Black History: A Critical Review - Key Concepts (Ch. 3–4)
3.1 Introduction
Black History as the first field in Black Studies to stress historical perspective in understanding social reality (indispensable view of history).
Sankofa: Akan concept meaning to return and recover the source of knowledge from the African past to improve the present and future; symbolized by a bird returning to its source.
Sankofa as a central practice across Black Studies (history, religion, sociology, politics, economics, etc.).
3.2 Definition
History: the struggle and record of humans in the process of humanizing the world: shaping it in human image and interests to defend, develop and realize humanity.
African/Black history: the struggle and record of Africans in the process of Africanizing the world.
History as human practice directed toward self-construction, social construction, and world construction.
Five basic characteristics of history:
It is human in the fullest and most diverse sense.
It is social, about people in social relations.
It is conflictual, involving struggles to solve contradictions.
It is fluid and changeable.
It is manageable, subject to conscious intervention in society and the world.
3.3 The Origins in East Africa
Humans originated in Africa; fully modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) present in southern Africa > 10^5 years ago.
About 35{,}000 years ago, modern humans laid the basis for true civilization; cultivation began around 10{,}000 BCE.
By about 8{,}000 BCE, Egypt rose from the Nile basin, establishing habitation and cultivation.
3.4 The Nile Valley Civilizations
Core civilizations: Nubia, Egypt, Ethiopia (Aksum) – interconnected and influential.
Nubia: four main periods; Pre-Kerma (≈ 3900–2500 BCE); Kerma (2500–1500 BCE); Napata (≈ 900–270 BCE); Meroe ( 195–320 CE).
Egypt: cradle of ancient African civilization; major contributions across spirituality, ethics, architecture, engineering, science, mathematics, calendars, literature, religion.
Ethiopia/Aksum: origins in Ethiopian state formation; Ge’ez script; obelisks/monuments; Zagwe and Solomonic dynasties; Haile Selassie lineage.
Legacy: spirituality, ethics, calendar (365 days), astronomy, mathematics (pi and geometry), architecture, literature, and influence on broader world culture.
3.5 The Western Sudanic Civilizations
Ghana, Mali, Songhai: continuity and progression; strong armies, capable rulers, and scholarship.
Timbuktu as a center of learning; wide-ranging subjects taught (trigonometry, astronomy, math, law, botany, algebra, literature, Quranic studies, rhetoric).
3.6 The Moorish Empire in Spain
Moorish conquest of Spain began in 711; contributed: agriculture, engineering, mining, industry, expanded trade, architecture, and scholarship.
4. BLACK HISTORY: Africans in America
4.1 Introduction
Not exhaustive; focus on major issues, processes, events and figures; emphasis on modal experiences ( Blacks as producers and products of history); Blacks as historical actors shaping their own fate.
4.2 Egypt, Mali and the Olmecs
Evidence of Africans in ancient America (controversial but argued by Van Sertima).
Ivan Van Sertima’s They Came Before Columbus; Olmec civilization as parent to Mesoamerica; Africans said to arrive via Nubian/Egyptian links and possibly via Mali routes.
Olmec colossal heads (∼11 heads, ≈ 9 ft tall, ≈ 15 tons) cited as Africanoid features.
Claims of early trans-Atlantic voyages: Ramesside period (~13{0}0{-}1080 BCE) or 1200 BCE; Malian fleet led by Abubakari II (1310) with limited return.
4.3 The Holocaust of Enslavement
Enslavement as one of history’s great catastrophes: estimates range from 50{-}100 million lives lost; includes brutal violence, depopulation, cultural destruction.
Distinction between term “slave” and “enslaved” to emphasize social-imposed identity and the possibility of resistance.
Impacts: depopulation, loss of youth/skill, disruption of economies, and long-term underdevelopment of Africa while fueling European development.
4.4 Enslavement: Basis and System
Basis: profitability, practicality, and justifications rooted in racist thought.
Definition of the system: brutality (physical/psychological/sexual), cultural genocide, and five mechanisms of control: (1) laws, (2) coercive bodies, (3) church, (4) political strategies, (5) plantation punishments.
4.5 Resistance to Enslavement
African resistance begins in Africa and continues in America; resistance is a continuous thread; attributed across different forms.
Forms of resistance (five basic forms):
1) cultural; 2) day-to-day; 3) abolitionism; 4) emigrationism; 5) armed struggle.Cultural resistance includes retention/synthesis of culture, creation, and family preservation.
Day-to-day resistance includes sabotage, feigning illness, stealing, strikes, work slowdowns, self-mutilation, arson, attacks, flight; also infanticide to deny slaveholders profit.
Abolitionism: organizing, publishing, fundraising, Underground Railroad, and notable activists (Harriet Tubman, Douglass, Sojourner Truth, etc.).
Emigrationism: back-to-Africa movements; early societies and figures (Paul Cuffee, African Society, etc.).
Armed resistance: revolts (e.g., 1712 NYC, 1739 Stono, 1800 Gabriel, 1822 Vesey conspiracies, 1831 Nat Turner, etc.), ship mutinies (Amistad), Maroon communities, Afro-Mexican alliances, Afro-Native American collaborations (Afro-Seminole).
4.6 Civil War and Reconstruction
Prelude to war: Fugitive Slave Law (1850), Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), Dred Scott (1857).
Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and the Confederacy vs. Union dynamics; Black soldiers and veterans served in large numbers (≈186{,}000 soldiers; 29{,}000 sailors).
Reconstruction (1865–1877): Freedmen’s Bureau; 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments; Civil Rights Acts; Enforcement Act; black office-holding; but failures to provide land/real economic opportunity; rise of Black Codes.
End of Reconstruction and rollback (Hayes–Tilden Compromise 1877), leading to Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
4.7 The Great Migrations and Urbanization
Post-Civil War migrations: to southern cities, the West, and especially northward (1890–1910 urbanization from ~20–27% of Blacks in cities).
The Great Migration driven by escape from oppression in the South, economic opportunities in the North, and World War I labor needs.
Northern migration correlated with urban problems and racial violence (lynching and riots; Red Summer of 1919).
Ida B. Wells-Barnett: anti-lynching activism and journalism.
4.8 Organization For Social Justice and Social Service
Black women’s club movement arises in the 1890s, building mutual aid and social service networks; NACW founded in 1896; NCNW founded by Mary McLeod Bethune (1935).
Other organizations: Niagara Movement (1905), NAACP (1909), Urban League (1911).
4.9 Accommodationism, Confrontation and Black Nationalism
Post-Reconstruction era: Jim Crow solidifies; three leaders model divergent paths: Booker T. Washington (accommodationist, vocational training), W.E.B. Du Bois (integrationist, civil rights and higher education), Marcus Garvey (Pan-African nationalism).
4.10 Black Science and Inventions
Inventions by African Americans post-Civil War helped industrialization: Henry Blair (seed planter, 1834–1836), Norbert Rillieux (vacuum evaporator, sugar refining), Lewis Latimer (carbon filament lamp), Jan Matzeliger (shoe lasting machine), Elijah McCoy (automatic lubricator), Garrett Morgan (traffic signal, smoke mask), Granville T. Woods (Induction Telegraphy; many others). George Washington Carver emphasized chemurgy and crop diversification (peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans).
4.11 Crisis and the New Deal
The Great Depression hit Black communities hard; New Deal policies expanded, creating protections and labor organizing opportunities (Public Works Administration, WPA, SSA, CCC, NYA with Black divisions).
Black cabinet/braini trust: notable Black advisors in various federal departments; increased political visibility but not full equality.
4.12 The Reaffirmation of the 60s
The 1960s as a defining modal period: reaffirmation of Africanness and social justice tradition; civil rights gains and global visibility.
Split into integrationist and nationalist tendencies; non-violence vs. more assertive Black power approaches.
Civil Rights Movement: Brown v. Board of Education (1954); Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–56); sit-ins (1960); Freedom Rides (1961); Birmingham (1963); March on Washington (1963).
SNCC as a key driver; shift toward Black Power; organizational and theoretical developments for self-determination, community control, Black arts, Black Studies, and a broader liberation framework.
Post-60s: shifting dynamics include COINTELPRO suppression (late 1960s–1970s); electoral gains in the 1970s; Pan-Africanism and global links; emergence of independent Black political structures (NBIPP, NBUF).
The Black Power Movement (summary)
Three thrusts: religious (NOI and Christian nationalist strands), cultural (Us/Kawaida; Black Arts; Black Studies), political (Black Power conferences, community programs, Black Panther evolution, armed self-defense, and broader nationalist projects).
Notable outcomes: institution-building (schools, co-ops, Black political structures), linkage with Continental Africa and Third World liberation movements, and debates about armed struggle vs. nonviolence.
The Seventies to the New Era (brief overview)
Seventies: COINTELPRO impact; rise of Black political conventions; growth of Pan-African networks; affirmative action debates (Bakke); evolving gender relations; prison revolts; NOI transformation; Jonestown as cautionary tale.
Eighties: economic crisis, rise of the right, conservative politics, and a renegotiation of Black political coalitions; cross-over politics (Wilder, Dinkins); advent of independent Black political organizing (NBIPP, NBUF) and continued debate on alliances with labor and Third World movements.
Nineties: continued political struggles, high-profile racial incidents (e.g., Thomas-Hill hearings, L.A. rebellion, Million Man March); electoral participation and Black political leadership; debates on affirmative action and race-conscious policy.
The New Century: 2000 election controversies and voter suppression concerns; Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath; HIV/AIDS disparities; police brutality and reform; Barack Obama’s presidency as a watershed moment; ongoing need for structural strategies beyond symbolic representation.
The Historic Presidential Election of Barack Obama (summary)
Obama’s 2008 victory as a milestone of historical significance and global symbolism; built on community organizing, broad coalitions, and sustained grassroots support; faced ongoing challenges in policy, opposition, and persistent racial dynamics.
2000 Presidential Election to The New Century (closing overview)
2000 election disputed; Florida voting irregularities raised concerns about voting rights and court interventions.
Katrina exposed federal failure and racial disparities in disaster response; ongoing critique of media framing and resource allocation.
HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects Black communities; need for comprehensive prevention and care.
Police abuse and killings continue to shape Black political and social life; civil oversight and reform calls persist.
Obama’s election symbolized progress but did not resolve systemic racial challenges; emphasis remains on building durable social justice institutions and movements.