Monographs

The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country. Co-written with Cornel West. New York: Free Press, 2000.

Afro-American Women Writers. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1998.

Black Literature and Literary Theory. Co-written with Catherine R. Stimpson. New York: Routledge, 1990.

Colored People: A Memoir. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Figures in Black: Words, Signs and the Racial Self. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

The Future of the Race. Co-written with Cornel West. New York: Knopf, 1996.

Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Speaking of Race: Hate, Speech, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. New York: New York University Press, 1995.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man. New York: Random House, 1997.

Truth or Consequences: Putting Limits on Limits. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1994.

Wonders of the African World. New York: Knopf, 1999.

Works Edited

African American Studies: An Introduction to the Key Debates. Edited with Jennifer Burton. New York: W.W. Norton, 2002.

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Edited with Anthony Appiah. Boulder: Perseus Books, 1999.

Bearing Witness: Selections from African American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.

Black Imagination and the Middle Passage. Edited with Maria Diedrich and Carl Pederson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

The Classic Slave Narratives. New York: New American Library, 1987.

The Dictionary of Global Culture. Edited with Anthony Appiah. New York: Knopf, 1995.

Identities. Edited with Anthony Appiah. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Edited with Nellie Y. McKay. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1997.

The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Edited With William L. Andrews, et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Race, Writing, and Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology. Meridian: Meridian Book, 1990.

Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. (A ten volume supplement.)

Articles and Other Contributions

"Academe Must Give Black Studies Programs Their Due." Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 36, No. 3 (September 20, 1989).

"The African-American Century: A Reality That is More Complicated and More Heroic Than the Myth." New Yorker, Vol. 72, No. 10 (April 29, 1996).

"American Letters, African Voices: History of African American Authors." New York Times Book Review (December 1, 1996).

"Black Creativity: On the Cutting Edge." Time, Vol. 144, No. 15 (October 10, 1994).

"Blacklash? African Americans Object to Gay Rights-Civil Rights Analogy." New Yorker, Vol. 69, No. 13 (May 17, 1993).

"Delusions of Grandeur: Young Blacks Must be Taught That Sports Are Not the Only Avenues of Opportunity." Sports Illustrated, Vol. 75, No. 8 (August 19, 1991).

"The Fire Last Time: What James Baldwin Can and Can't Teach America." New Republic, Vol. 206, No. 22 (June 1, 1992).

"Foreword" to The Greatest Taboo: Homosexuality in Black Communities. Edited by Delroy Constantine-Simms. Boston: Alyson Books, 2001.

"How Do We Solve Our Leadership Crisis?" Essence (June 1996).

"Introduction: 'Tell Me Sir, . . . What is 'Black Literature?'" PMLA, Vol, 105, No. 1 (January 1990).

"Just Whose 'Malcolm' Is It, Anyway?: Spike Lee's New Film Biography of Malcolm X." New York Times, Vol. 141 (May 31, 1992).

"The Master's Pieces: On Canon Formation and the African-American Tradition." South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 89, No. 1 (Winter 1990).

"Our Next Race Question: The Uneasiness Between Blacks and Latinos." Harper's (April 1996).

"2 Live Crew, Decoded: Rap Music Group's Use of Street Language in Context of Afro-American Cultural Heritage Analyzed." New York Times, Vol. 139 (June 19, 1990).

"Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech and the First Amendment." New Republic, Vol. 209, Nos. 12-13 (September 20, 1993).