Black Twentieth Century Thought

1
Black Twentieth Century Thought

• HUMANITIES 1300 9.0A
• Faculty of Arts

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Lecture Outline Black Twentieth-Century Thought

• 1. Setting the Stage The Nineteenth
• Century and the Promise of Freedom
• 2. Booker T. Washington and the Philosophy
• of Self-Help
• 3. W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Intellectual
• Platform and
• 4. Marcus Garvey and Pan-Africanism.

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Abolition of Slavery

• 1793 Canadian bill to prevent further
  importation of slaves
• 1804 Haiti declared free republic (recognized by
  France in
• 1825, Britain in 1832, and USA in 1862)
• 1807 Abolition of British slave trade
• 1834 Abolition of slavery in British colonies
  but introduction of
• Apprenticeship, which lasted until 1838
• 1865 Abolition of slavery in the US South
• 1886 Abolition of slavery in Cuba

4
Reconstruction 1866-1877

• Reconstruction of the US South aimed to
• 1.Reorganize southern states after Civil
• War
• 2.Facilitate re-admittance of southern
• states into the Union
• 3.Define the means by which whites and
• blacks could live together in a non-slave
• society.

5
14th Amendment (1868)

• Section 1.
• All persons born or naturalized in the United
  States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
  are citizens of the United States . . . No State
  shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge
  the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
  United States nor shall any State deprive any
  person of life, liberty, or property, without due
  process of law nor deny to any person within its
  jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

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15th Amendment (1870)

• Section 1.
• The right of citizens of the United States to
  vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
  United States or by any State on account of race,
  color, or previous condition of servitude.

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Southern Black Codes

• 1.Refused blacks the right to vote
• 2.Restricted legal and civil rights of blacks
• 3.Prevented blacks from carrying weapons
• 4.Heavily punished interracial marriage
• 5.Introduced vagrancy laws that tied blacks
• to agricultural labour

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Disenfranchising Black Votes in the South

• 1. Literacy Tests you had to be able to
• read to be eligible to vote
• 2. Poll Taxes you had to pay a tax in
• order to vote
• 3. Grandfather Clause you could only
• vote if your grandfather had been
• eligible to vote and had been a
• citizen.

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Development of African American Political Thought

• First Tradition Frederick Douglass
• - militant approach that lobbied for
• full citizenship
• Second Tradition Alexander Crummell
• - segregated community development
• and self-help

10
Booker T. Washington

• 1.Thrift, industry and Christian morality would
  earn blacks their rights in US society
• 2.Blacks should transform themselves into a
  productive workforce and begin to accumulate
  capital
• 3.Future of blacks tied to the south.

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Booker T. Washington

• In all things that are purely social,
• we can be as separate as the five
• fingers, yet as the hand in all things
• essential to mutual progress (Atlanta
• Exposition Address 365).

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W.E.B. Du Bois

• One ever feels his two-ness,--an
• American, a Negro two souls, two
• thoughts, two unreconciled strivings two
• warring ideals in one dark body, whose
• dogged strength alone keeps it from being
• torn asunder (Souls of Black Folk 11).

13
W.E.B. Du Bois

• The history of the American Negro is the history
  of
• this longing to attain self-conscious manhood,
  to
• merge his double self into a better and truer
  self. In
• this merging he wishes neither of the older
  selves to
• be lost. He would not Africanize America, for
  America
• has too much to teach the world and Africa. He
  would
• not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white
• Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a
• message for the world. He simply wishes to make
  it
• possible for a man to be both a Negro and an
• American, without having the doors of Opportunity
  
• closed roughly in his face (Souls of Black Folk
  215).

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Arnold Rampersad

• Another way of seeing these two souls
• surely is as a contest between memory
• and amnesia. American culture demands
• of its blacks amnesia concerning slavery
• and Africa, just as it encourages amnesia
• of a different kind in whites (Slavery
• and the Literary Imagination 307).

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Marcus Garvey

• 1.UNIA was the most influential black movement of
  the 20th century
• 2.Promoted a philosophy of black pride,
  self-worth and self-reliance
• 3.Fought for the decolonisation of Africa
• 4.Encouraged global cooperation among Africans.

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Some Questions

• 1. Can cultural and political identity only be
  determined by race and colour?
• 2. Is the project of self-recovery the same
• for all blacks globally?
• 3. Can we base the development of any
• community on a common racial
• identity?