African American Suffrage

686 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: african-American history chapter 9

White and Black or Black and White; two colors that have seemed to affect our history more than they should have. Notice that I had to capitalize both colors and then put each of them first because if I would have just said one or the other it would have been racist. Even today people think that. Most of the time they are either joking or trying to get someone fired up, but sometimes people are truly racist. Why? Why should the color of someone’s skin change who they are or how you look at them? These are two questions that will never be answered. For some odd reason that is just how it is, and how it always will be to a point. It has been like this for so long that it is not even the color of their skin that makes us think of these people differently, it is the fact that they were once slaves. This small fact is something that no one will ever forget. We have a Black History month. No one is forgetting anything. Maybe this is a good thing and maybe this is a bad thing, but one thing that is very sure is the struggle that African Americans had as soon as they were freed. Robert Hayden and Gwendolyn Brooks reflect on the struggles of African Americans during the mid-1900’s in America with the poems The Explorer and Fredrick Douglass. In the poem The Explorer by Gwendolyn Brooks she really makes it known how much white people talked about her and all the other African Americans. There was no getting away from the scream of nervous affairs. Everyone was either scared of the African Americans or wanted nothing to do with them. This is a poem about how all these African Americans wanted to do was find some peace and quiet. To find a place where they could have a little bit of hope; hope is something that these people needed, even if... ... middle of paper ... ...know if they were waiting for more rights, a different era or a miracle. Mostly all they were really looking for was hope. The Explorer, by Gwendolyn Brooks, and Fredrick Douglass, by Robert Hayden, are both poems that really reflected on how bad the African American suffrage was in the mid-1900’s. This really explains how bad times were for these people and when you think about it, how bad times still can be for them. Everyone knows them as those people who were once slaves. Even if they did not even know their great grandpa who was set free from slavery. This is how people look at them. No one knew what was going to happen when they freed the slaves, and no one would no one will know if we would have never even got slaves in the first place, or if we still had them. All we do know is that these people did suffer and that is something that will never be forgotten.

Show More
Related

  • The Meaning Of July 4th For The Negro By Fredrick Douglass

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    After suffering the overwhelming ferociousness and inhumanity of being a slave for over two decades, a black man by the name of Fredrick Douglass fled from enslavement and began to make a concerted effort to advance himself as a human being. Combating many obstacles and resisting numerous temptations, Douglass worked assiduously to develop into a knowledgeable gentleman rather than the involuntary alternative of being an unenlightened slave. In doing so, Douglass successfully emerged as one of the Civil War era’s most prominent antislavery orators. From his first major public speech at the age of 23, Douglass became widely renowned as a premier spokesperson for Black slaves and the movement for the abolition of slavery. In one of Douglass’ most distinguished speeches, “The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro,” he uses the intermittent occasion of speaking on behalf of African Americans to a multitude of White Americans to outline arguments against slavery.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Audre Lorde And Brent Staples

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.

    Read More

  • Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Dubois

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.

    Read More

  • The Writings of Frederick Douglass and Phillis wheatley

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    The eyes of potential soul arose into the world in Senegambia, and half way around the world in Easton arisen a soul to be etched into the world forever. A girl , no , a woman I should say given the strength possessed in the soul of her body and mind and certainly a man , a man who will grow to learn fathoms of knowledge breaking the impenetrable minds of those who heard silence. These two were of separate shades although fused from one deep pigment. Two of the most renowned black writers that were for the abolitionist movement in America were Frederick Douglass and Phillis Wheatley. During the times of slavery, finding a literate black slave who could read the very words of a paper who could then think for themselves and stand up to show who they were , to speak with wisdom to tell off the silenced cowards who looked away at the reality of the world was rare . These two authors with bold spirits managed to write literature that inspired the minds of people to change. Wheatley would move her readers with a delicate, yet powerful literature while Douglass would use strong authoritative use of words. ……During the years of 1773 and 1845, works of perfection and meaning arose. In 1773 a work by Phillis Wheatley was published. A poem called “On Being Brought from Africa to America” that had described a doomed destiny but enclosed in a veil of liberation and sovereignty. Wheatley was one of the more passive writers. She knew she was a slave reckoned with no moral standing in the eyes of the whites, and she was aware of her place in society as against the whites. She knew the only way to grasp the attention of her readers was to enflame them in anger. When analyzing slavery...

    Read More

  • Response To 'The Life Of Fredrick Douglass'

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fredrick Douglass once said that “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” Douglass grew up as a slave and when he was 20 years old he took the riskiest journey of his life to escape from slavery. The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass has a lot of points to reflect on; however, here are couples I’ve found important. His autobiography gave a glimpse into the horrors of slavery. The author shares his experiences of seeing his aunt being beaten and not knowing anything even their own birthdates. He makes assumptions about the slave owners lives before becoming slave masters, and assumes the reader will have sympathy for the slaves and try to see their side.

