Skip to Main Content

Black Studies: Poetry, 20th Century

A guide to our history, our present, our future, solely for our wellbeing.

Scope Note:

Poets active in the 20th Century who are still living are listed under Poetry, Contemporary.

Ai, 1947-2010

Amiri Baraka / LeRoi Jones, 1934-2014

Maya Angelou, 1928-2014

Arna Bontemps, 1902-1973

Jill Witherspoon Boyer, 1947-

Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917-2000

Sterling A. Brown, 1901-1989

Lucille Clifton, 1936-2010

Countee Cullen, 1903-1946

Aimé Césaire, 1913-2008

Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872-1906

Alice Dunbar-Nelson, 1875-1935

Robert Hayden, 1913-1980

Langston Hughes, 1902-1967

Safiya Henderson-Holmes, 1950-2001

Murray Jackson

Lance Jeffers

James Weldon Johnson, 1871-1938

June Jordan, 1936-2002

Etheridge Knight, 1931-1991

Audre Lorde, 1934-1992

Haki R. Madhubuti / Don L. Lee

Claude McKay, 1889-1948

Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi, 1875-1945

Gabriel Okara

G.E. Patterson, 1939-2007

Ntozake Shange, 1948-2018

Reginald Shepherd, '88, 1963-2008

Melvin B. Tolson, 1898-1966

Jean Toomer, 1894-1967