Due to the racial discrimination that limited their opportunities, Black Americans have developed diverse skills to connect their creative work with their political activities and culture through many intellectual pursuit, including arts, music, and religion. All African Americans share the experiences of the forcible uprooting of their people from the African continent, followed by the quest for their freedom and liberation. African-Americans’ idea of expressing their desire for literacy, longing for identity, pain of exclusion and the assertion of their right have been the key factor by which many Black Americans developed the use of their talents to contribute to the development of the Black race and the retention of their culture. Even though Black Americans, by environmental influences, used to do arts and other related works only, they are actually able to successfully do professional jobs in many fields. It is in this way that Elijah J. McCoy’s skills in mechanics contributed to the phenomenon of re-connectedness and the continued struggle towards freedom of Black Americans.
McCoy was born on May 2, 1844, in Colchester, Ontario, Canada, to George and Mildred Goins McCoy. He was raised by fugitive slave parents with his eleven brothers and sisters. McCoy’s interest in mechanics started at his young age. An article titled Elijah McCoy found in “The biography channel” points out, “Beginning at a young age, Elijah McCoy showed a strong interest in mechanics. His parents arranged for him to travel to Scotland at the age of 15 for an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering”. Being raised under slavery conditions and having interest in mechanics confirms the natural intelligence of McCoy. Because of his life conditions, McCoy s...
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...ere, before enslavement, they were good at everything within their native land.
Generally, McCoy’s invention contributed to the continuing quest for freedom of Black Americans. This is because his capability of inventing new things frees Black Americans from whites’ mindset of being inferior and unable of thinking or running their own business and then after aspires them to struggle for their full freedom by working hard as they are able of living without interference of white people’s control. Through hard working, usage of his talent and the refusal of giving up make McCoy a contributor to the phenomenon of re-connectedness and the continued struggle towards freedom of Black Americans.
Works Cited
“Elijah McCoy.” 2014. The Biography Channel website. Web. Mar 20 2014.
Bellis, Mary. “Elijah McCoy (1844 - 1929)”. 2014. About.com. Web. 20 March 20, 2014.
Emory Douglas was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, until 1951 when he and his mother relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. At the time San Francisco was the hub of African American organizations that arranged events aimed at overthrowing the social injustices within the Bay Area’s black communities. As a minor immersed within the community Douglas became captivated by Charles Wilbert White, an African American social realist artist whom created various monochrome sketches and paintings, “transforming American scenes into iconic modernist narratives.” Not long after, Douglas was incarcerated at the Youth Training School in Ontario, California where he spent countless hours working in the penitentiary’s printery. It was not until the mid-1960’s when Douglas registered in the City College of San Francisco, majoring in commercial art and graphic design. Soon after, Douglas went to a Black Panthers rally, where he encountered Bobby Seale and Huey Newton; during ...
The people of the black culture need a motivating force behind their community. They need a black aesthetic to motivate them and incline them to support the revolution. The black aesthetic itself will not be enough to motivate the people; they will need black art to help them understand what they are supporting. The art in the black culture needs an aesthetic to get the message across to its viewers and allow them to understand the meaning behind pieces of artwork. One of Ron Karenga’s points is how people need to respond positively to the artwork because it then shows that the artist got the main idea to the audience and helps to motivate them to support the revolution. In “Black Cultural Nationalism”, the author, Ron Karenga, argues that
George Schuyler’s article “The Negro Art Hokum” argues that the notion of African-American culture as separate from national American culture is nonsense. To Schuyler, all seemingly distinct elements of African-American culture and artistic endeavors from such are influenced by the dominant white American culture, and therefore, only American. The merit of Schuyler’s argument stems from the fact that it is practically impossible for one culture to exist within the confines of another without absorbing certain characteristics. The problem with Schuyler’s argument that Langston Hughes notes in his response article, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” is that it assumes complete assimilation of African-Americans by a singular national culture. Fundamental to Hughes’ rebuttal is the allowance of a unique African-American culture extant of the standards of a singular American cultural identity. For Hughes, this unique culture lies within the working-class, out of sight of the American national culture. This culture, while neither completely African nor American, maintains the vibrant and unique roots of the African-American experience. Schuyler advocates cultural assimilation, while Hughes promotes cultural pluralism, in which minority cultures maintain their distinctive qualities in the face of a dominant national identity.
African Americans’ ancestors were chained, shrouded in death and pain they were dragged on long journeys across the sea from their home to work till their very last breath on fields run by colonists. With slavery being the foundation for African Americans, what circumstanc...
Johnson's primary concerns were with the black writer. This included what the black author needs to know and what he must do in order to produce quality work. Johnson's ideas on blackness and the black author can be summarized in four statements: (1) black people have made significant contributions to American culture (2) black writers, to achieve thier best results, should treat black materials in their works (3) black people possess a unique racial spirit which can best be represented in literature by black writers, and (4) black w...
