A Reflection of the Treatment of African Americans in the 1920's and 30's

1389 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: essay about segregation in america

In the time between World War I and World War II, African Americans faced many forms of discrimination. After World War I, during the 1920's, some 800,000 African Americans moved north to cities such as Detroit, New York City and Chicago due to the harsh treatment they faced in the South. However, the North was not free of bigotry. Langston Hughes, a famous African American poet and author, wrote many poems describing the treatment of African Americans and their struggle to survive. Hughes' poems reflect the treatment of African Americans in the 1920's and 30's in a very realistic manner regarding: education, housing, and racist organizations.

During the 1920's and 30's educational opportunities for African Americans were becoming more available than ever before. Between 1915 and 1930, "hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved northward" due to "job opportunities and the prospect of higher wages" (Boyer, 1995, 603). In Northern cities, the economic and educational opportunities were greater than in the South. "African Americans went to the North with great hope. But for many, life in the North proved harsh" (Boyer, 1995, 604). However, during the 1920's and 30's, the rural South was tainted with hatred toward African Americans. Many of the white residents still saw African Americans as slaves and not as equals. They believed they were `superior' because they were white. In the North, education was required to maintain jobs. Despite the racism African Americans faced, they had a better chance of getting education in the north than in the south. With the Great Depression weighing down the economy, and president Hoover's "idea that success comes through individual effort ...

... middle of paper ...

... place, organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) started up, signifying how the African Americans were tired of being `stepped on' and how they fought against lynching and discrimination against African Americans; mainly due to the actions of the Ku Klux Klan.

All in all, Hughes' poems reflect the treatment of African Americans in the 1920's and 30's in a very realistic manner regarding: education, housing, and racist organizations. He describes the situations in his poems the way they actually took place in reality. He does not over dramatize them, or make up events. His portrayal is accurate, and the events he describes actually took place. Therefore, one can see, through Hughes' poems, how the plight of the African Americans was dealing with the racial discrimination in all aspects of their life.

Show More
Related

  • 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

  • Langston Hughes: Dream Emerged During The Harlem Renaissance

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    It’s no secret that inequality and racial discriminations were high back in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Langston Hughes was able to use his work to counterattack this way of thinking in America. He not only led a movement, but also set an example for others to follow. In the poems I stated above, you can tell the Harlem Renaissance influences on his

    Read More

  • Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBoise

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    The NAACP was a coalition of black and white radicals which sought to remove legal barriers to full citizenship for Negroes.

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes Biography Essay

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like most, the stories we hear as children leave lasting impacts in our heads and stay with us for lifetimes. Hughes was greatly influenced by the stories told by his grandmother as they instilled a sense of racial pride that would become a recurring theme in his works as well as become a staple in the Harlem Renaissance movement. During Hughes’ prominence in the 20’s, America was as prejudiced as ever and the African-American sense of pride and identity throughout the U.S. was at an all time low. Hughes took note of this and made it a common theme to put “the everyday black man” in most of his stories as well as using traditional “negro dialect” to better represent his African-American brethren. Also, at this time Hughes had major disagreements with members of the black middle class, such as W.E.B. DuBois for trying to assimilate and promote more european values and culture, whereas Hughes believed in holding fast to the traditions of the African-American people and avoid having their heritage be whitewashed by black intellectuals.

    Read More

  • All Hail to the NAACP

    315 Words  | 1 Pages

    All hail to the to the NAACP- making sure equality is enforced, and social injustice does not prevail. “Founded in 1909 in New York, by a group of black and white citizens in order to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States and eliminate racial prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic process.” (www.NAACP.org)

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The NAACP And The UNIA

    414 Words  | 1 Pages

    The NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Originally, the NAACP was called the Niagara Movement and it was founded it 1905 by W.E.B. Du Bois. The goal of the NAACP was for political and economical justice for African Americans. The NAACP believed blacks and whites were one and the same and wanted racial integration. For the most part, the NAACP membership was limited to the middle class just as other progressive organizations were. “Drawing members from both the white and black communities, the NAACP mounted legal challenges to segregation and

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes and Poetry

    2394 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” –Edgar Allan Poe. Poetry is one of the world’s greatest wonders. It is a way to tell a story, raise awareness of a social or political issue, an expression of emotions, an outlet, and last but not least it is an art. Famous poet Langston Hughes uses his poetry as a musical art form to raise awareness of social injustices towards African-Americans during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Although many poets share similarities with one another, Hughes creatively crafted his poetry in a way that was only unique to him during the 1920’s. He implemented different techniques and styles in his poetry that not only helped him excel during the 1920’s, but has also kept him relative in modern times. Famous poems of his such as a “Dream Deferred,” and “I, Too, Sing America” are still being studied and discussed today. Due to the cultural and historical events occurring during the 1920’s Langston Hughes was able to implement unique writing characteristics such as such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues that is demonstrative of his writing style. Langston Hughes use of distinct characteristics such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues helped highlight the plights of African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance Era.

