THE BLACK AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Paradoxes around the history of slavery:
- it proves that you can have a number of well-designed compromises built around a moral issue, but they are successful only for a short time; the Civil War is a result of well-designed moral compromises
- the total number of slaves imported from Africa to America is half a million; the total worldwide number of slaves is 15 million
- the largest importer of slaves was Brazil, not the USA
- slavery in the United States legally began in 1654
Indentured servants – people who were too poor to pay for a ticket to America, so they found someone who paid for it and later, having come to the USA, they would work for that person (usually for 4 years)
Headright – the right to collect the land after you come to America as a free person
In the end of the 17th century/beginning of the 18th century it changed – slaves were cheaper than indentured servants
The first farmer to notice it was Anthony Johnson – he didn’t free his indentured servants after four years. He was taken to court and won, so in 1654 slavery became legal.
What is interesting, Anthony Johnson was black and he came to America as an indentured servant.
The Declaration of Independence doesn’t say a word about slavery. Jefferson opposed to slavery, but he thought that he must obey the customs of his country. He also refused to free Kościuszko’s slaves, although he was asked to. Himself Jefferson had slaves, and after the death of his wife he lived with his slave and had children with her.
Paradoxes in the division between free and slavery states: northern (free) states claimed that slaves were property, so they didn’t count as population in the representation of Congress, but they were humans, so they were taken into consideration when it came to taxation.
3/5th compromise – by 1808 importation of slaves will end
*Emancipation Proclamation – slaves were freed in the confederacy area, not in the United States
*13th Amendment – slavery was made illegal
*14th Amendment – gave civil rights to freed slaves
*15th Amendment – freed slaves got voting rights
RECONSTRUCTION – rebuilding the country after the Civil War:
1) president stage – rebellious states should be brought back to the Union as smoothly as possible
2) radical republicans – radical reconstruction -> the South has to pay for the war by getting rid of confederacy officials etc.
Result – after 1877 the South goes back to complete segregation; the values of such a proud society were so violently violated that introducing new laws (and new way of thinking, in fact), became impossible
1883 – Civil Rights Cases } final acts of the reconstruction collapse; stated full equality,
1885 – Civil Rights Act } but were set unconstitutional
1896 – Plessy vs Fergusson: racial segregation in public facilities is constitutional (separate but equal)
In New Orleans the population of free blacks before the Civil War was quite big; influences from the Caribbean Islands mixed with French and Spanish origins, Catholicism mixed with voodoo.
Descendants of white aristocracy (Creoles) vs descendants of Indians, African Americans, Spanish and French colonists
How black do you have to be to be considered black? (By 1890s people with one black grandparent (BWWW) were legally considered black)
For years Creoles were considered white, then suddenly they were turned black.
Citizens’ Committee to Test the Separate Car Act – people tested the Louisiana Separate Car Act introducing the segregation
Homer Plessy – a black chosen to challenge the act; at first he won at court, but then he lost the case in the Supreme Court
Less than 50 years after the Civil War (1865-1896) it was all the same.
How to limit the voting rights of African Americans?
*disfranchisement
*literary clauses
*notorious grandparents clauses – if your grandparent were a slave, you don’t have the right to vote
Some important people
Booker T. Washington – known nationally, a black
-Tuskegee Machine – Tuskegee Institute
- integration and assimilation with the white society
- vocational education is crucial for African Americans
W. E. B. DuBois – close friend of B. T. Washington, later also his critic; a successful scholar, the very first African American PhD and university professor; he was a sociologist, interested in the history from the black perspective.
Later in life he turned to communism (radical left); opted for stronger representation of African Americans in political processes
- pan-Africanism – ideology stating that the whole issue is racial, the black are Africans, not Americans; African countries should create identical conditions and interests
1909 – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); still one of the most important African American organizations
Marcus Garvey – a Jamaican:
*UNIA – Universal Negro Improvement Association
*African Communities (Imperial) League
*Back-to-Africa movement – the black should come back to Africa and set their own country
In fact such a country was created – the American government and president Monroe asked African Americans to go back to Africa. Liberia – an artificial country created by the white for the black – appeared. It is known for the capital city Monrovia (after the president), the first female black president, a long civil war and being one of the worst places to live.
