Lecture 11/5 & 11/7 (W.E.B. Du Bois & Marcus Garvey) Flashcards
The Southern Racial System (1895-1915): Violence and lynching’s
i. KKK after civil war
1. Institution of racial terror to oppose reconstruction
ii. Continuation of violence to strike fear
1. KKK used intimidation all the way to murder
a. High power officials were white so black people would not get justice from these crimes
b. Lynching’s were the most infamous, also included shootings, mutilations, burning alive
c. All of these were seen/done in the public eye
The Southern Racial System (1895-1915): “Separate but Equal”
i. Black schools were a shadow of white schools
1. School years shorter, teachers of lesser quality
a. Brown vs Board of 1954 changed that (Long time ahead)
ii. Everything was separate
1. Bathrooms, bubblers, theaters, restaurants… everything
2. Signs everywhere
3. Second class citizens
a. All do to the “Separate but Equal” Doctrine
The Southern Racial System (1895-1915): Disfranchisement
i. The vote, something that every American should be able to exercise
ii. But in the South, the vote was systematically stripped from African Americans
1. Used violence to turn away voters initially
2. Then turned to subtle and sophisticated ways
a. States created legal requirements in order to vote
i. Poll tax Didn’t have to pay if your grandparents voted
ii. Tested on knowledge of America, like presidents and constitutional rights and articles of those rights
1. Would continue to ask until they got something wrong, whites wouldn’t have to answer these questions
iii. Happened after 1895
The Southern Racial System (1895-1915): BTW’s Response
i. Publicly remained hopeful
1. Never engaged in public criticism of whites
2. Did work behind the scenes in legal efforts to try and change policies and such
ii. Increasing number of African American leaders started speaking out against BTW for not taking a harsher stance on these new developments
A note on W.E.B. Du Bois and some background
a. Regarded as most important intellectual leader in African American activities
b. Died a day before MLK gave his “I have a Dream” Speech
c. Born in and grew up in the North (Massachusetts)
i. Competed with white kid in his school
ii. Only African American to graduate from his high school
iii. Studied at Harvard
1. Got a PhD, first African American to get one from Harvard
d. Leading force in the foundation of creation of the NAACP
i. Used this to have a massive force in the direction and opinion of the African Americans
e. In his later years, he
grew more pessimistic about racism issues
Du Bois & the challenge to BTW’s leadership: Initital response to Atlanta Expo Address
i. Fundamentally favorable
ii. “Statesmen like effort to find common ground with the white south” and hoped they would be equally as generous
iii. But as new developments where made with the KKK and disfranchisements, Du Bois grew increasingly agitated with BTW’s lack of response
Du Bois & the challenge to BTW’s leadership: “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington & Others,” in The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
i. First major challenge to the state of BTW’s leadership
ii. Caught the attention of African Americans in all parts of the country
1. Vaulted Du Bois to a position of leadership that opposed BTW
iii. Complex Essay
1. BTW is praised by whites because his ideas can be used to support segregation & disfranchisement.
2. Blacks need to find their own leaders, rather than have leaders imposed on them by whites.
3. Three problems with BTW’s program
a. Gives up black political power
b. Gives up insistence on black civil rights.
c. Gives up on black higher education
4. As a result, BTW’s program has helped produce:
a. Disfranchisement of black voters.
b. Civil inferiority for blacks.
c. Withdrawal of money from black higher education.
5. BTW faces a “triple paradox” that reveals the futility of his program:
a. Can’t make blacks politically powerful with economic progress alone-voting is also required.
b. Submission to inferiority saps pride and manhood of the race.
c. Even vocational schools can’t survive without black higher education.
iv. Impact
1. Short-term
2. Long-term
Du Bois & the challenge to BTW’s leadership: “We Claim Our Rights,” Harper’s Ferry, August 16, 1906
i. Occassion
ii. Articulation of his program (5 points)
