African American Political Theorists Flashcards

Question

singing and swinging X

Answer 1

questions the power of religion to aid blacks in fighting their oppressors. blacks need to focus on actions to combat oppression and leave religion in the closet. he proclaims its time to stop singing "we shall overcome" and start swinging. you can't sing up on freedom, but you can swing up on freedom. you cannot sing your way to freedom but you can swing your way to freedom

Answer 2

white liberals and government have failed black people. blacks should turn top themselves and not others. "a do it yourself philosophy" they must realize liberation will come from heir own efforts. he champions a self-help philosophy for black progression. black nationalism is a self-help philosophy

Answer 3

In 1881 Washington was selected to head a newly established normal school for African Americans at Tuskegee, an institution with two small converted buildings, no equipment, and very little money. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute became a monument to his life’s work. •At his death 34 years later, it had more than 100 well-equipped buildings, some 1,500 students, a faculty of nearly 200 teaching 38 trades and professions, and an endowment of approximately $2 million

Answer 4

Booker T. Washington's speech, given during the opening ceremonies of the Cotton States and International Exposition 30 years after the Civil War, in 1895 in Atlanta, Georgia, was a significant contribution to this long civil rights process.

Answer 5

In April 1865 Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) became the new president. Because of his strong belief in states' rights to govern themselves, Johnson gave the newly constituted Southern politicians the power to regulate the transition from slavery to freedom. This approach, known as Presidential Reconstruction because of its association with President Andrew Johnson, lasted for about two years (1865–67). It eventually provoked a powerful backlash from Northerners.

Answer 6

By the 1890s the South was in a state of seemingly perpetual crisis. Black Southerners were kept away from polling places by intimidation and repressive laws. Lynchings, or mob killings without a legitimate trial, and other acts of violence against African Americans were on the rise. The victims of such injustices seldom found a sympathetic ear in the region's courtrooms. In this hostile climate, it seemed unlikely African Americans could ever attain true equality with their white counterparts

Answer 7

Washington begins his speech by pointing out that African Americans make up a third of the population in the South, a fact that would have been obvious to his listeners but whose implications he wished to spell out further. This fact supports Washington's larger, less immediate point that whatever happens to black Southerners will have serious ramifications for the South at large. He then extends gratitude for the generosity being extended by the president and directors of the exposition

Answer 8

This naturally leads to his main point about wanting to cultivate friendship between the two races in the South. Not only tolerance, but also friendship will be necessary to ensure long-term prosperity for all. The location of the speech—an event designed to highlight economic progress in the South—served as a richly symbolic backdrop for Washington's discussion of the region's future.

Answer 9

he also begins his address by stating that African Americans had come into political power too early after slavery ended. Instead of describing emancipation as a victory for black Americans, he describes a leap to freedom, which will take some time to get used to. Washington flatters his white audience by describing African Americans' sudden accession to political power as a misstep. During the heady days of Reconstruction, he says, black Americans had rushed to claim privileges and responsibilities for which they were unprepared.

Answer 10

Cast down your bucket He tells of a ship that, lost at sea and running out of fresh water, signals another ship to plead for a resupply before the sailors onboard die of thirst. The second ship signals the first to cast down its bucket where it is, meaning to lower the water bucket and draw water from its immediate surroundings. In doing so the crew of the lost ship finally realizes they are not lost at all but entering the mouth of a freshwater river with plenty of drinkable water. Far from needing outside help, they discover the solution to their emergency ready at hand.

Answer 11

Black Southerners, he insists, must cast down their buckets in the sense of reconciling themselves to the immediate realities of life in the South. Rather than moving away or looking to the federal government to fix their problems, Washington urges, African Americans in the South must resolve to advance their own situation through hard work. Specifically, he warns them not to agitate for social and political equality in the short term but to focus on building themselves up economically. Agriculture and the trades will be the real route to black economic independence. With that independence, Washington predicts, will come the esteem of the white community.

Answer 12

White listeners, meanwhile, are implored to help and encourage their black neighbors through employment, education, and philanthropy. Black Southerners, he promises, will be more faithful and hardworking than immigrants. He reminds his white Southern audience how the African American community has helped raise their children and their ancestors' children and have attended their parents' sickbeds and funerals. Washington uses precise details to remind his audience of the long, close, and personal history between black and white Southerners. Washington makes an emotional appeal based on his knowledge of his audience to sway and persuade them, hoping to help ease the immediate oppression. In his later writings about his speech he says he reasoned that appealing to someone's sense of good is more effective than pointing out or attacking them for their evil deeds. Washington attended seminary school and was deeply religious. His rhetoric is imbued with his religious beliefs.

