AP African American Studies Unit 4

Nergitude

• Inspired by the New Negr0 Movement in the US

• Emphasis on cultural pride and political freedom

• Political, cultural and literary movement

Colonialism

Setting up colonies in other countries

Imperialism

• When a nation extends its power, authority and influence to weaker countries

• For political and economic control

Scramble for Africa

• Rapid Invasion of Africa by Europe

• Berlin Conference: European countries claimed territories without regard for existing African states

Les Fetiches

• Lois Mailou Jones

• Created in Paris

• Inspired by Negritude

• 5 overlapping masks from different communities

The Jungle

• Reflects on slavery and colonialism in Cuba

• References to West/Central African masks & sugarcane farms

Black Freedom Movement

• Mid 1940s-70s

• Transnational activism

• Includes Civil Rights Movement & Black Power Movement

• Beyond the US

African Americans & Cuba

Cuba was considered as a travel destination for African Americans to escape Jim Crow discrimination

Year of Africa

• 1960

• !7 African nations gained independence

Diasporic solidarity

• Unity between all Afro-Descendants

• Continues to the present

AAs in WW2

• 2 million AAs registered for the draft/volunteered for the war

• 1.2 million African Americans served in every branch of military

Tuskegee

• First Black pilots in the US military

• US Army AIr Corps

• Contributed to fight against fascism

• Known as Red Tails due to the marking on the aircraft

AA Women in WW2

• Served in non-combat roles as nurses, scientists, truck drivers etc

G.I Bill

• Designed as a race-neutral gesture of gratitude towards all American veterans

  • funds for college tuitions, low-cost home mortgages, low-interest business startup loans

• Bill was administered locally and subject to Jim Crow laws

  • The bill was disproportionately disbursed to white veterans

  • Many Black veterans received few or no benefits

  • Black veterans continued to be targeted when they returned to the US after war

Brown v. Board

• Ruled segregation in schools is unconstitutional

• Violated equal protection clause (14th amendment)

• Overturned separate but equal

Clark Doll Test

• Children were shown two dolls, a colored one and a white one
  

• Children disproportionately chose the white doll

• Demonstrated negative views of Black people

Although Brown v Board was ruled…

• School segregation continued

• States cut funding for integrated schools

• Some schools shut down instead of integrating

Home Owners Loan Corporation

• Was established in 1930s because of high unemployment
  

• This corp. began to restrict AA’s ability to own homes
  

Civil RIghts Orgs

• United AAs with various experiences and perspectives

• Shared desire to end racism

• Nonviolent protest

Nonviolent protesting

• Marches

• Sit-ins

• Litigation

• Boycotts

• Mass media

MLK Jr

• Civil Rights leader

• Inspired by Christian Principles & Gandhi

• Non-violent resistance

Mississippi Freedom Summer

• 1964

• Highlighted racial violence AAs faced while voting

• Civil Rights orgs established 41 freedom schools

  • Prepared AAs for civil activism through voter registration & celebration of Black History

Major CIvil RIghts orgs

• NAACP

• SCLC

• CORE

• SNCC

Black Panther Party

• Revolutionary, Marxist Leninist (Socialist) and Internationalist

• Inspired by Malcolm X

• Founded in Oakland CA by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale

  • Direct response to police brutality

Women in the Black Panthers

• Offices were often led by women

• Women made up ~60% of all members by the 70s

• Backbone of operations

Black Panther Party ideology

• Capitalism structurally produces racial oppression

• Racism isn’t random, its profitable

• AAs were an internal colony in the US

• Black liberation was inseparable from global anti-colonialism

  • solidarity with Cuba, Vietnam, Palestine, Africa etc

Ten Point Program (BPP)

• Platform outlining demands

• Full employment + end to capitalist exploitation

• Justice and self determination for AAs

• Military exemption

Black Panther Survival Programs

• Helped low income communities

• Filed in gaps the government left

• Universalist, helped all that needed it

• Centered political education; taught why the state wasn’t fulfilling needs

  • Build class consciousness

  • Programs threatened state legitimacy

Black Panther Free Breakfast Program

• Served nutritional breakfasts everyday

• Fed over 200k AA kids each day

• Led to the establishment of a national school breakfast program

FBI’s COINTELPRO

• Covert programs made to disrupt political organizations

  • Targeted socialist, Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements

• Never authorized by Congress

Nation of Islam

• Founded in 1930 by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad

• Blended Islamic beliefs with Black Nationalist ideology

• Encouraged changing names to Islamic ones

Black Power Movment

• Many AAs believed non-violent strategies weren’t effective

• Black Power encouraged self-determination and defending violence as strategy

• Malcolm X, Black Panthers

Malcom X

• Encouraged right to vote

• Urged AAs to defend themselves and exercise the second amendment rights

• Influenced many political groups

• Was apart of Nation of Islam but later converted to Sunni Islam

Ballot or the Bullet

• Speech by Malcolm X

• If African Americans aren’t given their voting rights, the American government would faced a violent revolution in response

