Summary Of Creating Black Americans: African-American History

In Chapters 7 and 8 of the book Creating Black Americans: African-American History and its meanings, 1619 to the present by Nell Irvin Painter, the author shows that even after emancipation, African Americans made huge steps in the advancement of their own education and professional lives, even when faced with white supremacy groups that were doing everything in their power to push blacks back into being slaves and a subordinate people. This idea is shown when Painter says, “But black success threatened and sometimes enraged Southerners unwilling to share power with people they considered little more than slaves” (Painter 178). In saying this she shows us that even though African Americans were now “free”, they were still struggling to survive
living amongst a people that wanted nothing more than to see blacks as slaves again.
The huge push after reconstruction for complete African American rights is what allowed blacks to take office and get an education as well as jobs in all levels of work.
But it was not without a large push of resistance and the hate from white supremacist groups. In chapter 7, Painter shows us how African Americans were taking advantage of their new freedom when she says, “Legal freedom meant that those who had been enslaved could marry, earn wages, change employers, and own property” (Painter 142). This quote epitomizes the new steps that African Americans could now take and things that are now available to them. This is the first push in the true freedom of African Americans, the problem though is that with their success came the hate from white supremacist groups. When painter states, “After emancipation, black people’s lives lost their value as property, and angry, resentful Southern whites used terrorism to reestablish their power over black people” (Painter 151), she is showing that in this time came an increase in the deaths of blacks, as well as the start of their segregation with the Plessey v. Ferguson separate but equal case. For every one step forward that African Americans took, the racism and segregation pushed them three steps backwards and this is what stunted the growth of African Americans as a people in the United
States.
The time directly after reconstruction brought great promise for African Americans with new jobs.
They established themselves in the professional world, as well as in the music and sports industries. In chapter 8, Painter depicts the movement of African Americans when she says, “In the depths of the era of Jim Crow, however, African Americans squeezed through every opening freedom afforded, to gain autonomy and education” (Painter 185). She is showing even through the Jim Crow laws that were passed to limit blacks, they were able to push through and strive and earn their way up. The issue is that with every African American accomplishment, the southerners were always there trying to limit them. Like in chapter 7, as soon as the blacks started to be successful, the idea of lynching came into play and now once again innocent blacks could be brutally killed and hung and lynched. This was an everyday struggle that unfortunately most blacks were unable to avoid, so they counted on the musicians and artists and educators to make name for African Americans
everywhere.
The periods during reconstruction and directly after were ones of success and limitations for African Americans. They struggled and pushed to get to the top and establish themselves while still being oppressed, killed and faced with segregation. In lecture, we learn that the enslaved lay the foundation for many things including the economy, art, music, and food. It is shocking that we are not taught that more and more of the African American successes, instead of just the fact that they were slaves and then they were free. In combining lecture and the book it helps me get a better understanding of the impact African Americans had through the creation of themselves and their attainment of jobs and education on the overall creation of America. I also get to see all of the good things African Americans were able to achieve during oppression, which gives me hope for today being a African American and white woman in a still racist world.