15 famous black poets with inspirational poems about black history
Black History Month traces back to 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. In that pivotal year, Carter G. Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). Their mission was to research and promote the achievements of Black Americans and other people of African descent, including famous black poets.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
During Black History Month, the black community honours black poets' profound impact on literature and culture. African-American poets have left an indelible mark on American poetry, and their words resonate with readers across generations.
Famous black poets who wrote poems about black history
This ranking is based solely on poets who have been on this journey and wrote inspirational poems about black history sourced from Poets Org and Facing History. This list may not encompass all factors relevant to determining the famous black poets and should be used as a reference alongside other considerations.
| Poets | Inspirational poems |
| Langston Hughes | I, Too, Dreams and Harlem |
| Maya Angelou | Still I Rise and Phenomenal Woman |
| Amanda Gorman | The Hill We Climb |
| Nikki Giovanni | The True Import of the Present Dialogue |
| Gwendolyn Brooks | Primer for Blacks |
| Claudia Rankine | Citizen: An American Lyric and Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric |
| Rita Dove | Rosa |
| Sonia Sanchez | When We Come |
| Lucille Clifton | Good Times and Good News about the Earth: New Poems |
| Dudley Randall | Ballad of Birmingham |
| Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, Sketches of Southern Life, and The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems |
| Phillis Wheatley | On Being Brought from Africa to America |
| Kwame Alexander | This Is the Honey |
| Jericho Brown | The Tradition |
| Patricia Smith | Life According to Motown, Big Towns, Big Talk, Close to Death, Incendiary Art, and Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah |
1. Langston Hughes
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Langston Hughes was a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement in the 1920s that celebrated black intellectual, literary, and artistic life in various American cities, particularly Harlem.
Hughes was a major poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, and playwright. He sought to portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives honestly, avoiding sentimental idealisation and negative stereotypes.
Some of Hughes' most famous poems include I, Too, Dreams, and Harlem, which have influenced many playwrights who came after him. His work often explores themes of black history, identity, and the struggle for equality.
His poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers, written when he was 17, is a powerful tribute to the history and resilience of the African American community.
2. Maya Angelou
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Maya Angelou is one of the most famous female black poets. Her poems often reflect the struggles and experiences of black women. They address themes of racism, discrimination, and the fight for equality.
Through her poetry, Angelou delves into the painful history of racial discrimination faced by black people, particularly black women, in the United States. She uses her art to highlight the quest for equality and freedom from racism, emphasising the desire for equal treatment.
Maya Angelou's most famous poems include Still I Rise and Phenomenal Woman. These poems delve into themes of confidence, empowerment, and resilience, particularly within the context of black womanhood.
3. Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman is one of the most famous black poets. She has gained recognition for her works that address black history and related issues.
Her poem The Hill We Climb, which she recited at President Joe Biden's inauguration, is a powerful call to action focusing on themes of hope, unity, healing, and resilience. Gorman's work often reflects her experiences as a Black woman and her commitment to social justice.
In The Hill We Climb, Gorman discusses America's challenges, emphasizing the country's unfinished nature rather than its broken state. She encourages unity and action, urging Americans to come together to face and overcome the challenges before them.
4. Nikki Giovanni
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Nikki Giovanni is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator who has been a longstanding image of culture and joy in the Black community.
She is known for her poems about Black history and the Black experience, which often address themes of racism, the humanity of Black people, and the importance of Black ownership and community. One of Giovanni's most famous poems is The True Import of the Present Dialogue.
She explores the difference between being an African American locked into white supremacist ideology and being an African American who has liberated themselves from white thought and come into their own (being Black).
5. Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks, a prominent figure in the Chicago Black Renaissance, was a highly regarded and influential African American poet of the 20th century. In 1950, she was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for her Annie Allen poem.
Brooks was known for using modernist techniques and Black idioms and phrasings to connect with black audiences, who were previously closed off to the writing styles of white poets.
Brooks' works often addressed issues surrounding Black history and identity. One of her notable poems, Primer for Blacks, speaks about accepting one's black heritage and a possible unified future for all people.
6. Claudia Rankine
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Claudia Rankine is a Jamaican-born poet who grew up in Kingston and New York. She has published several collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric (2014), Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric (2004), and Nothing in Nature is Private (1994).
Her work often crosses genres and challenges the boundary between the "self-self" and the "historical self," blurring the lines between the personal and the political.
In Citizen: An American Lyric, Rankine explores the everyday racism that persists in an era where more overt acts of discrimination have been outlawed. The book documents instances of racism in the USA and the poet's response.
She also addresses the emotional costs of speaking out against injustice in a society that often fails to acknowledge or understand the experiences of people of colour.
7. Rita Dove
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Rita Dove's poems about black history address many significant themes and events. One of her notable poems, Rosa, from her book On the Bus With Rosa Parks, captures the moment when Rosa Parks decided to stay in her seat, sparking the Montgomery Bus boycott in 1955.
The poem highlights the courage and defiance of Rosa Parks, a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Additionally, Dove's poetry often delves into African Americans' experiences, shedding light on their struggles, triumphs, and the complexities of their lives.
Through her work, Dove explores the nuances of black history, challenges stereotypes, and celebrates the resilience and contributions of African Americans to society.
8. Sonia Sanchez
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Sonia Sanchez's poetry delves into community, love, empowerment, and social justice themes. Her work reflects on black individuals and communities' struggles, triumphs, and resilience throughout history.