Answer 13

as separate fingers on one hand Moreover, Washington insists, by introducing another metaphor, black and white Southerners will remain as separate fingers on one hand when achieving shared economic goals. In other words he offers a vision in which black and white interests can intertwine on the farm and in the factory while segregation still prevails in schools, churches, and theaters. In his speech Washington is cagey about the causes of black Southerners' poverty and disenfranchisement, referring to slavery by name only once. his is perhaps the lowest point in the speech and one of the reasons it was intensely criticized later by scholars and political analysts. Washington did not truly believe that the races should be segregated but failed to take a public stance when he had the opportunity.

Answer 14

About midway through his speech Washington tells his audience that development and high intelligence are a means of security and defense for everyone. He asks his audience to encourage growth instead of curtailing it. This emotional investment will have a high return, and those who do so will be blessed. There is no escape from God's laws, man's laws, eternal justice, or the binding relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed; they are as close as sin and suffering.

Answer 15

reminding the white Southerners that they share the same God. God's justice and judgment transcend skin color, and there is no escape for anyone from death. Washington feels bold enough to point out that in a spiritual sense, if not an earthly sense, everyone is equal. This appeal would be very effective, considering the audience. Washington uses universal truths to arouse a feeling of moral duty and goodness in his listeners' hearts and minds.

Answer 16

He likens them to hands that can pull the South up or bring it down. They will be a source of business and industry or a body of stagnation much like death. He says they are humble and do not expect much.

Answer 17

The reality, Washington insists, is that African Americans are simply not ready for full social equality with whites. He thus proposes a compromise wherein black Southerners will, for the time being, avoid the "folly" of seeking social and political equality with their white neighbors. Once they prosper economically, Washington predicts, other racial prejudices will vanish, because a race contributing to the markets of the world will not remain ostracized. He also specifically mentions Northern philanthropists at this time. In fact, Washington did a significant amount of fundraising for his school among Northerners. He makes certain to mention he is grateful for what he calls their blessing and encouragement.

Answer 18

Washington concludes his speech with a final call for unity and respect for the rule of law. These qualities, he says, will help transform the South into "a new heaven and a new earth." Washington continues his moral appeal up to the final moments of his speech, exhorting all members of his audience to be patient, encouraging, and hardworking as a means of blotting out racial animosities.

Answer 19

The immediate reaction to Washington's speech was largely positive. White audiences and those who read the speech later when it was published in newspapers in both the North and the South embraced Washington's idea of a compromise that would allow black Southerners to achieve equality gradually. White Southern leaders also applauded a plan that could achieve this goal without a sudden and violent disruption to the status quo. Soon, however, black leaders questioned the value of a scheme that seemed to doom African Americans to an inferior position in Southern society.

Answer 20

In his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk, written just eight years after the Cotton States speech, Du Bois critiqued Washington for his "attitude of adjustment and submission." Du Bois considered Washington's ideas to be a form of gradualism and accommodation.

Answer 21

Du Bois argued that Washington seemed ready to adapt himself to the prejudices of white Southerners and of white Americans generally. The scholar also took issue with Washington's dismissal of social and political equality as being secondary to economic equality. In his view segregation was a much more serious issue than "the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house," as Washington had put it. Moreover, Du Bois held, exclusion from social and political circles would "sap the manhood" of African Americans, robbing them of self-respect and undermining their work ethic. Thus, he reasoned, the lack of social and political equality might eventually undermine the more modest economic goals Washington had proposed. web dubois called it the Atlanta Compromise web deplored Washington's emphasis on vocational skills to the detreiment of academic development and civil rights. and indeed it is truth that during the period of Washington's sdcendancy s national spokesman for American Americans, his race was systematically excluded both from the franchise and from any effective participation in national political life and rigid patterns of segregation and discrimination became institutionalized in the Southern states

Answer 22

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (born February? 1818, Tuckahoe, Maryland, U.S.—died February 20, 1895, Washington, D.C.), African American who was one of the most eminent human rights leaders of the 19th century. His oratorical and literary brilliance thrust him into the forefront of the U.S. abolition movement, and he became the first black citizen to hold high rank in the U.S. government.

