During the 1960s, the architects of the black arts movement--Imamu Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Larry Neal, Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee), Addison Gayle, and others--demanded that black writers use their talents and works for the betterment of the black community and black life, for "the liberation of black people." Arguing that the black arts movement was the "aesthetic and spiritual sister of the black power concept," for example, Neal admonished black artists to speak directly to the needs and aspirations of black Americans. Simultaneously, the black arts prophets called for a rejection of Western ethics and aesthetics and for the establishment of a black value system based on an African concept of art which would be used to evaluate the creative works of Americans of African descent.

Although it had some impact, the black arts movement did little to alter the fundamental direction of the Afro-American literary tradition...