The Negro Digs Up His Past

The great strong standing United States of America is known today as one of the most power houses in the world. The principles she was founded on included on freedom and prosperity for some. In the founding years of an entity the most work is done in laying down the foundation. America chose to complete the task of building a beautiful nation of freedom and prosperity through the exploitation of slaves. Today, blacks in America are still healing from the scars that slavery in America has written on African American DNA. The fruits of slavery produced the internalization of negative: mentalities, inferiority of identity, and images in black media.

The article “The Negro Digs Up His Past’’ by Arthur schomburg on 1925, elaborates more on the struggles of slavery as well as how history tend to be in great need of restoration through mindfully exploring on the past. The article, however started with an interesting sentence which caught my attention, especially when the writer says ‘’The American Negro must remark his past in order to make his future’’ (670). This statement according the writer, explains how slavery took away the great deal freedom from people of African descendant, through emancipation and also increase in diversity. The writer (Arthur Schomburg) however, asserts that “the negro has been throughout the centuries of controversy an active collaborator, and often a pioneer, in the struggle for his own freedom and advancement” (670).

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.

Not so long ago few Americans spoke of slavery – which was swept under the rug until the civil rights movement in the 1950s. The shame of slavery gradually rose to public consciousness over the last five decades. Now the topic appears everywhere, in movies, television documentaries and academia. Nearly every major museum has mounted an exhibition on slavery. This issue has become an integral part of the foundation for understanding America’s past. With specific attributes, slavery is distinct from all other forms of oppression, giving it a unique place in human history. Many consider Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) as the best among anti-slavery propaganda that appeared with increasing frequency during the years preceding the Civil War. The primary reason of its appeal is the unsurpassed clarity of Douglass’ writing, which displays his superior sensitivity and intellectual capacity as he addresses the woeful irony of the existence of slavery in a Christian, democratic

Why do we hate? Why do we lie? Why do we forget? Three questions provide a strong explanation of how African Americans were treated, whether it was the use of verbal or physical abuse. These questions also describes how African Americans were implied into education. Authors wrote many issues regarding the ignorance and abolishment of slavery in more of a “Whites” perspective to teach the American society what they want to hear and not what actually happened. And further more, forgotten sources. Some want to forget was has happened over the course of our time, some want to hide the truth of how this has affected society and the race around us. Three documents were discussed with hidden facts and deep recognition of what is the truth behind

The arrival of African slaves, sold in the plantations of colonial America, definitely triggered a superior-inferior relationship and mentality between “the whites” and “the blacks”. This present-day culture, resulting from a society of masters and slaves, has struggled against central concepts deeply rooted in the nations past .With strong cultural values on racial discrimination, the path towards the concept of racism in America was a vital moment in the course of the nation’s history. Social concepts and attitudes could not be altered overnight, but it can be altered. Indeed, in the quest for social progress, the struggle for equality has gone a long way, with black Americans now holding high-ranking

Over the course of this semester, I was introduced to many people, ideas, writings, and discussions that sparked my interest and enlightened me on African American history. However, I feel like this was just the beginning of my journey of learning the history of my people, as there is still so much out there to be brought to the surface. Prior to taking this course, I was always ignorant on the topic of African American history and simply made the connection to slavery. Additionally, I was unaware of other black activist, movements, and struggles that I had the chance to witness for the first time in this class. I came to a realization of how deprived of this information I was, because other historic events have been deemed more important. A quote that stuck with me throughout the course that was made by Arthur Schomburg was, “... African history and negro history, are the missing pages of world history”.

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

Slavery has dependably been the most stunning wonders of our reality. Slavery, independent from anyone else appears to be exceptionally unnatural and incites blended sentiments from the heart of every individual. A few people are relatives of those who used to be slaves years prior. Some confronted "slavery" even in the contemporary times. What 's more, a few people do not comprehend the likelihood of one individual considering another person its slave. Slavery, by definition, is the primary authentic type of misuse, under which a slave alongside various actualizes of generation turns into the private property of the slave proprietor. At the end of the day slavery changes an individual person into a "thing" or even some sort of customer item. These spectacles have done a ton of mischief to millions of individuals, taking without end lives and pulverizing the destiny of the general population who could have been upbeat. It is basic learning that slavery was disposed of with the end of the Civil War. The South was discharged from the load that made the slavery to stop and that began crushing the partialities concerning the color of skin. These days, it is as of now history. Throughout the paper, the topics that will be discussed is a life of a slave on how they were mistreated, the Emancipation Proclamation, and lastly Lincoln most famous speech; The Gettysburg Address”.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and abolitionist, presented the idea that America needed to change in the light of the Civil War ending. Douglass stated that “America is young,” therefore a young nation is expected to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Those that don’t want change, need to understand and realize the impact that slavery and the miscarriage of justice plays on the economic and social aspects of our country. Change is needed to promote a more united front and set the stage for future changes.

