Ok, I hope you've been following with me in my past writings , and if so, then let's continue!
So, Chapter 14 explains what the president after Lincoln did, his name was Andrew Johnson who created the famous black codes which were a series of laws which stopped Black people from being free, racists laws which, you guest it, Black people did not like.
This made Black people be seen as stupid, like the couldn't take care of their own land alone, these were trying to make "free" slaves happy, but it only made Johnson look worse to the Black community.
Free slaves started to create their own communities, from homes, colleges and others, where only Black people lived, until the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, where no one was prohibited to vote due to race, color or servitude, but again, this had it's bad things, it didn't say if black politicians could be a thing, nor if voting requirements were equal.
Many racists saw this new law as a door for Black supremacy, a world were maybe the tables would turn, and they did not want that, yet they couldn't fight it, freedom was the path America was heading to. Everyone lowered their guards and were able to finally breath the air of freedom. Millions of slaves were ready to move out from the south and finally live their own lives and do their own things. Explore the world, and study to prove they can do the same things as a white person.
Here is when a man named William Edward Burghardt Du Bois comes in the show. He was a Black man who wanted to go to Harvard, still an all white school. He was very smart and was able to go to the best black school and succeed, which lead him to make his dream come true and go to Harvard, becoming the first African American to give a speech at the school.
But his life didn't become as great as it might seem. After graduating he started giving his own speeches on racial problems, and in the end, he agreed with the racist white people. He decided to act like White people so he could eliminate the threat of being hurt by racists.
So, years later, Du Bois is now a very old man, he had his followers here and there, but he also had the people who did not agree with his ideologies.
One group that was very important in this time was the Niggerati. This group believed that they should be treated like humans no matter what the whites believes, which was the total opposite of Du Bois. Later, one editor named Claude G. Bowers wrote a book called The tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln, yes! Abraham Lincoln, after 60 years of him being dead, his ideologies were still running around.
But this book is far from what I expected, it talks about how .....White people were tortured by Black republicans during the reconstruction... What?!
But then the man we didn't expect to respond to this book, Du Bois? Huh, though he was way too old to write. Anyways, he debunks many of the things written in the The tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln, and instead that the reconstruction just gave much more white privilege. And out of nowhere, Du Bois becomes an Antiracists, he works with the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) he critiqued colleges and schools which had too much white ideas, and when they had a White teacher teaching Negro studies in Black schools. Du Bois changed his mind about racism perhaps because of the Great Depression, no one had money, and black people didn't have freedom.
Then we go to WWII, man! this Du Bois guy lived in so many historical moments. He was energized by the other Black people who were trying to get the same rights as whites while the war was going on. Finally while the war was ending, Du Bois joined the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England, and he was introduced as the father of Pan-Africanism. Finally the war was over, but in the land of the free, America still, after 100 or more years, still had a race problem, and just like the previous decades, and even years, it was going to be hard to get equal rights for everyone.
Alright let's just skip a bit...ummmm white people make more racists stuff which are wrong and just ridiculous.......People being dumb and starting segregation everywhere........ Ah there you go! My man, Martin Luther King Jr.
He was a young preacher from Atlanta who Idolized Du Bois, with energy and all the time of his life, he was ready to fight for his people's rights, and it some we can pretty much all admire.
He gathered with many people to create rallies as well as be in "Only whites" Places. But we all love this man the most by his most Iconic speech of all time-"I Have a Dream"- Which was watched live everywhere around the world. But bad news happened the day before it, Du Bois died. After living for 95 Years! Come on, he should've waited another day to see what an amazing speech that one was. Even though he committed some bad stuff in his younger days, he was able to take the right path in the end, and King admired this so much, he gave a moment of silence to honor Du Bois.
Now, Martin Luther King was my favorite boy of all time, but watch out ya'll, there is a woman coming right this way, and she ain't stopping for no one!
4 Girls were killed in a church Bombing on September 16,1963, and Angela Davis knew these names. She was in college by this time, and she was not happy about these deaths. Her parents were activists themselves, and always thought her while she was growing up, to be an antiracist and to fight for what is right. She was also influenced not only by the racism she had experience, but also by her favorite writers who agreed that racism was wrong, and all of that combined was able to make her into a great activist herself.
There were obviously way more problems happening here, but it would take me too many paragraphs to truly explain, it's a whole mumble jumble.
Well, Davis left to Germany to get her degree in philosophy, and would hear these very racist words said normally everywhere around her, which gave her a real weird experience. There were also people back in America, who were fighting to have power of their own lives and futures, but racists whites would see it all as Black Supremacy.
Anyways, Davis have heard it all from Germany, and returned to America to start fighting and helping once and for all, she worked in the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) in Los Angeles, and while she was finally having the best times, she heard the news of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death.
After this, there was a whole shift in America, now people liked the darker the skin tone, the better. The kinkier the hair, the better. The more African clothing, the better. All to show that people are black, and they are proud of it! Colleges and schools introduced Black Studies, programs and courses also for K-12. so finally all solved? well no, the community was still sexist, men ran it all.
President Nixon joins the story, and with him, also comes with very racists ideas, but instead of calling the people white and black, he would use dangerous, scary I know. While this was all happening, Angela Davis settled a position in teaching at the University of California (UCLA) but the FBI had different plans for her. You see, when she found out that the black community was mostly sexist, she considered joining the communist party because that was much more easier and trustful than the American government, and the FBI had heard all about it. The FBI got her fired from UCLA, and when she wanted to fight back, she was threatened with emails and phones calls from the police. The governor was able to help her return to work, but once more, the FBI succeeded into getting her fired because she was talking about two Black activists who were in prison.
And when things couldn't get any worse for her, in August 7, 1970 a man walked into a courtroom in California's Marin County while he hold three guns, then he took the judge, the prosecutor and three jurors hostage and then freed three inmates. Then he lead the hostages into a parked van, the police opened fire which took the like of the judge, two inmates and the person with the guns. And a week later, Angela Davis was charged or murder. So anyways.......wait.......But why Angela Davis? You may be asking. Well she was charged with murder from this case because, and hear this, one of the guns used from the killer was actually hers. If found guilty, she would be sentenced to death, and so with this, she went on the run. But either way she was found in New York, and was arrested at the Women's House of Detention.
But there is something good that comes form this story, while she was in prison, many people heard her story and started fighting for her freedom. She was sent back to California to wait for her trial, and while waiting, she learned more and more about her case, until the trial came, she presented herself, and she won!
She was finally free, but not truly free until she helps all the people she left behind in bars.
And this pretty much concludes Chapter 24, Pheww I hope that wasn't a lot of information to take in, I told you I still had to catch you on a lot of stuff.
So, now that I am closer and closer to the end, I am just imagining and can give a guess on how this will end. But for now, these chapters have been really good, and I believed I mentioned this before, but this is a very strait forward book, and now you are able to understand more of what I was trying to say.
As I said before, there were way too many details and names I couldn't add because they had their own stories and I wasn't sure how to put them in my writting, I just put the times and the people who stood out to me the most, but if you are very interested in the story and everything about American racism, I really recommend this book, it is a hundred times better than my website!
Comments