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essay on segregation in school in 1960
segregation in education in america 1950/60
essay on segregation in school in 1960
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One of the most influential and enlightening scholars in contemporary academics who focuses primarily on African-American issues, both from the past and the present, is undoubtedly Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Born in 1950 and raised in the small, middle-class, 'colored' community of Piedmont, West Virginia, Gates's acclaimed 1995 autobiography, Colored People, brings readers to a place and time in America when both the racial boundaries and the definition of progress were changing weekly. Colored People, however, is not about race specifically. Rather, it is a story which chronicles how his family existed during a unique time in American history -- a time when attempts at desegregation were just beginning. Starting with a preface that takes the form of a letter written to his daughters, Maggie and Liza, and continuing on throughout the rest of the book, Gates -- in spite of the fact that he graduated summa cum laude from Yale and received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University -- writes his autobiography in a conversational tone that is so accessible that it comes off as though he is telling his story to the reader in person and for the first time, thus making us both understand and empathize with it more. Through his story, he provides details about all the characters that influenced his life -- from Uncle Earke the Turkey, who loved to rant about the female sex, to his grandmother Big Mom, who founded the local Episcopal church, onto to his first true love, the little bookworm Linda, and finally Reverend Monroe, who inspired all who came into contact with him -- but he pays special attention to describing his mother. Based off the writing in Colored People, Gates's mother was one of the bravest, accomplished, and most determined ... ... middle of paper ... ...ored People shows, minorities, if they have access to the right sources, can and do succeed in America. It is only those -- though there are many as Colored People also proves -- who are truly disadvantaged that need governmental assistance in attaining essential resources -- income, family stability, housing, schooling, and positive peer group support -- so that they can become more mobile. In the end, Gates, through his personal family and life experiences, emphasizes to his that color is indeed only on the surface. We are all human being, and the reason that inequality exists in America has nothing to do with color, but rather to do with access to resources. Works Cited Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Colored People: a memoir. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Gross, George R. Selected Essays on Minority Groups. Northern Michigan University, 2011-2013.
Chisholm, Shirley. "Race, Revolution and Women." The Black Scholar 42.2 (2012): 31-35. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 May 2016.
Although, Henry Louis Gates Jr. mentions that education is key to stopping segregation and being successful; he also says that African Americans feel inferior to “white” Americans. This makes them not have the motivation of succeeding, having an education, aspiring, and dreaming because they believe that this is only for “white” Americans and not blacks. In today’s world, anyone can strive for a better future no matter what race they are. At one point in the article Henry Louis Gates mentions that not everyone in any
Walker, David. Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World but in particular, and very expressly, to those of the United States of America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
Nearly a century later, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., himself a Harvard scholar, addresses the anomaly of the Afro-American as he has existed for the past two centuries; that the Black American's greatest obstacle is the lack of self determination. The inability to define oneself will undoubtedly lead to an unhealthy dependence upon the definition of a biased party that will apply an erroneous definition. Gates states that "the Afro American's attempt to gain self-consciousness in a racist society will always be impaired by the fact that any reflected image that he or she seeks in the gaze of white Americans is refracted through 'the dark veil-mirror of existence'..."(Du Bois, xx).
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. "Racial Formation in the United States." 1994. The Idea of
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
Angela Davis grew up surrounded by politically opinionated, educated, and successful family members who influenced her ideals and encouraged her development and ambition. Her father attended St Augustine’s College, a historically black school in North Carolina (Davis 20). Her brother, Ben Davis, was a successful football player who was a member of teams such as the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions (Davis 23). Her mother, Sallye Davis, was substantially involved in the civil rights movement and was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Davis 42). In addition, her mother joined the Southern Negro Youth Congress which had strong ties to the Communist Party. This involvement greatly influenced Davis as she had many associations with members of the party which later shaped her political views (“Complexity, Activism, Optimism: An Interview with Angela Y. Davis”).
Lynch is a writer and teacher in Northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she examines ways that the text of The Souls of Black Folk embodies Du Bois' experience of duality as well as his "people's."
Franklin, John Hope. From slavery to freedom: a history of Negro Americans. 3rd ed. New
Boser, Ulrich. "The Black Man's Burden." U.S. News & World Report 133.8 (2002): 50. Academic
Wilson, Harriet E., and Henry Louis. Gates. Our Nig, Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black:
Growing up in a time where we have seen the different actions by America’s first black President, Barack Obama, I think it is appropriate to look back on the civil rights movement and the role that hundreds played in documenting the events. Accurately researched and intensely condensed, The Race Beat is an extraordinary explanation of one of the most explosive periods in our nation’s history, as told by those who covered it
Rudolph, Alexander Jr. Racism, African Americans and Social Justice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005. 71. Print.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
To illustrate “In the Kitchen” Henry Louis Gates shapes an identity of a young person growing up in a lower class black community and also the community as a whole in Piedmont, America in the fifties and sixties when the Black Civil Right Movement was taking place. The identity is based on his life and upbringing with his “mama” and the ways they used the kitchen for straightening their kinky hair to make them fit in with the wider community. Gates has developed the identity of an African American community who are frowned upon in the wider community due to having kinky hair instead of straight and also the struggles they went through in their everyday lives through many techniques used within the development such as textual form, figurative