Thematic essay on Equality Throughout American history, people of all races, cultures, and religion, have been discriminated against, and denied the right to ” life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The African Americans are one group that has been denied those rights for ages. Although the 1776 Declaration of Independence proclaimed that "all Men are created equal", some classes of people enjoyed more rights than others. The African Americans have been enslaved for years and years. They were dragged in the slave trade, beaten, sold as property, separated from family, culture, and relocated to different places where they would serve their master as long as they were needed. They were denied things such as, education, freedom of speech and even there right to live.
One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land." He was tired of segregation and the ignorance going on. He dreamed that everyone of different nationalities and little black and white children would hold hands and have peace. He dreamed that all of Americans one day would be equal all as one under the eyes of God. He said 100 years later that the black man was still not free.
For example, throughout the book, “Huck realizes how he is treating Jim. He’s never been taught that it was wrong” (Culture Clash, Part 1). In the 1830s some people were not even aware of the slavery issue. Back then to white folks slavery was common; there was nothing against it according to them. In another instance, during the time Huck was being written, “blacks were exercising their rights”(Culture Clash, Part 1).
He used John to show the struggles that African Americans experience in America trying to find their identity. He draws attention to the conflicting forces that pull them in all directions. This novel he wrote has been and is important to African American who are struggling with their identity. “Go Tell It On The Mountain” shows truly the obstacles and hurdles African Americans who are trying to install their own identity. It tells them that finding their identity is worth it.
The author uses great and wonderful details to describe the way a Negro slave looks at himself. “One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” (Page 45). He really had a very sad tone when describing the American Negro slave. He starts off the statement by asking “One ever feels his two-ness.”. He was trying to explain how hard and harsh for a human being to feel not just a slave, not just what we see, but its like two persons in one.
Societal change is also seen through Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. This speech stresses the urgent need for change through King’s repetitive phrase “One hundred years later...” King emphasises his scorn of the injustice and inequality that has persisted for too long: One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. The metaphor of ‘chains of discrimination’ creates a historical reminder of the slavery the Negroes have endured. King symbolises segregation and discrimination as an invisible manacle of change to provide a more concrete image of the issue in the reader’s mind. Change in this text, is shown as a powerful force when a society wants to improve their lives.
Print. EAC Library Call Number: 305.896 DOUGLASS 2009 Frederick Douglass wrote The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass an American Slave to tell how slavery not only impacted his life but the lives of everyone in his era. His book really centers on the trials he had to face as a slave, and about his journey fighting against the discriminating thoughts against him, by not only others, but by himself. Douglass, while learning to fight against his personal demons, he learns that the only way to become a truly free man is to become and an educated man. Frederick Douglass fights for his own rights in a way that makes bigger impact then violence and changed many peoples view on slavery.
The Life of Malcolm X The civil rights movement was a hard time in American history, many are ashamed at how hard it was to achieve equal rights. This period of civil rights did stand to promote and create a set of social and economic rights for african americans previously in a shockingly unbalanced way compared to white americans. The movement of civil rights was hard fought in towns and cities throughout America. This struggle for equal rights was fought by equal rights organizations. The leaders of one of these organizations was one Malcolm X, at the time still known by his “slave name,” as he stated it, Malcolm Little.
Racism was still powerful, which created a different style of song with different meanings behind each one. The hidden messages behind the music began to focus on the frustrations of the current society involving segregation, racism, and the hardships that African Americans still had to endure. In the majority of songs, the lyrics and sounds were tried to be linked to god as well. Religion and the power of God were very influential on the music during that period in time. Songs like, “Soon I Will Be Done”, also gave off the idea of depression and how some people were looking forward to leaving earth to be with God.
He claims that the American culture has subjected the African Americans to slavery in hard labor and discriminatory treatment for a long time, without ever striving to understand them as human beings. On the other hand, the Old Negro has supported their oppressors by remaining submissive and enduring the oppression while making excuses for this kind of treatment. The idea of this scholar is that the African Americans have suffered for remaining silent and failing to stand out for their rights during the long oppression period. However, the new Negro is incompatible with the old one, as he is more assertive and determined to fight for an equal position in the society. The words of Locke echo the words of Hubert Harrison who initiated the New Negro Movement in 1917 that advocated for political equality in America.