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What is the importance of studying u.s african american history
What is the importance of studying u.s african american history
Essay on african american history
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Before there can be a discussion on educational focus in the black community, I believe there has to be an outstanding of: What is African American History, Why is it Import, and What can we Learn from It? African American History is the recorded events that have impacted the lives of blacks in
American, from the first Africans who were forcefully taken from their homeland and brought to this country as slaves, to the continuing struggle against racism and oppression, to the quest for equality and control of political and other institutions affecting the quality of lives of blacks today. The worst of all the crimes of expanding capitalism in America has been the centuries-long outrage perpetrated, and continues to be perpetrated against
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The study of the history of blacks hopefully will raise the consciousness of African Americans regarding their own self-worth in this country and the world and to show others what African Americans have contributed to all of civilization. It studies the interactions between blacks and whites, interprets and corrects the errors and misconception of blacks as presented by many white historians and writers. It will enable blacks to reclaim their culture, to participate politically in the governing of this country, which can only be accomplished with the knowledge of what blacks have contributed politically, militarily, socially and culturally in the development and growth of America. This knowledge provides the necessary background essential to understanding past events and lays out the blue print to the planning for the future. This accumulative history gives direction for the progression of …show more content…
The study of African American history refutes this pervasiveness of the concept of nothingness, worthlessness, inferiority. Blacks have, from the beginning, asserted effort and attempt to validate claim to human rights. While many gains have been made in the struggle for freedom, for citizenship, for equality, for dignity, the history of the black man’s protest and accomplishments despite enslavement, subordination, cruelty, an inhumanity continues into the 21st century warrants continued study and dissemination to
Most public schools in the United States kept it simple and straight to the point. They taught, what we know as, “Black History” from the media’s standpoint. This concept neglects the true meaning of black history in the educational system, making it hard for African Americans to be prideful in who they are. Knowing history other than what the school systems tells us African Americans would not only give us more knowledge, but would allow us to stand up against others when try to put down our history. Media gives us mainly negative perspectives with very little positives of our
While the formal abolition of slavery, on the 6th of December 1865 freed black Americans from their slave labour, they were still unequal to and discriminated by white Americans for the next century. This ‘freedom’, meant that black Americans ‘felt like a bird out of a cage’ , but this freedom from slavery did not equate to their complete liberty, rather they were kept in destitute through their economic, social, and political state.
When exploring African-American history, the most important things to focus on are that because of the times, black people were enslaved and treated poorly. They endured it all and worked hard to rise above the boundaries of slavery and prejudice. However, the most portentous aspect of African-American history is that it's heritage; it's history; and it's over.
It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which...
The United States after the Civil War was still not an entirely safe place for African-Americans, especially in the South. Many of the freedoms other Americans got to enjoy were still largely limited to African-Americans at the time. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois emerged as black leaders. Their respective visions for African-American society were different however. This paper will argue that Du Bois’s vision for American, although more radical at the time, was essential in the rise of the African-American society and a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement.
African American history plays a huge role in history today. From decades of research we can see the process that this culture went through and how they were depressed and deculturalized. In school, we take the time to learn about African American History but, we fail to see the aspects that African Americans had to overcome to be where they are today. We also fail to view life in their shoes and fundamentally understand the hardships and processes that they went through. African Americans were treated so terribly and poor in the last century and, they still are today. As a subordinate race to the American White race, African Americans were not treated equal, fair, human, or right under any circumstances. Being in the subordinate position African Americans are controlled by the higher white group in everything that they do.
The core principle of history is primary factor of African-American Studies. History is the struggle and record of humans in the process of humanizing the world i.e. shaping it in their own image and interests (Karenga, 70). By studying history in African-American Studies, history is allowed to be reconstructed. Reconstruction is vital, for over time, African-American history has been misleading. Similarly, the reconstruction of African-American history demands intervention not only in the academic process to rede...
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
Throughout American history, African Americans have had to decide whether they belonged in the United States or if they should go elsewhere. Slavery no doubtfully had a great impact upon their decisions. However, despite their troubles African Americans made a grand contribution and a great impact on both armed forces of the Colonies and British. "The American Negro was a participant as well as a symbol."; (Quarles 7) African Americans were active on and off the battlefield, they personified the goal freedom, the reason for the war being fought by the Colonies and British. The African Americans were stuck in the middle of a war between white people. Their loyalty was not to one side or another, but to a principle, the principle of liberty. Benjamin Quarles' book, The Negro in the American Revolution, is very detailed in explaining the importance of the African American in the pre America days, he shows the steps African Americans took in order to insure better lives for generations to come.
The time has come again to celebrate the achievements of all black men and women who have chipped in to form the Black society. There are television programs about the African Queens and Kings who never set sail for America, but are acknowledged as the pillars of our identity. In addition, our black school children finally get to hear about the history of their ancestors instead of hearing about Columbus and the founding of America. The great founding of America briefly includes the slavery period and the Antebellum south, but readily excludes both black men and women, such as George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, and Mary Bethune. These men and women have contributed greatly to American society. However, many of us only know brief histories regarding these excellent black men and women, because many of our teachers have posters with brief synopses describing the achievements of such men and women. The Black students at this University need to realize that the accomplishments of African Americans cannot be limited to one month per year, but should be recognized everyday of every year both in our schools and in our homes.
Nabrit, James M. Jr. “The Relative Progress and the Negro in the United States: Critical Summary and Evaluation.” Journal of Negro History 32.4 (1963): 507-516. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004
In From Slavery to Freedom (2007), it was said that “the transition from slavery to freedom represents one of the major themes in the history of African Diaspora in the Americas” (para. 1). African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of Afro-Americans struggling to live a good life in America. Afro-Americans have been present in this country since the early 1600’s, and have been making history since. We as Americans have studied American history all throughout school, and took one Month out of the year to studied African American history. Of course we learn some things about the important people and events in African American history, but some of the most important things remain untold which will take more than a month to learn about.
Chapter five from Whose America by Jonathan Zimmerman explains the many struggles African Americans had to go through (even after the Brown vs. Board of Education desicion) to have an accurate version of their history in schools text. Based on Zimmerman, black activist used three main arguments when demanding a place in the American history. First, a correct retailed of history in schools texts might help persuades whites to "revise their views on present-day quests for racial justice" (Zimmerman 113). Activists claimed that an acurate and truthful history was necessary to make whites awaken from the myth of stereotype Negro. Second, when the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, african american activists claimed that new books in schools were
Nearly three centuries ago, black men and women from Africa were brought to America and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had practiced slavery. African Americans didn’t gain their freedom until after the Civil War, nearly one-hundred years later. Even though African Americans were freed and the constitution was amended to guarantee racial equality, they were still not treated the same as whites and were thought of as second class citizens. One man had the right idea on how to change America, Martin Luther King Jr. had the best philosophy for advancing civil rights, he preached nonviolence to express the need for change in America and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for economic and social equality.
Tracing the efforts of descendants of Africans holds a place of discomfort for African Americans, attempting to live in a world dictated by Whites. An asymmetrical treatment of Blacks, in comparison to Whites has been seen throughout our past: living in a world surrounded by a racist society intertwined with Africana descendants having double-consciousness, coexisting with dualism through the realms of life and society.