Chestnutt Genuinely Embraces The Challenges Of Tradition

In every culture, there are the strong and there are the weak, the oppressor and the oppressed. Sometimes they are of the same race and sometimes not, but they all rely on a difference in power. Socrates, Frederick Douglass, and WEB Du Bois each experience this power differential through the course of their lives. Socrates experiences this through his experience with the jury of Athens and his trial; Douglass through his life as a slave and his eventual escape. Du Bois experiences it through being a black man in the time of Reconstruction and being well of in comparison to other African-Americans at the time. Each man’s unique perspective on equality can illuminate why authority is so instrumental in the development of equality.

The end of the Civil War was followed almost immediately by a new wave that would see the African Americans face great suffering and discrimination. As newly freed slaves, African Americans were presented with a dilemma to either curve a new niche in a society that once viewed and treated them as mere properties than humans. It was during these difficult times that two key figures in the African American History rose as paramount leaders of two sharply contrasting philosophical camps. The Massachusettian William Edward Burghardt and the Virginian Booker T. Washington, both held two completely contrasting proposals about the best approach for African American to overcome and thrive in the mist of their suffering and racial discrimination. Although their approaches greatly differed, both of these noble men shared a common goal in uplifting the black community in history. The aim of this paper is to argue in the contrasting philosophies of these two key figures in the history of African America.

In this essay the author argued the strategy employed by Mr. Booker T. Washington during a period in history where race relations were hyper sensitive. Mr. Washington felt that the only chance for the survival and development of the Negro race was to submit to the white man by giving up three critical rights of American society; those were, the right to vote, civil rights, and access to higher education. In doing so, he calculated that if black people focused on industrial education, wealth accumulation, and conciliation of the South, they’d stand a better chance of advancing as a race. As Du Bois argued,” In other periods of intensified prejudice all the Negro's tendency to self-assertion has been called

Alexander summarizes her interpretation of the period when a number of black individuals were elected into government offices with the phrase “black faces in high places.” By this she means that although black individuals were elected, this development actually obscured the problem rather than remedied it. Alexander writes that in 1974, 64 percent of new federal employees came from minority backgrounds. These changes helped a relatively small group of African American households, and left the rest behind. On account of these changes, the idea that hard work was the way blacks could overcome institutional challenges was born. By masking the government’s responsibility to help all African American households, colorblindness led the public to believe the country

In Carter’s eyes, the mandates of segregation were not at the forefront on the farm because of the intertwined existences. But, he counters, “the political and social dominance of whites was an accepted fact, never challenged or even debated … by white liberals or black protesters” [CITATION NEEDED]. Despite this, Carter had made his opinions based off of the person’s own qualities and not the color of their skin.

Walter Benn Michaels, a white man, believes that economic inequality is a more “fundamental” problem than the racial divisions that currently exist in society. He is very quick to dismiss the concept of race and counters W.E.B. Dubois’ definition of a black man- “a person who must ride Jim Crow in Georgia”(Michaels 47). Walter Benn Michaels states “the beliefs about race that underlay the Jim Crow laws have turned out to be mistaken; we no longer believe them and we no longer have Jim Crow...if a black man

The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination… the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land (qtd. in W.T.L. 235).

“I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people. And while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and

The doctrine of self-government is right—but has no just application, as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a man, why in that case, he who is a man may, as a matter of self-government, do just as he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total of destruction of self-government, to say that he too shall not govern himself? When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself, and also governs another man, that is more than self-government—that is despotism.

The “new” negro no longer embodied “old” characteristics that defined a black man. Society had always taught a black man how to act; however, now he was adapting to the world. Locke declared that ‘the Old Negro’ had long become more of a myth than a man” (Locke, 1). A furthered and detailed definition of an “Old Negro” was that he “was a creature of moral debating historical controversy” (Locke, 1). The four

In the case of The Marrow Tradition, white supremacy and racism are major themes and while some of the characters are sympathetic towards the African Americans in Wellington, North Carolina, there are many that are uncomfortable with the idea of white and black equality in any sense. It is Major Carteret’s personal belief that “no two races can live together except in relation of superior and inferior” (Chesnutt 31). He also believes that African Americans were not educated or experienced enough to be able to participate in specific things such as government. It did not help that African Americans were said to have criminal tendencies either (Chesnutt 31). Many people share in his particular views, two such people are Captain McBane and General Belmont. Captain McBane, a radical white supremacist, was once a slave driver and a Confederate officer in the Civil War; General Belmont was a Confederate General. The two men are

In Marrow of Tradition Charles Chesnutt uses the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898, as well as other racial issues to set the scene and develop his plot. Plessy vs. Ferguson, and Williams vs. Mississippi are events that went through the supreme court. Captain McBane is an example of a person that causes racial injustice throughout the book. While reading the book, it seems as though McBane’s goal is to make Whites superior to Blacks, in status and power. McBane seems to ignore Blacks and their opinions. \ Captain McBane and Captain Belmont open the newspaper business and immediately are tested. There is an African American, Major Carteret’s servnt Jerry, that applies to work at the newspaper, stating that he is “as honest as any negro in Wellington”.(Marrow

The Marrow Tradition written by Charles Waddell Chestnut is novel that portrays the struggles that African- Americans face against white supremacist in the south. It introduces many different characters and how each deals with these issues. It also exposes the different ideas white people has against freed African Americans. There are several different instances they show their unchanging ideas that they are the superior race and they should be the ones to rule. The marrow Tradition explores the many different aspects that prevent the south from moving beyond slavery and racism into an era of equality and shared progress. On the other hand, it also depicts the many different opinions on how African Americans should resist white oppression and win equals rights. Chestnut expresses these opinions by introducing two major characters; Josh Green and Dr. Miller as a way to expose the different perspectives of the African American people against white supremacist.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the

The subject of Belton’s speech is said to be “The Contribution of the Anglo-Saxon to the Cause of Human Liberty” (Imperium 27). This attempt at appeasement mirrors the framing of Washington’s Atlanta Compromise speech. While addressing a predominantly white crowd just as Belton does, Washington thanks the white organizers for their efforts in helping the African-American community: “I but convey…the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition” (“Atlanta Compromise” 281). Beyond the expressions of gratitude toward the white audiences, Belton and Washington’s speeches are attempts at uniting white and black Americans under the auspices of a common cause. Belton’s speech is read by a newspaper editor as trying to show white Americans that “the liberty-loving negro was their legitimate offspring, and not a bastard” (Imperium 36).