Kate Masur’s account in An Example for All the Land is a conservative, yet valuable, political narrative. Concentrated in the growing, reconstructing city of Washington, D.C., the book scratches deep below the surface of African Americans’political participation during this time. Senator Charles Sumner’s declaration that Washington D.C. would be “an example for the land” is the basis of Masur’s title and the urban setting of Washington D.C (1). Masur sets the atmosphere for the political and social life of Washington, D.C. for nearly a century. The narrative follows a chronological order and covers the time period following the Civil War through Reconstruction from 1862 to 1874. The author examines relationships between national organizations …show more content…
Masur opens her account with an introduction that outlines her complete narrative. Chapters one through three focus on the growing presence of equality for African Americans. With the increasing population of freed African Americans in the nation’s capital, government set out to end slavery. “Thousands of fugitives from slavery migrated into the city in search of freedom, safety, and employment” (15). Masur uncovers these migration factors and further digs into the establishments of churches for political meetings and enlisted black soldiers demand for equal rights and privileges. More so, she works to allow bring readers into the transformation of Washington D.C. into a city of urbanization and political changes. The author includes various maps and figures to illustrate various aspects of the antebellum capital. Chapter two focuses on the Freedmen’s Bureau and their role in helping freed African Americans gain equal rights. Masur also pens accounts about African American’s newly acclaimed rights in business community. Continuing, chapter three characterizes equality in terms of political debates that included equality in public institutions and
Isabel Wilkerson is very thorough in this reading. She covers the exodus of blacks from the Deep South beginning with the First World War up to the end of the Civil Rights Movement, and even slightly beyond. Because this occurrence of migration lasted for generations, it was hard to see it while it was happening, and most of its participants were unaware that they were part of any analytical change in black American residency, but in the end, six million African Americans left the South during these years. And while Jim Crow is arguably the chief reason for this migration, the settings, skills, and outcomes of these migrants ranged as widely as one might expect considering the movement’s longevity. I liked Wilkerson’s depiction of Ida Mae,
This work by Booker T. Washington, “The Atlanta Exposition Address”, or also known as “The Atlanta Compromise”, was a speech given in 1895 at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta that had a lasting impact not only to the crowd listening, but to the nation as a whole. Booker T. Washington was admired and appreciated by many black Americans. Although, everyone in the African American Community admired his overall achievements leading up to his speech in Atlanta, some of his ideas and thoughts became very controversial within the black community and possibly encouraged the Jim Crow era by proposing the ideology of separate but equal. “The Atlanta Exposition Address,” was significant in shaping history because it; sparked a split and debate within the African American community over the ideas Booker T. Washington proposed in the address, and simultaneously affected the nation as a whole with future laws passed off the basis of Washington’s ideology. To understand the context of where Booker T. Washington’s stance is in the address, people must first understand Washington’s background and his audience during the speech.
The book I decided to review is titled, “Slavery in the Cities: The South 1820-1860” by Richard C. Wade. The book is about slavery in the cities, mainly in the south. Wade also spoke about conditions of life of the slaves, the law, and the runaways. To conclude the book, he spoke about the transformation of slavery in the cities during the 19th century. Wade’s thesis was stated in the introductory paragraphs.
The early 1900’s was the era of progressivism, during which socioeconomic equity was paramount concern. African American took part in the era with the objective to establish first class citizenship. In this brought upon polarized views on the most effective methods for invoking change. The first well known black leader Booker T. Washington reintroduced the idea of traditional gradualism... Washington came in conflict with Du Bois an opposing leader who viewed change as rapid and continuous.
Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North by Thomas J. Sugrue is a comprehensive description of the civil rights movement in the North. Sugrue shows Northern African Americans who assembled against racial inequality, but were excluded from postwar affluence. Through fine detail and eloquent style, Sugrue has explained the growth and hardships integral in the struggles for liberties of black Americans in the North. The author explores the many civil rights victories—such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Act of 1965—but also takes the reader on a journey of many lesser known issues that occurred throughout states in the North and Mid-west United States. Sugrue illustrates the struggles of black
In chapter five of Craig Wilder 's Covenant with Color: Race And Social Power in Brooklyn. We learned of the Draft Riots that rocked Manhattan in 1863 when the Irish working class learned that they were to be drafted into the Civil War. Fear of emancipated slaves migrating to New York and “stealing” jobs, Irish men rioted and directed their anger towards both free and enslaved black New Yorkers. During the tour I learned that Weeksville acted as vital refuge for blacks escaping the riots and violence in Manhattan. My trip to the Weeksville Heritage Center was an inspiring experience.
