Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African-American intellectuals have made claims about the past in their literary works and this analysis primarily makes use of the literary works of Frances Harper and W. E. B. Du Bois and offers an archaeological theoretical application combined with Tsheloane Keto's Africa-centrality theory. Concerning critical and cultural theoretical use, the literary writings are surveyed to present interpretations about the civilizational past. The work presents cultural perspectives maintained by the African-American writer's struggle for change and for establishing their own recognized historical vision and voice. Artifacts are embedded with ideas and meaning and the use of literature from an interpretive perspective also leads to meaning maintained about the past. The African-American intellectual literary presentation and explanation then involves consideration about what civilization ought to be.

This review of various readings of the past from African-American writers includes their agentic and positive meaning about their own past. The work is a critical analysis of what scholars have said about ancient Egypt and Africa, Greece and Rome and the Bible and its African-American reflection. In particular, this is a study of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and William Edward Burghardt Du Bois from late nineteenth century to early twentieth century (1892–1915) who worked to counter imperialist and anti-African-American writings about civilization.