Black Rituals

September 2003 marked the 50th anniversary of Maud Martha, the only novel published by esteemed poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Initially entitled ""American Family Brown"" the work would eventually come to symbolize some of Brooks' most provocative writing. In a novel that captures the essence of Black life, Brooks recognizes the beauty and strength that lies within each of us.

In this handbook, four authors write on the same topics but with varying emphases. Gwendolyn Brooks sketches the background of Afro-American poetry and offers practical hints and exercises for writing. Keorapatse Kgositsile discusses the role and situation of the black writer. Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) explains an author's commitment and discusses the use of words, metaphors, symbols, and characters. Dudley Randall analyzes the syntactical and rhythmical structure of verse and gives suggestions on marketing. The book includes lists of books and articles for background and technique, answers to questions asked by beginning writers, and work sheets showing the growth of a poem.

Her first poetry collection, Homecoming (1969), contains considerable invective against “white America” and “white violence”

Presents a thought-provoking examination of the group personality of Europeans, as manifest in their behavior towards Black people. In the essay ""The Psychopathic Racial Personality,"" Dr. Bobby Wright contends that viewing white behavior towards nonwhites as psychopathic provides a new lens through which to analyze and combat the actions and aims of Europeans. The essay ""Black Suicide: Lynching by Any Other Name"" positions the phenomenon of Black suicide within the context of centuries of white genocide. In other essays Dr. Wright discusses ways in which to best educate Black children and sheds new light on the evolution of white supremacy.

A collection of poems written by the progressive jazz artist, Gil Scott Heron. These works are very political in nature and comment on the current matters of interest during the period of the 1970s and 1980s. The artist shows himself to be a keen analytical observer of the society and its impact upon the people.

The Destruction of Black Civilization took Chancellor Williams sixteen years of research and field study to compile. The book, which was to serve as a reinterpretation of the history of the African race, was intended to be ""a general rebellion against the subtle message from even the most 'liberal' white authors (and their Negro disciples): 'You belong to a race of nobodies. You have no worthwhile history to point to with pride.'"" The book was written at a time when many black students, educators, and scholars were starting to piece together the connection between the way their history was taught and the way they were perceived by others and by themselves. They began to question assumptions made about their history and took it upon themselves to create a new body of historical research. The book is premised on the question: ""If the Blacks were among the very first builders of civilization and their land the birthplace of civilization, what has happened to them that has left them since then, at the bottom of world society, precisely what happened? The Caucasian answer is simple and well-known: The Blacks have always been at the bottom."" Williams instead contends that many elements—nature, imperialism, and stolen legacies— have aided in the destruction of the black civilization. The Destruction of Black Civilization is revelatory and revolutionary because it offers a new approach to the research, teaching, and study of African history by shifting the main focus from the history of Arabs and Europeans in Africa to the Africans themselves, offering instead ""a history of blacks that is a history of blacks. Because only from history can we learn what our strengths were and, especially, in what particular aspect we are weak and vulnerable. Our history can then become at once the foundation and guiding light for united efforts in serious[ly] planning what we should be about now."" It was part of the evolution of the black revolution that took place in the 1970s, as the focus shifted from politics to matters of the mind.