Louis Harlan examines the life, actions, and motivations of Booker T. Washington from top to bottom, peeling back the many complicated layers of Washington’s double life. Harlan’s research highlights an often overlooked fact of history, that the historical figures that live on in legend are, at the end of the day, only human, and the motivations behind their choices are rarely simple. We can only begin to understand Booker T. Washington by examining his childhood, his public and private life, the world he was living in, and the company he kept during his work as a black leader in white America. Harlan presented a detailed portrait of Washington, tracing his life from his early years as a slave to his rise as a national figure and leader of
These particular facts contribute to his overall push for continued, assertive action against the government. He finds it essential that the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester be able to visualize such revelations on the reality of American society. Realizing this provides them the means to take more radical steps towards greater civil equality and rights for African Americans, despite the laws prohibiting equivalent efforts. This shift brings the author closer to his end result of using passionate language to convey his
In the first few chapters of Black Metropolis, St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton provide historical context on the early development of Chicago as the site for an emerging city, which became the American Midwest epicenter that incited significant social, economic and political changes that transformed the country. The authors also establish a foundation that helps to understand the allure of the Windy City, which contributed to the mass exodus of African Americans from the South during the Great Migration that ultimately created the “black metropolis.” While examining the text, what specifically stood out was the following quote: “The distinctive thing about the Black Belt is that while other such “colonies” tend to break up with the passage of time, the Negro area becomes increasingly more concentrated.” This quote indirectly references the
“Long, hot summers” of rioting arose and many supporters of the African American movement were assassinated. However, these movements that mused stay ingrained in America’s history and pave way for an issue that continues to be the center of
Professor Khalil Girban Muhammad gave an understanding of the separate and combined influences that African Americans and Whites had in making of present day urban America. Muhammad’s lecture was awakening, informative and true, he was extremely objective and analytical in his ability to scan back and forth across the broad array of positive and negative influences. Muhammad described all the many factors during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries since the abolition of slavery and also gave many examples of how blackness was condemned in American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Professor Muhammad was able to display how on one hand, initial limitations made blacks seem inferior, and various forms of white prejudice made things worse. But on the other hand, when given the same education and opportunities, there are no differences between black and white achievements and positive contributions to society.
Booker T. Washington is by far one of the brightest and strongest minds from his time. During his Atlanta Exposition address he displays his intellect masterfully. From Mr. Washington’s use of language he was able to seamlessly piece together a speech that we still analyse to this day. Mr. Washington use of rhetoric explains and enlightens the circumstances of freed African Americans trying to fit into communities in the south. From mistreatment and racism still present in the newly freed people.
The African – American 's Assimilation into White America America is often considered the land of opportunities, a place where people can have a fresh start, a clean slate. America is a land that is made up of immigrants. Over the centuries America has been a place where people dream to live in, however the American dream wasn 't as perfect as believed; there were issues of race inferiority, slavery and social inequality amongst other problems. When a person arrives into a new society he has a difficult task ahead of him- to assimilate into that new society- which includes the economical, cultural, political and social aspects. In the following paper I will discuss how the African American, who came as slaves to America, has fought over the centuries to achieve equality in a white society that discriminated them.
Dr. W.E.B Du Bois uses this essay to sway the audience of the insufficiency of the statements that Mr. Booker T. Washington has made about African Americans being submissive of rights and the creation of wealth. Mr. Washington believes that the black race should give up and give into what the society norms were at that time sequentially just to have a certain right. Dr. Du Bois refused to believe that the black race should give up one right to get another right. Especially, when the white South had all rights without expecting to give up anything to have those rights.
In Mark Bauerlein’s, Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906, the political and social events leading to the riot are analyzed. The center of events took place around and inside Atlanta in the early 1900’s. The riot broke out on the evening of September 22, 1906. Prior to the riot in 1906, elections were being held for a new Georgia governor. Bauerlein organizes his book in chronological order to effectively recount the events that led to the riot.