African-American Literacy

Throughout history, African American weren’t considered the smartest race on earth. With slavery and being for bided to ever touch or learn to read a book, African American became the race that envy having an education. Education became a prime factor in the African American culture. Having an education to an African is having the one-way ticket out of the terrible streets. They believe that if they don’t know nothing they won’t get nothing. In other word, if they aren’t educated their life would remain the same. Way back to slavery, African American would be beaten if they were to open a book and dare to read it instead of cleaning it.

Since the past, black people had been oppressed and excluded from a formal education, leading them to find ways to educate themselves. While they open their minds to new worlds and perspectives, they encounter themselves with a disastrous world that discriminates them and unjustly takes their rights away from them. In these essays, “Learning How to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, both authors tell their stories about how they found their way into the world of literacy even though they were banned to do it. Because they left ignorance back, they realize all the injustices that surround them. In my opinion, literacy is one of the most important tool humans possess to be aware of the issues of the world. Knowing about world problems makes people able to decide how to act towards situations and helps avoid being led by people that the only thing they want from others is power.

DuBois and Malcolm differ in their essentials pertaining to the “reeducation” of African Americans. DuBois argues traditional education as essential because it provides people of color a voice with which to protest and is the key to ultimately gaining success. He argues education will help lead racial progress in America, and he proves this by presenting statistical data on the career trajectory of black men who have received higher education.

Before one ever starts attending school, their very first lesson is to become literate in the language they speak. From reading sentences to reading paragraphs to reading novels, we try to achieve literacy. However, some of the greatest public speakers and writers did not achieve it through the way most people did. This is shown in the literary works of Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, and Sherman Alexie. Like these people, literacy isn’t achieved by simply going to school. It’s achieved through great perseverance and through great tenacity.

For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that

In "Learning to Read and Write" by Fredrick Douglass, "The Good Immigrant Student" by Bich Minh Nguyen and "The Joy of Reading and Writing" by Sherman Alexie, each author narrates their experiences in acquiring literary skills. A common factor for all of them is that they all experienced significant difficulties in becoming proficient in academics . Through a variety of rhetoric strategies, the authors articulate their utmost concerns where they present strong evidence on the difficulties experienced by minority communities in their quest for education. Therefore, this paper asserts that the role of reading, writing, and language relates to racial discrimination, cultural difference, and freedom which is of much relevance to today’s

DuBois stresses the importance of education amongst the black race. He believes that African Americans should be educated in order to guide and

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (1859-1964) was one of the most influential African-American educators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As an activist, author, and scholar, she dedicated her entire life to the education and empowerment of African-American youth and adults. Her commitment and passionate belief in the power of education as a vehicle to social, economic, and political freedom was a driving force in her life. As an author and feminist, Cooper wrote A Voice from the South in 1892. This book consists of a collection of essays that reflects a Black feminist analysis

Historically black colleges and universities, otherwise known as HBCUs, have played an integral role in advancing the education of underprivileged black teenagers since their inception after the American Civil War. They have had students extremely well known in their fields today, such as billionaire entertainer Oprah Winfrey, the first African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Though their graduation rates tend to be around 1 in 3, they have produced a majority of successful African American professionals. For the continued advancement of African Americans, HBCUs are necessary for offering educational opportunities that their students had been historically denied and presently out of financial reach, while promoting strong family values and equality that may be lacking at traditional schools and displaying positive African American role models in their alumni and staff.

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The

research topic, in the 1880, fully 71 percent of all black male in the range of 10-14 were illiterate which implies that illiteracy in this group is a generational issue. This research from data can be used to compare recent data that will be collected. Alternatively, high rate of adult illiteracy in the black community derived from slavery which had a huge impact on African –American economic success. In order to make the result of my research more efficient, these collections of data will be to demonstrate that by improving illiteracy rate in the black’s community, African-American can change their ways of living, in addition, this information could be used to prove children of illiterate parents are more likely to drop –out of school and

A child is a product of their environment. However, the label granted to the child is designated by the community and society in which the child inhabits. I, myself, am the product of a predominantly White society. The transparency and colorless pigment of the of the people that surrounded me was a blessing, but also a curse. I took refuge in the water-downed, flavorless editions of Civil Rights stories I was told, and for eighteen years, it seemed that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were the only valid Civil Rights Movement Advocates. Although my knowledge of African American culture and history was fragmented and distorted as a child and young adolescent, the studies and in-depth discusses of my Introduction to African American Literature class awaken an understanding and heartfelt appreciation within me that I will forever treasure and utilize to analyze the struggles that African Americans continue to have for political, social and economic advancement.

Illiteracy rates, particularly among African Americans and other minority groups, are profoundly troubling and demand innovative solutions”. (1) Ntiri expresses that The United states of America is going through a literacy crisis means that Illiteracy rates are increasing by the day. Also Nitrite went into an explanation on how African American in The United States of America are the most iletrate race in the U.S. Also according to Ntiri, “Adult literacy is a double-edge sword. It can serve as a mechanism to enhance individual well-being and can mobilize human resources for political and economic development in a rapidly changing world. Additionally, it can serve as an instrument for the reproduction of social inequality… Literacy leads to better access to opportunities, as well as give a marked advantage over those who remain illiterate”.(1) Being literate not only benefits individuals but it benefits an individual's society as a whole. The more literate a nation is the stronger the nation is and the United States is having a literacy crisis making the nation weak. Being a strang literate nation has political and economic benefits when it comes to how courts are set up and how a nation spends it’s money. Lastly Nitrite states that “Latonia is a 36-year-old African American woman from Detroit, Michigan. She joined a local community-based adult literacy program with a seventh grade reading level. She wants to leam to read recipes and grocery store ads...Fifty-two-year-old Alphonse is also African American from Detroit with low literacy skills. His reason for participating in an adult literacy program is to learn to read the Bible. Alphonse is a Seventh Day Adventist, and unlike most African American males of his age cohort, he married and started a family at age 20. He was a high school dropout with less than a ninth grade education. However, he always dreamed of becoming a

institution through the attainment of literacy. The attempt to educate African-American during the time of slavery gained support from various religious groups; however, Caucasian viewed literacy for African-American as a method for instilling subservience and maintaining social, political and economic control. In contrast, African-American viewed literacy as a component of emancipation and participation in societal institutions on an equal basis. Many African-American activists have thought for blacks by creating different institution such as churches and schools for young blacks to get an education. This period might thought as one in which the seeds of literacy were introduced but without hardship and opposition. Higher education was viewed as a privilege for blacks and it was subjected to a debate. As for instance, the convention of free African –American was created to establish a college at New Allen that would offer a classical curriculum for blacks. According to the author, the proposal to establish that kind of college met with considerable opposition who did not believe African-American capable of higher education. As a result of this, the opposition succeeded in preventing the establishment of the college, although they did not object the establishment of institution to train African-American as laborers. Based on this historical events and data gathered, it will allow me to analyze the issue of literacy in depth and understand the phenomena which could let me to

The author makes a convincing suggestion for the current situations. Delpit argues that the rationality of African tradition, those observes in Freedom School and the Civil Rights movements most again bring us to believing in children of low socioeconomic status, who has experienced the disadvantages of the educational enterprise. Proponent supporting this urgency, Asa Hilliard, encourages educators to begin to believe, in the “inherent intellectual capability, humanity, physical ability, and spiritual character of African American students (Hilliard