japanese mothers, and the Black adoption crisis. In 1970, Payne was hired by CBS, becoming the first African American woman to be a TV and radio anchor for a national news network. Though her legacy as a journalist has been overlooked up until recently, her writing is coming back into the light.

James Baldwin

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was a powerful writer and speaker whose words both captured and influenced the long Civil Rights Movement. After moving to France to finish his novels, he found a sense of belonging there that he didn’t feel in Harlem, New York.

Baldwin left for Paris in 1948, beginning a life as a self-styled “transatlantic commuter” who split his time between France and the United States. He launched his literary career with 1953’s semi-autobiographical book Go Tell It on the Mountain. Baldwin’s passionate discussion of race, gender, sexuality, and class in works such as Giovanni’s Room (1956), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963) were instrumental in shaping the Civil Rights movement. Baldwin made it his mission to “bear witness to the truth.”

Malcolm X

Malcolm X (1925-1965) redefined the Civil Rights Movement as a fight for human rights. He was a member of the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist religious group symbolized by the crescent and star. Malcolm X believed that peaceful protests would not stop acts of violence against people struggling for their rights. He urged his audience to secure their equality by “any means necessary.”

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Nebraska. As a child, he lived in foster care for several years before moving in with his older half-sister. As a teenager, he committed several petty crimes and ended up in prison. There, he converted to the Nation of Islam, a combination of the teachings of Islam and Black nationalism. He rose through the ranks quickly and became second in command to Elijah Muhammed. Between 1955 and 1965, Malcolm came to represent the anger and frustration felt during the Civil Rights Movement. He also was one of the first to use the terms Black or Afro-American instead of Negro or colored. In 1964, he left the Nation of Islam and converted to Sunni Islam. This caused a rift with the Nation, leading to his assassination by Nation member Talmadge Hayer.