Writer, librarian, and publisher, Dudley Randall has made significant contributions to twentieth-century American literature. A child during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, he became a poet of the next generation, and later, he helped to pioneer a...

In the following essay, Melhem discusses Randall's poetry and involvement with Broadside Press. A slightly different version of this essay appeared in Black American Literature Forum in 1983 under the title “Dudley Randall: A Humanist View.”

In the following excerpt, Miller profiles Randall's poetry and comments on Randall's contributions towards the promotion of black writing.

In the following essay, Randall sketches the history of African-American poetry and literature, highlighting key authors, important works, and literary movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and the wellspring of black literature in the 1960s, which is often called a “new” Harlem Renaissance.