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.