The Dilemma of the Black Man in LeRoi Jones' Play Dutchman

Abstract

Jersey to a middle class family. He attended Rutgers University then he transferred to receive his degree from Howard University in 1954. He had an M.A. in Philosophy at Columbia and an M.A. in German literature at the New School for social Research.

Jones is one of the most influential African-American writers of the 20th century. He is a prolific writer who has worked across a range of genres: drama, poetry, novel, jazz operas and nonfiction.

He published his book of poetry Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961) and the Dead Lecturer (1964). Jones co-edited poetry journals Yugen and Floating Bear. His book Blues People(1963) traced the social and political development of African American music. He opened the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/ School in 1965. That institution became a model for the development of Black Cultural Centers in the sixties. Jones won several awards: Whitney Fellowships, 1962, Lonview Award, and Guggenheim Fellowship (1965-66).

The assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 marked a radical shift in Jone's values. It led to his final break with the white culture. Jones was the founder of the National Black Political Assembly.

Jones has taught at Yale, Columbia and the State University of New York. He is widely celebrated as the father of the Black Arts Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movement is