Ralph Ellison: The Invisible Man, Famous Writer Black History Documentary Timeline

By writing INVISIBLE MAN in the late 1940s, Ralph Ellison brought to the scene a new type of black protagonist, at odds with the characters of the leading black novelist of the era, Richard Wright. If Wright's characters were angry, uneducated, and inarticulate—consequences of a society that oppressed them—Ellison's Invisible Man was educated, articulate, and self-aware. Ellison's view was that African American culture and sensibility were far from the downtrodden and simple image presented by writers, sociologists, and politicians, black and white. Rather, he argued that black people had created their own traditions, rituals, and history that formed a coherent and complex culture, the source of a true sense of identity. When the protagonist of INVISIBLE MAN meets a yam seller (named Petie Wheatstraw, after the black folklore character) on the streets of Harlem and remembers his childhood in a flood of emotion, his proclamation "I am What am I!" is Ellison's expression of embracing his culture as a path to freedom.

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