The Protest Movement

1
The Protest Movement

• Literature and Politics of Protest
• 1940-1959

2
Background

• The Great Depression had taken its toll on the
  U.S, but especially African Americans
• Protest literature was published primarily
  between the years 1940-1959
• Black writers began to expand on ideas/concepts
  established by HR writers
• Much of the fictional literature of this time
  embodied covert messages of protest- described
  injustices and racial inequality through the eyes
  of the protagonists
• Protest literature was not appealing to whites,
  who were not ready to accept responsibility for
  racism

3
A Country At War

• Racial tensions continued during WWII as blacks
  were drafted to fight but segregated from whites
• Blacks rioted to protest this discrimination. Asa
  Philip Randolph, a union organizer and civil
  rights leader, threatened President Roosevelt
  with a march on Washington unless military
  discrimination ceased
• Most of the social protests of the time were
  direct but nonviolent including demonstrations,
  marches, sit ins, boycotts, etc

4
Read All About ItThe Role of African American
Publications During the Protest Movement

• Protests against injustices were made by AA
  publications such as the Atlanta Daily World,
  Pittsburgh Carrier, and the Chicago Defender.
• John H. Johnson, the Chicago founder of the Negro
  Digest, Ebony, and Jet promoted positive images
  of blacks in his publications.

5
W.E.B Dubois

• From The Souls of Black Folk
• He feels his two-ness, an American, a negro two
  souls, two thoughts, two warring ideals in one
  dark body, (469).
• Theory Blacks were uniquely Black AND American,
  although these identities sometimes conflicted.
  But there is no separating the two.

6
Marcus GarveyEarly Years

• Born in Jamaica to a working class family
• Worked as a union organizer at a printing plant
  organized strikes for better wages
• Became well known political activist and
  eventually went to England London University to
  study

7
Separatist Philosophy

• Visited Africa, came to the U.S in 1917 to raise
  money for a Tuskegee Institute in Jamaica
• During his travels became convinced that uniting
  blacks all over the world was the only way to
  improve their condition

• Came to believe that all people of African
  descent should journey back to Africa to escape
  persecution
• Movement experienced a large surge in the 1920s,
  but declined with his death in 1959

8
Ann Petrys The Street

• Ann Petrys The Street could be considered a form
  of protest
• The novels protagonist was a woman experiencing
  the harsh realities of a woman in the inner city-
  a topic not dealt with previously by black
  writers
• Petry portrays a culture of broken homes, lack
  community of support, poverty, and abuse at the
  hands of alcoholic and unfaithful men

9
Plessy Vs. Ferguson

• In 1892, Homer Plessy boarded a Louisiana
  Railroad Train and sat in section designated for
  whites
• Although he only had one black grandparent, the
  one drop rule of the time classified him as
  African American. He was arrested and jailed for
  refusing to move to a colored car
• In court he argued that his civil rights had been
  violated. The case eventually went to the Supreme
  Court, which upheld segregation as separate but
  equal.

10
Brown Vs. The Board of Education of Topeka

• A lawsuit was filed against the Board of
  Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas by 13
  black parents who alleged their children were not
  receiving an equal educational opportunities
  because of segregation. They were aided by the
  NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, a successful black
  attorney.
• In 1954, the Supreme Court agreed that
  separate would never be equal and overturned
  Plessy vs. Ferguson
• This decision paved the way for the integration
  of the public school system in the U.S

11
The Protest Movement

• Period of social and political unrest
• Blacks sought a medium to speak out- often using
  literature, both fiction and non fiction, to
  protest injustices
• Authors such as Hayden, Petry, and Hansberry
  focused on realistic portrayals of the black
  experience
• Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin
  focused heavily on the theme of self identity
• Musicians continued to explore the concept of The
  American Dream through music such as the Blues