The American Negro Academy : The First Black Intellectual Society Essay

The essay that I am presenting today is “Strivings of the Negro People” by W.E.B Dubois. This essay was written in as an article in the Atlantic Monthly in 1987, but before I get to essay, I would like to give some background information about Mr. Dubois. Both scholar and activist, W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard University and, in 1895, became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. He wrote extensively and was the best known spokesperson for African American rights during the first half of the 20th century. Du Bois co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. He died in

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.

The American culture is define to everyone in their own way. Everyone grows up differently in a particular community that shares the same languages, values, rules, and customs. The American Culture on that is consider to be a “melting pot”, because of all the different cultures that reside inside of it making it so diverse. Race in this country has never been a great topic throughout history. African Americans play a huge role into defining what our culture is as a whole, as well as being a part of racism for the past 250 years.

Two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and 20th century were W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. However, they sharply disagreed on strategies for black social and economic progress. Their opposing philosophies can be found in much of today's discussions over how to end class and racial injustice, what is the role of black leadership, and what do the 'haves' owe the 'have-nots' in the black community.

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.

Writing down 500 words about the inspiration and impact of one African American, on our black history and I was a challenge. My rich African culture and heritage taught me important values: to explore the world with inquisitive eyes, to seek constantly, to learn and understand more about life, to understand the difference between opportunities and challenges, and to visualize what the essence of African American’s life should be. I came to read about an African American named Alexander Crummell. Alexander Crummell (Born in New York City on March 3, 1819 - died in New Jersey on September 10, 1898) was a 19th century Episcopalian minister, Educator, Scholar, Civil Rights Activist, Journalist, Missionary, who spent his life to defied the racism, to champion educational opportunities for African-American citizens and immigration to Liberia.

During this time in a movement known as the Great Migration, thousands of African-Americans also known as Negros left their homes in the South and moved North toward the beach line of big cities in search of employment and a new beginning. As Locke stated, “the wash and rush of this human tide on the beach line of Northern city centers is to be explained primarily in terms of a new vision of opportunity, of social and economic freedom, of a spirit to seize, even in the face of an extortionate and heavy toll, a chance for the improvement of conditions. With each successive wave of it, the movement of the Negro becomes more and more a mass movement toward the larger

As professors teaching Black Studies today will tell you, the socialization of blacks into the American traditional culture failed. We have failed to bring the vast majority of the offspring of the slaves into the culture of Western Civilization, the culture of Abraham Lincoln. While part of the black community is Christian and has been socialized for years, the dominant black majority in America is led by the Democratic Party and rejects Western Civilization.

Racial discrimination, political, social and economic inequality during the late 19th century and early 20th century led various leaders within the black community to rise up and address the appalling circumstances that African Americans were forced to endure. Among these leaders were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois whom possessed analogous desires as it pertained to the advancement and upliftment of the black race. While both individuals were fighting for the same cause and purpose they embraced contrary ideologies and approaches to African American struggle. In Booker T. Washington’s book “Up from Slavery” African Americans were encouraged to be passive and focus on vocational education whereas in W.E.B. DuBois book “The Souls of Black Folk”, African Americans were encouraged to fight for their merited rights and focus on academic education. However, although Washington was convinced that his ideologies would sincerely uplift the black race, they actually proved to be detrimental, leaving DuBois ideology to be the most reasonable and appropriate solution for the advancement of the black race.

Many black in America began to feel the need to address this white supremacy that they felt suppressed under and found that “they are only being used as a tool of the white liberal establishment; liberal whites have not begun to address themselves to the real problem of black people in this country.” The most important lesson they learned was that anything the white man does is never in the best interest for the black man or community. This led to a growing rage amongst blacks and led them to take a stand against the problems they faced.

Introduction to African American Studies was the class that I decided to take this summer because I am genuinely interested in learning more about the cultures and lifestyles of African Americans through out history and I want to further my knowledge beyond just learning about what was taught to me in secondary school. I do not know much about African American studies as I have not taken any courses on it or relating to it in the past but I hope that I can gain a lot of information on the topic through out this intellectual experience. I also hope to gain a better understanding of the history of Africans and African Americas and be able to dive deeper into this topic instead of just hitting the surface as I feel as though my previous experiences with this topic have covered. In just this first weeks lesson I have learned about the three great principles that characterize the “Black Intellectual Tradition” and how these three principles are used and perceived.

Booker T. Washington knows that this “Theory of Society” wouldn’t just work overnight, especially during his time, but his main objective was he wanted whites and blacks to help society together. The end result that Booker T. Washington wanted for his education philosophy of “Theory of Society” is for whites to appreciate the contributions that African Americans have on society. The “Theory of Society” can relate to our class because in our discussion about the book “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. When we were discussing about the book “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” the oppressed people

“One of the most critical challenges facing Black Studies today is the need to rescue and exercise its right to self- definition and self- determination with scholarship and vision and to reassess with rigor its original paradigm in both theory and practice (Karenga, p.356).” This statement by Maulana Karenga in “Black Studies and The Problematic of Paradigm: The Philosophical Dimension” brings forth the question from class, “how do students and scholars of Africana Studies go about identifying and making sense of their intellectual project?” One way we see this being answered is through media, or more specifically film. Living in a society where there is different forms of technology accessible to people in every direction, people become less likely to research and read books about Africana Studies. This form of Method in Africana Studies through film is one of many different ways to go about understanding the complexity of Africana Studies but will come to find out later is still not necessarily being taken seriously or seen by blacks at all.

This is a sentiment that was most commonly shared by his white counterparts; Peter’s statement presents the divisiveness of attempting to be regarded as something besides you skin colour. Furthermore, the sentiment does nothing to bring him closer to white hegemony; it instead singles him out within society as a person that does not fit in within the racial divide. Thus, as Sam Bluefarb notes: ‘He is too bright and sensitive for the black Harlem milieu of bars and honky-tonks and too black for the white world whether ‘liberal’ or racist.’

Critical Review of Scholarship: I will be referring to a handful of documents to aid in my discussion of the development of black studies. Firstly, the document What Black Studies is Not by Dr. Carr really dives in to the true purpose of black studies, and as the name suggests, clarifies misconceptions about what black studies is often assumed to be. Moreover, the article on Dr. Nathan Hare is crucial because he is seen as the Father of Black Studies, and he was actually fired from his position in the name of lobbying for black studies programs to be properly enforced in colleges. I also utilized the Introduction and Development of Black Studies which was generally about the entire process to impose black studies programs in universities.