Dudley Randal Essay, Research Paper
A Different Image
The age
requires this task:
create
a different image;
re-animate
the mask.
Shatter the icons of slavery and fear.
Replace
the leer
of the minstrel’s burnt-cork face
with a proud, serene
and classic bronze of Benin.
Dudley Randall (b. 1914) Born in Washington, D.C., Randall worked during the Depression in the foundry of the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, and then as a carrier and clerk for the U.S. Post Office in Detroit. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps (1942–1946), and graduated from Wayne State University (B.A., 1949) and the University of Michigan (M.A.L.S., 1951). He was a librarian at several universities, and founded the Broadside Press in 1965 “so black people could speak to and for their people.” Randall told Negro Digest, “Precision and accuracy are necessary for both white and black writers….’A black aesthetic’ should not be an excuse for sloppy writing.” He urges African American writers to reject what was false in “white” poetry but not to forsake universal concerns in favor of a racial agenda. His works include On Getting a Natural (1969) and A Litany of Friends: New and Selected Poems (1981). He edited The Black Poets (1971), an extensive anthology of poetry, from slave songs to the present.
Other Works: Ballad of Birmingham
Definitions:
Benin – republic in western Africa
Leer – an unpleasantly lustful or malicious look or smile
Serene – calm and untroubled: without worry, stress, or disturbance
Minstrel – blackface entertainer in variety show: one of a group of entertainers who wore blackface makeup and sang and performed in variety shows (a form of entertainment now usually considered racist and highly offensive)