The African-American gay male tradition in literature--though it has yet to receive adequate scholarly attention--consists of a substantial body of texts, spans a period of nearly seven decades, and includes some of the most gifted writers of the twentieth-century. It is a rich and vibrant tradition; its vitality emerges at least in part from the complexities of the black gay lives that it articulates and affirms. It is an intensely political tradition that offers relentless and simultaneous challenges to black as well as white homophobiahomophobia, to straight as well as queerqueer racism. Yet its concerns extend far beyond social protest to engage a wide variety of issues that range from quintessentially African-American themes to universally human ones.