Analysis Of W. E. B. Dubois's Black Reconstruction In America

George Washington Carver was born into a world where African Americas were not treated equal. He was born during the Lincoln administration, where President Lincoln was working to have a united United States of America. The Southern part of the United States were supportive of having black slaves to work on their farms and plantations. The Northern part of the United States, however, did not support the use of slaves to perform work. This caused a huge conflict within the country and started the Civil War.

During the late 1800s, because the South had been decimated by the end of the Civil War, .the Reconstruction Period was initiated to aid the South’s recovery. Although the Civil War did abolish slavery and unify the North and the South, the war not resolve racial prejudice, the South’s damage, and the African Americans’ economic instability. The Reconstruction Period was initiated in order to prevent economic instability and the structural ruin, because since slavery was abolished, and the South was completely dependent on slaves, therefore slaves could not work for the South to maintain the economy, and slaves also could not fix up the damages done to the structures done to the South during the war. By starting the Freedmen’s Bureau and passing

E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington debated whether to confront or appease racist attitudes in the United States. As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guide book to improve fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most disadvantaged of black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by providing themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation as the most eminent African American of the new century.

However, not everyone was as successful as they hoped to be. When the reconstruction period began after the Civil War the Republican set into motion their own plans, restoring rebellious states into the Union and finding a place in society for free slaves. However, there were two major problems standing in their way, the ex-Confederates and President Andrew Johnson. The ex-Confederates were causing trouble by starting riots and trying take political action against freed African Americans, such as during the Memphis Riot in 1866. Johnson, being a Democrat, allied himself with the ex-Confederates because he shared the same beliefs as them regarding freed slaves.

The criticism made by the these eight clergyman epitomize the idea of whiteness and white privilege. Rather than to offer assistance and guidance for King and his efforts to diminish racial injustices prevalent in the South, they, instead, offer criticism in an attempt to depreciate King’s fight for racial equity. This rhetoric has occurred often throughout American history, where we see white individuals devaluing and hindering the progress made by individuals of color. For example, one of the critiques that King received was that The Negro community should be more patient and wait for society to move gradually toward civil rights. What white individuals fail to understand is that there is no such thing

He said the problem with protest novels dealing with Negroes, beginning with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is that they define the Negro by the conditions under which he lives; they fail to present him as a human being. And readers, said Baldwin, get “a definite thrill of virtue from the fact that they are reading a book at all. This report from the pit reassures us of its reality and its darkness and of our own salvation.” This was a frontal attack on Wright’s belief that literature should be an instrument for social progress, and it led to a rupture between the two. In his book, Nobody Knows My Name, Baldwin recounted the difficult conversations they had

The abolitionists’ ideals of setting blacks free were mostly unaccepted by average white men whose economic interests depended on the submission of slaves. The romantic racialism, which proclaimed kindness for the humane treatment of slaves and sympathy to the antislavery argument (and seems to have influenced Stowe according to Claybaugh) strongly opposed the notions of the superiority of the white man who degraded African American race. There was also a contradicting conception of America as a democratic nation since the ideals of human equality and freedom were being censored by the practice of slavery. Published in 1852, mainly as a reaction to the Fugitive Slave Act, the novel brought even more controversy to the slavery issues within this contradictory manifestation. (Gomez R. 116) Basing his analysis of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the sociologist R.W.

Namely, the most popular organizations that are active in America is the Black Lives Matter movement, born from the cries of the Trayvon Martin case. This organization’s motivation is to create solutions that end systematic discrimination in America (McClain). These organizations are criticized for being radical, trying to solve a problem that critics say do not exist. All Lives Matter is an example of backlash, created for the sheer fact of refuting Black Lives Matter. However, what those who oppose Black Lives Matter fail to recognize is that the movement was created to elevate the status of the black community in society, not bring down everyone else that is not black.

When anything has dramatized features in art, it is very inappropriate and a bad portrayal because it associates a negative connotation with what is being depicted. Even after the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery, people still depict African Americans negatively and it doesn’t make sense in saying racism was abolished with

Uproar and protest bubbled over in the states after Scott’s failure to obtain his freedom. His case also fueled the North in their battle with the South, since the big topic of the century was “slavery”. They wanted justice for Dred Scott, to rightfully place his ownership in his own hands, to grant him the freedom to live however he pleased and to not have to walk in shackles. Any human should have that basic right, as it says in the constitution. This landmark of a case stood as a breaking point for social reform; motivation to stop the discrimination that ran throughout the country.

However, the liberal and progressive organizations that usually would have protected the civil liberties of the victims of McCarthyism backed down from the task. Although numerous Americans were disturbed and troubled by McCarthy’s allegations, there was an absence of effective outlets for them to express their opposition. Therefore, liberals and progressives merely did not mount a campaign against McCarthyism nor did they defend the victims’ civil liberties, or when few tried, it was not effective. Schrecker argues, “The destruction of the front groups and the left-led unions may well have had a more deleterious impact on American politics than the decline of the (Communist) party itself.” (Schrecker 105). This is because, as seen in the example of McCarthyism, with the demise of the left-led unions and organizations, the nation lost the network that created a public space where legitimate alternatives to the status quo could be presented.