AFAM U7

Négritude

blackness in french

1930s-1950s

political, cultural and literary movement

Started with French-speaking Caribbean and African writers

Protest against colonialism and integration of blacks into European culture

Negritude (make up)

African American Jazz performers, artists, intellectuals and veterans from Africa an Caribbean

Negrismo

Started with Spanish speaking Caribbeans (same time as Negritude)

embraced by Blacks and mixed race Latin Americans

celebrated African contributions to Latin American music, literature, art

Negritude and Negrismo movement

Started among educated elites

shared cultural pride and political freedom for blacks

Langston Hughes

Poet of the Harlem Renaissance

Played important role in translating works between French, English and Spanish

The Jungle

Wilfredo Lam

1943

reflects the legacies of slavery and colonialism in Cuba

Faces represent West and Central African Art --> in sugar cane field

Wilfredo Lam

Afro-cuban artist (also Chinese)

Leading artist in Negrismo period

Loïs Mailou Jones

Started career during the Harlem Renaissance

Illustrator for some of the first black history magazines

- magazines by W.E.B du bois and Carter G. Woodson

Les Fétiches

By Loïs Mailou Jones in Paris

Inspired by négritude movement

Shows beauty, strength, protection of African ancestral heritage

includes 5 masks from different communities in Africa + red religious figure

Anti-colonialism movement

in favor of negritude and negrismo

rejected European colonialism

racial ideas came from

- expolitation

- coerced labor systems

Black activists around the world

condemned (declared wrong) racism and colonialism for dehumanizing people of African decent

Republic of Ghana independence

Free from Britain in 1957

- African American activists came to visit between 1950s-60s to show support

eg. W.E.B Du bois, MLK Jr

Prime Minister of Ghana - went to Lincoln University and University of Pennsylvania

2019 - year of return

- initiative to reunite African descendants in diaspora

Impact of diasporic solidarity (independence)

International attention to African decolonization

1960 - Year of Africa

17 nations declared independent from Europe

Diasporic solidarity spread black freedom movement

Joe Louis

1960

renowned boxer

traveled to Cuba to promote tourism for AFAM

- helped them escape from Jim Crow discrimination and segregation

AFAM in Military

During ww2, U.S. armed forces was segregated

2 million AFAM enlisted in every branch

- 1.2 million AFAM veterans

African Americans targeted for violent attacks & unequal treatment

Tuskegee Airmen

first AFAM pilots to serve in U.S. Army

- served in U.S. army air corps during WW2

known as red tails ---> markings on their aircraft

Women's Army corps integration

Educator Mary McLeod Bethune and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt advocated for black women to join Woman's army corps (WAC)

6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

Unit of 800 colored women

- included Caribbean and Mexican women

sent to organize mail for war veterans to raise moral

Double V Campaign

James G. Thompson inspired Double Victory compaign --->

letter urged readers to fight for double victory (victory against fascism and victory at home)

GI Bill

1944 - federal program

Race neutral gesture for AFAM veterans

- provided college funds, loans and helped create economic stability

Funds administered locally ---> funds mainly given to white veterans (due to Jim Crow)

Black veterans had limmited/no benifits from G.I Bill

- denials by state

- intimidation

- high rates of dishonorable discharge

cause for civil rights movement

Mid 1900s (1954 - 1968)

AFAM faced;

- Racial discrimination

- violence