Professor George Lipsitz’s lecture was about the collective intelligence and gathered from centuries of struggle for black people in America and how it is key for Black survival and dignity. Black Studies can be applied to this topic through our exploration of these centuries of struggle, from the Atlantic slave trade to the Reconstruction period to the events in Flint, Michigan and Ferguson, Missouri which Professor Lipsitz highlights. Throughout these centuries we see various tactics and crises that contribute to the continued subjugation of black people, whether this was enslavement, lynching, or legislation. Black Studies also applies to Professor Lipsitz’s lecture through what we learned about notable people who resisted the endless cycle …show more content…
In Black Studies lecture we learned about the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments; which did the following: the 13th abolished slavery, the 14th granted full citizenship to black people and the protection from state interference, and the 15th granted the right to vote to black people. However, the misuse of these amendments have been a constant hindrance to a true democratic system. In lecture, the misuse of the 14th amendment was the lack of enforcement. After the Civil War, the South was heated due to the Confederate loss, and through the Klu Klux Klan and Black Codes, the citizenship of black people, as granted by the 14th amendment, was completely ignored and, ostensibly, nonexistent. The 15th amendment meant basically nothing, due to the implementation of poll taxes and the perpetual disenfranchisement of black people. Professor Lipsitz, talking about slavery, said, “It is responsible for the undemocratic political institutions.” And an example he gave for why it is responsible is “The way the 14th amendment is misused in law.” From the misuse of these amendments when they were first created to how they are being misused now, are a continued method of preserving slavery, or as Lipsitz articulated, “The nation’s commitment to protecting
One of the first things W. E. B. DuBois discusses in the first chapter of The Souls of Black Folk is the idea that African Americans are “problems.” Four decades after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans are not as free as the proclamation originally claimed. DuBois states that no man or woman “worshipped Freedom with such unquestioning faith” the way African Americans did for two centuries. He then goes into a discussion regarding how much disappointment the Emancipation Proclamation brought to African Americans. He suggests that “the idea of ‘book-learning’” supported African Americans ability to truly explore themselves, particularly “self-consciousness and self-respect.”
Racial conflict has always been a continuous cycle of uphill battles and saddening defeats; accordingly, America has an immense race problem. For the past century, racial conflict has been a significant controversy. Stories and articles have flood the news and social media about men and women of all color who have been victimized by prejudice. While it happens to every race, the news predominantly displays stories of the African American society being discriminated against, such as the incident in Ferguson, Missouri and the protests for Black Lives Matter at the University of Missouri. John Edgar Wideman, a professor at Brown University and author of “Fatheralong,” and Boaz Yakin, director of the film “Remember the Titans,” address African
The major role played by African American women in the reconstruction era is revised and illustrated in Tera W. Hunter’s To Joy my Freedom and Elsa Barkley Brown’s article Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom. Both documents analyze the participation and involvement of black women in social and political activities inside of their communities. To Joy my freedom, written by Tera W. Hunter provides an inner look into the lives and strives of African American women – mainly working class – living in Atlanta between the eighteenth and nineteenth century, in the middle of one of the most belligerent environments created in the era of Reconstruction.
Once more and more people join in on ‘The Negro Movement” as they liked to call it blacks started to get respect. Yet, blacks where still punished even if they did not retaliate, and they were not given justice. In today’s society, African Americans still fight for
W.E.B Dubois famously stated, “ Awful as race, prejudice, lawlessness and ignorance are, we can fight time if we frankly face them and dare name them; and tell the truth; but if we continually dodge and cloud the issue, and say the half-truth because the whole stings and shames; If we do this, we invite catastrophe. Let us then in all charity but unflinching firmness set our faces against all statesmanship that looks as such. I find W.E.B Dubois thoughts to be true based on my upbringings and the lessons that I have been taught in school. Last week I attended the 1619 Conference in McGrew Towers about this particular year, 1619, which establish African American place in America. The 1619:
“Long, hot summers” of rioting arose and many supporters of the African American movement were assassinated. However, these movements that mused stay ingrained in America’s history and pave way for an issue that continues to be the center of
W.E.B DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk explores a problem, the Negro problem that is. Historically, African-Americans have always been seen as a problem in society. They have been the cause of a great tension in America that led to civil war and have caused a lot of political uproar the years following Emancipation. “How does it feel to be a problem?” is what DuBois is inadvertently asked by his white acquaintances. Although this problem arguably persists today, historically, this problem started the minute blacks stepped foot on American soil and became forever intertwined in American history.