    Read More

  • Reflections on Slavery: Individuals Born Into and Gew Up Under Slavery

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    This essay will summarize and reflect upon 5 individuals who were born into, and grew up in the United States of America under slavery. Lucinda Davis, Charity Anderson, Walter Calloway, Fountain Hughes and Richard Toley each have a compelling story to tell about the time when black Americans were not looked at as citizens and were not free to make decisions that were afforded to white Americans. Although their stories are brief and do not reflect all of the daily hardships that were faced by slaves during that time in our Nation’s history, they are, nonetheless, powerful in their message. Fearing above all else a beating that would result from a perceived act of disrespect, the fact that each of these individuals survived is an example of the human spirits desire to survive in the direst of situations and the ability to overcome insurmountable odds.

    Read More

  • Frances E. W. Harper and James Whitfield

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    Frances E.W. Harper and James Whitfield are two of the most influential anti-slavery poets of all time. Both individuals use poetry as a form of resistance and as a way to express themselves during a time of great racial tension. Their poems reach out to many different audiences, shedding light on racial injustices that were present in America. Harper’s and Whitfield’s poetry, like many other works that were written during this time, help us to better comprehend the effects of slavery on African Americans.

    Read More

  • Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Analysis

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reading these poems is an incredible learning experience because it allows readers to view segregation through the eyes of someone most affected by it. In the U.S. History course I took I didn’t take away the details and specific examples I did from reading and researching Brooks’ work. For example, the history textbook only mentioned one specific person who was affected by segregation, that person was Rosa Parks. The example of Rosa Parks demonstrated just one isolated incident of how black people were punished if they disobeyed the laws of segregation. In contrast, Brooks’ work demonstrates the everyday lives of black people living with segregation, which provides a much different perspective than what people are used to. An example, of this would be in Brooks’ poem “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”. The speaker of this poem hired a black maid and referred to her as “it”(103). By not using the maid’s name or using the pronoun her, the speaker is dehumanizing the maid. This poem expresses to readers that white people thought that black people weren’t like them, that they weren’t even

    Read More

  • Messages from Point of View in Langston Hughes’ I too

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because of that, his writing seems to manifest a greater meaning. He is part of the African-American race that is expressed in his writing. He writes about how he is currently oppressed, but this does not diminish his hope and will to become the equal man. Because he speaks from the point of view of an oppressed African-American, the poem’s struggles and future changes seem to be of greater importance than they ordinarily would. The point of view of being the oppressed African American is clearly evident in Langston Hughes’s writing.

    Read More

  • A Raisin in the Sun: The Duality of African-America, George Murchison and Joseph Asagai

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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...

    Read More

  • The Women 's Suffrage Movement

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through the history, women have always fought for their rights creating a new space for their participation as citizens. After the First World War during the 1920s and 1930s new histories of women suffragettes have been written. During that period of time some activist groups were created, for instance, the Edwardian women’s suffrage movement that created in women a ‘Suffragette Spirit’ with the same goals and purposes even with the same militant procedures such as radical feminism that involved hunger strike and forcible feeding. This argument have become controversial due to different points of view in recent years. Another samples are the formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), a group led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst under an autocratic system; Women’s Freedom League (WFL), a self-proclaimed militant organization and National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). These groups were formed in Britain giving way to creation of some texts that explain the actions of the feminist groups and were the basis to achieve the right of suffragettes. Furthermore, the author of this article talks about a second narrative published in 1914 by Constance Lytton that explain about her own experiences in a militant period and personal sacrifice in an attempt to vote. Finally, her experience of militancy had become the archetype of suffrage militancy. In addition, she became in a feminist and kept touch with important members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). According to Lytton (cited in Mayhall, 1995: 326) She said that whilst she felt sympathy towards men, children and even animals – those that she said were ‘down-trodden’ – she had completely ‘been blind to the particular sufferings ...

    Read More

  • America, by Claude McKay

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality, only to find out that at this time equality for blacks does not exist. It is written for fellow black men, in an effort to make them understand that the American dream is not something to abandon hope in, but something to fight for. The struggle of putting up with the racist mistreatment is evident even in the first four lines:

    Read More

  • Black History Importance

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    The time has come again to celebrate the achievements of all black men and women who have chipped in to form the Black society. There are television programs about the African Queens and Kings who never set sail for America, but are acknowledged as the pillars of our identity. In addition, our black school children finally get to hear about the history of their ancestors instead of hearing about Columbus and the founding of America. The great founding of America briefly includes the slavery period and the Antebellum south, but readily excludes both black men and women, such as George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, and Mary Bethune. These men and women have contributed greatly to American society. However, many of us only know brief histories regarding these excellent black men and women, because many of our teachers have posters with brief synopses describing the achievements of such men and women. The Black students at this University need to realize that the accomplishments of African Americans cannot be limited to one month per year, but should be recognized everyday of every year both in our schools and in our homes.

    Read More

  • Harlem by Langston Hughes

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    the life of Harlem and knew that equality and freedom was definitely not present. The poem portrays

    Read More

  • Comparing Poems 'I, Too And' Theme For English B

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.

    Read More

More about African American Suffrage

Open Document