Movements and Debates Flashcards

Flashcards about the movements and debates within African American studies, focusing on key concepts, events, and figures important for exam preparation.

What was a key emphasis shared by the New Negro, Négritude, and Negrismo movements?

Cultural pride and political liberation of Black people

What is Négritude?

A political, cultural, and literary movement of the 1930s through 1950s that protested colonialism and the assimilation of Black people into European culture.

What is Negrismo?

A movement that emerged in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, celebrating African contributions to Latin American music, folklore, literature, and art.

What did proponents of Négritude and Negrismo critique?

European colonialism, rejecting the notion that it civilized colonized subjects, and arguing that racial ideologies underpinned colonial exploitation.

What is the Black Freedom movement?

A period of transnational activism from the mid-1940s to the 1970s, encompassing both the Civil Rights movement and the Black Power movement.

What did some African American activists embrace in the 1950s and 1960s regarding Africa?

Pan-Africanism, advocating for the political and cultural unity of all people of African descent.

What inspired visits to Ghana from African American activists in the 1950s?

Ghana’s independence from British colonial rule in 1957

Why did Joe Louis travel with a delegation to Cuba in 1960?

To discuss plans to promote Cuba as a tourist destination for African Americans, offering an escape from Jim Crow discrimination and segregation.

What impact did diasporic solidarity have on the Black Freedom movement?

It bolstered the global reach of the movement, bringing international attention to Africa’s decolonization.

What was the Double V Campaign during World War II?

A campaign inspired by James G. Thompson, urging African Americans to fight for victory against fascism abroad and Jim Crow segregation at home.

What was the G.I. Bill of 1944 designed to do?

Provide funds for college tuition, low-cost home mortgages, and low-interest business startup loans for American veterans.

What were some results of the discriminatory disbursal of funds of the G.I. Bill?

Disproportionate amounts of funds were disbursed to White veterans, and many Black veterans received fewer or no benefits due to discriminatory practices.

What did the Brown v. Board of Education decision determine?

State-sanctioned school segregation violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, overturning the 'separate but equal' ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson.

What was de facto segregation?

Segregation that persists in reality despite not being legally mandated.

What is redlining?

The discriminatory practice of withholding mortgages to African Americans and other people of color within a defined geographical area under the pretense of 'hazardous' financial risk.

What were some disparities resulting from housing discrimination in African American communities?

Limited access to public transportation, clean water and air, recreational spaces, healthy food, and healthcare services, exacerbating health disparities.

What were the "Big Four" civil rights organizations?

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

What were some nonviolent forms of civil disobedience used by civil rights organizations?

Marches, sit-ins, litigation, economic boycotts, and the use of mass media.

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do?

Ended segregation and prohibited discrimination based on race, color, and religion.

What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 do?

Outlawed discriminatory barriers in voting.

Who is Ella Baker?

An important figure in the Civil Rights movement who focused on grassroots organizing and inclusive, group-centered leadership, also known as the 'mother of the Civil Rights movement'.

What was so significant about the New York City school boycott of 1964?

It was the largest single-day civil rights protest in United States history.

How did Black artists contribute to the struggle for racial equality during the Black Freedom movement?

Through various forms of expression, bringing African Americans’ resistance to inequality to global audiences and strengthening similar efforts by Afro-descendants outside of the United States.

What role did faith and music play in the civil rights movement?

They served as important elements of inspiration and community mobilization, providing unity, renewal, and direction through lyrics and a sense of shared hope.

What is the Black Arts Movement?

A movement that galvanized the work of Black artists, writers, musicians, and dramatists who envisioned art as a political tool to achieve Black liberation.

How did The Black Arts Movement influence the development of African American studies?

It inspired the creation of Black magazines, publishing houses, art houses, scholarly journals, and some of the earliest African American studies programs in universities

What were the core beliefs of the Nation of Islam (NOI)?

Blending basic beliefs and practices of Islam with mythology and Black Nationalist ideology.

What did the Black Power movement promote?

Self-determination, defended violence as a viable strategy, and strove to transform Black consciousness by emphasizing cultural pride.

What did the Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program call for?

Freedom from oppression and imprisonment, and access to housing, healthcare, education, and employment opportunities.

What are some of the "survival programs" implemented by The Black Panther Party?

Free Breakfast for School Children Program, Legal aid offices, and Relief programs that offered free medical care and clothing

What is the Black is Beautiful movement?

It emerged in the 1960s and celebrated Afrocentric aesthetics and rejected notions of inferiority and conformity to mainstream standards of beauty.

What is Afrocentricity?

An approach that highlights the experiences, perspectives, and aesthetics of Black people by placing Africa and the achievements of people of African descent at the center of history.

What is intersectionality?

A framework for understanding the distinct experiences of Black women through the interactions of their social, economic, and political identities with systems of inequality and privilege.

What is the concept of interlocking systems of oppression?

The concept describes how social categories are interconnected and how their interaction with social systems creates unequal outcomes for individuals in many areas of society, including education, health, housing, incarceration, and wealth gaps.

What barriers have hindered economic growth in Black communities?

Discrimination and racial disparities in housing and employment in the early 20th century limited Black communities’ accumulation of generational wealth in the second half of the 20th century.

What effect did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have?

Expanded Black voting power and political representation in the late twentieth century alongside the growth of the Black middle class.

What positions did Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice hold?

Colin Powell became the first Black Secretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice was the first Black woman to hold the position.

Approximately, what portion of the United States population is Black?

Nearly 14% of the United States population

Besides descendants of the enslaved and recent immigrants, who do Black communities in the United States include?

People who identify as multiracial

What role does the Black church serve as in African American communities?

An institutional home for developing and debating core values within Black communities related to education, community improvement, race relations, cultural practices, vernacular, and the broader African diaspora

What elements are included in African-based musical and performative traditions?

Improvisation, call and response, syncopation, storytelling, and the fusion of music with dance

What is Hip-Hop?

A culture born out of collaboration and artistic creativity among young Black and Latino community members in the 1970s

How did migration and economic growth influence depictions of African Americans?

Black theater blossomed in urban centers, and television shows portrayed upward mobility and strong family units.

Soul Train

A popular African American dance program created by Don Cornelius in 1971.

What examples were mentioned showing that, through sports, African American athletes have broken racial barriers?

Kentucky Derby wins in 1875 & 1877; Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes; Jackie Robinson becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball; African American Olympians earning gold medals

How did athletes contest discrimination?

Muhammad Ali refused to enlist; Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised the Black power fist.

How have African Americans contributed to science and technology?

Inventions, scientific discoveries, significant contributions in agriculture, technology, medicine, science, and engineering.

ADA

Americans with Disabilities Act that prohibits discrimination for those with disabilities.

What is Afrofuturism?

A movement that reimagines Black pasts and envisions Afrocentric futures using technology and science.

Describe African American Studies.

A primary means to examine the global influence of Black expression and racial inequities while also analyzing Black history, literature, politics, and other subjects not included in more traditional disciplines.