AfroAmer Essay Example For Students

AfroAmer Essay During my early years of school, I remember being taught white accomplishments and wondering if blacks and other people of color had made any significant contributions to todays world. I noticed that television consist of all white people. Throughout my research paper I hope to cover certain aspects of African American heritage. Aspects such as blacks making up the largest minority group in the United States, although Mexican-Americans are rapidly changing that. The contributions blacks have provided to our country are immeasurable. Unfortunately though rather than recognizing these contributions, white America would rather focus on oppressing and degrading these people. As a consequence American society instinctively associated white with light and all good things; while black is associated with darkness or evil. The journey to freedom for African Americans all started in 1619 when the first twenty African slaves were brought to Jamestown to serve a land not familiar with, in order to please wealthy white settlers. For the next 150 years, Africans were uprooted from their homeland and shipped across the Atlantic ocean to the United States to be sold as if they were property in America. The majority of these slaves were imported between 1741 and 1810. By 1790 blacks made up over 19% of the U.S. population. Although slaves had different cultural backgrounds, they all shared a common way of looking at the world. The degradation and brutality of slavery caused these different tribal groups to seek out common cultural ground in order to survive the horrible experience of slavery. The common ground that slaves endured revolved around kinship and the idea of stoicism. The idea of stoicism may be a result of harsh physical conditions in Africa. Kinship was by far the most important element in the African culture. Individuality was not stressed but rather the importance of the extended family. I believe that African Americans suffering through the hardships of slavery strengthened the idea of kinship even further. The unity of the African culture became strong due to a series of trials and tribulations. The majority of the slaves were employed in agricultural areas in the South. By the mid-19th century, a large number of slaves worked in urban areas as well, and about 5% worked in more industrial occupations. The hours of the slave workers were long. The average life expectancy of African slaves was at least 12% lower than whit Americans in 1850 and the infant mortality rate was 25% higher for slaves. Oftentimes slave marriages and families dissolved due to separation. This concept is horrible when you take under consideration that family was the entire basis of African culture. Although frequent separation occurred slaves were very careful to pass on the surnames of their black family of origin to their children. Kinship again is an importance in African society. Although the first steps towards in improvements for African-American culture began in the North, social and economic conditions didnt improve much at all. The racial attitudes of whites were still obvious among the white society. Laws banning interracial marriage and voting among free blacks accompanied every northern state emancipation. These laws were supposedly designed to prevent mass migration of southern blacks to the North. Race relations did, however, improve in the North after the CivilWar. Even though this was the case Northern blacks had no political nor economic base to begin their struggle for equality and self-actualization. The one aspect of African-Americans lives that were in their hands was religion. This was utilized to unit the blacks in America during the ant-baalim period. There was a great black exodus from white churches that went on for thirty years. Blacks to create unity throughout the African-American culture created churches. The style of sermon within t hese churches reflected the call-response patternsof traditional African-American music. These churches were responses of alienation segregation from white churches. It was leaders of these churches who provided the majority of leadership in the South after the Civil War. The organization of campaigns and boycotts against segregated public schools and public facilities began. The laws passed were very easy to evade. In 1896, Plessy vs. Ferguson fully legalized segregation using the phrase separate but equal for justification. However separate was never equal in this case. Thus American apartheid continued. Math Perceptions of Taiwanese and American childrenSix months after the Brown decision, on December1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, exhausted after along workday, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. Her arrest sparked the year long Montgomery buses boycott. The next decade involved an increased violent protest. This era became known as the Civil Rights Movement. The early 1960s involve sit-in demonstrations, freedom rides, and mass street demonstrations. White society as well as traditional black leaders realized it was a time for change. The leaders of the movement broke away from the traditional leadership tactics. The masses of people involved showed that changes needed to come that effected Black America as a whole. In 1957, less than 40 years ago, under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was organized. Dr. King encouraged non-violent direct action. However, these non-violent protests often ended in violence behind the hands of white police officers. Anything from tear gas or water hoses were used on African-Americans. These people who were not only black but also whites were treated like animals. Believe it or not this occurred 40 years ago. In 1947 President Eisenhower reluctantly federalized the National Guard to enforce desegregation in the schools. White Southerners did everything in their power to prevent desegregation. By 1964 a decade after the Brown decision, less than 2% of southern blacks attended integrated schools, which was only 30 years ago. Throughout The Civil Rights Movement in the 60s, individuals repeatedly disobeyed laws that violated the civil rights of blacks. Civil disobedience peaked during the summer of 1963. Protesters filled southern jails. A nonviolent march to our nations capitol involved approximately 200,000 whites and blacks protesting the violation of civil rights of blacks. The next two summers President Johnson legalized two more civil ri ghts bills. These bills opened up public facilities and voting booths to blacks for the first time since the 1890s. Along with these achievements came increased violence. On June 12, 1963 the leader of the NAACP, Midgar Evers, was assassinated outside his home. Riots in Harlem in 1964, Watts in 1965, Cleveland in 1967, and Detroit in 1968 were all reactions to frustrations of oppressed black people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination on April 4, 1968 caused an eruption of violence in a number of cities. The majority of all the riots took place in northern cities. In the South the movement was easier accepted because the gain of southern blacks overshadowed the deaths. These were sacrifices that blacks unwillfully gave. The conditions in the North werent as bad so they viewed the martyrs as needless deaths for African-Americans, which further heightened frustration. Although the mid-1960s brought about extreme violence and tragedy, it also brought about steep progress as a who le. Between 1964 and 1968 there was an 85% increase in black college enrollment. In 1974 a survey showed that the majority of black children (50% in the South, 66% in the North), still attend predominantly black schools. This segregation in school also caused residential segregation. There has definitely been progress being made but there was, and still is a very long way to go before equality can be achieved. The ignorance is still on the back burner; we need to completely get rid of it. White society has a difficulty accepting African-American culture. Its difficult for many whites to see the beauty of African-American culture because they are too busy trying to fabricate justifications for inferiority of blacks. Mutual respect is without a doubt essential before equality can be achieved. The white ideas that have so long haunted Black America hopefully will completely disappear in the near future. But after seeing movies like the one you showed on the Ku Klux Klan it is going to be hard to completely throw prejudice away. There are far too many ignorant people in todays society, I just pray that our next generations will understand equality. Bibliography:Lefton, Lester A. (1994). Sociology. Needham Heights, MAAllyn and Bacon. 96-150