The structure of literature refers to the organizational method of the text—the plot. Authors use the plot to reveal the sequence of events, the description and action of characters. The plot in African American literature is often developed and revealed through conflict, crisis, and resolution. African-American authors broach subjects that are unique to the black experience. The approach was just as diverse as the experiences of the authors. The structure of African American literature reveals story tellers, crafters of vernacular and dialect, historians, truth tellers, humorists, and soul searchers. Structure of literature refers to the genre of a literary piece. Examples for the time period we are examining this week include the beauty, power, hope, and sadness of the poems of Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Sterling Brown. The effects of colorism in the short stories of Charles Chestnutt. The realism and reporting by Ida B. Wells-Barnett on the lynchings in the U.S.