The Book of American Negro Poetry

James Weldon Johnson declares here in his preface that there is a need for African-American poets to "work out a new and distinctive form of expression, " and he predicts that "the undeniable creative genius of the Negro is destined to make a distinctive and valuable contribution to American poetry." His anthology went on to become a historic event, for in his selection of the forty poets collected here, he gathered not only the best of the Harlem Renaissance writers, but also the post-World War I poets such as Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes, who went on to challenge racial stereotypes in an effort to be recognized simply as poets.