...They made a huge impact on traditions, laws, and people's overall perspective of women. From the time of Reconstruction to Second Wave Feminism, the women were considered to be politicians, suffragists, and some would even classify them as heroes to other women in the world. They played major roles in stopping the segregation and discrimination against African American people, helping women gain the right to vote, and helping the men of that era gain progress. The women that were determined to make a change also made an impact on other women that thought there was no chance of women gaining any rights in the United States, including African American women. After women were exposed to such...
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...Uncovering the Truth Behind Lynchings in the U.S. Lynching remains to be a very controversial and important subject matter in African American history. The topic of lynching is a key aspect of African American studies not only because it reveals the hypocrisy of White supremacist ideologies of equality in the United States, but it also can be used as a tool to help transform the entire social and political structure of American society. In a Christian nation that advocates equal rights for its citizens, how are acts such as lynching and other radical acts of violence be supported by most people of the White community? It was not only mob groups such as the Ku Klux Klan who were eliciting such cruel behavior, but everyday citizens like you and I. Families, couples, politicians, or anyone who wanted to be a part of this murderous spectacle were easily permitted to watch or participate in the lynchings. The murders of innocent African American citizens were becoming more of an extravaganza for the White community and many people travelled to come watch the “show.” American institutionalized racism has continually allowed this perception of the Black community as inferior to Whites. It is through the study of lynching can we discover that lynching is caused solely by the problem of the color-line and that the justifications used by white supremacists were untrue. African American studies helps find the real truth about lynching and not a fabricated story by white academic...
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...The United States is a nation that has an extensive history and many different eras that have resulted in large changes in the political, economic, and social world. One such era is the Progressive Era, which consisted of large political reform and activism through social communities that would, in short, fight against corruption, inefficiency, and monopolies. During this time, many social figures would become well known for their advocacy and effort in trying to make the nation better as a whole. One such figure is Ida B. Wells, an African American woman who was born in 1862 as a slave during the Civil War. Ida B. Wells was a muckraker, or reform-focused investigative journalist, who wrote continuously about the horrors of racism in the Jim...
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...Booker T. became a principle and guiding force behind Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institution in Hampton, Alabama during 1881. He felt that industrial education was a way out from the horrible sharecropping and debt. His plan also wanted to achieve self-employment, land ownership and small businesses. “Yet one has the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”, being a personal quote from Booker T. at the Atlanta Compromise address in 1895. His major role was to influence the area of race relations and black leadership. He attacked racism and secretly founder of many anti-segregationist activities. Booker T. wanted to help black Americans rise up from the economic slavery, that had held them down long after they were legally free citizens. As being a dominant figure in black public affairs from 1895 until his death, he spoke heavily against lynching and worked towards making “separate” facilities more “equal”. Being a confident advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft was a very important role he acting in. No presidential, political appointments were allowed, unless they were cleared through him. In 1900, Booker T. Washington was a founder of the National Negro Business...
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...Albany-SUNY Robert D. Baller University of Iowa This article investigates the association between past lynchings (1882 to 1930) and contemporary law enforcement responses to hate crimes in the United States. While prior research indicates a positive correlation between past levels of lynching and current social control practices against minority groups, we posit an inverse relationship for facets of social control that are protective of minorities. Specifically, we hypothesize that contemporary hate crime policing and prosecution will be less vigorous where lynching was more prevalent prior to 1930. Analyses show that levels of past lynching are associated with three outcome variables germane to hate crime policing and prosecution, but the effect of lynching is partly contingent on the presence of a minority group threat. That is, past lynching combined with a sizeable black population largely suppresses (1) police compliance with federal hate crime law, (2) police reports of hate crimes that target blacks, and in some analyses (3) the likelihood of prosecuting a hate crime case. Our findings have implications for research on law and intergroup conflict, historical continuity in the exercise of state social control, and theories that emphasize minority group threat. Steven F. Messner University at Albany-SUNY onflict theories of crime and criminal law posit that the state largely serves the interests of dominant groups in society (Quinney 1974; Turk 1969; Vold 1958) and this...
