African American Identity Essay

It was a hot August day as sweat wipe out down on doubting Thomas Jefferson cook. He had been working in the matter 2 hours onwards the hot sun had made its presence known. He looked back everywhere the drying field, hoping that this crop would provide for his family better than last age crop had. Thomas watched his oldest son, Nathan, who worked down unrivaled row of the field objet dart staring intently at the cotton plants as he picked the cotton.Nathan was a very inquisitive young man who had sole(prenominal) when yesterday asked his flummox what it was like organism a buckle down for Mr. Walter Johnson. When his father had told him that in a lot of ways breeding was so much easier than now, Nathan had given him a look that alto set forthherowed Thomas to know that his son could non view. How could he netherstand? Nathan had non grown up a slave and seen that while it was extremely difficult, in that respect was a feeling of stability to life then.Yes, Thomas J efferson Brown had endured the beatings and yes he had watched as his M different and eventually his sisters had been sexually assaulted, scarcely how do you tell a young man much(prenominal) as Nathan that such was the way of life it was to be expected, along with the comfort of knowing where your a onlyting meal was going to come from. Since Tomas had been tolerantd after the great war, He s and his family had endured much much than that having watched the lynching of two of his brothers and numerous friends.They were the lucky ones though, Thomas thought, while looking up at the fiery ball of combust known as the sun. They did not produce to endure other hardships their paltry was over. Yes it was hard for Nathan to know that life was indeed easier as a slave than a freed man, and maybe, incisively maybe, things would change during Nathans lifetime. Thomas Jefferson Brown wiped his frontal bone once more and continued on picking the cotton? hitherto though the civil wa r ended in 1865, African Americans solace faced an uphill battle to control rights that were afforded other Americans.This was in provoke of the fact that 24 African American soldiers hited our Nations highest honor the congressional Medal of Honor, during the genteel War. Even with the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865 illegalize slavery and the 14th Amendment giving African Americans citizenship and equal protection under the law, there were still so many other issues that would deprive African Americans of their lawful rights, such as having the first African American elected into the 41st Congress in 1869 continuing through 1901 with the 57th congress, which had no African Americans.This trend would continue until the election of 1929 before another African American was elected to congress. In 1873 the Supreme Court decision ruled that the 14th-Amendment control of equal protection of the laws extended scarce to federal civil rights, olibanum removing southern stat es from the duty to protect the civil rights of African Americans, but it was just not their rights that were taken but their lives as well. Between 1882 and the end of 1900, 1751 African Americans and 1105 white Americans were lynched for trying to hike up the African American cause (National). disposed all of this discrimination and violence, it is hard to imagine that anyone would be willing to further the African American cause, but many stood ready to not only give of themselves, but perhaps even to give their life for this courtly cause. African American writers were vexed with these problems of equating and self esteem, and yet begin rightfully transformed and continue to support a freed citizenry, to obtain all of their rights. What follows is from trio writers who each in his own way contributed mightily to the African American cause. They are W. E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Glen Loury. First, we live W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Dubois, who was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Dubois was one of the most influential black leaders of the first half of the twentieth Century. Dubois shared in the excogitation of the National Association for the Advancement of dark-skinned People, or NAACP, in 1909. He served as its director of research and editor of its magazine Crisis until 1934. He was the first African American to graduate from Harvard University, which he accomplished in 1896.At first, Dubois thought that African Americans could be freed through the Social Sciences, but quickly became disillusioned with this idea and began to believe that freedoms could only come about by agitation and protest(Chew). Dubois recognized that the African Americans of his day faced many problems, not the least of which were of the life threatening variety. After his disillusionment with helping African Americans through the favor satisfactory sciences, Dubois thought that African Americans needed to develop their own c ulture, which was definitely more American than African.Dubois enjoyed the unique African American culture, particularly that of the Negro weird songs. Dubois thought that African Americans should not give in to what white Americans expectations were of African Americans, but to continue to develop as a people. Dubois wrote that all people regardless of their culture, heritage, sex, should be hardened as equals. Dubois also thought that African Americans should not worry about competing with the orbit as a group, but that they should join together to help each other.He eventually was pressure to leave the United States because the government considered Dubois an agent of the Soviet Union. That is why he immigrated to Ghana, first obtaining Ghana citizenship, joined the communist party and eventually died there in 1963. Dubois was there for all future African Americans to follow his example. Dubois founding of the NAACP led to many victories for the rights of all Americans, most of which he never saw. next we have Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who was born in Jamaica on 17 August 1887.Mr. Garvey is opera hat remembered as a pivotal figure in the struggle for racial equality, not just in the United States but throughout the world as well. He founded the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) and African Communities League in 1914 while still in Jamaica, and also championed the back to Africa movement of the 1920s. Of the Africans who departed, Garvey thought, nigh had left independently while others were brutally removed for economic