The collection of primary documents in this volume recapitulates the course of African American life during the first half of the 20th century, while it provides a context for reading an important literary work. Keyed to events in the novel, the documents include selections by African American leaders (Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du bois, and Marcus Garvey); selections by leading African American writers (Langston Hughes and Richard Wright); songs, folktales, and other examples of black vernacular culture; and readings on African American migration, black labour in the industrial North, the role of communism in African American politics, and the end of legal segregation in the United States.