The first three chapters of the reading, The Struggle for Black Equality, Harvard Sitkoff runs through the civil rights movement in the 20th century; outlining the adversities facing black people, the resistance to black equality, hindrances to the already progress and the achievements made in the journey for civil rights. John Hope Franklin, in the foreword, dwells on the impact of the time between 1954 and 1992 and the impact it had on American Society, how fight for equality is far from easy and patience is required in the fight to "eliminate the road blocks that prevent the realization of the ideal of equality". In the preface, Sitkoff is clear that that history does not speak for themselves and attempt to detail any particular will be influenced by the author 's personal beliefs. Sitkoff, who associated and identified with the movement, believed "that the struggle was confronting the United States with an issue that had undermined the nation 's democratic institutions". Sitkoff elected
The 13th Amendment allowed the African Americans to be released from the institutionalized oppression of slavery, at the same time allowing them to achieve political and civil rights. It did not protect them from the violence that they will experience on a physical and physiological level, the newly freed African Americans that were victimized by different factors such as political regulations. Many African Americans attempted to exercise their newly acquired rights, but as a result, white southerners saw this as problematic and resorted to taking violent actions. Violence became one of the primary acts which caused the African American community’s rights to become void and it puts their black lives and black livelihood at stake.
Distributed 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois describes the conflict of battle and strife that African Americans still encountered. The sanction of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments gave a hint of hope and aspiration towards the essence of racial fairness, just to acquire additional issues. Jim Crow laws were created succeeding the decision of Plessy versus Ferguson invalidated what numerous amendments stood for, and the battle proceeded for African Americans. While racial segregation limits a considerable amount of features advocating for blacks, Du Bois proposes that the Afro community, altogether, assumes a critical part in the battle for racial equity; the battle should not be based exclusively within governmental influences.
Black history Assignment Black history Americans have recognized black history annually since 1926, first as "Negro History Week" and later as "Black History month. " Black history had barely begun to be studied or even documented when the tradition originated. Although blacks have been in America at far back as colonial times, it was not until the 20th century that they gained a respectable presence in the history books.
Angela Davis Once said “Well for one, The 13th Amendment to the constitution of the U.S. which abolished slavery, did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.” Although the amendment was desperately needed it made more problems for the U.S.The thirteenth amendment was about abolishing slavery. Many people had different opinions about this amendment. The amendment affected our nation dramatically. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution says that, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
African-American historian W.E.B Dubois illustrated how the Civil War brought the problems of African-American experiences into the spotlight. As a socialist, he argued against the traditional Dunning interpretations and voiced opinions about the failures and benefits of the Civil War era, which he branded as a ‘splendid failure’. The impacts of Civil War era enabled African-Americans to “form their own fraternal organizations, worship in their own churches and embrace the notion of an activist government that promoted and safeguarded the welfare of its citizens.”
Verily, Slavery is against the basic principles of our country’s constitutional law. Yet rather than strengthening the freedom of our country, we tend to think very childish, and therefore fall into a trap that we made ourselves. Let us instead put our energies, our thoughts, and intellect
Although depicted in various forms and caricatures, the complex identity of being a Black American can be derived from a concept introduced in W.E.B. DuBois’ book Ways of Black Folk— double-consciousness (DuBois, 6). In this, DuBois investigates how the intersectional identity of Black folks contributes to their lived experiences; he ultimately asserts that Americans will struggle in determining the role of Black people and overcoming the metaphorical color-line, the clear distinction in the treatment of Blacks and whites (DuBois, 6). This problem is manifested in historical examples found in Samuel D. Pollard’s documentary Slavery by Another Name (Pollard, 2012). In addition to validating DuBois’ concerns about the integration of Black people