Baldwin's Views on Struggles of Blacks in America

1533 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of European imperialism in Africa

Same Story, Different Continents

During the late 1950?s and early 1960?s, many African nations were struggling for their independence from Europe. In ?Down at the Cross,? James Baldwin relates this struggle to that of blacks in the United States during the same time period, and there are far more similarities than Baldwin mentions. Although this comparison offers hope, demonstrating the power of blacks over white oppressors, the ongoing European presence in Africa is a painful reminder that independence and freedom are not complete.

Since the 1880?s, when European nations colonized Africa, Europe had almost complete control over the continent, but this changed during the 1950?s and 60?s. By 1958, ten African countries had gained their independence, and sixteen more joined the list in 1960 alone. Although these nations? gain of independence demonstrates the ability of blacks to overpower their white oppressors, Baldwin argues ?The word ?independence? in Africa and the word ?integration? here are almost equally meaningless; that is, Europe has not yet left Africa, and black men here are not yet free? (336). While black people had been legally free in the United States since 1863, two decades before the European colonization of Africa, they were still not truly free, almost a century later.

The absence of true freedom is apparent in Baldwin?s other essays, in which he writes about the rampant prejudice and discrimination of the 1950?s and 60?s. Blacks during this time were limited as to where they could live, go to school, use the bathroom, eat, and drink. ?Such were the cases of a Nigerian second secretary who was rebuffed last week when he tried to order breakfast in Charlottesville, VA, and a Ghanaian second secret...

... middle of paper ...

.... The National Park Service. 17 Mar. 2004 .

?Lumumba Moved; Reported Beaten.? New York Times 19 Jan. 1961: 7.

McLaughlin, Kathleen. ?U.N. Jobs Easing Plight in Congo? New York Times 22 Jan. 1961: 8.

?New Money Set for South Africa? New York Times 16 Jan. 1961: 2.

Power Struggle. Revolutionary Suicide: Controlling the Myth of Huey P. Newton. 17 Mar. 2004 .

Schmidt, Dana Adams. ?Africans Protest Prejudice in U.S.? New York Times 21 Jan. 1961: 4.

Tanner, Henry. ?Mali President Calls on Nation To Fight ?Foreign Subversion.?? New York Times 16 Jan. 1961: 2.

The Tripartite Invasion, 1956. About.com. 5 Mar. 2004 .

?U.N. Shuns Effort in Lumumba Case.? New York Times 20 Jan. 1961: 3.

Show More
Related

  • Baldwin's Insights of History in Notes of a Native Son

    1733 Words  | 4 Pages

    Baldwin makes certain readers understand the states of the issue at once; his essay starts by describing his father’s funeral in the aftermath of the Harlem riots of 1943. Baldwin states, “As we drove him to the graveyard, the spoils of injustice, anarchy, discountent, and hatred were all around us. It seemed to me that God himself had devised, to mark my father’s end, the most sustained and brutally dissonant of codas” (63). Yet as Baldwin mourned the death of his father, he celebrated the birth of his yo...

    Read More

  • Essay On The Poisonwood Bible

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alas, in 1961 Patrice Lumumba was assassinated by a US- sponsored plot 7 months after independence, and replaced him with a “puppet dictator named Mobutu” (Kingsolver). In her book, Barbara Kingsolver surfaces a forgotten part of our nation’s history in the exploitation of the Congo through her main characters, the Price family, who are missionaries sent to the Kilanga village. Through characters’ narratives that “double as allegories for the uneasy colonial marriage between the West and Africa” (Hamilton, Jones), Kingsolver creates a relatable way for her readers to understand the theme she is trying to convey, which is “‘what did we do to Africa, and how do we feel about it?’” (Snyder). Kingsolver began with this theme and developed the rest of the novel around it, just as she does with her other works, and sticking with her trademark technique, she utilizes her book as a vessel for “political activism, an extension of the anti-Vietnam protests” she participated in college (Snyder).

    Read More

  • Baldwin's Argumentative Essay: Baldwin Vs. Buckley

    430 Words  | 1 Pages

    American dream at the expense of the American’s Negros. Debate between Baldwin and Buckley. Baldwin was a superior persuasive and an intelligent man. Although, the audience were white college students who looks life Buckley, Baldwin was speaking confidently. He states about the black free labor in 1960s in America. As he states in the debate, America’s road, ports, cities and the economy was built by free labor of black people. However, they do not have fundamental right as human being. They are murdered, arrested, and suffered terribly by white people. He strongly described that black people in Selma, Alabama were brutally beaten. Therefore, the white people treated black people not as a citizen of the country, they treat

    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

  • Baldwin's Perspective in Notes of a Native Son

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    Born in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin grew to be a complex man with many aspects. As an avid reader as a child, Baldwin soon developed the skills to become one of the most talented and strong writers of his time. His first novel was written in 1953 and was called “Go Tell it On the Mountain” and received critical acclaim. More great work from this novelist, essayist, and playwright were to come, one of which was “Notes of a Native Son,” which was first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1955 and was also first known as “Me and My House.” In “Notes of a Native Son,” Baldwin exercises his many talents as an essayist in how he manages to weave narratives and arguments throughout the essay. He is also able to use many of his experiences to prove his points. Baldwin effectively interlaces his narratives, arguments, and experiences so as to reach his central idea and to advocate the overall moral that he has learned to his audience. This is what makes Baldwin so unique in his work: his ability to successfully moralize all people he comes in contact with.

