It is significant because a prominent leader was suggesting that the unequal treatment of African Americans was in direct opposition to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
In the 19th century, Realism in France is often mistaken as literary movement because they felt that it laid too much truth specially on external reality. Meanwhile, America needed a type of literature that would explain what was happening to their society. American writers then turned to what is termed as modernism. The influence of realism and naturalismin the 19th century and their truthful illustration of American life and people was shown in post World War I modernism.