When slaves were brought from Africa to the United States, they were stripped of their human rights and forced into a life of oppression. The conditions of harsh labor led them to resort to different forms of resistance to help them cope with the reality of the situation. One of the ways the slaves found resistance was through their culture. Culture helped the slaves stay resilient because it was all they managed to hold on to after they had been removed from their home in Africa and were forced to develop in their new home. Besides this, culture was a way to secretly protest and criticize slavery without having the slave owners punish them. The songs, stories, and art by the Africans were all used as forms of resistance. Despite the traumatizing effects of inequality, African Americans were able to rise as a community within their workplace and spread the hope they found in their songs, their folktales, and in their artwork.
Boser, Ulrich. "The Black Man's Burden." U.S. News & World Report 133.8 (2002): 50. Academic
The culture was highly influenced but it also influenced the american culture as a whole. The United states and the African American community has had a plentiful of conflicts in the past as well as the present. Historical accounts of slavery and segregation have caused a riff between a race and a country. From the justice system to the education system, african americans have always been given the short end of the stick. In terms of justice, the united states is seen as a prison country. According to naacp.org “Today, the US is 5% of the World population and has 25% of world prisoners.” the united states is no stranger to prisons. Yet, the overwhelming amount of african american youths and people in general is eye opening. “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population”(naacp) and “Nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice). Socially, times have improved for the african american community. Yet, statistics draw attention to a bigger picture. The black power movement and the symbol of the black fist serve a purpose. The purpose is to never forget where a people has come from and how far is left to go. The first is an engine that never stops, it fuels the fire of many americans who have felt the weight of oppression and who still feel it in the 21st
For African Americans, gaining freedom has been a hard struggle. Through the Civil Rights Movement that continued well into the 1970s, African Americans fought to gain rights that would allow them the most basic privileges. Though not enslaved anymore, African Americans quickly learned that freedom was not as easy or what they thought it would be. “Freedom” was a white man’s life that included equality within all aspects of life and no discrimination. After returning from war, African American men began to want more equal rights and opportunities, they expected justice form the country that they had fought for. This included the right to vote, citizenship, and desegregation. For every black man and woman, no opportunity was simply given. If they were accepted, it was with criticism and discrimination. With the new freedom that disco music gave black artists, they began to have more options within society. With Disco, black men were given the opportunity to become more than the stereotype. They brought forth a new sophistication, masculinity and sexuality that allowed black “soul music” to create a stake for itself in popular culture and the music industry. “Disco provided a partial map of black America’s shifting relationship to masculinity, upward mobility, and politics in the post-civil rights era.” Their music, though many times seen as a form of conformity and a rip-off of pop music, gave them a presence. It allowed them to “move beyond stultifying racial categorizations that confined them.” No longer were they confined to the accepted stereotype of a male; they started be seen as smooth, lovable, and sexual, everything women wanted and began to respond to. While their music gave men new freedom, many people criticized thei...
Knowledge is a primary factor in the attainment of personal freedom. This includes not only scholarly education but also awareness of historical heritage and familial legacy. The fact that African-Americans were held in human bondage cannot be forgotten; it has to be remembered and passed on through rememory. Moreover, literacy gives minority cultures a voice to reach out to others with encouragement and hope.
The aspect of African-American Studies is key to the lives of African-Americans and those involved with the welfare of the race. African-American Studies is the systematic and critical study of the multidimensional aspects of Black thought and practice in their current and historical unfolding (Karenga, 21). African-American Studies exposes students to the experiences of African-American people and others of African descent. It allows the promotion and sharing of the African-American culture. However, the concept of African-American Studies, like many other studies that focus on a specific group, gender, and/or creed, poses problems. Therefore, African-American Studies must overcome the obstacles in order to improve the state of being for African-Americans.
The sympathetic humanist might bristle at first, but would eventually concur. For it's hard to argue with poverty. At the time the novel was published (1912), America held very few opportunities for the Negro population. Some of the more successful black men, men with money and street savvy, were often porters for the railroads. In other words the best a young black man might hope for was a position serving whites on trains. Our protagonist--while not adverse to hard work, as evidenced by his cigar rolling apprenticeship in Jacksonville--is an artist and a scholar. His ambitions are immense considering the situation. And thanks to his fair skinned complexion, he is able to realize many, if not all, of them.
Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” The Black Aesthetic. Ed. Addison Gayle, Jr.New York: Doubleday &Company, Inc., 1971. 272 - 290.
Jim Crow laws, a serious blemish on America’s legislative history, were measures enacted in the South to impose racial segregation. Beyond this, they were a code that allowed, and essentially encouraged, the disenfranchisement and oppression of African Americans. With such a cruel ordinance in place, African Americans had to learn to adjust their mannerisms and lifestyles accordingly in order to survive. However, this learning process was far from effortless or painless, as evidenced through Richard Wright’s work “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”. This piece is paramount in understanding the African American personality and response during the Jim Crow laws, as well as for comparing today’s society to those especially trying times.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.