Black Arts Movement

• Supported the works of Black artists, writers, musicians and dramatists

• Envisioned art as a political tool to achieve liberation

• Believed black art was not monolithic

• Emphasized long standing Black cultural traditions

African American Studies

• Black Arts Movement inspired the creation of Black Magazines, publishing houses, art houses, journals and African American studies programs in universities

• The flourishing of Black cultural forms during this movement helped establish African American studies as an interdisciplinary field

Black is Beautiful

• 60s

• Embraced Black Beauty/connections to Africa

• Celebrated Afrocentric aesthetics in natural hairstyles

• Rejected notions of inferiority and conformity to mainstream standards of beauty

  • Laid the groundwork for current movements

Afrocentricity

• Highlighted connections to Africa

• Rejected mainstream narratives and conformity to mainstream standards of beauty

• Places Africa and the achievements of Africans at the center of history

Early Black Feminist Traditions

• Early activists resisted injustice as enslaved and free people

• Black feminists often drew inspiration from earlier activists

Early Black feminists

• Jarena Lee

• Sojourner Truth

• Harriet Tubman

Combahee River Collective

• Socialist black feminist organization

• Inspired by Harriet Tubman’s famous Combahee River Riad

Womanism

• Coined by Alice Walker in 80s

• Opposition to racism in the feminist community and sexism in Black communties

Intersectionality

• Framework to understand experiences of Black women alongside other identities

• Kimberle Crenshaw

“Interlocking systems of opression”

• Refers to how different identities are interconnected

• Examines systems of oppression and privlage

Impacts of Voting Rights Act (1965)

• Prohibits racial discrimination in voting

  • outlawed poll tax and literacy test

• Black voting power and representation expanded

• Growth of the black middle class

• Many AAs in public office

Shirley Chisholm

• Women’s rights advocate

• First black woman in congress

• 1971: helped found the Congressional Black Caucus

Colin Powell

• 2001

• First Black secretary of state

• Under George W. Bush

Condoleezza Rice

• First Black woman to be secretary of state

SInce 2000, number of Black college grads…

More than doubled

Since 2000, number of Back immigrants in the US

• Has nearly doubled

• From African and the Carribean

Religion in Black communities

• 2/3 of AA adults identify as protestant

• 20% do not affiliate with any religion

• Black religious leaders played substantial roles in Black civil rights and social justice

• The Black Church has served as center for developing and debating core values in the Black community

African influences in AA music

• Improv

• Call and Response

• Syncopation

• Storytelling

• Song and Dance

Black music

• Blues

• Jazz

• Gospel

• R&B

• Hip-Hop

Laid the groundwork for Rock and Roll

• Sister Rossetta Tharpe

• Bo Diddley

• Little Richard

• Used gospel and blues with new rhythms and electric instruments

Hip-Hop

• Originated from Black and Latino communities in The Bronx

• Inspired by Afrocentricity, Back Arts Movement and Black Panthers

• Hip Hop continued to express Black struggles

Elements of Hip Hop

• Rapper (MC)

• DJ

• Breaking

  • Used breaks to dance solo, in battles or in crews

• Graffiti (writers)

  • Decorated walls, bridges, subway cars to express youth culture

Television, Theater & Film

• Feature Black casts

• Promote Black Joy

• AAs Shown in diverse ways on TV since 70s

Oscar Micheaux

• Produced nearly 50 films from 1920s-1950s

• Countered racist stereotypes

• Showed AAs as realistic & complex

• all-Black casts

• Paved the way for modern Black directors

George Washington Carver

• Born enslaved

• Botanist

• Professor

• Developed methods for preventing soil depletion

• Served as a counselor on agriculture to Teddy Roosevelt

• Furthered himself intellectually that helped all of America

Onesimus

• Brought awareness of variolation to British colonies to help curtail smallpox

Daniel Hale Williams

• Founded Provident Hospital in Chicago (1891)

  • 1st Black Hospital

  • Performed 1st successful heart surgery (1893)

Achievements in Medicine

• Long provided free community based care

• AAs helped established 1st non segregated hospital

• Established Black medical schools when barred from the American Medical Association

Achievements in Science

• Katherine Johnson

  • Worked for Nasa

  • Made space travel possible

• Mae Jemison

  • 1st AA woman to travel to space

• Kizzmekia Corbett

  • Helped develop Moderna Covid Vaccine

Discrimination against AAs in Medicine

• Eugenics heightened stigmatizations (diminishment)

• Encountered oppression, harassment, institutionalization, and infringement of rights

• Test subjects for syphilis and cancer (1940s/1950s)
  

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) worked to combat this

  • Inspired by Civil Rights legislation

  • Bans disability discrimination in housing, employment, or government

Afrofuturism

• Reimagines black pasts without oppression

• Envisions an Afrocentric future with science and technology