Benjamin Quarles Book Summary

African American Studies is a very complex subject. To confuse African American studies with black history is a common occurrence. African American studies is much deeper and more profound than just Black history alone. There are many unanswered and unasked questions among the Black American culture which causes confusion and misunderstanding in modern day society. In unit one there were many themes, concepts, and significant issues in the discipline of Africana studies. Both W.E.B Du Bois and Vivian V. Gordan touched on many concerns.

During the 19th and 20th century African Americans faced Discrimination in the United States. Three African Americans took roles of leadership and began trying to uplift the lives of blacks in society. Those who took control of this movement were Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and W.E.B Dubois. These activists wanted the same result and implemented different techniques to follow their similar hopes for blacks in America. Each of these leaders has allowed America to develop in extensive ways for several years and those yet to come. Alternate pathways were taken by each leader to resolve the overall issue of racism. These issues include things such as not having the right to vote,own property and prevent lynchings. This paper will argue that had Garvey's theory of the new negro and Dubois’ ideas of education been implemented, racism in America would have been reduced because the allocation of education would allow for their to become a new negro. The application of Marcus Garvey's theory including thoughts of W.E.B Dubois’ on racism would have brought white power to an end.

Dawning the year of 1895, the future of Black America finally rested in the hands of the very people to whom it concerned, the black community. Two popular philosophies were presented, and the argument between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois began. These two advocated for very different means of acquiring equality, Washington promotes the economic survival of the masses while Dubois promoted the superior intelligence of the few. The struggle between representing the masses and isolating the few proved to be the deciding factor when determining which philosophy was capable of supporting the desired future of Black America. A future where the economic foundation of the masses proved to be the key to promoting equality among white and black America.

Even though it may seem a tedious part of life, it all pays off in the end, with jobs, and money. Well, this was not the case for well educated black males in the North. Even if one were to surpass any white man, he would still not be able to have a better future than him. An example of this, would be in document c. A young well educated black male, exclaims in a speech, that he does not have as good a future, as any white man. It is sad, how racial discrimination, destroys the future of black kids, who have a lot of potential. The economy is what gets America up and running. If the economy were to collapse, the whole world would go into chaos. The sad thing about it, was that the African American community, were not allowed to contribute to it, except to pay their taxes. According to document b, a black man may be permitted to only pay taxes, and perform duties. It is

Students participate in seminar discussion of excerpted versions of either Dubois’ article “Of the Training of Black Men” or Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise Speech” in order to better understand each man’s beliefs about the best strategy for African Americans to achieve equality at the turn of the century. Students analyze

Reconstruction failed for African Americans. By the 1890’s all optimism that came as a result of the Constitutional rights guaranteed to them by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments was gone. Their reality, particularly for those in the South, was one of lynchings, Jim Crowe laws, and voting restrictions. They faced discrimination, segregation, limited educational opportunities, and a tenant farming system that only slightly differed from slavery. In the early twentieth century, visionaries such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey recognized the urgent need for change. These great leaders were in agreement that action was required to uplift the African American race. However, their philosophies on how to approach it were vastly different.

Knowledge and understanding is key to success and that’s what African Americans developed over the previous battle with black codes. Blacks saw opportunity in adverse situation, such as overcoming black codes which led to overcoming sharecropping. Through that adverse situation, blacks created a way to go around the sharecropping system by eventually forming the “Colored Farmers National Alliance.” African Americans saw the opportunity to sponsor their own cooperative stores where members could obtain necessary goods and equipment at a reduced price, published newspapers to help educate

The book starts out addressing the problem with the New deal and Great Depression. Black Americans suffered the most because they were mostly in agriculture and would be hit the hardest. Black urban unemployment reached well over 50 percent, more than twice the rate of whites. In my own opinion that wasn’t a coincidence. In southern cities, white workers rallied around such slogan “back to the cotton fields city jobs are for white folks." The most violent times took place on southern railroads, as unionized white workers intimidated, attacked, and murdered black firemen in order to take their jobs. Throughout African Americans lost their jobs in various parts of the South. Ku Klux Klan practices were being resumed and it became more and more dangerous for Blacks to live daily lives.

The Reconstruction Era is a suitable starting point for African Americans. “Reconstruction- the effort to restore southern states to the Union and to redefine African Americans’ place in

The African-American during the Reconstruction Era probably felt victorious as well as discomfited. Prior to the Civil war, slaves hoped freedom would give them the right of equal status in American society, but their dream of an egalitarian America was impeded after Lincoln’s assassination. To add to former slave woes, the southern economy lay destitute. Many southerners felt the added wage earners (former slaves) would destroy the cotton business’s productivity. Stated thus, many African-Americans were subjugated by White Elitists. Nevertheless, black Floridians advocated for economic, social, and even political equality, despite the hostile environment. This is interesting because it goes against the popular misconception of Florida’s

By the 1920’s the amount of African Americans in New York City had more than doubled. Meanwhile the roadways and subway system had just begun to reach Harlem, where some of the most influential Blacks had situated themselves. Soon after, Harlem became known as “The Black Mecca” and also as “The Capital of Black America”.

According to the perspective of E. Franklin Frazier, the “Black Bourgeoisie played an important role among American Negros for decades. Frazier’s study led him to the significant of “Negro Business” and its impact on the black middle class. Education was a major social factor responsible for emergence of the Black bourgeoisie.

The first source is a commentary originating from the CATO group titled ‘Why Did FDR’s New Deal Harm Blacks?’ written by Jim Powell, was published on December 3, 2003. The purpose

African Americans in America in history have gone through many hard times trying to just progress out of slavery and obtain freedom and have equal rights. In this paper I will attempt to explain what some of the important events of the time revealed about the role of African Americans in broader American society in, respectively, the 1920s and the late 1960s. I will explain how and why the roles of African Americans in the 1920s differed from their roles in the late 1960s, and explain how events in the 1920s may have contributed to

The history of the struggle for the advancement and progression of African Americans is a larger-than-life story. It reveals their endeavors for the initiation of change in political, financial, educational, and societal conditions. They did everything to shape their future and that of their country i.e. the United States of America. This struggle for the attainment of equal rights has helped them to determine the path and the pace of their improvement and development (Taylor & Mungazi, 2001, p. 1).