Introduction. Against the closet : racial identity and the bodily basis/biases of sexual identity -- "The strangest freaks of despotism": queer sexuality in antebellum African American slave narratives -- Iconographies of gang-rape, or, black enfranchisement, white disavowal, and the (homo)erotics of lynching -- Desire and treason in mid-twentieth century political protest fiction -- Recovering the little black girl : incest and black American textuality -- Conclusion. In memoriam : Michael Jackson, 1958-2009.