Three African American Classics

Three African American Classics is a collection of three of the most important works of African American literature written by three authors who lived quite different lives. Frederick Douglass' life story is told in his book Narrative of Frederick Douglass' Life. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), a fugitive slave, narrates the horrors and humiliations of slavery, his emancipation, and his rise to become one of America's greatest statesmen and orators. Up from Slavery chronicles his life as a slave, his tenacious pursuit of education, his foundation of the Tuskegee Institute, which is now Tuskegee University, his work promoting educational and entrepreneurial possibilities for former slaves, and his service as a counsellor to numerous US presidents.""The dilemma of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line,"" he writes in The Souls of Black Folk. The Souls of Black Folk is a major work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature, written lyrically and poetically.