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...Ida B. Wells was an innovative journalist, an activist, a co-founder of the NAACP, and even a forerunner to Rosa Parks, she shook the world with her honesty and motivation of what she believed in. She even published a few books on topics she thought was very important for people in the world to know about. But her pivotal role that played in the history of American journalism was from her book, “ The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States, that showed how important it was to her to tell the world about what was happening around her. Her books describes every brutal and illegal things people around her have done to the African American population or even the people who supported equal laws. For years,blacks have been treated as we was some kind of animals ,so Ida B. Wells took it upon herself and earned a reputation for fearfulness and determination despite what other people thought or said about her. Wells believed in the power of the truth and she did things no other woman was thinking of doing back then.The best thing blacks could’ve done was speak on what they know what...
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...Woodstock, Tennessee. On May 4, 1884 I purchased a first class ticket to Nashville, Tennessee on the train, I was outrage when a train conductor order me to give up my seat for a white man I refused and I got off at the next stop after causing so much commotion (Baker, 1996). As soon as I reached Memphis I hired a lawyer and sued the railroad company and winning a settlement of five hundred dollars, but the Tennessee Supreme Court later overturned the decision. After justice was not service to and I was treated unfair I started writing about race and politics issues in the south. I used the pen name Iola to start writing weekly article in the Living Way, which led my article to be published in nation black newspaper and periodicals in the United States. Eventually, I became owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight and later the Free Speech. In 1891 I was fired from my teaching position because of...
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...faced by African Americans. The struggles of the Great Depression laid the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Art would play an important role in influencing the future. Despite its limitations, the New Deal, through the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Federal Arts Program (FAP), was responsible for reshaping the cultural agenda and “marked a significant turning point in the production of black culture.”1 The artists of the Great Depression built upon the work done during the Harlem Renaissance. New Deal art extended and affirmed art that translated “politics into cultural terms.”2 The FAP looked for a “new sense of authentic American culture – one that championed national values and traditions by celebrating regional and racial diversity.”3 As a result, many artists worked to place African Americans in the historical narrative of the United States while combating long held stereotypes. None were less important than Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Dox Trash, and the creators of the Harlem Hospital murals. Throughout the decade, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) continued its struggles to gain social and political equality for African Americans. The NAACP employed many avenues to achieve its goals. An Art Commentary on Lynching and the Marian Anderson concert were two such...
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...change that we seek” (44th President of the United States, Barack Obama). This quote shows that we are unable to ignore our past, and in order to mend the scars that we have endowed upon ourselves. Even though the world may seem biased, there are good people who intend to make a dramatic change to erase biased perspectives about contrasting races by trying different methods such as speaking outwardly about their opinions, not ignoring the mistakes made in the past, and teaching others how to accept individual viewpoints. Firstly, some people like Ken Jensen, a Social Studies Chairman, wants to spread awareness of the existence of the Lynchings in Duluth in the 30’s. So, she wrote a sub-article in another...
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...are seen as inherently good with society playing a major role in their downfall/corruption. On the other side, it is the complete opposite with society acting as a sort of saving grace to the otherwise doomed, malevolent human race. The Chinese philosopher, Mengzi, was apt to stress the former notion, as he believed strongly in the goodness of human nature. He claimed that our innate virtuosity required nurturing through habitual exercises related to our natural and principled instincts. Essentially biology and society become codependent on one another in order to successfully cultivate one’s virtues. Additionally, he asserted, “everyone has a heart/mind (xin) which feels for others” (Mengzi 2A6). Though Mengzi makes some valid points, it becomes difficult to accept his philosophy when one thinks of just how wicked humans can be. During the last decades of the 19th century, one of the most inhumane chapters in history occurred when the United States government implemented lynching as a way of terrorizing black Americans and maintaining white authority. Whole communities would come together in solidarity against black people. Moreover, blacks were dehumanized, seen as less than dogs and disrespected. The lynchings were severe punishments for little to no crime done in most cases. In addition to being hanged, many were burned, dismembered, and put through torture. The atmosphere during this time was so toxic that lynchings were seen as a fun family event. It was indeed a dismal...
