Chapter 7: The Making of African Americans in a White America

1. Chapter 7:The Making of African Americans in a White America

2. Slavery • The experience of African-Americans has been shaped by the institution of slavery and its oppression • Most slaves were from Northwestern African societies and were diverse in • language • kinship systems • economic systems • political systems

3. Slavery • Slavery and its justifying ideology emerged out of Western Colonialism • statutory recognition of slavery • came about in 1668 • Ideology of slavery and the slave codes were invented primarily to maintain the subjugation of Africans

4. Slave Codes 1. A slave could not marry or even meet with a free Black. 2. Marriage between slaves was not legally recognized. 3. A slave could not legally buy or sell anything except by special arrangement. 4. A slave could not possess weapons or liquor. 5. A slave could not quarrel with or use abusive language toward Whites.

5. Slave Codes 6. A slave could not make a will or inherit property. 7. A slave could not leave a plantation without a pass. 8. A slave could not testify in court except against another slave. 9. And others

6. Slavery’s Aftermath • The period of reconstruction 1867-1877 • Military Governors put in place during transition • Blacks given full participation in the political process • Fifteenth Amendment ratified 1870 – no discrimination based on race, color or previous condition of servitude

7. Slavery’s Aftermath • The emergence of segregation laws (Jim Crow) • Supreme court decisions and segregation • Plessy v. Ferguson – “separate, but equal” • Williams v. Mississippi – poll taxes, literacy tests, and residential requirements to discourage blacks from voting • White primary elections – only whites could vote in primaries, thus taking away black power of the vote

8. Reparations For Slavery • Slavery reparations- act of making amends for the injustices of slavery • An official apology • Financial compensation • Corporations that benefit from slavery and financial compensation • Commission to study appropriate remedies

9. The Challenge of Black Leadership Booker T. Washington • Born a slave on a Virginia plantation • He was the head of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama • Politics of accommodation - compromise • Goals of self-help and economic self-determination

10. The Challenge of Black Leadership W.E.B. DuBois • Born to a free family in Massachusetts • First African-American to receive a Doctorate from Harvard • Niagara Movement - racism defined as the problem of Whites • Advocated the policy of the “talented tenth”

11. The Challenge of Black Leadership • DuBois - the NAACP emerged from the influence of the Niagara Movement • Black consciousness “Soul of Black Folks” • Du Bois and Atlanta University • Study of African Americans in the South

12. The Exodus Northward • A Demographic shift of Blacks, occurred from the South to the West and North during the early part of the Twentieth Century due to: 1. The search for a better economic opportunities • Life in the North was economically better than in the agrarian South 2. Escape racial apartheid and violence in the South (e.g., Emmett Till)

13. The Civil Rights Movement • Desegregation of public schools. • De jure (“by law”) segregation • NAACP - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, and U. S. Supreme Court decision • James Meredith (1962), the first African-American accepted into the University of Mississippi

14. Figure 7-3 Major Events of the Civil Rights Movement

15. Civil Disobedience • Rosa Parks - December 1, 1955 and the Montgomery Alabama bus boycott • Martin Luther King, Jr. - headed the Montgomery Improvement Association • King and civil disobedience as means to bring about political and real change • People have the right (moral duty) to disobey unjust laws

16. King’s Strategy • Active non violent resistance to evil • Win over one’s opponents and gain their friendship • Attack the evil rather than the people • Accept suffering w/out retaliation • Refuse to hate one’s opponent • Act with conviction

17. Urban Violence and Oppression • Explaining violence 1. Riff-raff theory of violence - that only a small group of undesirables is involved 2.Relative Deprivation and Rising Expectations • Riots stem from rising frustration because of relative deprivation and the lack of perceived or real opportunities

18. Black Power • Black consciousness and power movement emerged out of continued deprivation • Black Power movement of the 1960’s - (Charmichael) primary focus was on political and economic self determination • Black Pride • Black Panther Party - founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California

19. The Religious Force • Religion has always been a source of political change and spiritual strength from slavery to the present • Most African Americans are overwhelmingly Protestant (81.8%) • The Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, has attracted a large number of followers and received the most attention

20. Figure 7-5 Religious Profile of African Americans