Abstract

Witnessing the continued plight of their black brothers in America, noting the continued strength of racism in this country, and discouraged by the slowness and ineffectiveness of integration, they have become frustrated and completely disillusioned with the promise of American democracy. If Paul Laurence Dunbar might be said to reflect in some of his works the accommodationist views of the leading black spokesman of his times, Booker T. Washington; and if Langston Hughes might generally be viewed as advocating the thoughtful, rational methods of Martin Luther King and the N.A.A.C.P. with their disciplined social protest and their optimistic faith in America; then the contemporary militant writers may be seen as reflecting the views of such spokesmen as Malcolm X, Rap Brown, and Stokely Carmichael, who have lost faith in the Christian religion, the American dream, and rational appeals.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 1974

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 1974, John Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in Negro American Literature Forum: 8:2 (1974), 217-222.

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