Some blacks remained stuck in cycles of poverty, yet enough had begun to hold influence in the 1890’s to give hope to those stuck in less desirable situations. In his 1893 open letter to blacks in North Carolina, Congressman George White advocated for the state’s presence at the National Colored Convention, wanting blacks from each county to have a say in the direction of their race. White was one of the most popular Black leaders in North Carolina and the United States and his call for progress represents the sense of empowerment felt by blacks. White was immensely popular among blacks and the Democratic leaders would slander him throughout the late 1890s. They used White as an example of a black leader who they believed had no business serving in congress. While it is true some blacks across the state and many in Wilmington did enjoy renewed opportunities, these were certainly not being handed to them. People like Charles Pettey had to walk almost 100 miles to a major city, in this case Charlotte, just to attempt to receive an education. Even with the odds against them and whites controlling the majority of the city and state, finding success was far from impossible. …show more content…
North Carolina had several blacks serving in elected and appointed office by the mid 1890s.
With this new found freedom, Blacks were beginning to discover that life outside of Wilmington and cities in North Carolina was not particularly desirable. Compared to the national average, Wilmington had better economic opportunities for blacks to begin to build wealth and property as they attempted to shed their past of slavery and servitude. At the same time, Wilmington was attracting many white workers who had lost the ability to turn a profit from farming and agricultural labor, which created a prime climate of tension with two races headed in opposite
directions. Particularly infuriating to whites was the success being found by black women in the state. In prosperous cities throughout North Carolina like Wilmington, some black women and families enjoyed more success and status than surrounding whites in the area. It was not enough for black men to have the right to vote and hold elected office but women were finding their own spot to create success for themselves. Just as much as men, black women were receiving better educations, getting better jobs, and using their position in society to try to rid it of the ills of racism. Women wanted not to be stuck in one place, but to be continually improving. For the tens of thousands of working class whites forced to leave their way of life behind and move to cities, this flip of social hierarchy only served to motivate them further, feeling their voices were not being heard and resulting in new levels of organization. The North Carolina’s Farmers State Alliance had gained over 72,000 members in just three years of existence and they worked to advance the interests of the proverbial left behind farmer. Each year starting in 1887, the NCFSA held an annual convention as they felt their interests being ignored by current political leaders. This type of organization was unprecedented and impressive, if not ironic. The moment whites felt oppressed, they were outraged and formed their own political party. It took them just a decade after that to resort to flat out violence in their attempt to return to social superiority. Still, the sudden popularity of the NCFSA speaks to the ability of the disgruntled working class to be easily and effectively organized by firebrand leaders.
Hahn discusses both the well-known struggle against white supremacy and the less examined conflicts within the black community. He tells of the remarkable rise of Southern blacks to local and state power and the white campaign to restore their version of racial order, disenfranchise blacks, and exclude them from politics. Blacks built many political and social structures to pursue their political goals, including organizations such as Union Leagues, the Colored Farmers’ Alliance, chapters of the Republican Party, and emigration organizations. Hahn used this part of the book to successfully recover the importance of black political action shaping their own history.
After the Civil War, African Americans encountered great discrimination and suffering. During this era, two influential leaders emerged from different philosophical camps. Brooker T. Washington of Virginia and William Edward Burghardt Dubois of Massachusetts proposed, different means to improve African Americans’ conditions. These men had a common goal: to enrich the black community. However, the methods they advocated to reach these goals significantly differed.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett is an investigative journalist who wrote in honesty and bluntness about the tragedies and continued struggles of the Negro man. She was still very much involved with the issue even after being granted freedom and the right to vote. Statistics have shown that death and disparity continued to befall the Negro people in the South where the white man was “educated so long in that school of practice” (Pg. 677 Par. 2). Yet in all the countless murders of Negroes by the white man only three had been convicted. The white man of the South, although opposed to the freedom of Negroes would eventually have to face the fact of the changing times. However, they took every opportunity and excuse to justify their continued horrors. There were three main excuses that the white man of the South came up w...
Booker T. Washington was an African American leader who established an African-American college in 1181. Then in 1895 delivered the Atlanta Compromise Speech to an audience of mainly Southerners, but some Northerners were present. In his speech he made a few points. He said, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” Washington believed that the African American race needed to learn first that manual labor was just as important as the work of intellects. He thought that until they learned this they were not worthy of becoming intellects themselves. The color line is thus important in teaching them this lesson. He also said, “It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges.” His opinion was that one day blacks would deserve to have equal rights with the whites, but right now in 1895 the blacks needed to be...
During the late 19th and early 20th century, racial injustice was very prominent and even wildly accepted in the South. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two of the most renowned “pioneers in the [search] for African-American equality in America” (Washington, DuBois, and the Black Future). Washington was “born a slave” who highly believed in the concept of “separate but equal,” meaning that “we can be as [distant] as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington 1042). DuBois was a victim of many “racial problems before his years as a student” and disagreed with Washington’s point of view, which led
In John Leo’s “The Beauty of Argument”, Leo discusses how discussion and debate has changed drastically over time.
Between the Compromise of 1877 and the Compromise of 1895, the problem facing Negro leadership was clear: how to obtain first-class citizenship for the Negro American. How to reach this goal caused considerable debate among Negro leaders. Some advocated physical violence to force concessions from the whites. A few urged Negroes to return to Africa. The majority, however, suggested that Negroes use peaceful, democratic means...
