03.28.08
On Black Writers
Think about the implications of this:
I was like a brain-damaged child born into the bosom of a hearty, muscular clan, and I felt guilty for a long time.
Young black writers will go through the same thing until we have established as a race here in America a tradition of books, literature, and writing. Once in this nation, it meant death for a black man to even learn to read; but we are freeing ourselves of this fear.
John A. Williams in his essay, “Time and Tide: Roots of Black Awareness.”
The Immigrant Experience: The Anguish of Becoming American ed. Thomas C. Wheeler (New York: Penguin Books, 1971)