Amiri Barak I Abide By The Honor Code

Antonio Velasco
Mrs. Stockhausen
Elements of Composition, 4 Purple
2 April 2015
I abide by the Honor Code: AV

Amiri Baraka: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Inspiration.

Amiri Baraka, born Leroi Jones, was an African-American writer, teacher, activist and poet. He was highly influential on the civil rights movement as a great deal of his poetry reflected on political and social concerns of the African-American people at the time. Although at times his poetry was viewed as controversial, his works changed the course of artistic history for the Black population. Throughout his career, Bakara wrote his innermost feelings, opened the eyes of many, and inspired a movement.

Many of Baraka’s poems were oftentimes controversial as their themes varied from Black
liberation to White racism.
However, his more inspirational poetry centered mainly on the idea of civil rights for the African-American population. “We have been captured, brothers. And we labor to make our getaway, into the ancient image, into a new correspondence with ourselves and our black family.” (Amiri Baraka 84). This quote displays Baraka’s deep passion in his writing, his powerful opinion about the freedom and civil rights of the Black people. “We read magic now we need the spells, to rise up return, destroy, and create” (Amiri Baraka 84) this passage, from Baraka’s poem regarding the African spirit and political liberation of African-American people, “Ka’ba”, once more shows Baraka’s true passion for the cause that he writes about; social and political rights and freedom for the African-American people. “Where did this passion come from?” You may ask. Amiri Baraka first attended college at Rutgers University but soon felt a sense of cultural dislocation due to the fact that Black people were, at the time, still seen as
“lesser beings”. He then transferred to Howard University. After graduating from college and serving in the military, Baraka found an interest in Jazz music. He got a job as an editor for a literary arts magazine which prompted him to begin his writing career. In his first published work Baraka wrote, "A Negro literature, to be a legitimate product of the Negro experience in America, must get at that experience in exactly the terms America has proposed for it in its most ruthless identity." (Baraka) He also says in the same work that African-American people were entirely and completely misunderstood by the American people. Baraka was seen as a new kind of activist due to his profound idea; As long as the black writer was obsessed with being accepted, he would never be able to speak his mind, and that would always lead to failure. This idea was the tipping point for African-American arts, such as poetry and other writings. It inspired African-American artists to write their own thoughts and feels, not what they believed people would want them to write. Throughout his career, Amiri Baraka inspired African-American people to write what they felt, their true feelings and emotions. He taught that as long as writers were overly concerned with what others thought of their works, they could never write their innermost emotions, which would almost always lead to failure. Through his ideas, African-American writers and poets were able to change the minds of biased people who thought Black arts, such as poetry and literature, were lesser than those of the White population. Changing the course of political and social history, Amiri Baraka truly was an inspiration.