After women received the right to vote in 1920 some Americans did not realize the fight for women's' rights did not cease. African American women, especially in the south continued to fight for equality and the right to vote well into the 1960's. The African American women began writing more in the modern time period, especially in order to voice their opinions on their rights and what it meant for their identity as an African American. These female literary writers write on the topics of equality, rights concerning education and their bodies; and also continuing the push to further African American literature. The use of diction, black aesthetics and imagery by these specific pieces enhance the reader's cognizance of the African American woman's struggle in America when the acceptance of blacks still had not fully been adapted into the culture.
1943: “Kitchenette building” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. “Dream" makes
a giddy sound, not strong
Like "rent", "feeding a wife", "satisfying a man".”
But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday's garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms”
1960: "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
“The Pool players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
1965: "blk/ rhetoric" by Sonia Sanchez
“ who's gonna make all
That beautiful blk/ rhetoric
Mean something.
like
i mean
who's gonna take
the words
blk/ is/ beautiful
and make more of it
than blk/ capitalism.”
U dig?
1968: "The Last M. F." by Carolyn Rodgers
“i say,
That i only call muthaf**as, muthaf**as…
this is the last poem i will write calling
all manner of wites, card-carrying muthaf**as
and all manner of Blacks (negroes too) sweet
muthaf**as, crazy muthaf**as, low down muthaf**as,
cool muthaf**as, mad and revolutionary muthaf**as.
But anyhow you all know just like i do (whether i say
it or not), there's plenty of MEAN muthaf**as out
here trying to do the struggle in and we all know
that none of us can relax ujtil the last m. f.'s
been done in”
1971: "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara
“So me and Sugar turn the corner to where the entrance is, but when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I'm scared, what's there to be afraid of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody. But somehow I can't seem to get hold of the door, so I step away from Sugar to lead. But she hangs back too. And I look at her and she looks at me and this is ridiculous. I mean, damn, I have never ever been shy about doing nothing or going nowhere.”
1972: "Outcast" by Alice Walker
“ Be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Qualified to live
Among your dead.”
1973: "U Name This One" by Carolyn Rodgers
“let uh revolution come , uh
State of peace is not known to me
anyway…
at least twice ev'ry week and judy got
kicked outa grammar school fuh bein pregnant
and died tryin to ungrow the seed”
1980: "Poem About My Rights" by June Jordan
“I could not go and I could not think and I could not
stay there
alone
as I need to be
alone because I can't do what I want to do with my own
body and
who in the hell set things up
like this
and in France they say if the guy penetrates
but does not ejaculate then he did not rape me…
finally you understand finally
they f**ed me over because I was wrong I was
wrong again to be me being me where I was/ wrong
to be who I am”