African American Identity Essay

It was a hot August day as sweat wipe out down on doubting Thomas Jefferson dark- frontal b whizn. He had been working in the cosmosness 2 hours sooner the hot sun had made its presence known. He looked back everywhere the drying field, hoping that this crop would provide for his family better than last old age crop had. Thomas watched his oldest son, Nathan, who worked down one row of the field tour staring intently at the cotton plants as he picked the cotton.Nathan was a very inquisitive young man who had nonwithstanding yesterday asked his set about what it was like being a knuckle down for Mr. Walter Johnson. When his father had told him that in a lot of ways biography was so much easier than now, Nathan had given him a look that all(prenominal)owed Thomas to know that his son could not bond a line. How could he to a lower placestand? Nathan had not grown up a slave and seen that while it was exceedingly difficult, in that respect was a feeling of stability t o life then.Yes, Thomas Jefferson Brown had endured the beatings and yes he had watched as his M otherwise and eventually his sisters had been sexually assaulted, save how do you tell a young man such as Nathan that such was the way of life it was to be expected, along with the comfort of knowing where your future(a) meal was going to come from. Since Tomas had been palliated after the great war, He s and his family had endured much to a greater extent than that having watched the lynching of two of his brothers and numerous friends.They were the lucky ones though, Thomas thought, while looking up at the fiery ball of set off known as the sun. They did not permit to endure other hardships their unworthy was over. Yes it was hard for Nathan to know that life was indeed easier as a slave than a freed man, and maybe, righteous maybe, things would change during Nathans lifetime. Thomas Jefferson Brown wiped his brow once more and continued on picking the cotton? even out thoug h the civil war ended in 1865, African Americans legato faced an uphill battle to obtain rights that were afforded other Americans.This was in rancor of the fact that 24 African American soldiers brightened our Nations highest honor the congressional Medal of Honor, during the cultured War. Even with the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865 criminalise slavery and the 14th Amendment giving African Americans citizenship and equal protection under the law, there were still so many other issues that would deprive African Americans of their lawful rights, such as having the first African American elected into the 41st Congress in 1869 continuing through with(predicate) 1901 with the 57th congress, which had no African Americans.This trend would continue until the election of 1929 before another African American was elected to congress. In 1873 the Supreme Court decision ruled that the 14th-Amendment tackle of equal protection of the laws extended barely to federal civil rights , gum olibanum removing southern states from the duty to protect the civil rights of African Americans, but it was just not their rights that were taken but their lives as well. Between 1882 and the end of 1900, 1751 African Americans and 1105 white Americans were lynched for trying to bring forward the African American cause (National). inclined all of this discrimination and violence, it is hard to imagine that anyone would be willing to further the African American cause, but many stood ready to not unless give of themselves, but perhaps even to give their life for this frightful cause. African American writers were makeed with these problems of equality and self esteem, and yet hold really transformed and continue to support a freed populate, to obtain all of their rights. What follows is from one-third writers who each in his own way contributed mightily to the African American cause. They are W. E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Glen Loury. First, we slang W. E. B. (W illiam Edward Burghardt) Dubois, who was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Dubois was one of the most influential black leaders of the first half of the twentieth Century. Dubois shared in the universe of the National Association for the Advancement of swart People, or NAACP, in 1909. He served as its director of research and editor program of its magazine Crisis until 1934. He was the first African American to graduate from Harvard University, which he accomplished in 1896.At first, Dubois thought that African Americans could be freed through the Social Sciences, but quickly became disillusioned with this idea and began to believe that freedoms could only come about by agitation and protest(Chew). Dubois recognized that the African Americans of his day faced many problems, not the least of which were of the life threatening variety. After his disillusionment with helping African Americans through the favor able sciences, Dubois thought that African Am ericans needed to develop their own culture, which was definitely more American than African.Dubois enjoyed the unique African American culture, particularly that of the Negro ghostlike songs. Dubois thought that African Americans should not give in to what white Americans expectations were of African Americans, but to continue to develop as a people. Dubois wrote that all people regardless of their culture, heritage, sex, should be hardened as equals. Dubois also thought that African Americans should not worry about competing with the world as a group, but that they should join together to help each other.He eventually was forced to leave the United States because the government considered Dubois an agent of the Soviet Union. That is why he immigrated to Ghana, first obtaining Ghana citizenship, joined the communist party and eventually died there in 1963. Dubois was there for all future African Americans to follow his example. Dubois founding of the NAACP led to many victories for the rights of all Americans, most of which he never saw. neighboring we have Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who was born in Jamaica on 17 August 1887.Mr. Garvey is better(p) remembered as a pivotal figure in the struggle for racial equality, not just in the United States but throughout the world as well. He founded the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) and African Communities League in 1914 while still in Jamaica, and also championed the back to Africa movement of the 1920s. Of the Africans who departed, Garvey thought, some(prenominal) had left independently while others were