The Black American Epic: Its Roots, its Writers

Abstract

Eugene B. Redmond is a professor of Black Studies at Sacramento State College, Calif. Widely known as a poet and editor, Redmond has taught at Oberlin College and Southern Illinois (East St. Louis). His poems have appeared in Tambourine, New Black Poetry, Negro Voices: An Anthology of Negro Poetry and other anthologies. He is editor of two collections of the late Henry Dumas' works, Poems for My People and Ark of Bones and Other Stories. Redmond's most recent volume ( 1970 ) of poetry is Sentry of Four Golden Pillars, House of Truth, East St. Louis. African made slave in America. There has, however, always been more than conjecture to go on (though today too many imread youth feel free to guess at relationships between the then and or, as the poet might put it, the now and now), for many scholars have observed, studied and placed their findings at the disposal of the general public. Personal background, then, combined with studies, allows us to state that folklore ( especially animal stories and fables), song styles, tonal utterances and many general practices and customs tie the black American to his African starting point. A prerequisite to embarking on a discussion of the origin, growth and development of an indigenous Black American Epic is an understanding of the ingredients characterizing epics in all times: elevated communal folk expression; general, and on occasion, specific detailing of a people's lifestyle carved by the pen of one viewing his subject through the collective eye and mind; a heroic best-foot-forward picture of a race, personified and embodied in the protagonist, e.g., John Henry! Tracing the genealogical table of the Black American Epic sends us back. Margaret Walker, in Sorrow Home, finds the other end of the natal cord: