THE MAKING OF AFRICAN THE MAKING OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN A WHITE AMERICANS IN A WHITE

AMERICAAMERICA

CHAPTER 7CHAPTER 7

SlaverySlavery• US has the eighth largest Black population

in the world• Slavery began in 1619 with 20 Africans in

Jamestown as indentured servants• 1660’s British colonies passed laws

• Blacks became slaves for life• Interracial marriage was forbidden• Children of slaves bore the status of the mother

regardless of father’s race

Slave CodesSlave Codes• Both contemporary institutional and individual

racism, central in today’s conflicts, have their origins in the institution of slavery

• Legal and protected by the US Constitution as interpreted by the US Supreme Court

• Slavery in US rested on 5 central conditions:• Slavery was for life

• Status was inherited

• Slaves were considered mere property

• Slaves were denied rights

• Coercion was used to maintain the system

• 1 Could not marry or meet with a free Black• 2. Marriage between slaves not legally

recognized• 3. Slave could not legally buy or sell

anything except by special arrangement• 4. Slave could not possess weapons or liquor• 5. Slave could not quarrel with or use abusive

language toward Whites• 6. Slave could not possess property (including

money), except as allowed by his or her owner

• 7. Slave could make no will, nor could he or she inherit anything

• 8. Slave could not make a contract or hire him or herself out

• 9. Slave could not leave a plantation without a pass noting his or her destination and time of return

• 10. No one, including Whites, was to teach a slave (and in some areas even a free Black) to read or write or to give a slave a book, including the Bible

• 11. Slave could not gamble• 12. Slave had to obey established curfews• 13. Slave could not testify in court except

against another slave• Rules varied by state and were not always

enforced• Violations dealt with in a variety of ways

• Mutilation and branding• Imprisonment was rare; most were whipped

• Owner immune from prosecution for physical abuse

• Most slaves were from Northwestern African societies and were diverse in:• language • kinship systems• economic systems• political systems

• Slavery and its justifying ideology emerged out of Western Colonialism

• Ideology of slavery and the slave codes were invented primarily to maintain the subjugation of Africans

African Americans and AfricaAfrican Americans and Africa• Survival of African culture documented in:

• Folklore• Religion• Language• Music

• Afrocentric perspectiveAfrocentric perspective• Argues that some aspects of African culture, such Argues that some aspects of African culture, such

as art forms, have so permeated Western culture as art forms, have so permeated Western culture that we mistakenly believe origins are Europeanthat we mistakenly believe origins are European

Attack on SlaveryAttack on Slavery• Slavery as an institution was vulnerable to

outside opinion• AbolitionistsAbolitionists

• Whites and free Blacks who opposed slaveryWhites and free Blacks who opposed slavery• Did not believe in racial equality; i.e., Abraham Lincoln

• Spoke out against slavery and the harm to the nation

• Slaves revolted• Between 40,000 and 100,000 escaped from South• Fugitive slave acts provided for return, even those

who reached free states

• Not all attempted to escape because failure meant death• Resisted through passive resistance

• Feigned clumsiness or illness

• Pretended not to understand, see, or hear

• Ridiculed Whites with mocking subtle humor that owners did not comprehend

• Destroyed farm implements and committed similar acts of sabotage

Slavery’s AftermathSlavery’s Aftermath• The period of reconstruction 1867-1877

• Military Governors• Black participation in the political process• Fifteenth Amendment ratified 1870

• The emergence of segregation laws (Jim Crow)

• Supreme court decisions and segregation• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)• Williams v. Mississippi (1898)Williams v. Mississippi (1898)

• White primary elections

Reparations For SlaveryReparations For Slavery• Slavery ReparationSlavery Reparation

• Refers to the act of making amends for the Refers to the act of making amends for the injustice of slaveryinjustice of slavery

• What form should reparation take?• An official apology• Financial compensation• Corporations that benefit from slavery and

financial compensation

• Congressman John Conyers (Detroit)• Commission to study appropriate remedies

• Absence of an official apology angers many African Americans

• In 1990’s, documentation emerged that private companies that still exist benefited from slavery• Railroads• Insurance Companies

• Attitudes divided along racial lines on government cash payments

• Most African Americans and some citizens disappointed by unwillingness to debate issue in Washington, D.C.

The Challenge of Black LeadershipThe Challenge of Black Leadership• Booker T. WashingtonBooker T. Washington

• Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama• Politics of AccommodationPolitics of Accommodation

• Approach to White supremacy

• Forgo social equality until Whites saw Blacks were deserving

• Essential theme was compromise

• Self help and economic self determination• Congratulated by President Grover Cleveland• Organization became the Urban League

• W.E.B. DuBoisW.E.B. DuBois• Born to a free family in Massachusetts• First African-American to receive a Doctorate First African-American to receive a Doctorate

from Harvardfrom Harvard• Niagara Movement• Racism as the problem of Whites• Advocated the policy of the talented

tenth• Most outspoken critic of Booker T. Washington• Organization became the NAACP

Niagara MovementNiagara Movement• DuBois criticized Washington’s influence in

Washington, D.C.• Washington’s power being used to stifle African

Americans who spoke out against the politics of accommodation

• Washington caused the transfer of funds from academic programs to vocational education

