Joe Turner Sparknotes

Black people still call America their home, even though they are consistently discriminated against. Consistently hated on because of how they look like. Black people have been viewed as trouble, suspicious, no good, and will never be anything respectable (Goldberg 2). When young black children cannot be protected from this everyday, so they adapted to this way of life and was to never believe otherwise. Racism and discrimination limit not only black people, but everyone of color. People of color believe they will never be like a white man because of all the advantages a white man has. However, people like Benjamin Banneker, Kenneth Clark, and Toni Morrison are showing their skin color does not relate to their success or intelligence (Goldberg 3). These people are showing how even with all the injustice in America, they were still able to be successful. It is not about what the color of one’s skin is, it is about the mindset and perspective of each

Anthony Johnson was one such man that was able to rise from a life of slavery to a life even I would enjoy living. During this time in Virginia, he had to face many pressures both socially and politically; luckily he was able to overcome them both. Slavery was not a bad life for him but not having his freedom was, so he worked very hard to attain it and then worked even harder to make something of himself. Anthony Johnson was able to marry, have a healthy family and still own the land he always wanted. New to the concepts of free blacks existing in early America I was both excited about his being able to escape poverty and disappointed with the fact that he was not well known even in the state he lived in. Simply stated Anthony Johnson established himself in seventeenth century Virginia only to never reap the rewards any white would get in that same situation.

The poem “Let America Be America Again” (658) is written by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes who is knowledgeable in American literature. Hughes writes this specific piece about the suffrages of what African Americans have encountered and uses a combination of ethos, pathos, and logos to express his thoughts. In the book Arguing About Literature: A Brief Guide by John Schilb and John Clifford gives a brief credibility description of Hughes to let readers knows he knows what he is talking about. He also uses history and emotion, both powerful strategies, to create a connection through his writing. Although he views majority of victims of poverty as African Americans, Hughes mentions others for those outside of the African American race can relate to this poem. In history and today’s society, people of all discrimination suffer powerlessness with lack of opportunity, equality, freedom, and fairness for immigration.

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

W.E.B. DuBois’ “Returning Soldiers,” an editorial piece written in May of 1919 for the NAACP’s publication The Crisis lays out for not just returning soldiers, but for African-Americans as a whole that the war is not over. While the Great War of 1914-1918 may have ended, there is still a greater war to continue to fight on the American homefront. “Returning Soldiers” calls out the United States government on the charges against its people as seen by DuBois and reiterates and rejuvenates the reader for the fight it still needs to take on. The black man soldier may have escaped the battlefields of France and now be able to shed the uniform that symbolizes the systematic injustices he faced, but upon returning, in his “civil garb” he is still a soldier, only in a different military.

One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

Education is the basic key to one’s life and the shift of time shows the process in one’s mind. Migration Portraiture by Nikkey Finney is a poem focuses on the importance of education to African Americans while they were in the South and the key will to learn growing through the movement to the South. This sense of education is seen through the transition of life for African Americans between their time in the South and then to the North. The poem goes through this shift of time to emphasize experiences. We get this feeling of the past (The South) and the future (The North) through the usage of specific words, imagery and repetition of North and South through every line breaking point in the poem.

Harding goes deep into the social and moral fabric of what America is and how it can actually be anything more than just a notion since all of America's greatest moments were at the expense of the black man. Harding states that "Black history is forced on to ask about the meaning of America itself."[1].

Unfortunately, this mass migration to the "New World" came at a terrible cost to the lives of the Natives already here. Not everyone came here free to pursue a better life. Many arrived as indentured servants, even worse much more came as slaves. Upon arriving some immigrants found success, many others did not, and a select few of them, as well as some Natives, expressed their experiences through writing about their quest. One author, Charles W. Chesnutt, in The Wife of His Youth tells of the torment that burdened some free-born blacks. Chesnutt’s character, Mr. Ryder, achieved a level of status and class that was better than many whites, due to his assumed mixed race and literacy. However, Liza Jane, Mr. Ryder’s former wife shows up at his house one day looking for him, yet does not recognize him. Ryder is left to decide if he will reveal himself to her and the impact that would have on him among his societal friends. Perhaps, this is what minorities today go through when they achieve the level of status they are seeking. Are they sellouts for succeeding, or should they use their gains to assist others in their communities, like them, in obtaining a better life? Moreover, all the rewards in the world are of no value if one has not the liberty to enjoy

I was recently made aware of Mr. Frederick Douglass and his terrifying yet inspirational journey through his life as black man in America. He was threatened and beat. Worked until he was nothing. (brief summary and example from the text)

Nathan Irvin Huggins, throughout his nonfiction novel, Slave and Citizen (1980), depicts the life of Frederick Douglass from his birth as a slave to being the most well known Afro-American of the nineteenth century. Douglass endures a lifetime of struggles as a black man in America to become a powerful leader for civil rights of both blacks and women. Douglass escapes slavery only to become a fugitive in the North. His determination to become literate and his studies of the Columbian Orator helped him learn the art of argument, where he becomes a powerful abolitionist speaker, orator and writer. Douglass is then inspired to write about his life and publishes his first autobiography, the Narrative. After his freedom is bought, Douglass begins his own newspaper, The North Star and continues his plight for civil rights. Slavery divides the country and the Civil War arrives. During this time, President Lincoln calls on Frederick Douglass for his advice and his help in recruiting blacks into the Union Army. For many years after the war ends, wIth little respect and constant prejudice, he works for the right for blacks to vote and to be considered citizens. As he ages, Douglass continues to fight to get blacks the rights they deserve as he earns leadership positions in the government. He also becomes involved with women’s rights movement and after the death of his first wife, re-marries a white abolitionist. Frederick Douglass’s journey is from “servitude to public celebrity” (pg.

for something bigger. Some people might say that Turner was crazy when he says that he could hear voices and could see visions, and these would help him to lead this great rebellion.

Maycomb County has been living a few dynamic days, as it not only snowed yesterday, but also today at approximately 2 in the morning a tremendous fire burnt the house of Maudie Atkinson to the ground. Even though the cause of the fire has not been confirmed yet, it is highly believed that it was due to the flue in her kitchen. Since it had not snowed since 1885, the people in town were not prepared. The fire truck was killed by the extreme weather and it took plenty of time for it to arrive to the scene, but fortunately it arrived in time to prevent the fire from spreading to other houses in the neighborhood. The commotion among everyone was clearly perceived.

David Walkers perception of many blacks in America is derived from his living experience in northern ghettos and southern plantations. He recalls many people who shared his color being defined as property although he was a free man. Walker also expresses how many blacks in the north were denied adequate jobs but were given menial jobs that nobody wanted. “He we are—reduced to degradation”.

interviews of people who have or know people who have experienced historical events of the past. For this essay, I chose to take an oral history of the civil rights movement and the great migration. Preserving the memories of the individuals that lived during these historical events allows for many things in addressing the silence of African American experiences within U.S. History. First, memories and recollections taken from oral histories may differ from the perspectives of those who have appear on historical records or may be completely absent from any other documentations. Also, because cameras and video cameras were not as easily accessible as they are today, the majority of history is documented from peoples’ memories through letters, diaries, and oral history interviews. In addition, taking an oral history allows me to ask specific questions towards what I am are interested in documenting about the civil rights movement and the great migration. Lastly, oral histories are somewhat viewed as a “revisionist” to the study of both the civil rights movement and the great migration because it takes firsthand accounts of those participating on campaigns and protests and also of those were watching from afar and allows readers to understand each individual part of what made the movement as a whole.