While the nostalgic tone suddenly transitions to formal, X advances his essay with worldwide findings on race. Identifying the hidden history, Books such as Wonders of the World, Story of Civilization, Outline of History, Souls of Black Folk, and Negro History (para. 22), offer X a more comprehensive African history other than the “whitened” (para. 19) history of slavery. While enumerating ignored sources of history from his research, X strengthens logos and ethos and connotes a contrast to the setting of this narrative: many blacks’ contribution of history had been obliterated. Inequalities in history triggered his attention; X additionally incorporates books about race from various countries, and his tone gradually becomes indignant. For example, “Austrian monk” asserts the genetic origin of humankind is black (para. 24); New York Time writer reports that “American is only an extension of Asia” (para. 26). These sources target the inevitable contradiction it is contradictory to history for white people to be racists. X forwards the category of examples to descriptions of white men’s homicidal actions, developing an enraged tone. For instance, New England “Abolitionist” describes a women “tied up and flogged with whips” and “[watched] their babies being dragged off” (para. 28); Indian citizens experienced the most “bestial and ruthless [non-white] human carnage” (para. 32); “over 115 million African blacks […] were murdered and enslaved” in America (para. 33). The

In 1977, the miniseries of Roots debuted on America’s televisions throughout the country. It was based upon Alex Haley’s book, which depicted his family history going back generations. The story started off when one of his ancestors, Kunta Kinte, was brought from Africa and sold into slavery here in America. The film was a very dramatic and provocative account of the unjust racism and brutality that Africans endured during the founding America. As I reflect back on my childhood, I could remember many of my friends, black as well as whites being disturbed by what was being portrayed on their T.V. screens. Eventually, there was a national dialogue about the legacy of slavery that in sued thereafter. I remember very well that several of my fellow African-Americans touted that they could never be a slave, nor enslaved! Unfortunately, in a subtle way, legalized slavery is rearing its ugly head in the United States. After reading this article, by Tracie R. Porter, “The school-to-Prison Pipeline: The Business Side of Incarcerating, Not Educating, Students in Public Schools,” She produced brilliant research and data as evidence of this issue, and the purpose of this piece was to inform. After reading her argument; I concluded that we were very wrong and naive to believe that we could not be enslaved.

The black freedom struggle has not yet come to an end – there are still prejudiced and racist radicals that try to negotiate white supremacy and dominance in order to prevent the blacks from their long wait for equality. Consequently, the movement has progressed very sluggishly in the past few centuries. Nevertheless, the campaign for equal rights has led to the triumph over slavery and has led to the accrual of suffrage rights. However, this is still not enough, not after centuries of enslavement, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. Oftentimes, there is still no justice in court houses, especially when black people are accused and convicted, even for the simplest of crimes – as compared to the white and powerful who are charged for heinous misconducts and get away scratch free. Hence, throughout the period of the Blacks’ long fight for freedom and equality, several Black intellectuals have come front with ideas that could administer better treatment for their people. A good strategy to encourage the black populace to fight for their freedom and their rights is by inverting popular ideas so that there is a clear distinction between the reasonable and unreasonable notions of equality and justice. Thus, it was not uncommon for these literati to undermine dominant discourses in order to bolster their own analyses. Among the discussed black intellectuals who inverted prevailing dissertations, three that stood out the most are Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and

Prior to the publication of any slave narrative, African Americans had been represented by early historians’ interpretations of their race, culture, and situation along with contemporary authors’ fictionalized depictions. Their persona was often “characterized as infantile, incompetent, and...incapable of achievement” (Hunter-Willis 11) while the actions of slaveholders were justified with the arguments that slavery would maintain a cheap labor force and a guarantee that their suffering did not differ to the toils of the rest of the “struggling world” (Hunter-Willis 12). The emergence of the slave narratives created a new voice that discredited all former allegations of inferiority and produced a new perception of resilience and ingenuity.

Arturo A. Schomburg who is the writer, explained to us of what it the purpose of one group justification. Then the author said that history has become less a matter of argument and more a matter of record. The author keeps repeating the same things in this paragraph. In fact, what the author wants to convince us is that the history is more than propaganda and more systematic scientific. In the first paragraph, the author kept confusing me when he said that the Negroes have being through out of the history. Furthermore, the author was very contradicting when he talks about Negroes contributions in the freedom. In the second paragraph the author described on how the Negroes in the pass suffered maltreatment and was unfairly disassociated from