Washington 's programme naturally takes an economic cast” (Du Bois). Du Bois believed that Washington’s theory was a gospel of Work and Money that ultimately overshadowed the higher aims of life” Later he makes another statement so powerful that should have made all African Americans want to stand up and fight for a better social status and rights for both the South and North. He goes on stating “The growing spirit of kindliness and reconciliation between the North and South after the frightful differences of a generation ago ought to be a source of deep congratulation to all, and especially to those whose mistreatment caused the war; but if that reconciliation is to be marked by the industrial slavery and civic death of those same black men, with permanent legislation into a position of inferiority, then those black men, if they are really men, are called upon by every consideration of patriotism and loyalty to oppose such a course by all civilized methods, even though such opposition involves disagreement with Mr. Booker T. Washington.” (Du
Booker T. Washington's legacy is a troubled one. Dubois was right to say, "When Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, he does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambition of our higher minds" (afro 1). But can we really fault Booker T. for being misguided and flat-out wrong? Washington is not the first successful, insufferable man in America who rose from abject poverty to a life of bourgeois comfort, who then assumed that everyone else could too, if only they did as he did. This is not sycophancy. This is a classic case of projection and denial: myopic projection of his own experience, and flagrant denial of the horrors of white supremacy. To accuse Booker T. Washington of complacency is an insult to a good man's efforts in working ceaselessly for the betterment of several million newly freed, unemployed, African American slaves, of which he was one. The post-Civil War problems facing the nation were intractable and myriad. This was uncharted territory. In his defense, Washington founded a college made of mortar and brick which still stands today that has educated celebrated alumni like Eli Whitney, Ralph Ellison, and Damon Wayans. He opened a much-needed dialogue between the black community and the ruling (racist) white class in America. He paved the road for better thinkers, like Dubois, who saw the danger in Booker T's faulty reasoning.
Of the many truly inspirational speeches given by African Americans, Booker T. Washington’s The Atlanta Exposition Address is one of the few that intends to achieve compromise. In his speech, Washington is trying to persuade an audience composed significantly of white men to support African Americans by granting them jobs and presenting them with opportunities. His goal is to convince his white audience that African Americans will be supplied with jobs lower than those of white men, allowing white men always to be on top. Booker T. Washington’s The Atlanta Exposition Address adopts a tone of acquiescence and compromise to persuade a predominantly white audience to accept his terms.
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe”( Douglass). This famous quote epitomizes the philosophies of Frederick Douglass, in which he wanted everyone to be treated with dignity; if everyone was not treated with equality, no one person or property would be safe harm. His experience as a house slave, field slave and ship builder gave him the knowledge to develop into a persuasive speaker and abolitionist. In his narrative, he makes key arguments to white abolitionist and Christians on why slavery should be abolished. The key arguments that Frederick Douglass tries to vindicate are that slavery denies slaves of their identity, slavery is also detrimental for the slave owner, and slavery is ungodly.
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
Washington Is being remembered for the address of “Atlanta Exposition” In this particular speech, Booker T called on the Whites to provide Industrial, agricultural education and job for the Negroes. In return the African Americans will stop the demanding for civil rights and social equality. The message he passed to the Negroes was that social equality and politics were not really important as the immediate goals than independence and respectability of the economy. Washington had this belief that if blacks gained a foothold of the economy, and also proved how useful they can be to the Whites, then they will achieve social equality and civil rights because it will eventually be given to them in the long run. African Americans were urged and encouraged to work as skilled artisans, farmers, manual laborers, and domestics servants to show the Whites that all African Americans were not “liars and chicken thieves”.
Democrats made their supporters believe that black progress was the reason for their own economic and social decline that so many had felt over the previous decade or so. Certainly, it was perplexing for farmers and other white laborers to witness black success while their fortunes were continually on the downturn, but leaders like Simmons, Waddell, and prominent newspaper editor Josephus Daniels used this frustration to prey upon whites and used it to their advantage to make political gains. The Raleigh News and Observer, owned and operated by Daniels, strongly supported the Democrats and white supremacy. Throughout the 1890s, Daniels’ paper forcefully established a place for white middle class and businessmen in North Carolina to find a reason for their struggles. The city of Wilmington and the state were still mostly run by whites, yet Democrats wanted to shift blame for any shortcomings on blacks. It is in these editorials that many readers could see their angers articulated. For whites who felt they were not getting a fair deal economically, Daniels’ words let them know that at the very least, they were still members of the superior race and not beholden to some seemingly corrupt Republican party. In September of 1898, the paper editorialized its belief that the Negro was “a good servant, but an awful master,” and described Eastern North Carolina, which was at
A common misconception is that all white citizens hated and disrespected black citizens; however, “Even when the Jim Crow laws were being enacted, many people (including white people) felt that they were not fair. They believed that blacks and whites should have equal access to opportunity” (The Impact of Jim Crow Laws on Education 1). The Jim Crow Laws legally separated black citizens and white citizens with segregation in schools, public bathrooms, water fountains, and many more public places. Signs that read “Colored Only” or “White Only” were visible everywhere during that time period (Racial Segregation in the American South: Jim Crow Laws 1). Shockingly, in South Carolina, black textile workers could not even enter through the same door as a white man, let alone work in the same room (A Brief History of Jim Crow 1). Black citizens had a hard time earning money because of this, especially because many unions passed laws that disabled African-americans from working there (A Brief History of Jim Crow