    Read More

  • Treatment Of African Americans: 1865-1895

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the span of thirty years from 1865 to 1895 blacks that lived within this time frame went through arguably the most profound series of events to occur in African American history. Southern blacks were faced with prejudice, bondage, slavery, and ultimately survival. Shortly after the thirteenth amendment was ratified, stating that: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

    Read More

  • Historical Poems

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...nly country to force the race into slavery, they were just the last to free the slaves, and also had the worst treatment for the blacks. For years races were discriminated in the country of America, and it still this way today. Poets such as Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, and Colleen McElroy were evolutionary poets who wrote about their desire for freedom and equal treatment. Langston Hughes poems were more about the building up of the tension that existed in all of his people who were ready to start fighting for their freedom. Colleen McElroy wrote about how the blacks in America still were apart of there past because of the color of their skin and simply just because of where they were from. Lucille Clifton wrote about the desire for the recognition her race and all of the other races of America, besides the Whites, would finally be appreciated for their work.

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance: Reflections on African American Life

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem tells of a young black with a writing assignment in which he must simple write a page on whatever he wants. Hughes uses the narrator in this poem to give some insight on the obstacles that he believed stood in his path while he was trying to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. The speaker tells the audience that he is in college and that “I am the only colored student in my class” (Hughes line 10). During that time period, it was very rare for anyone of color to participate in higher education. The speaker tells us he is from the Harlem area, and he identifies with the people of Harlem just as Harlem identifies with him. Hughes understood the feelings and everyday lives of the people of Harlem, New York, and gave his fictional speaker those same understandings. The writer tells his audience of his feelings towards the white American population when he says, “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like / the same things other folks like who are other races” (lines 25-26). Hughes’s used his speaker to explain how black and whites both want to be writers, but blacks are put at a disadvantage due to the social differences of the two. Langston Hughes wanted his readers to understand the cultural differences of people of color and people on non-color. Jeannine Johnson asserts that “for Hughes, poetry is to some degree about self-expression and self-exploration, especially when the "self" is understood to mark the identity of an individual who is always affected by and affecting a larger culture.” One of the most noted portions of this poem is when the speaker tells his instructor, “You are white / yet a part of me, as I am a part of you / That’s American” (lines 31-33). These lines tell the reader that although whites and blacks have their differences, that regardless of race they are both American. Hughes uses

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes And The Harlem Renaissance

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the advantages of how he wrote his poetry is that it can take hold of people by exemplifying his accounts of the everyday life that the disenfranchised experience. Hughes took on the injustices that other dared no to speak of. He wrote about how the African-American people of the 1920’s suffered the plight of racial inequality. In many cases I believe that Hughes used his writing as an instrument of change. In “Come to the Waldorf-Astoria” (506) Hughes tackles the drastic disparity between wealthy whites and the African Americans of the 1930’s. This piece displays an unconventional style for a poem; using satire to capture the reader’s attention. By using this satiric form of poetry Hughes is able to play on the emotions of the white reader, while at the same time inspiring the black readers. Hughes is constantly comparing the luxuries of the Waldorf-Astoria to the hardships that the African American people were experiencing. “It's cold as he...

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes' Poetry

    810 Words  | 2 Pages

    The contradiction of being both black and American was a great one for Hughes. Although this disparity was troublesome, his situation as such granted him an almost begged status; due to his place as a “black American” poet, his work was all the more accessible. Hughes’ black experience was sensationalized. Using his “black experience” as a façade, however, Hughes was able to obscure his own torments and insecurities regarding his ambiguous sexuality, his parents and their relationship, and his status as a public figure.

    Read More

  • How Does Langston Hughes Use Strength In Mother To Son

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Mother to Son, explained the importance of the woman, light and darkness and strength in the African-American community. Hughes made a very clear and concise statement in focusing on women and the power they hold, light and darkness, and strength. Did his poems properly display the feelings of African-American’s in that time period? It is apparent that Hughes felt a sense of pride in his culture and what they had to endure. After all “Life ain’t been no crystal stair!”(Norton, Line 2, 2028)

    Read More

  • Comparing the Poetry of Lanston Hughes and Countee Cullen

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    During this era African Americans were facing the challenges of accepting their heritage or ignoring outright to claim a different lifestyle for their day to day lives. Hughes and Cullen wrote poems that seemed to describe themselves, or African Americans, who had accepted their African Heritage and who also wanted to be a part of American heritage as well. These are some of the things they have in common, as well as what is different about them based on appearance, now I shall focus on each author individually and talk about how they are different afterwards.

    Read More

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

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    The point of view of being the oppressed African American is clearly evident in Langston Hughes’s writing. The author states, “I am the darker brother” (2.2) Here Hughes is clearly speaking on behalf of the African American race because during the early and mid 1900’s African American were oppressed because of their darker skin color. No where in the writing does Hughes mention the word racism, segregation, discrimination. No where in the poem are words like Civil Rights Movement or Harlem Renaissance read. Yet, the reader knows exactly what Langston Hughes is referring to. This is because the writing talks about a darker brother being told to eat somewhere else. This leads the reader to put the point of view of the poem into play. Because it talks of such a brother and because Hughes’s was a revolutionary poet who constantly wrote on the struggles of the black man, then the reader is able to easily interpret the poem as a cry for the African-American man. Langston Hughes’s writing as an African American then makes the narration very probable and realistic.

    Read More

More about A Reflection of the Treatment of African Americans in the 1920's and 30's

Open Document