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...racism and oppression. No other person exemplified this struggle more so then Ida B. Wells. Even though Ida enjoyed a substantial following through her writings of books, and speech making, she still faced threats to her and was even exiled and forced to leave the United States, and go to England. Although dealt this major setback in her forced move to England, Ida. B. did not become discouraged and continued her work in fighting for equality for blacks in the South. In her writing of the Red Record, and Southern Horrors, Ida was able to capture the horrific climate lynching in the South. Because of this work, Ida transformed many peoples perception of the South where before her work many believed that almost all types of oppression ended with the conclusion of the Civil War. As a result of this shift in public opinion, Ida began receiving substantial funding from not only whites in the North, but also from England; whom the South depended on heavily because of their trade relations. Through these efforts, Ida was responsible for starting groups such as the anti-lynching Bureau, and the NAACP. These organizations that were formed in large part because of Ida B. Wells can be judged as perhaps the biggest reason why lynching in...
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...The twentieth century has been called the nadir period of African Americans, however it was also a time of growth within the African American people. Scholars have debated that one side should have more emphasis placed on it that the other. On the side of the nadir, Civil rights were lost, racial discrimination took place, and lynchings became more relevant. Yet through all of these struggles African Americans managed to challenge oppression and create their own independence. Black codes and Jim Crow laws were established to enforce racial segregation and limit the rights of black people, such as denying them “the right to vote, testify against whites, serve on juries, or be in town past ten in the evening” (Foner, P.535). Richard Wright’s documented account of “Living Jim crow” entails him being unlawfully searched while he was doing his job as well as providing key concepts in what is was like to be a black during this era, wright states “I learned to play that dual role which every Negro must play if he wants to eat and live”( Wright, “Jim Crow,”1937) this is important because it’s referred to as a Jim crow education which entails that one had to learn to “lie, steal, and dissemble” (Wright, “Jim Crow,”1937)just to make it through daily life....
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...The Melting Pot Illusion: Understanding Race and Power by Rethinking American History Race in Media Mid-Term Paper April 18, 2014 When it comes to race in the United States, America has always thought of itself as a racial and ethnic melting pot. This “melting pot” message has always been known throughout the world as a key aspect of America’s national identity, built on the promise that all people of various colors, races and ethnic backgrounds are afforded basic civil freedoms and opportunities to pursue their dreams within a democratic society. In fact, in school classrooms throughout the United States, where most of us received our initial understanding of American history, we often witness a romanticized narrative of Americans striving forward towards progress with limited or partial understanding of race, the complex story of Native Americans and their removal from conquered lands, and the enslavement of African-Americans. The purpose of this essay is to rethink prior understandings of American history and what race means, as well as how it has determined and limited citizenship and opportunity for some Americans, by exploring the voices in author Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove’s book Voices of a People’s History of the United States and other literary sources, and what American citizenship means to those not designated white, rich or male. The definition and concept of race, a human classification system used to group human beings into large and distinct...
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... some of them found their way out of society for the better. Huxley questions the role of women in society, stereotypes, and racism. One of Huxley’s major issues was the role of women in society. When the 20th century started women were not thought of to be performing the jobs they do now. Out of the 1,933,014 employed women in the early 1900s, 1,740,800 were “domestic servants” (Trueman). Women were not given the opportunities men were given. They were “barred” from being able to vote in presidential campaigns (Lee). The “priority” of a woman in the...
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...Women’s Roles Then and Now Kimberly Lane Dr. Ed. Yancey HUM-World Culture II November 24, 2011 Phillis Wheatley was purchased by Peter Gwinn as part of a cargo of slaves in a region his employer describes as “Sinagall,” most likely today’s Senegal. She was brought to Boston around seven years old to market of John Avery; there Mrs. Susanna Wheatley purchased the diminutive and sickly Phillis. When Phillis came to the Colonies, she did not speak any English, but she quickly learned to read and write Latin and English. John Wheatley, her master, said she was able to read the Bible fluently in sixteen months. Susanna Wheatley and her daughter Mary did not have a scholarly interest themselves but simply fostered Phillis’ interest in Alexander Pope, Milton, and Homer. Phyllis joined the Old South Meeting House in 1771, solidifying her Puritan faith. The Wheatley family took pride in their “experiment” and showed Phillis off to other prominent families in the Boston Area. Her role as a young woman in the family was complex. She had few domestic tasks, but was still the property of Mr. and Mrs. Wheatleys. She had privileges that other slaves seldom had, such as a lighted and heated room. Kenny Williams’ quotes friends of the family as saying that she “dined modestly apart from the rest of the company...where she could certainly expect neither to give nor receive offense.” Her role was unclear in the family and in society in general: “She inhabited a strange, ambiguous twilight...
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