*black nationalism
*Black Star Line
Further events
Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas (1954)
* racial segregation ruled to be a violation of Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
* black parents in Topeka wanted their children to attend a school for whites, which was closer and of higher standards
* the case Plessy vs Fergusson was stated unconstitutional
1957 – Little Rock Nine (Arkansas); nine kids, the first black students in Little Rock, were denied access to school
1961 – first African American university students appear; the University of Alabama declared itself a segregated university, turning down all black students’ applications. Three perfect black students, who were simply too smart to be rejected, applied.
Wallace, the governor of Alabama in person didn’t allow them to go in -> Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
President Kennedy had to send the army to the governor and only after he stepped down.
1955 – Montgomery Bus Boycott:
- Rosa Parks’s friend refused to give her seat to a white person; she was arrested and nothing else happened
- later Rosa Parks did the same and became well-known
- a one-year boycott of public transport by the black population caused the economic collapse of the company and put the city on the verge of collapse
- Alabama segregation laws ruled unconstitutional
- Martin Luther King Jr steps into the national limelight
- result -> Civil Rights Movement’s first major victory
Aug 28, 1963 – ‘I have a dream’
Mahatma Gandhi as a political guru (non-violent movement); just end segregation and we’ll build a brilliant future
MALCOLM X:
* self-educated in prison, where he learnt about Elijah Mohammed – the leader of Nation of Islam
* Nation of Islam – an organization of black Muslims
* the idea of black pride; unifying the black around this strong religion (community where fathers are strongly present, while in general many African American families consisted of single mothers)
* supported violence – self-defense is not violence; however, very few demonstrations ended in violence
* a very controversial person: ‘If someone puts a dog on you, I tell you, kill the dog.’
* by the end of his life he changed his views, left the organization, set his own one and went to Mekka. He remained a nationalist, but without hatred.
* assassinated, probably by the members of Nation of Islam who found him a traitor
His famous speech was ‘The Ballot or the Bullet’
18.12.2013
Black Panther Party:
* the first black nationalist, then socialist party
* Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
This period was the peak of radical movements; terrorist attacks were very common; a crisis of democracy after the assassination of JFK and war in Vietnam.
Black Panther Party was one of the most radical and most well-known organizations; a special organization within FBI worked against the party; responsible for the popularity of slogans and symbols – Black Power, raised fist (graffiti), Black Power salute (silent salute)
The Summer Olympic Games in Mexico 1968:
The secretary of National Olympic Committee was suspected of contacts with Nazi Germany during the 2nd World War; he wanted to exclude South Africa from the Olympic Games, but it was said that apartheid cannot be promoted – The Olympic Project for Human Rights
At that time the Olympic Games were not professional, with mostly university students taking part in it.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos from San Jose University raised their fists on the podium to show their solidarity with the black; they were immediately ordered out of Mexico and disqualified for a number of months.
This event still is found controversial – the Olympic Games should be free from political involvement
Back in the US the gesture was considered very violent and radical, more than it was indeed.
Legacy:
*Jesse Jackson inherits from Martin Luther King
*Louis Farrakhan inherits from Malcolm X and Elijah Mohammed; in the 1990s he organized the Million Men March (‘Get on the Bus’ movie)
*Jeremiah Wright controversy – leader of a church in Chicago to which Barrack Obama belonged; in his sermons he talked about political issues, said that on 11.09. America got what it deserved; ‘American chickens have come to their roosts’
Civil Rights Legislation
- J. F. Kennedy – began legislative processes ended by the next president Lyndon B. Johnson
- Robert Kennedy – the second most popular white politician among the black people (after Lincoln)
Affirmative action – a policy of equal opportunities; giving extra points for black students who apply for university just because they are black, and there are few black people in higher education
While African Americans set 12-15% of the American society, over 50% of prisoners in the USA is black.
National standardized tests were created to check the progress of education; African Americans have the worst results. On the other hand, Hispanic immigrants may do well in Maths, but poorly in English as they don’t speak English.
Access to education in African American societies is still little, most families consist of a single mother.
Many problems of the black society were caused by the collapse of inner cities in the 1970s.