“While it may have contributed to a certain relaxation of racial attitudes among young whites, perhaps its greatest impact was to reinforce race pride among blacks.” (Richard Wormser) This gave blacks a reassurance that it is okay to be proud of your color and that one day things would be different between the two race. “W.E.B. Du Bois encouraged talented artists to leave the South.” This was pushing the blacks to move up north to better one self. He offered new opportunities for publishing in the paper in which their voices could be heard. Even though these are just a few prime examples of the influence that African American had on the country.
Without the push and leadership displayed from these leaders who dedicated their lives to ending the horrors of slavery, segregation and unfair treatment the United States of America would not be living a fair life of equality and privilege. These 3 civil rights leaders and activists changed the way black Americans were treated and gained respect and acknowledgement of their lifetime of struggle with the white society. The civil rights movement of 1964 changed the laws regarding black Americans but of course it is impossible to change everybody’s state of mind on the issue. So as of today the coloured people still are fighting for acceptance from some people and are still waiting for the day when they can have total acceptance, as Rosa Parks quotes “I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is any such thing as complete happiness. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything you need and everything you want, and nothing more to wish for.
The term African-American is more geared to those who are generations removed from the home land but are still heavily influenced by the culture of their ancestors for a lack of a better term the “blacks” of America. Ignorant to their history many blacks of the 21-century try to dispel their heritage and try to only become American. Referring to themselves as only such with no ties to anywhere past what is now. This mind set is conducive to what was trying to be accomplished by whites for centuries the relinquishment of everything known before slavery. “in a situation of the colonizer and the colonized the question of consciousness become a site of intense struggle” (Thiong’o, 109) As discussed in class being ripped from everything you know into a new world is the most traumatizing experience and those who gave their lives in hopes of a better future, a future where if they can’t make it home at least they claim their own stake in this new land; these ancestors will look in turmoil as they realize that
The civil rights movement had little impact with few significant improvements towards the overall goal of equality. Despite the 15th Amendment introduced in 1870, black people were still suppressed through de jure segregation. The Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) ‘equal but separate’ decision confirmed blacks to be seen as second-class citizens. With Supreme Court backing, the case showed that there was still endemic racism in the country and institutional corruption in the southern states; two factors which would prove to hinder the movement. The Jim Crow Laws plus direct physical intimidation such as lynching enabled white people to maintain their supremacy through better access to education, higher-paid jobs and good housing, showing the massive social and economic division between black and white people at the time.
This is most evident in Booker T. Washington's, The Atlanta Exposition Address and W.E.B. Du Bois response to this, The Souls of Black Folk. Booker T. Washington’s gradualism stance gives him a popular appeal among both blacks and whites, although W.E.B. Du Bois has the upper hand when it comes to ideology dealing with economic prosperity among blacks. Washington favors the humble, ask nicely, appreciate what you’re given, and say thank you approach to obtaining social equality.
It’s a common fact that life as an African American is hard. Throughout our history the black race has endured countless prejudice and heartaches. Some of us exceeding expectations of the white community then others falling victim to their simple minded theories and accusations. I will be using the literary work Battle Royal, to help give supportive evidence backing my thesis statement and claims. I feel as a race we are falling behind, not only to Caucasians, (that our forefathers worked so hard to close the gap to) but to all of the other ethnicity groups of the world.
Woodson also stressed that society did not make a valid effort in trying to domesticate the African-American after the oppression of slavery ended. Instead of having shackles around their wrists and ankles, African-Americans now had to deal with an industrialized world which purposely got a head start and left them behind. However, it was also stated by Woodson that African-Americans should forgive but never forget how they were placed in such an economical, physical, emotional, and social deficit, but use it as a tool of hope and determination for the
He wrote books to describe how racism was making blacks act out. They begin turning to prostitution, gambling and violence. In 1903, in his famous book The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois charged that Washington’s strategy, rather than freeing the black man from oppression, would serve only to perpetuate it. I really like this book because it comes from the soul of a black person. In reality no one can relate to a black person better than one of its own.
Schlesinger examines the current attempts by black "leaders" to rewrite the history of black Americans in order to ostensibly improve their self-esteem and provide them with role models. Mr. Schlesinger argues that this sort of "compensatory history," or "underdog history" which is invented or exaggerated to soothe the wounds of the oppressed or abused, really can have no positive effect, either for those it presumes to help or for the nation as a whole. He states, "... black Americans, after generations of psychological and cultural evisceration have every right to seek an affirmative definition of their past". But he also states that, "History as a weapon is an abuse of history. The high purpose of history is not the presentation of self nor the vindication of identity ..." He points out that the reinforcement of such a separatist concept of black identity through such slanted or inaccurate history, coupled with a complete dismissal of the history of black people in America over the past 300 years, can only result in the "...fragmentation, resegregation, and tribalization of American Life".
The fact that she has been influenced means that other individuals believe not possible for a black person to share the same manners and values as them (black people’s manners and values were not as worthy as white people’s in Maycomb at the time). Today, racism still very much exists, but less people believe that colored men are not respectable. Lynch mobs and segregation rarely occur anymore, and To Kill a Mockingbird makes the readers want to bring cultural inequality to an end, because it really illustrates that somebody’s culture or somebody’s skin color does not have anything to do with how respectable they are as a