Sanchez's poems highlight the importance of collective voices, the impact of historical memory, and the ongoing fight for freedom and equality.
Through her poetry, she pays tribute to iconic figures like Harriet Tubman, invokes the spirit of African culture, and emphasises the significance of black art and literature in shaping identity and advocating for change.
9. Lucille Clifton
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Lucille Clifton's poems often address Black history and various aspects of the African-American experience. Her work is deeply rooted in the history and culture of Black people in America, and she frequently employs a Sankofa poetic approach, which involves going back to the past to understand the present and future.
In her early work, such as Good Times (1969) and Good News about the Earth: New Poems (1972), Clifton explores the realities of African-American urban life, drawing from her own experiences as a mother of six young children. T
These poems reflect the political and social upheavals of the late 1960s and 70s, incorporating cultural and historical allusions. Her notable work, An Ordinary Woman (1974), shifts focus to the roles of women and poets, largely abandoning the examination of racial issues that marked her previous books.
10. Dudley Randall
Dudley Randall was a celebrated African American poet and publisher known for his work as the editor and publisher of Broadside Press in Detroit. He was one of the foremost voices in African American literature during the twentieth century.
Randall's work often explores racial and historical themes, drawing from Western traditional poetry and the Harlem Renaissance movement. He was a strong advocate for a "black aesthetic" that rejects only what is false in "white standards" and believes that black writers should write out of their black experience.
His most famous poem is Ballad of Birmingham, written in response to the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. The poem tells the story of a mother who refuses to let her child march in a freedom march and instead sends her to church, only to have the child killed in a bombing at the church.
11. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a prominent African American abolitionist and early proponent of women's rights. Considered among the most inspirational African American poets, Harper was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1825 and raised by her uncle after her mother's death.
She attended the Academy for Negro Youth, a school run by her uncle, until the age of 13. Then, she found domestic work in a Quaker household, where she had access to a wide range of literature.
Frances Ellen embarked on a career as a travelling speaker on the abolitionist circuit. She helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and wrote frequently for anti-slavery newspapers, earning her a reputation as the mother of African American journalism.
Harper was a prolific writer, publishing many collections of poetry, including Autumn Leaves (also published as Forest Leaves), Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854), Sketches of Southern Life (1872), and The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems (1892).
12. Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley was a prominent African American poet during the American Revolutionary period. She is recognised for her fervent commitment to the abolition of slavery. Wheatley was the first globally recognised African American female poet, the first black person, an enslaved person, and one of the first women in America to publish a book of poetry.
Born around 1753 in Gambia, Africa, Wheatley was captured and brought to America in 1761, where she was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first name, Phillis, was derived from the ship that brought her to America, the Phillis.
Wheatley's intelligence was quickly apparent, and the Wheatley family taught her to read and write, encouraging her to write poetry. By 1767, she had published her first poem, On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin.
One of Wheatley's most famous works is her poem On Being Brought from Africa to America, where she recalls how life was for hard African Americans who were viewed down upon purely by the colour of their skin. She wanted to show that African Americans were more than just enslaved people.
13. Kwame Alexander
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Kwame Alexander, an award-winning poet and bestselling author, has curated a new anthology of contemporary Black poets titled This Is the Honey. The anthology features work from well-loved poets.
The title comes from a poem by Mahogany L. Browne, which emphasises the importance of hope, heart, and heritage in black poetry. Alexander's intention with this anthology is to showcase the triumph and wonder alongside the drama and trauma often associated with black experiences.
He uplifts readers and brings them together through the power of words, focusing on themes of hope, love, origin, race, resistance, and praise.
14. Jericho Brown
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Jericho Brown is among young black poets using poetry to talk about the struggle of the Black community. His poetry delves into the complexities of Black history, addressing themes of race, masculinity, fatherhood, queerness, police brutality against black people, mass shootings, slavery, and HIV.
Jericho Brown's The Tradition is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection that delves into the normalisation of evil and the intersection of past and personal history.
His work resonates with the ongoing struggles and resilience of the Black community, reflecting on historical injustices and contemporary challenges faced by Black Americans. Thus, his poetry reflects Black history and the quest for equality and justice.
15. Patricia Smith
Patricia Smith is an accomplished American poet, spoken-word performer, playwright, author, writing teacher, and former journalist. She is known for her powerful and evocative poems that address various aspects of Black history, culture, and identity.
Some of her notable works include Life According to Motown, Big Towns, Big Talk, Close to Death, Incendiary Art, and Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah.
Patricia Smith's poems often draw from her experiences and observations, offering perspectives and voices that are too little heard in mainstream poetry and popular discourse.
One of Smith's recurring themes is the exploration of Black male life expectancy, murder, drug abuse, and AIDS. In Close to Death, she gives voice to the thousands of black males in the USA who have run out of options and expect to die without first being given a chance to live.
Final word
Many famous black poets have made significant contributions to Black history. For example, Langston Hughes' poetry is often centred around the everyday lives of Black people. Maya Angelou's poems often reflect the struggles and experiences of Black women, addressing themes of racism, discrimination, and the fight for equality.
Tuko.co.ke shared an article about famous black male actors over 60 who are worth watching. Black male actors have not only graced the screens for decades, but they have also utilised their platforms to question societal conventions and advocate diversity and inclusion.
From their early performances in groundbreaking films to their more recent appearances in critically acclaimed shows, these performers have demonstrated that age is just a number.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
