Imagine being a Negro in the 20th century. To be hated because of the color of your skin, to still be a slave in a “slave-less world”, to fear speaking up for yourself because it will only result in losing everything or being killed, or to be constantly reminded of how unworthy you were. How far would you go to be looked upon as an equal? Throughout the 1950s, African Americans experienced things that made them who they were – angry Americans. They encountered racial discrimination, segregation, and unequal opportunities. Within the play Fences, by August Wilson, we can see just how the play exemplifies what is happening in the world around them.
African Americans experienced the hatred of the whites everywhere they went and soon it was
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Dr. Kenneth Clark, an African-American psychologist, presented results from experiments he had conducted in which 16 black children between the ages of six and nine were shown black and white dolls. The majority indicated that the black dolls looked “bad” and the white dolls “nice”” (Schwartz). Blacks of all ages were being tormented by whites and this caused more harm than good. Within the play, Cory and Troy were the main characters who were portrayed this way. Troy didn’t like the way his father treated him and in turn made Cory disagree with Troy’s parenting. Because blacks could not place their angry on the right individuals, it left many homes broken and unsafe to live in. But like everything in life, it takes time for change to happen.
African Americans always had to do as the whites demanded of them. But eventually they grew tired of being mistreated. And that was when everything began to change. African Americans began to speak up for themselves, “African Americans had been fighting against racial discrimination for centuries; during the 1950s, however, the struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life (History 1950).” Even Troy spoke out about unequal opportunities when he was faced with it in the workforce, “why you got them white men’s driving and the colored lifting? What’s the matter, don’t I count? You think only white fellows got enough sense to drive a
It has been over one-hundred and fifty years since African-Americans have been liberated from the hardships of slavery. Even though the United States of America and its citizens have undergone many modern changes since slavery and its abolition, the effects of enslavement and oppression are still evident today. Many works such as Rituals of Blood: The Consequences of Slavery in Two American Cities, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy all explain a common conclusion; the chattel enslavement of African-Americans left a profound effect on former slaves and their descenders. In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois wrote in The Souls of Black Folk, “the problem of the Twentieth century is the color line”. The problem
In the 1960’s, black and white individuals were not recognized as being equal. The two races were treated differently, and the African Americans did not enjoy the same freedoms as the whites. The African Americans never had a chance to speak their mind, voice their opinions, or enjoy the same luxuries that the white people attained. Through various actions/efforts like the lunch counter sit-ins, freedom rides, and bus boycotts, the black people confronted segregation face on and worked to achieve equality and freedom.
The first issue that is focused on throughout the play would be the racial inequality in America in the 1950’s. Although there were many Americans who were fighting to end segregation and discrimination, nothing was legally done about it until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Troy Maxson being an African American man in his early fifties, grew up with the white man suppressing him. Troy was a Negro League star but when black men were finally allowed to play in the Major Leagues of baseball in 1947, Troy was too old to play. This left him very bitter towards life and the way he went on to raise his sons, which also ties into the generational clashes that will be discussed later on.
