The following list includes African-American writers, poets, journalists, and playwrights, who contributed to the advancement of literature in the United States, including Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and more.

Alice Walker

Browse more African-American biographies by category: A-Z List Government Officials Civil Rights Leaders Religious Leaders Scientists and Inventors Age of Abolitionism Scholars and Educators Literary Figures Actors Musicians Visual & Performing Artists Baseball Basketball Boxing Football Track and Field Other Sports

• Maya Angelou, poet, writer, composer, actress
• James Baldwin, American author
• Imamu Amira Baraka, American poet, playwright, and political activist
• Arna Bontemps, novelist
• Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet
• Octavia Butler, science fiction writer
• Ed Bullins, playwright
• Charles W. Chesnutt, American author and lawyer
• Countee Cullen, American poet
• Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet and novelist
• Ralph Ellison, American author
• Charles Fuller, playwright
• Nikki Giovanni, poet
• Alex Haley, author
• Jupiter Hammon, American poet
• Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright
• Bell Hooks, writer
• Langston Hughes, American poet
• Zora Neale Hurston, American writer
• James Weldon Johnson, American author
• Jamaica Kincaid, writer
• Nella Larsen, American writer
• Toni Morrison, novelist
• Ann Lane Petry, novelist
• Leonard Pitts, Jr., journalist, writer
• Carl Thomas Rowan, journalist
• John Russwurm, U.S. journalist and Liberian statesman
• Ignatius Sancho, writer
• Ntozke Shange, writer
• Wallace Thurman, writer
• Jean Toomer, writer
• Gustavus Vassa, writer
• Alice Walker, author
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, activist
• Dorothy West, writer
• Phillis Wheatley, American poet
• John Edgar Wideman, writer
• August Wilson, playwright, poet
• Richard Wright, American author

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Did you know?

The month of January was named after the Roman god Janus.