Literary Birthday – 20 July – Henry Dumas

Henry Dumas was born 20 July 1934, and died 23 May 1968.

Three Quotes

1. Hate is also creative: it creates more hate.
2. One of the greatest roles ever created by Western man has been the role of : ‘Negro’. One of the greatest actors to play the role has been the ‘Nigger’.
3. …they broke us like limbs from trees and carved Europe upon our African masks and made puppets.

America
If an eagle be imprisoned
On the back of a coin
And the coin is tossed into the sky,
That coin will spin,
That coin will flutter,
But the eagle will never fly.

Henry Dumas was an African-American writer and poet. His poetry and short story collections include Play Ebony, Play Ivory, and Ark of Bones. His writing is available in Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas.

by Amanda Patterson

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