In past times, racism and economic injustice headline the many problems that present themselves to society. Some people accept the horrors that appear with the issues while others take actions to change the issues for the better. August Wilson reveals that in his play Fences.” Written in 1957, Wilson’s play portrays an African American family during the time of the civil rights movement who struggle to reach the self-proclaimed American Dream in the United States (Wilson 963-1018). The protagonist, Troy Maxson, is influenced by Wilson’s stepfather, David Bedford (Martin and Downing). During the civil rights movement, African Americans carried few to no rights as an American citizen, presenting controversy to the world of political science and economic power. Wilson also contributes to the theory of Marxism in Fences. Introduced by Karl Marx, Marxist Criticism paints an identical picture of the way society reveals itself in the twentieth century. “Marx’s main interest was in economic power and the ways in which it disguised and manipulated.” (Schakel and Ridl 1455). Wilson incorporates those views into his play Fences. Wilson also reveals his intake on the views of Marxism. “Today I would say that the conflict in black America is between the middle class and the so-called underclass, and that conflict goes back to those who deny themselves and those who aren’t willing to (Lyons 1024).” The author believes that African American struggle contributes to the theory of Marxism.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, African Americans were being severely persecuted and ostracized. The Jim Crow Laws allowed for legal segregation and continued control over blacks in the South. Those laws severely restricted the rights of the African American in the southern half of the United States and essentially continued to restrain them even though the United States Constitution forbid it. The North did not have such laws, but blacks still suffered. When African Americans migrated to the North, they were disillusioned by the fact that they were still not equal. The African Americans were instead delivered a subtler form of the discriminatory actions within the South. African Americans struggled for equality everywhere because of white
Despite nearly one hundred years passing since the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern States were still faced with the most distinct forms of racism. The so-called “Jim Crow” laws that were present in United States at the time, served to segregate blacks and whites from all aspects of public life, including schools, public transport and juries. Often faced with extreme right-wing terrorist groups such as the white supremacist Klu Klux Klan, many among the African American community chose to live in a society of oppression that to actively campaign for equal rights for all humans regardless of the colour of their skin. It wasn’t until the 1950’s and 60’s that the people attempted to challenge the established order by engaging in influential protest movements with the help of key activist groups and their leaders. In particular, one key example of a powerful protest campaign was that which occurred in 1965 in Selma, a small town in Alabama. Here, the African American community united in an effort to ensure that all citizens were equal before the law in regards to their ability to register to vote. Their work in banding together and marching from Selma to the state capital Montgomery, was vastly important to both the Civil Rights Movement as a whole, as well as the assurance of the Black vote within the United States. Consequently, this essay seeks to emphasize just how influential this act of protest was to the movement as a whole, whilst analysing the
The African American population in the United States have always seemed to have been oppressed and persecuted throughout the history of the country. They have been targeted and put down using emotional, physical and sometimes, extremely violent methods. The time period from 1865 to 1905 was a particularly bad period for Southern African Americans. Huge hurdles had to be crossed for the people that were newly allowed to participate in the United States as citizens.
at education and so on. African Americans had grown tired of living in an unjust world
Segregation, an word that has haunted countless AfricanAmericans for years upon years. Segregation is the action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or being set apart. It has cut AfricanAmericans short from many opportunities, leaving us dumb founded.
The African-Americans were often treated poorly. They were not allowed to go to the same public
Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what
Even though The police were just doing their job. African Americans were protesting for the integration of schools. Protesters were willing to publicly be embarrassed for this cause. Also, willing to get arrested because they wanted integration so badly. I think that it isn’t right for people to get treated the way that Africans Americans did. Everyone should treat other people the way they want to be treated.
Near the turn of the century, as decades passed by in a prejudiced America, where to be black was to lose all dignity, an emerging provocative spirit of liberation eventually catalyzed a period of great change: a period of enlightenment known as the 1960s. Slowly but surely, black pride began to restore as differences in morals between successive generations caused societal changes. Capturing the essence of black struggles prior to -and during- this dynamic period of change, August Wilson wrote the play Fences, a generational story about Troy Maxson, the son of a black sharecropper father. Highlighted by the play’s title, a particularly important motif of Wilson’s work is the concept of “fences” regarding how they both “trap things in”
Protest against injustice is deeply rooted in the African American experience. The origins of the civil rights movement date much further back than the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which said, "separate but equal" schools violated the Constitution. From the earliest slave revolts in this country over 400 years ago, African Americans strove to gain full participation in every aspect of political, economic and social life in the United States.
The pursuit of the American dream looks different depending on the color of one’s skin and one’s economic status. Historically for black Americans, this dream is to be seen and treated as equals as well as being given the same opportunities as their white counterparts, especially in the 1950s. Playwright August Wilson has captured some of the struggles that face black families, trying to navigate the American Dream in his play “Fence”. Key elements of the play are emphasized when looking at the works as a Marxist critic, the play illustrates how the racial hierarchy in America places blacks under untold pressures of being considered a third-rate citizen. This placement in the society seemingly traps those within it, leaving them victims of the circumstances forced upon them.