"Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands": The Reception of Ancient Egypt and Nubia in African American Literature since 1750

Christopher Cox, President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA.
This lecture explores how African Americans have thought about, understood, and used the concepts of ancient Egypt and Nubia in literature since 1750. Discussion of writers such as Phillis Wheatley and W. E. B. Du Bois reveals how the rhetorical relationship between these Black authors and the subject of the ancient past shifted over time, but always aimed to further the cause of Black freedom and dignity