Eugene Redmond Timeline:1969-1977

[Compiled by Goyland Williams] 

As a continuation of HBW’s Look Back Series, I wanted to outline a timeline of what seems to be Eugene Redmond’s most productive years. Although this list is not exhaustive and only captures a small part of Redmond’s career, it highlights the great success that Redmond enjoyed from publishing several volumes of poetry, editing two anthologies, and publishing the seminal academic work on Black poetry. Aside from all of that, his status as Poet Laureate in East St. Louis continues to be a task/role that he takes seriously.

*1969—Eugene Redmond’s A Tale of Time and Toilet Tissue is published. Redmond also edited an anthology entitled Sides of the River: A Mini-Anthology of Black Writings.

*1970—Redmond begins his tenure as Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence at California State University-Sacramento and his book Sentry of the Four Golden Pillars is published.

Timeline: Oprah Winfrey and African-American Literature

[By Kenton Rambsy]

1985 —  Winfrey plays the role of Sofia in the film The Color Purple based on Alice Walker's 1982 novel.

1986 —  Winfrey plays Mrs. Thomas in the remake of the film Native Son based on Richard Wright’s 1940 novel.

95 Dates of Importance in African American Novel History

[By Howard and Kenton Rambsy]

1852- The Heroic Slave, a novella by Frederick Douglass, is published in 1852 by John P. Jewett and Company. The novella resembles a slave narrative even though it is a work of fiction.

1853- William Wells Brown—escaped slave from Kentucky—publishes Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter in London. His novel is considered the first to ever be published by an African American.

15 Dates of Importance, 1940 – 1970

[By Howard Rambsy]

1940 – Native Son by Richard Wright is published; the work is a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.  

1941 –  Orson Welles directs stage adaption of Native Son by Richard Wright. Actor Canada Lee stars as Bigger Thomas.

15 Dates of Importance, 1912- 1939

[By Kenton Rambsy]

1913- Author and director Oscar Micheaux publishes his first novel, Conquest: The Story Of A Negro Pioneer, through The Woodruff Press. The novel is published anonymously and is based on his life as a homesteader.

1918- Hope’s Highway by Sarah Lee Brown Fleming is published by Neale Publishing Company

10 Dates of Importance, 1852 – 1912

[By Kenton Rambsy]

1852- The Heroic Slave, a novella by Frederick Douglass, is published in 1852 by John P. Jewett and Company. The novella resembles a slave narrative even though it is a work of fiction.

1853- William Wells Brown—escaped slave from Kentucky—publishes Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter in London. His novel is considered the first to ever be published by an African American.

25 Dates of Importance, 1996 – 2012

[By Howard Rambsy]

1996 – The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty is published. 

1996 – Oprah Winfrey starts “Oprah’s Book Club,” featuring book for her viewers to read and discuss. 

15 Dates of Importance, 1986 – 1995

[By Kenton Rambsy]

 

1986 - A second adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son is made with Victor Love playing the role of Bigger Thomas and Oprah Winfrey playing his mother, Mrs. Thomas. 

1988 – Toni Morrison wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel Beloved.

15 Dates of Importance, 1970 – 1985

[By Howard Rambsy]

1970 – The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Publisher.

1971 - The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines is published.

Timeline Series—African American Novel History

[By Kenton Rambsy]

The importance of chronology of African American literary history has become all the more important to me after viewing “The Timeline of African American Poetry.” My older brother, an associate professor of African American literature and director of Black Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, recently compiled a timeline of significant events in African American poetry that spans from 1854 to 2012.

My work with the HBW deals with the recovery of African American novels, so naturally, I followed his lead and created a timeline. Over the next week, I have partnered with Howard to create a series of entries that highlights significant events in African American novel history.