Answer 23

Douglass was born in 1818, though the month and day are uncertain; he later opted to celebrate his birthday on February 14. Separated as an infant from his slave mother (he never knew his white father), Frederick lived with his grandmother on a Maryland plantation until he was eight years old, when his owner sent him to Baltimore to live as a house servant with the family of Hugh Auld, whose wife defied state law by teaching the boy to read. Auld, however, declared that learning would make him unfit for slavery, and Frederick was forced to continue his education surreptitiously with the aid of schoolboys in the street.

Answer 24

Upon the death of his master, he was returned to the plantation as a field hand at 16. Later he was hired out in Baltimore as a ship caulker. Frederick tried to escape with three others in 1833, but the plot was discovered before they could get away. Five years later, however, he fled to New York City and then to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he worked as a labourer for three years, eluding slave hunters by changing his surname to Douglass.

Answer 25

At a Nantucket, Massachusetts, antislavery convention in 1841, Douglass was invited to describe his feelings and experiences under slavery. These extemporaneous remarks were so poignant and eloquent that he was unexpectedly catapulted into a new career as agent for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. From then on, despite heckling and mockery, insult, and violent personal attack, Douglass never flagged in his devotion to the abolitionist cause

Answer 26

To counter skeptics who doubted that such an articulate spokesman could ever have been a slave, Douglass felt impelled to write his autobiography in 1845, revised and completed in 1882 as Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Douglass’s account became a classic in American literature as well as a primary source about slavery from the bondman’s viewpoint. To avoid recapture by his former owner, whose name and location he had given in the narrative, Douglass left on a two-year speaking tour of Great Britain and Ireland. Abroad, Douglass helped to win many new friends for the abolition movement and to cement the bonds of humanitarian reform between the continents.

Answer 27

Douglass returned with funds to purchase his freedom and also to start his own antislavery newspaper, the North Star (later Frederick Douglass’s Paper), which he published from 1847 to 1860 in Rochester, New York. The abolition leader William Lloyd Garrison disagreed with the need for a separate black-oriented press, and the two men broke over this issue as well as over Douglass’s support of political action to supplement moral suasion. Thus, after 1851 Douglass allied himself with the faction of the movement led by James G. Birney. He did not countenance violence, however, and specifically counseled against the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (October 1859).

Answer 28

During the Civil War (1861–65) Douglass became a consultant to Pres. Abraham Lincoln, advocating that former slaves be armed for the North and that the war be made a direct confrontation against slavery. Throughout Reconstruction (1865–77), he fought for full civil rights for freedmen and vigorously supported the women’s rights movement.

Answer 29

After Reconstruction, Douglass served as assistant secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission (1871), and in the District of Columbia he was marshal (1877–81) and recorder of deeds (1881–86). Finally, he was appointed U.S. minister and consul general to Haiti (1889–91).

Answer 30

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a keynote address at an Independence Day celebration and asked, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Douglass was a powerful orator, often traveling six months out of the year to give lectures on abolition. His speech was delivered at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. It was a scathing speech in which Douglass stated, "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine, You may rejoice, I must mourn." In his speech, Douglass acknowledged the Founding Fathers of America, the architects of the Declaration of Independence, for their commitment to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"

Answer 31

“Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too, great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.... Douglass states that the nation's founders are great men for their ideals for freedom, but in doing so he brings awareness to the hypocrisy of their ideals with the existence of slavery on American soil. Douglass continues to interrogate the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, to enslaved African Americans experiencing grave inequality and injustice:

Answer 32

The year was 1852. In America, slavery had yet to be abolished. It was the Antebellum era where slaveholders disallowed their human chattel from participating in Fourth of July celebrations, and where even in free states, Blacks were discouraged from attending. However, that year, a former slave was asked to address the Independence Day gathering commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall. And, on July 5, Frederick Douglass stepped on the stage and asked, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Answer 33

Douglass’ skillful use of the second person to illustrate the chasm between freedoms as whites under the Declaration of Independence and Constitution and slavery undermined the usual Independence Day platitudes.

Answer 34

“The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes of death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn,” Douglass told the mostly white audience. And he asked them, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?”

