An Analysis Of John Zinn's Or Does It Explode?

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Recommended: Oppression of African Americans

In chapter 17, “Or Does It Explode?”, Zinn’s overarching point is that the black revolt that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s should not have come as a shock to white America and that there were many signs leading up to it. In order to emphasize and back up this point, Zinn uses various examples to point out how black American were originally expressing their feelings before the ‘revolt’ began.
First off, Zinn starts by bringing up the fact that the pain of oppression, harassment, and homicidal violence against black Americans, was not just a memory, but was continuing to be a very real experience in the daily life of African-Americans. This pain was humiliating and terrifying, and thus, African-Americas attempted to find an outlet to express …show more content…

While parts of America presented and declared themselves as being against racism, they continued to not use their full power to better the lives of African-Americans. For example, Zinn points out that amendments such as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth gave the President enough power to crush racial discrimination, yet none of the men who took office attempted to use this power, and while Congress eventually declared laws that made segregation legal unconstitutional, the fight for equality continued to move to slow for black Americans. Using these points, Zinn discusses how America failed to see the signs that led to actions being taken by black Americans to gain equality due to the fact that white Americans believed progress towards equality was moving at a rapid pace. However, black Americans did not share this point of view, because even with laws for segregation declared unconstitutional, the lives of black Americans barely improved and they continued to face harassment and violence daily. When African-Americans began to protest, they faced harsh treatment by their oppressors, but leaders and Congress slowly began to recognize that African-Americans were no longer going to stay silent on the harassment and violence they faced, so they began responding to calls for change by passing laws such as passing the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In conclusion, all these points lead back to Zinn’s original point, which as that America should not have been surprised when black Americans finally decided they’d had enough and took action against their

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