Biography of african-american writers groups

“When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do,” Toni Morrison wrote in her Nobel Prize-winning 1977 novel Song of Solomon.

The powerful theme she poignantly described, illustrates the power of the pen in both preserving one's identity, and, as Black authors have done for decades, capturing the previously untold complexities of the Black experience.

What's more, these eloquent storytellers, who have contributed endless works of art, from poems, plays and essays to novels and nonfiction staples, have also taken up the mantle for their ancestors — many of whom were forced, in chains, from their African homeland to the United States — to tell their stories that had previously been passed down only verbally.

Here are some of the best-selling Black authors whose voices have both shaped and defined literary history:

Maya Angelou