Teaching African American Literature
July 23, 2003
During the Revolutionary Period I teach the basic pieces of a persuasive argument and some logical fallacies, which we try to recognize in traditional writings; then I like to go to Frederick Douglass' What the Black Man Wants and ask students to recognize the views of the opponents and Douglass' rebuttals. Another thematic trio includes (with a brief explanation of The Long Hot Summer) Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black--Section 8, the poem And He Was Cool, and Hughes' A Dream Deferred.
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