Racism in the United States is undoubtedly one of the most horrific forms of inhumanity. This disease generated the dehumanization of slavery that cost the lives of countless innocent African Americans. It also robbed an entire race of its identity, heritage and culture. Through the myriad novels, excerpts, poems, videos, and other forms of literature that we have encountered in this course, it is unmistakable that the African American literary tradition demonstrates that the past (the incredible suffering of African Americans) can never be stopped and forgotten. . The many who perished at the feet of racism are the story of African Americans themselves, and the African American literary tradition makes it a priority to be faithful to that story. So why is death a theme in the African-American literary tradition? Death, in itself, is a universal phenomenon, without exception; it touches the lives of all people, regardless of their social status or ethnic heritage. Likewise, death is a universal theme in literature, but its relevance in African American literature is particularly poignant because of African American writers' loyalty to their history. With help from the works of Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Negro Spirituals (“I Feel Like My Time Is Not Long” and “Many Thousands Gone”) and “Strange Fruits" by Abel Meeropol, modern works African-American literature, such as the last sermons of Martine Luther King Jr. and "Praise Song for the Day" by Elizabeth Alexander, has used the universal theme of death to symbolize the racial injustice that African Americans experience in their own country and they also use such a strong theme. to state...... middle of paper ...... revolutionary result of racism in the United States and the subject made its way into the African American literary tradition. Slave narratives such as the Douglass Narratives and Negro Spirituals such as "I Feel My Time Is Not Long" and "Many Thousands Gone" made African American literature faithful to the history that has been recorded. A controversial topic today in our society is: Why can't people, especially African Americans, forget slavery and the adversity against African Americans? African Americans are believed to have progressed and progressed since that time; however, with writers like Elizabeth Alexander, the past simply cannot be forgotten; especially a past as horrible as that of African-Americans. Every bloody lash, every death and every wail happened and like she said, we need to “make it clear” that it happened..