Three Men Who Paved the Way for Black American Writers

Josiah Henson, James Weldon Johnson, and Charles Waddell Chesnutt

It’s funny how timing works out. I didn’t set out determined to write about impactful Black writers this week. It just happens that the next seven days include three birthdays of writers whose lives and work unarguably altered the literary landscape of Black Americans for generations. 

It’s a coincidence that these men’s birthdays arrive as we in the U.S…