Professor of History at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Dr. Cynthia Griggs Fleming is qualified author of this literature. Her specialties are in twentieth century United States Cultural and Social History particularly in the modern civil rights movement, race relations, and black educational history. She teaches a survey course in African Americans studies, as well as course in a course in Black in Film, History and Philosophy of African American Education, African American Women in American Society, and Civil Rights course. Cynthia Flemings have written heavily on the civil right movement. Not only did this she write this book, but has published articles on black activism and African American identity in journal such as The Journal of Negro History, The Tennessee Historical Quarterly, The Journal of Woman’s History, and The Irish Journal of American History. Dr. Fleming also is writing the authorized biography of C.T. Vivian and the impact of civil rights movement on the Alabama Black Belt County.…
In conclusion, black history has always been important, but never regarded as such. The education system needs to begin teaching black history the same time it begins to teach white. Although, oppression and triumph are a part of our history, black history does not begin in America. In Keisha Bentley-Edwards article, Black History Month: Change how we teach Black History, she acknowledges that black children need to know much more about who they are. “When the telling or teaching of black history begins with slavery, it ignores their humanity now, just as their humanity was denied in the past.” (Bentley-Edwards 3) Black children face enough adversity in the real world, so why not alleviate the burden by teaching them that their history does…
The View from the Bottom Rail” After the Fact, Volume II James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle Copyright 1986 by Alfred A. Knopf Inc. Pages 177-210 Grant Hopkins AP U.S. History II September 11, 2000 The Lewinsky Scandal… A perfect example as to why we cannot accept everything at face value before carefully examining it first. Everyone thought President Clinton was behaving himself in the White House, but, as it turns out, he was most definitely not. This can be the same for history. We must carefully consider different aspects of articles so that we do no make the mistake of believing everything we read. In order to fully understand an article, we must understand the author that wrote it. It is necessary to examine prejudices, sources, information left out, and missing background information before accepting an article. This method of critical analysis allows us to better understand the article and therefore history because we are more aware of the authors and their possible mishaps. “The View from the Bottom Rail”, an article in After the Fact, provides an opportunity to examine different aspects of analysis. If we look at it carefully, then we will be able to determine if the thesis was proven effectively. In “The View from the Bottom Rail”, the authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle, proposed, “For several reasons, that debased position has made it unusually difficult for historians to recover the freedman’s point of view.” Within the article, Davidson and Lytle cycled through different aspects as to why it is hard for historians to determine the “view from the bottom rail”. They questioned the validity of many sources that, if accurate, would have contained the perspective of an ex-slave. These sources included both white and black testimony. In order to examine these sources, the authors traced the topics using microcosm. Because they were covering a topic and not an event, microcosm was the most appropriate method of examining the subject. Davidson and…
“With his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice.”…
"Of the hundreds of Negro high schools recently examined ... only eighteen offer a course taking up the history of the Negro, and in most of the Negro colleges and universities where the Negro is thought of, the race is studied only as a problem or dismissed as little of consequence."…
Growing up I always dreaded history, I never understood why we had to learn about the past. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I realize that history is what shaped the world into what it is today and where I stand in this world. As a Mexican living in the United States history has really helped me understand why my family and I don’t have the same opportunity as white people. When I read the first 4 chapters to Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen right away I was able to relate to what he was saying. Being a person of color learning history growing up I noticed that the history books only showed one point of view. A lot of the truth was covered up and that’s why now when I read something historical it’s very important for me to read…
Now the average African American today is way better off than Jim. They all have equal rights, they earn wages, they get the same amount of vacation time as we do, have the right to vote, and equal education. But yet they still are living in the past. Why is it that a white person could be called a cracker without retaliation, but as soon as that same white person spits out the “N” word, not saying that it’s OK, they start getting mad and start yelling and threatening? Do you want to know why? It’s because people cannot forgive. Yes that part in history isn't our best moment, but that’s why it’s called history because it’s in the past. We can’t change the past we can only learn from…
In the New Jim Crow written by Michelle Alexander, Alexander reminds us of the retrospect of what we once knew, the grating truth hidden behind the land of freedom, racial prejudice towards the colored. Although today, America guarantees liberal rights to every individual of color. Alexander argues that the cateism still lingers beyond the lines of our society. Michelle supports her argument through the rebirth of the Old Jim Crow, War on Drugs and the racial caste system.…
of Black Power uniquely presents a perspective that is unlike the majority of Civil Rights…
One can gain knowledge in order to break free of the power structures of oppression. In “THE BOOK OF NEGROES”, Lawrence Hill illustrates the theme of knowledge and power through the use of tropology and structure. Knowledge has power and it controls the access to opportunity and progression. Today we have an opportunity for everyone in the world to have access to the entire world’s information, however back then people had to strive to get knowledge. Knowledge itself is power. In the book of Negroes, the protagonist used this power in a right way, which led her to achieve success and ambition in life.…
Negro people were sick of banking upon time to help them to gain justice. “men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair”(722)King says. He uses the metaphor of “the abyss” and “bleakness” to express endurance of Negro’s people has already run over. They do not want be plagued with inner fears and outer resentments anymore. If their repressed emotions do not come out, their bitterness and hatred would advocate violence, like “Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement”(725). Moreover, history proves that “privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily”(721), in this way, the endurance of people would not open the gate of serious negotiation.…
In Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, the author explains her main argument which is that the foundation of Jim Crow has not ended, but has merely been justified through the context of the United States’ criminal justice system. Alexander claims that African Americans are largely labels as “criminals” which allows the old ways of discrimination to legal continue. She believes the problem is not the fact that many African Americans are living on the margins of society today (poverty, very little education, etc.), but a result of strategic rules and regulations the…
intervention in the social process to reshape reality in African-American images and interests and thus, self-consciously make history (Karenga, 69). African American History…
It is about time we taught our own Black children that there is more to our history than our ancestral enslavement.…
as relation to a particular people, country, period, person, according to the meaning of the word History, it full knowledge will improve African American status. Despite the transition of Africans from West Africa to America and used them as slaves to work on tobacco and sugar plantations for many years, they had the privilege to be a part of this grate and powerful nation which empower them economically, on cultural plan and a standard of civilization.…