Ralph Ellison publishes Invisible Man and wins the National Book Award

Ralph Ellison published Invisible Man on April 14, 1952. The novel, narrated by an unnamed Black man who becomes 'invisible' because white America refuses to see him as a person, won the National Book Award in 1953 and is consistently ranked among the greatest American novels ever written. The book synthesized the Black American experience with surrealism, jazz, folklore, and Western literary tradition in an unprecedented way.