Answer 35

Malcolm left the Nation in March 1964 and in the next month founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. During his pilgrimage to Mecca that same year, he experienced a second conversion and embraced Sunni Islam, adopting the Muslim name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. Renouncing the separatist beliefs of the Nation, he claimed that the solution to racial problems in the United States lay in orthodox Islam. On the second of two visits to Africa in 1964, he addressed the Organization of African Unity (known as the African Union since 2002), an intergovernmental group established to promote African unity, international cooperation, and economic development

Answer 36

In 1965 he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity as a secular vehicle to internationalize the plight of black Americans and to make common cause with the people of the developing world—to move from civil rights to human rights.

Answer 37

The growing hostility between Malcolm and the Nation led to death threats and open violence against him. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated while delivering a lecture at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem; three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of the murder. He was survived by his wife, Betty Shabazz, whom he married in 1958, and six daughters. His martyrdom, ideas, and speeches contributed to the development of black nationalist ideology and the Black Power movement and helped to popularize the values of autonomy and independence among African Americans in the 1960s and ’70s

Answer 38

Malcolm is in opposition to “sit-ins,” “boycotting,” and marching around singing “We Shall Overcome”—his clever critiques of Kingian philosophy. "you and I been sitting long enough and its time for us today to start doing some standing and some fighting to back that up" He declares that White politicians don’t come into Black neighborhoods until election time. The speaker argues that Blacks have not benefitted from America’s democracy—they have been victimized by American hypocrisy. Malcolm discloses that Blacks have not experienced the American Dream—they’ve experienced an American nightmare.

Answer 39

Blacks people need to vote as a unified group. When Blacks vote as a unified group, they determine who gets elected, considering Whites are split between the Democratic and Republican candidates for President. Malcolm X contends that Black people put Democrats first and Democrats put them last. Blacks have allowed this to happen because they’re “chumps,” “a political chump.” He posits that continuing to back a political party that has the means to significantly benefit you, but refuses to make you a priority means you’re “a traitor to your race

Answer 40

He asserts that there has never been a non-violent revolution—not even in Hollywood. Again, this is a direct attack on the non-violent philosophy of Dr. King. Mr. X implores Black people to take the fight beyond civil rights and expand it to human rights. Brother Malcolm expressed an intention to take the civil rights struggle to the United Nations to let the world know America is guilty of genocide and human rights violations. you don't have a revolution in which you are begging the ystem of exploitation to integrate you into it. Revolutions overturn systems. revolutions destroy systems

Answer 41

black nationalism

Answer 42

“The Ballot or the Bullet” encourages Blacks to join churches and other organizations that promote Black uplift, and it warns them about Black churches and other organizations that advance white nationalism. Churches and organizations employing white nationalism can be recognized by their espousal of things counterproductive to Black uplift and solidarity.

Answer 43

a year do you choose the ballot or the bullet? do you choose liberty or death? (taxation without representation American revolution example) you have to be prepared to beat the odds or not care about the odds it is freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.

Answer 44

it is a political, economic, and social philosophy. not a religious philosophy. you can still stay right in the church you're in a have a black nationalist philosophy, cause if you're black, you should be thinking black. a self-help philosophy black people suffer in these areas because the government has failed them. PTABA philosophy changes thought pattern, thought pattern changes attitudes, attitudes change behaviors, and behaviors turn into action. our gospel is black nationalism. and the gospel of black nationalism means you should control you and your own, the politics of your community, the economy of your community, all the society in which you live in and be under control

Answer 45

they don't hang you because you're baptist. they hang you because you're black. they don't hang you because you're muslim. they hang you because you're black.

Answer 46

American is just as much of a colonial power as England ever was. what do you call second-class citizenship? colonization. second class citizenship is nothing but 20th century slavery. they don't have second class citizenship in any other government on this Earth. they just have slaves and people who are free. America is a hypocrite. it will take black nationalism today to remove colonialism from the blacks

Answer 47

negros have listen to the trickers and the lies and the false promises of the white man now for too long. what can the white man use to fool us now? 3 D's disillusioned, disenfranchised, dissatisfied they are frustrated, and more explosive than all the atomic bombs Russia could ever invent. "racial powder keg" the white man made a chump of you. made a fool out of you. the new generation will come to action, No more "Old Tom" No odds are against us. now its what do we care about the odds? new gen does not care at all about the odds. they aren't afraid of draft odds, so why should they be afraid of these? Liberty or death blacks are catching more hell than the revolution ever saw. this is the year of politics. the white man will come to the negros. you don't see them or find them until election time.

