<em>“Poverty is an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away. Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away. Some of you say that you would do something in my situation, and maybe you would, for the first week or the first month, but for year after year after year?"</em>
<em> —</em>Jo Goodwin Parker (1971)
After 1950, the authorial voices that contributed to American literature were more likely than ever to be those of people from underrepresented groups.