come on and exploitation.Garvey perceived that the main problems facing not only African Americans, but Africans as well was that they must first go back to Africa and free their African brothers before moving on to other parts of the world. through and through the organizations that Garvey had formed (UNIA and ACL), he reasoned that until Africa is free and redeemed, not only in name but in reality, no one would be free, s ullen or White. Garvey reasoned that no matter what ones speed up was we are all bound together by the Creator, which is Spirit. The Creator has a purpose for everyone and that purpose did not include being made a slave or subject to anyone for that matter.While Dubois and Garvey did not see ticker to eye on the issues involving African Americans, Garvey did align himself closely with Dr Robert hit the hay, and Dr Loves teachings that a locomote could progress no further than the dignity and esteem of their women and younger girls. Garvey and Love thought that the best way to plant the seeds of dignity and self-esteem would be through the woman and younger girl. terminal, we have Glen Loury, who was born in 1948. Mr. Loury is a professor of economics at Boston University while also being a consultant to the Federal Trade Commission. Mr.Loury has devoted a study portion of his career to the study of race and public policy. He is the antecedent of On the Need for Moral Leadersh ip in the Black conjunction, Responsibility and Race, Impact of Affirmative Action on affect Opportunity A New Look, and most recently A New American Dilemma. Mr. Loury saw many problems facing not only African American, but also all Americans, including the civil rights policies of 1960-1985, which seemed to have been based on equality of outcome rather than on equality of opportunity. Mr. Loury also thought that affirmatory action policies created backlash.Loury maintained that all Americans should have equal rights with none being given favorable treatment over any other. Loury reasoned that it is hard to justify denying admission to an elite college to anyone who struggled to be able to pass the admissions exam while admitting a member of a designated minority group, who did not work near as hard to earn his score and is only admitted based on his minority status. Such actions work up resentment towards these policies and are only heightened when defenders of the policies cl aim that to question these policies is to engage in a racist act.Mr. Loury contends that giving preferential treatment with no just explanation only led to more heightened tensions and is a very arduous error on the part of those who merely wish to be advocates of affirmative action. Loury did see, that there was a proper use of affirmative action, such as on police forces around the country that had a significant role of African American citizens and yet none on the police force. These Authors present their own conclusions and reasonings for what happened to the African Americans previous to, and of their own time.These writers use the influences of other African Americans and were also pioneers themselves. All of these writers believed in equality for everyone and gum olibanum did share at least one common goal. In Mr. Dubois we have a writer and scholar who originally thought that through a study of Social Sciences and doing what was right could African Americans receive thei r rights, and yet Dubois was able to refocus and remain firm in his opinions of helping each other and thus able to help not only the African Americans of his generation, but the ones to follow as well. Mr.Dubois saw all of the problems besetting African Americans and knew that they must unite, working together, to build a culture of their own, that would allow all African Americans to have a better life. Mr. Garvey on the other hand, perceived that until the rights and freedoms were restored in the entire African continent, Africans elsewhere would always be treated as second-class citizens. Garvey along with Dr Robert Love, thought that it was through the African women, peculiarly the younger women, that Africans had a chance to make a difference in providing a better future. Mr.Loury saw problems that came about because of the Civil Rights movement, and that African Americans should not merely rely on being a minority to get ahead in life, but instead grab the opportunity that w as before them so as not to create a political backlash. each(prenominal) of these writers have stood their ground for what they believe in, and our world we live in nowadays is better for it. Each of these writers, in their own time, helped frame not just African Americans lives but has truly transformed and continues to support a freed people, obtain all, of their rights. Works Cited Chew, Robin W. E. B.Dubois Sociologist, Author & Civil Rights Leader 1868 ? 1963 February 26, 2005. 6 Feb 2006 Dr Coony, stigmatise Race and Affirmative Action 6 Feb 2006 Du Bois, W. E. B. Of our Spiritual Strivings. Cultural Conversations The charge of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 131-145 Garvey, Marcus Motive of the NAACP undefended Cultural Conversations The social movement of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 153-154 Loury, Glenn. Free at Last? A Personal position on Race ad individualism in America. Cultural Conversa tions The Presence of the Past.Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 173-180 Marcus Garvey Biography November 2000, K. W. Spence-Lewis adviser Researcher Community health and Planning Plant Science. The Making of African American Identity VOL II 1863-1917 National Humanities Center 6 Feb 06 Bibliography Chew, Robin W. E. B. Dubois Sociologist, Author & Civil Rights Leader 1868 ? 1963 February 26, 2005. 6 Feb 2006 Dr Coony, Mark Race and Affirmative Action 6 Feb 2006 Du Bois, W. E. B. Of our Spiritual Strivings. Cultural Conversations The Presence of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al.Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 131-145 Garvey, Marcus Motive of the NAACP Exposed Cultural Conversations The Presence of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001. 153-154 Loury, Glenn. Free at Last? A Personal Perspective on Race ad Identity in America. Cultural Conversations The Presence of the Past. Ed Stephen Dilks, et al. Boston Bedford/St Martin, 2001 . 173-180 Marcus Garvey Biography November 2000, K. W. Spence-Lewis Consultant Researcher Community Health and Planning Plant Science. The Making of African American Identity VOL II 1863-1917 National Humanities Center 6 Feb 06.