1. Right to vote, full suffrage of blacks immediately and forever
2. End to public discrimination and separations
3. Claim the right of free men, to walk, talk, and make friends with whoever they so choose
a. Social equality
4. Want laws enforced equally amongst everyone. Poor, rich, white, black.
5. Want their children educated
Differences between BTW & Du Bois: Background & Personality
i. Washington was “son of the south”
1. Born into slavery, had to live in the racial system, dealing with the system of white power
2. Did love the region, was committed to the South
3. Always returning to the Tuskegee institution
4. Highly social ability to identify with ordinary men and women of both races and across socio-economic classes crucial part of his rhetorical success
ii. Du Bois
1. Born in Massachusetts
2. Elite education
a. Success came from competing with whites being better than them in the classroom
3. Because Du Bois didn’t live in the south, who couldn’t be patient with the south
4. Du Bois said the major difference is that “I never felt the lash” like Washington did
5. Very elitist No natural leader of men Led through his ideas, his thinking, his logic, his writings
a. He documented his cases
b. Some found him abrasive and arrogant and self-assured (people from both races thought this)
Differences between BTW & Du Bois: Views of Education
i. BTW favored education but didn’t put emphasis on higher education went as far as Tuskegee which was a trade school
1. Believed that black people, for the foreseeable future would be with their hands, doing manual labor.
a. Vocational and technical education was the most effective way in his mind
ii. Du Bois didn’t deny that vocational education was important for most of the race
1. Didn’t want to just limit education to just make men carpenters and such
a. It was more than job training
2. Necessary for the black race to progress, it needed higher education for black people to occupy leadership positions
a. Thought leadership would come from the “talented ten”
i. Technical education was fine for 90% of the race
ii. But the top 10% that would form the future leadership education would need a higher education to be effective
iii. The negro race would be saved by the “talented ten” in Du Bois mind
Differences between BTW & Du Bois: Views of white race (publicly articulated views)
i. Washington knew the power and system of white racism and tried to work around it
1. Never criticize whites publicly
2. If he needed to do so, he would attack the political party
a. But even this would receive such backlash that it could throw off his whole plan or status as a leader in the eyes of whites
ii. Du Bois had a much more racial perspective
1. Didn’t take much historical knowledge to understand what had been done to black people
2. Led him and many others to a critical view of the white race
a. Didn’t say all white people were inherently racist, but historically the white race has systematically made black people inferior
3. Believed that perhaps never would willingly allow black people to have full citizenship rights.
4. Du Bois had a quote where he practically damns the white race
Differences between BTW & Du Bois: Migration to North vs. Staying in the South
i. Du Bois vs. Washington respectively
1. Drop down your buckets Washington urged for people to stay where they were
2. Du Bois told black people to get the hell out of the south.
a. Great migration from the south to the north
b. Du Bois saw no future of progress in the south.
ii. Du Bois was right of his judgement of whites in the fact that there was no program that white people would be effective in the south
iii. The north was no wonderland that was free of discrimination
1. North was just as discriminatory and against the integration of black people with white people.
2. Racism was subtler but just as powerful
Differences between BTW & Du Bois: Politics vs. Economics
i. Washington stressed economic advancement as a vessel for future social equality but downplayed political advancement because it wouldn’t prove fruitful in the short-term. As long as they progress economically, the would progress towards equality
ii. Du Bois criticized Washington about the “panacea of wealth” and said that it was foolish to believe that economical progress would lead to equality,
1. Without the right to vote and other social and political rights, they could not progress forward.
2. Used political agitation as his rhetorical tool
The racial landscape (1915-1930): Migration from the South
i. Huge mass migration of African Americans who were frustrated with the total progress of the south.
ii. 1.75 million black people moved from the south to the north during 1910-1920
iii. 500,000 more moved during the years of WWI
iv. Black population of northern cities in some cases rose by 1200% (city in Indiana)
1. Chicago grew by 150%
v. The hope people had when they moved quickly turned to despair as they realized that racism was just as prevalent and economic opportunity and education, and such didn’t just materialize
1. “Black people were the last to be hired and first to be fired”
The racial landscape (1915-1930): Impact of World War I
i. Began in 1914 to 1918
1. Know as the War to end all wars
2. US was involved from April 1917 till the end of the war
ii. African Americans supported the war
1. More tan 150,000 black soldiers fought
2. Du Bois urged blacks to support it
a. Thought it was war could make the US safe for democracy
iii. Hope was raised in the black communities that if they supported it, things could improve
1. But hope was dashed and turned to despair
2. Woodrow Wilson and leaders meant democracy for whites
3. By the end of the war, advancement of black culture and success was not improved and, in some cases, worse.
a. Employment didn’t rise, education didn’t get better
b. Democracy was a hollow sentiment