brutally removed for economic growth and exploitation.Garvey sensed that the main problems facing not only African Americans, but Africans as well was that they must first go back to Africa and free their African brothers before moving on to other parts of the world. finished the organizations that Garvey had formed (UNIA and ACL), he reasoned that until Africa is free and redeemed, not only in n ame but in reality, no one would be free, stern or White. Garvey reasoned that no matter what ones black market was we are all bound together by the Creator, which is Spirit. The Creator has a purpose for everyone and that purpose did not include being made a slave or subject to anyone for that matter.While Dubois and Garvey did not see center of attention to eye on the issues involving African Americans, Garvey did align himself closely with Dr Robert warmth, and Dr Loves teachings that a hunt down could progress no further than the dignity and esteem of their women and younger girls. Garvey and Love thought that the best way to plant the seeds of dignity and self-esteem would be through the woman and younger girl. in the end, we have Glen Loury, who was born in 1948. Mr. Loury is a professor of economics at Boston University while also being a consultant to the Federal Trade Commission. Mr.Loury has devoted a major(ip) portion of his career to the study of race and public po licy. He is the reservoir of On the Need for Moral Leadership in the Black society, Responsibility and Race, Impact of Affirmative Action on exist Opportunity A New Look, and most recently A New American Dilemma. Mr. Loury saw many problems facing not only African American, but also all Americans, including the civil rights policies of 1960-1985, which seemed to have been based on equality of outcome rather than on equality of opportunity. Mr. Loury also thought that approbatory action policies created backlash.Loury maintained that all Americans should have equal rights with none being given favorable treatment over any other. Loury reasoned that it is hard to justify denying admission to an elite college to anyone who struggled to be able to pass the admissions exam while admitting a member of a designated minority group, who did not work near as hard to earn his score and is only admitted based on his minority status. Such actions do resentment towards these policies and are only heightened when defenders of the policies claim that to question these policies is to engage in a racist act.Mr. Loury contends that giving preferential treatment with no gruelling explanation only led to more heightened tensions and is a very lowering error on the part of those who merely wish to be advocates of affirmative action. Loury did see, that there was a proper use of affirmative action, such as on police forces around the country that had a significant parting of African American citizens and yet none on the police force. These Authors present their own conclusions and reasonings for what happened to the African Americans previous to, and of their own time.These writers utilize the influences of other African Americans and were also pioneers themselves. All of these writers believed in equality for everyone and thusly did share at least one common goal. In Mr. Dubois we have a writer and scholar who originally thought that through a study of Social Sciences and doing what was right could African Americans receive their rights, and yet Dubois was able to refocus and remain firm in his opinions of helping each other and thus able to help not only the African Americans of his generation, but the ones to follow as well. Mr.Dubois saw all of the problems besetting African Americans and knew that they must unite, working together, to build a culture of their own, that would allow all African Americans to have a better life. Mr. Garvey on the other hand, perceived that until the rights and freedoms were restored in the entire African continent, Africans elsewhere would always be treated as second-class citizens. Garvey along with Dr Robert Love, thought that it was through the African women, oddly the younger women, that Africans had a chance to make a difference in providing a better future. Mr.Loury saw problems that came about because of the Civil Rights movement, and that African Americans should not merely rely on being a minority to get a head in life, but instead grab the opportunity that was before them so as not to create a political backlash. from each one of these writers have stood their ground for what they believe in, and our world we live in directly is better for it. Each of these writers, in their own time, helped frame not just African Americans lives but has truly transformed and continues to support a freed people, obtain all, of their rights. Works Cited Chew, Robin W. E. B.Dubois Sociologist, Author & Civil Rights Leader 1868 ? 1963 February 26, 2005. 6 Feb 2006 Dr Coony, aspiration Race and Affirmative Action 6 Feb 2006 Du Bois, W. E. B. Of our Spiritual Strivings. Cultural Conversations The social movement of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 131-145 Garvey, Marcus Motive of the NAACP assailable Cultural Conversations The comportment of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 153-154 Loury, Glenn. Free at Last? A Personal stead on R ace ad identity element in America. Cultural Conversations The Presence of the Past.Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 173-180 Marcus Garvey Biography November 2000, K. W. Spence-Lewis advisor Researcher Community wellness and Planning Plant Science. The Making of African American Identity VOL II 1863-1917 National Humanities Center 6 Feb 06 Bibliography Chew, Robin W. E. B. Dubois Sociologist, Author & Civil Rights Leader 1868 ? 1963 February 26, 2005. 6 Feb 2006 Dr Coony, Mark Race and Affirmative Action 6 Feb 2006 Du Bois, W. E. B. Of our Spiritual Strivings. Cultural Conversations The Presence of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al.Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 131-145 Garvey, Marcus Motive of the NAACP Exposed Cultural Conversations The Presence of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 153-154 Loury, Glenn. Free at Last? A Personal Perspective on Race ad Identity in America. Cultural Conversations The Presence of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 173-180 Marcus Garvey Biography November 2000, K. W. Spence-Lewis Consultant Researcher Community Health and Planning Plant Science. The Making of African American Identity VOL II 1863-1917 National Humanities Center 6 Feb 06.