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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
The education of African Americans
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Growing up, in school, I was taught a miniscule about African American history. I feel like it was at least spoken a bit about, starting in Kindergarten. The teachers taught us every year over and over about Martin Luther King (most of the same information every time) and each year we had a special assembly for him (Martin Luther King Oratorical). During this assembly, the children could read their own poetry or recite a poem or 2 that had been written previously about Dr. King. Our teachers touched lightly on the Civil Rights Movement as well, however, that is just it, they “touched LIGHTLY”. That was all in Elementary School, I do not recall learning anything about African American History in middle school. In high school, a few teachers
At 17, the young man who was called by history to reveal black history was an untutored coal miner. At 19, after teaching himself the fundamentals of English and arithmetic, he entered high school and mastered the four-year curriculum in less than two years.
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
Slavery is one of America’s biggest regrets. Treating a human with the same beating heart as a low, worthless piece of trash only because of skin color is a fact that will forever remain in our country’s history. Those marked as slaves were sold, tortured, demoralized, raped and killed. After the Emancipation in which slavery was illegalized, many would think that the horrors were over and that America as a whole started a new leaf. Unfortunately, the man of the South, refusing to move forward tried to keep the colored man down as best they could. Their premeditated plans and actions to find an excuse to continue torturing and killing the Negro man continued for years, which are documented in “A Red Record”. This story captures the grueling events African Americans were put through and the unfairness of the times. By capturing and sharing this history it will make sure these mistakes can never be repeated again .
The Civil Rights Movement was one of the most defining and revolutionary times in our country. It was a movement of change, it was built off of the struggle of African Americans 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. African Americans in the South were still being treated unequally to white Americans at that time. They found themselves in a world of unfair treatment, disenfranchisement, segregation and other various forms of oppression. With this in mind, assuming the role of a high school teacher comes with great responsibility to educate my students about one of the most disgraceful times in our nation’s history. During the Civil Rights Movement, segregation was one of the driving forces of hate towards African Americans. The Little
African Americans who came to America to live the golden dream have been plagued with racism, discrimination and segregation throughout a long and complicated history of events that took place in the United States dating back to slavery to the civil rights movements. Today, African American history is celebrated annually in the United States during the month of February which is designated Black History Month. This paper will look back into history beginning in the late 1800’s through modern day America and describe specific events where African Americans have endured discrimination, segregation, racism and have progressively gained rights and freedoms by pushing civil rights movement across America.
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 aspect of African-American Studies is key to the lives of African-Americans and those involved with the welfare of the race. African-American Studies is the systematic and critical study of the multidimensional aspects of Black thought and practice in their current and historical unfolding (Karenga, 21). African-American Studies exposes students to the experiences of African-American people and others of African descent. It allows the promotion and sharing of the African-American culture. However, the concept of African-American Studies, like many other studies that focus on a specific group, gender, and/or creed, poses problems. Therefore, African-American Studies must overcome the obstacles in order to improve the state of being for African-Americans.
Next is John Henrik Clark, who refers to African America Studies as Africana Studies because he believes that Black tells you how you look, not who you are. He goes on to state that he calls African American Studies “a dilemma at the crossroads of history” (Clark 32). This is because European people knew history well enough to distort it and use it, as well as political weapons such as the gun and bible, to control the world. This is the reason why a look at African culture will show what Africana Studies are about or should be about. Africana Studies should embrace the Africans all around the world, in places like Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean Islands even those in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Clarke states that Africa is
The theories of Aristotle, Kant, and Mill have influenced how we view morality. Each philosopher has their own vision as to how their theory of morality influences one’s culture and behaviors. The philosophers sought to explain the difference of what is right and wrong in terms of morality. Aristotle characterized his theory as virtue ethics, or what virtues make a good person. According to Kraut (2014) Aristotle felt that we must go beyond learning general rules and practice deliberative, emotional, and social skills that allow us to use our understanding of well-being, and practice in ways that are appropriate to each occasion. In other words Aristotle asks
Introduction This paper examines the struggle African American students are more likely to face at a predominantly white institution (PWIs) than at a historically black college or university (HBCUs). Each author has his or her own take on this hypothesis; most of the author’s studies suggest that African American students have a hard time adjusting to an environment at a PWI (Littleton 2003). However, African American students at HBCUs tend to be at ease with their learning environment. Though many of the author’s agree with one another, there are other authors whose studies come to the conclusion that race is not a factor in college education anymore. That being the case, on average, the African American population is approximately four percent at PWIs (Littleton 2003).
Throughout history, African Americans have encountered an overwhelming amount of obstacles for justice and equality. You can see instances of these obstacles especially during the 1800’s where there were various forms of segregation and racism such as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorism, Jim- Crow laws, voting restrictions. These negative forces asserted by societal racism were present both pre and post slavery. Although blacks were often seen as being a core foundation for the creation of society and what it is today, they never were given credit for their work although forced. This was due to the various laws and social morals that were sustained for over 100 years throughout the United States. However, what the world didn’t know was that African Americans were a strong ethnic group and these oppressions and suffrage enabled African Americans for greatness. It forced African Americans to constantly have to explore alternative routes of intellectuality, autonomy and other opportunities to achieve the “American Dream” especially after the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed after the Civil War.
One day while watching the history channel I noticed that the main focus of the history was either on the evolved development of science or the Caucasian race. In that moment I asked myself, what did I know about my own history besides slavery and all the historic events after that? I became upset with the fact that I came up with nothing on the history on African Americans before slavery. In my 21 years of life I have took a total of 12 history classes and none them talked about African American history before slavery. Once I did research on African American history from articles, to books, and to documentaries I wondered why none of this was taught to students or shared with the world. I would to explain and describe a theory called “political whiteness” and gave details on why I believe that it is a big part of why African Americans don’t know their own history.
W.E.B. DuBois (1868 – 1963), a Civil Rights activist began to confront the popular point of view and stereotypes of African-Americans (Welcome to the Civil Rights Digital Library, 2011). Discouraging images became a part of the accepted society, but were also implanted in the educational and scientific institutions of the United States. The initial founders of ethnic studies set out to discredit bogus theories and propaganda about African-Americans. The civil rights movement challenged the political and cultural authority of white America and confronted educational institutions that discriminated and demoralized African-Americans because of their race. As warriors of this cause, they were adamant about institutional equality, the end of discriminatory practices, and curriculum reform.
Black History is taught very similarly to White-American History except there are far more specific and obscure dates to remember and there is little focus on conflicts and experiences and more focus on oppression and heroism-you know- the way the hero found a way to overcome insurmountable odds. Which is great, and definitely true, however Black History shouldn’t be marginalized to a few success stories because “while leaders and their biographies could inspire us, the real study of history involved looking at trends and tensions across time and place, rather than the de-contextualized trivia and quotes that Black History looks like in many classrooms”
There are many experiences throughout one's life that can have great influence on their development as a person. In my own life I have had experiences that have influenced and molded me into the person who I am today. The experience that has influenced my development was deciding to learn about my own history. This experience occurred in the eighth grade when I decided to do my own research on Black history after realizing that throughout elementary and middle school I was only taught very little and schools only focused on Harriet Tubman and Dr. King and excluded everything and everyone else important to Black history. I found this to be very harmful to the students since the majority of children in public schools in my city are of African