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Show Negro Literature fest truth, however, is this: the sincere, sensitive artist, willing to go beneath the cliches of popular belief to get to an underlying un-derlying reality, will be wary of confining a race's entire char-acter char-acter to a half-dozen narrow grooves." "Patterns of Negro Literature" Litera-ture" was the title of an address by poet-educator Dr. Sterling Brown delivered last Tuesday noon in the Union Ballroom as part of the "Spotlight" program, "Spotlight on the American South." DR. BROWN, Professor of English at Howard University in Washington, D.C., explained that almost from its inception American Amer-ican literature had stereotyped the Negro in what was termed the "plantation tradition." This stereotyping of the Negro has its beginnings in the works of man" early-American authors, notably James Fenemore Cooper whose portrayals of the Indian and Ne gro have had a lasting effect on American literature. Dr. Brown pointed to the abolitionist and pro-slavery literature lit-erature as having had great influence in-fluence in the furthering of the "plantation tradition." The most important piece of literature of this era was "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Ca-bin," which continued the stereotyping ster-eotyping of the Negro as a good-natured, good-natured, simple, peaceful fellow. The mulatto, on the other hand, was characterized as a rebel "hating the whites and loathing the blacks." IT WAS not until as recently as 30 yeaTs ago that literary works based on honest observation obser-vation appeared which helped dispell the "Uncle Tom image" of the American Negro. One of the first of these was "Porgy and Bess" which brought the Negro out of his Southern plantation plan-tation setting. In conclusion Dr. Brown warned his audience "one mani- |