    Read More

  • Baldwin's Father in Notes of a Native Son

    1668 Words  | 4 Pages

    Baldwin’s father died a broken and ruined man on July 29th, 1943. This only paralleled the chaos occurring around him at the time, such as the race riots of Detroit and Harlem which Baldwin describes to be as “spoils of injustice, anarchy, discontent, and hatred.” (63) His father was born in New Orleans, the first generation of “free men” in a land where “opportunities, real and fancied, are thicker than anywhere else.” (63) Although free from slavery, African-Americans still faced the hardships of racism and were still oppressed from any opportunities, which is a factor that led Baldwin’s father to going mad and eventually being committed. Baldwin would also later learn how “…white people would do anything to keep a Negro down.” (68) For a preacher, there was little trust and faith his father ...

    Read More

  • James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" demonstrates his complex and unique relationship with his father. Baldwin's relationship with his father is very similar to most father-son relationships but the effect of racial discrimination on the lives of both, (the father and the son) makes it distinctive. At the outset, Baldwin accepts the fact that his father was only trying to look out for him, but deep down, he cannot help but feel that his father was imposing his thoughts and experiences on him. Baldwin's depiction of his relationship with his father while he was alive is full of loathing and detest for him and his ideologies, but as he matures, he discovers his father in himself. His father's hatred in relation to the white American society had filled him with hatred towards his father. He realizes that the hatred inside both of them has disrupted their lives.

    Read More

  • Role of Blacks in the American Revolutionary War

    2182 Words  | 5 Pages

    Egerton, Douglas R. Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

    Read More

  • Chicago Race Riots

    2859 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Bill of Rights, which were made to protect the citizenship of the African-American, thereby granting him the protection that each American citizen gained in the Constitution, there were no means to enforce these civil rights. People found ways to go around them, and thus took away the rights of African-Americans. In 1919, racial tensions between the black and white communities in Chicago erupted, causing a riot to start. This resulted from the animosity towards the growing black community of Chicago, which provided competition for housing and jobs. Mistrust between the police and black community in Chicago only lent violence as an answer to their problems, leading to a violent riot. James Baldwin, an essayist working for true civil rights for African-Americans, gives first-hand accounts of how black people were mistreated, and conveys how racial tensions built up antagonism in his essays “Notes of a Native Son,” and “Down at the Cross.”

    Read More

  • Booker T Washington And Du Bois Analysis

    1372 Words  | 3 Pages

    The United States after the Civil War was still not an entirely safe place for African-Americans, especially in the South. Many of the freedoms other Americans got to enjoy were still largely limited to African-Americans at the time. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois emerged as black leaders. Their respective visions for African-American society were different however. This paper will argue that Du Bois’s vision for American, although more radical at the time, was essential in the rise of the African-American society and a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement.

    Read More

  • Victimhood and Identity in Black America

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    The topic of the book is how black America is on the wrong path and how it needs to be fixed. One of the problems that are stated in the book is the cultural of blackness treats victimhood not as a problem to be solved but an identity to be nurtured. Separatism is also a problem that encourages black Americans to see black people as superior, which the rules other Americans are expected to follow are suspended out of a belief that victimhood lets them be exempt from them. The author sought to accomplish getting black America back on track. He suggests that it will require some profound adjustments in black identity.

    Read More

  • A Review on the Works of James Baldwin

    1343 Words  | 3 Pages

    The works of James Baldwin are directly related to the issues of racism, religion and personal conflicts, and sexuality and masculinity during Baldwin's years.James Baldwin's works, both fiction and nonfiction were in some instance a direct reflection his life. Through close interpretation you can combine his work to give a "detailed" look into his actual life. However since most writings made by him are all considered true works of literature we can't consider them to be of autobiographical nature.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Black Awakening by Robert L. Allen

    1871 Words  | 4 Pages

    Allen goes on to explain and support his views on black neocolonialism. He does so by illustrating his views of black power, from the original conception of the term, and the history of effort towards giving the black community political influence. Continuing from this ...

    Read More

  • Wendell Phillips' Speech on Toussaint-Louverture

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a debate in 1851, famed abolitionist Wendell Phillips presented a moving and forceful argument for acceptance of African Americans into the military by telling the story of the Haitian general, Toussaint-Louverture. Phillips' message survives today, over a century later, not only as a tribute to the hero who rose from slavery to create the first black republic, but also as a compelling statement against racial discrimination. Expertly using a mix of literary devices, including juxtaposition, irony, metaphor, and personification, Phillips enables his audience to see, through the lens of the orator's mind, the ideals that he promotes.

    Read More

  • Baldwin's My Dungeon Shook: A Letter to my Nephew

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Baldwin’s letter was addressed to his nephew, he intended for society as a whole to be affected by it. “This innocent country set you down in a getto in which, in fact, it intended that you should parish”(Baldwin 244). This is an innocent country, innocent only because they know not what they do. They discriminate the African American by expecting them to be worthless, by not giving them a chance to prove their credibility. Today African Americans are considered to be disesteemed in society. They are placed in this class before they are even born just like Royalty obtains their class before they are even conceived. We may think that this is a paradox but when d...

    Read More

More about Baldwin's Views on Struggles of Blacks in America

Open Document