Answer 48

I am not a republican democrat nor an American, Ive got enough sense to know that. I am a victim of the democrats, republican and americanism. I don't speak as such. all we've seen is hypocrisy. we see America through the eyes of someone who is a victim of americanism. we don't have an American Dream. we've only experienced the American nightmare. if you're black, you were born in jail. anything below the Canadian border twenty two million black victims of americanism are waking up to a new political consciousness, becoming politically mature. they see that the white are so evenly divided every time they vote, the race is so close they have to go back and count the vote over and over again. this puts the minority in a very strategic position. you're in the position to determine who's in the White House and who's in the dog house. You're the one who has the power. when you see this, you will see that the negro vote is the key factor.

Answer 49

if you're dumb enough to walker round to continue to identify yourself to a party that does nothing for you, your e not only a chump but a traitor to your race.

Answer 50

democrats in disguise. with the way our government works, it is mostly run by segragationists. LBJ is from Texas. They will Lynch you just as fast in Texas as they will in Mississippi, just with a different accent. being from the south doesn't mean you can deal with the south and its issues according to X. leaders from the south do not want civil rights legislation, because if the negro can vote, they would be out of a job. the constitution has a section if the voting rights of the citizen is violated, then the representative who's from that district is supposed to be expelled from cogress. if that were true, :"we wouldn't have a cracker in DC" northern democrats are in cahoots with the Dixiecrats the Dixiecrats are political wolves northern democrats are political foxes either way, you're in the dog house

Answer 51

under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. You're going tp his court expecting him to correct the problem. he created the problem. he is a criminal. he is a crook and a hypocrite.

Answer 52

blacks must unite. the strategy of the white man has been to divide and conquer. we are not for separation we are not for integration we are for freedom you think integration will get us freedom. I believe separation will get us freedom. we both have the same objective, it is just different ways of getting at it.

Answer 53

the best of this race will guide the mass away from contamination and death of the worst. an elite group with cause the race to rise. if we make money the object we will develop money makers but not men. we can make men carpenters but we cannot make a carpenter a man. used tt to describe more of how to create a tt, not what they actually are. a group of natural leaders the tt have prepared the hearts and minds of both races for the freedom of the black man the tt shows the capability of the negro blood, the promise of black men. was there ever a nation civilized from the bottom upward? never, says web. the tt raise and pull *all that are worth saving*. This is the history of human progress. the college bred negro is ought to be the leader; as it should be. knowledge of life and its deeper meaning has been the deepest ignorance of the negro

Answer 54

higher education. on this foundation we will build bread winning, skill of hand and quickness of brain, so that neither the child or man can misktake the means of living is the object of life.

Answer 55

you misjudge us because you do not know us we are today deliberately rearing millions of our citizens in ignorance

Answer 56

the legalized survival of the unfit and the nullification of the work of natural internal leadership

Answer 57

1831 in Philadelphia

Answer 58

Benjamin rush, Phyllis wheatly, ida Aldridge, David walker, Eli Whitney, fredrick Douglass, Alexander crummel

Answer 59

the best and most capable of their youth must be schooled in the colleges and universities of the land each soul and race soul need their own particular curriculum All men cannot go to college but some men must education has a trickle down effect. culture of the surrounding world trickles thought and is handed on by the graduates of higher schools. this starts at home. family and group life

Answer 60

it must strengthen the negros character, increase his knowledge and teach him how to earn a living. education is that whole system of human training within and without the schools walls which molds and develops men knowledge and character, technical knowledge to make a living. knowledge and culture technical skill to understand modern civilization, training and aptitude to impart it unto their children

Answer 61

First, we must provide the higher training of the very best teachers.

Answer 62

industrialism drunk with its vision of success ($) to imagine its own work can be accomplished without providing for the training of broadly cultured men and women to teach its own teachers. we must first teach our teachers to teach.

Answer 63

give the group and community liberally trained teachers and leaders to teach him and his family what life means give him sufficient intelligence and technical skill to make him an efficient workman.

Answer 64

teachers above all else | institutions of higher education and money for school houses and salaries.

Answer 65

“The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870,” The souls of black folk