• Washington’s statements encouraged Whites to place the burden of the Black’s problems on the Blacks themselves

• DuBois advocated theory of the talented tenth as alternative• Privileged Blacks, 1/10Privileged Blacks, 1/10thth must serve the other must serve the other

9/109/10thth of the Black population of the Black population

• African American education should be academic to improve their positions

• Invited 29 Blacks for strategy session near Niagara Falls

• Encountered difficulty gaining financial support and recruiting of prominent people

• National Association for the Advancement National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 1909of Colored People (NAACP) 1909• Consisted of Blacks and Whites• Founded by the leaders of the Niagara

Movement• Marked the merging of White liberalism and

Black militancy

Reemergence of Black ProtestReemergence of Black Protest• World War II signaled improved economic

conditions for Whites and Blacks• Efforts by Blacks to contribute to the war

effort at home hampered by discrimination• Philip RandolphPhilip Randolph

• Threatened march on Washington in 1941• President Roosevelt responded by issuing

executive order• Fair Employment Practices CommissionFair Employment Practices Commission set precedent

for federal intervention in job discrimination

• The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) 19421942• Founded to fight discrimination with nonviolent Founded to fight discrimination with nonviolent

direct actiondirect action

• Restrictive CovenantRestrictive Covenant• A private contract entered into by neighborhood A private contract entered into by neighborhood

property owners stipulating that property could property owners stipulating that property could not be sold or rented to certain minority groupsnot be sold or rented to certain minority groups

• Declared unconstitutional in 1948

• Military desegregated by President Truman in 1948

The Civil Rights MovementThe Civil Rights Movement• Desegregation of public schools.• De jure segregationDe jure segregation

• Segregation that results from children being Segregation that results from children being assigned to schools specifically to maintain assigned to schools specifically to maintain racially separate schoolsracially separate schools

• NAACP - Brown v. Board of Education of NAACP - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, and U. S. Supreme Court Topeka Kansas, and U. S. Supreme Court decisiondecision

• Marked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement

• James Meredith (1962) University of MississippiJames Meredith (1962) University of Mississippi

Civil DisobedienceCivil Disobedience• Based on the belief that people have the Based on the belief that people have the

right to disobey the law under certain right to disobey the law under certain circumstancescircumstances

• Widely used by Martin Luther King, Jr.• Active non violent resistance to evil• Win friendship and understanding of opponents• Attack forces of evil rather than people doing evil• Accept suffering without retaliation• Refusing to hate the opponent• Acting with the conviction that the universe is on

the side of justice

Urban Violence and OppressionUrban Violence and Oppression• Explaining Violence

• Riff-Raff/Rotten Apple TheoryRiff-Raff/Rotten Apple Theory• Riot participants were mostly unemployed youth with

criminal records• Discredited the rioters and left the barrel of apples,

White society, untouched

• Relative DeprivationRelative Deprivation• The conscious feeling of a negative discrepancy The conscious feeling of a negative discrepancy

between legitimate expectations and present actualitiesbetween legitimate expectations and present actualities

• Rising ExpectationsRising Expectations• Refers to the increasing sense of frustration that Refers to the increasing sense of frustration that

legitimate needs are being blockedlegitimate needs are being blocked

Black PowerBlack Power• Born not of Black but of White violence• Phrase frightened Whites and offended Blacks

• Black leaders feared Whites would retaliate more violently

• Stokely Carmichael• Rejected the goal of assimilation in favor of

solidarity• Black Panther Party

• Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California in October 1966

The Religious ForceThe Religious Force• Black leaders emerged from the pulpits• Churches served as the basis for community

organization in neighborhoods abandoned by businesses and even government

• Religion always a source of political change and spiritual strength from slavery to the present

• Most African Americans are overwhelmingly Protestant

• The Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, has attracted a large number of followers and received the most attention

QUESTIONSQUESTIONS

• In what ways were slaves defineddefined as propertyproperty?

• Discuss the institution of slaveryinstitution of slavery based on the sociological perspectives of symbolic sociological perspectives of symbolic interaction, conflict theory, and interaction, conflict theory, and functionalismfunctionalism?

• If civil disobedience is nonviolentnonviolent, why is so much violenceviolence associated with it?

• Describe the importance of the conflict conflict between DuBois and Washington between DuBois and Washington regarding academic and vocational regarding academic and vocational programsprograms and what it meant for the future of African Americans.

• Why has religionreligion proved to be a force for both unity and disunityboth unity and disunity among African Americans?

• Growing numbers of Blacks are immigrating to the United States from the Caribbean and the African continent. What impactimpact may this have on what it means to what it means to be Black or African Americanbe Black or African American in the United States? What would the social social construction of raceconstruction of race say about this development?

• Throughout their history in America, the people known as African Americans today have had other titles of identification. They were NegroeNegroess, then ColoredColored, BlackBlack during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, and now African AmericanAfrican American. America has many America has many immigrants from Africa, some of whom are immigrants from Africa, some of whom are White, and can also be called African White, and can also be called African American.American. What does this mean to the descendants of American slaves? What title What title can they develop that will distinguish them can they develop that will distinguish them from immigrant African Americans, Black or from immigrant African Americans, Black or White?White?