HIS 270 -- Black Protest in 20th Century US Culture

I wanted to say how much I enjoyed class discussion today with breaking down the quotes piece by piece and hearing everyones perspectives as we evaluated Baldwin's words. Here are a few quotes from the book that we discussed in class! I didn't take my usual in depth notes because conversation jumped around a lot today. If anyone wants to continue our discussion on being innocent, who is innocent, and what traits are deemed innocent, feel free to chat with me in the comments. :) Baldwin Fled the US for much of his life to get away from American racism Written in 1936 Critical year for African-American history Does Baldwin take a different tact than MLK? “You know, and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom. One hundred years too soon? What does Baldwin have to say about the problem of race in America? One for Black people, one for white people? What is the part of it that has stuck with you? “You were expecte...

In The Fire Next Time James Baldwin addresses the repetitive state of African American males in America. He addressed problems of the ghetto and living situations for black men. Instead of bashing or castrating whites he labeled them as  our brothers. When addressing this country’s treatment of blacks Baldwin describes expectations of America in which I found extremely relatable.Baldwin states “ You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.”(p7) I found this quote so relatable because throughout my hometown which is predominantly black African American males in general valued small things like pop warner football league memories and high school sports stats. Many of my community elders had not finished high school and were okay with it. They had settled for their 9 to 5 job on minimum wage pay. When I graduated this mindset of my hometown had become so clear to me that frightened me to pursue higher education. I did not know of a...

While I was watching the Freedom Riders documentary and then listening to our conversation on Tuesday I couldn't help but compare those kids to me and our different experiences. they grew up in a time with open animosity and with the general understanding by the government and society that black people are lesser. On the other hand, I grew up in a time where while things are nowhere near perfect the general agreement is that all people are equal and should have the same rights. one statement in the documentary was when Bobby Kennedy said maybe one day we could have a black president, and all I could think about was that while the people in that time could hardly imagine having a black president, I grew up in my formative years with a black president. their actions in the past had made possible my experiences in the present. There was also the topic of the darker side of MLK and his actions at the time, how he was not quite the saint he appeared. this made me reflect on women and th...

James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time  starts with a letter to James from his Uncle James. This section of the book is so powerful and I am looking forward to finishing the rest of the book next week. Even though we only read ten pages for class today, I am amazed at how many sentences or paragraphs that were moving and relevant to our class discussion (it ended up being most of the pages at times). I would like to share a few quotes then delve into my own analysis of their importance and relevance in contemporary day.  One idea that was reoccurring in this letter from Uncle James was the idea of persevering toward equality in an era where it feels like no one wants you to succeed. He illuminates this idea with the following quotes:  "You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a n*****. I tell you this because I love you, and please don't you ever forget it."(4); "Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as w...

         The reading for today’s class began with a story that I, and many people who look like me know too well. James Baldwin was writing a letter to his nephew, being as honest as he could. The moral of the story is if you are black in America, people already have a preconceived notion about who you are and what you can and can’t do. Your job is to prove them wrong. It might not seem fair, and sometimes it can be trying, but it is apart of life as a person of color. Growing up my family made it a point to instill in my siblings, cousins and I that the words of a person who doesn’t know who you truly are shouldn’t effect you. You cannot let these people get into your head because thats when you give them the power that they think they hold. I believe that was the point Baldwin was trying to make to his nephew.  That no matter what you can’t let the world tell you about yourself. You are just as good as them, You can do just as much as they can. You just ...

Here are my class notes from today's discussion on Freedom Riders (2010) . 3/26 Class Notes Preliminary Discussion Notes Each group needs to send 12 events by Monday 6 events must have occured between 1893 and 1954 The other six can be from after that or whenever Central high school integrated 1957 Discussion of Freedom Riders First half of the height of the Black freedom struggle Period dominated by non violent protest Freedom rides, march on washington, march on Selma, etc Dominated by black church and non violent pacifism Heading next week into black power movement Different perspective and actions Discussion Questions to carry forward Why does non violent protest give way to something different? Why do we move from nonviolence of SCLC fading by mid to late 60s and the rise of a more militant freedom struggle? Why and how does it happen? How do you evaluate the effectiveness of nonviolence as a method? Did it achie...

Watching the “Freedom Riders” documentary offered a new insight for me into the African American struggle and the intensity it lead back in the days of MLK. It was shocking to me just how severe the atrocities against African Americans were and how unreported these crimes against them were. The Riders on these buses took a stand even with the knowledge that some of them might not make it off those buses alive. The Riders were met with aggressive anger and physical abuse simply for protesting in a nonviolent manner to bring light to the cause. Segregationists were so blinded by their racism that they found no harm in the damage they were imposing onto African American. It hurts to know how dangerous being an activists can be, especially during such a divisive time as then. These riders had physical attacks against them, property destroyed, and their bodies and souls dehumanized. It is astonishing to me just how much begging and pleading it took the black struggle to get the Kennedy Admi...

This documentary might be in my top five of documentaries I have ever watched. The first hand accounts, live footage, and thoughtfulness that went into creating this project helps to land it in my favorites. There are several quotes from this video that I believe are noteworthy and could bring about great discussion in class: "You cannot change a way of life over night, the more they try to force into doing something, the worse the reaction will be."; "To dare the federal government to do what they are supposed to do and see if their constitutional rights would be protected."; "We cannot lose unless we allow ourselves to be so divided and lose a sense of direction and common purpose."; "many people in the movement think that what you are doing may do more harm than good"; "these people are going from town to town and getting off the bus, and seeking through mixed groups of Negro men and white women to force themselves into situations that te...

The Freedom Riders documentary was well-made and illuminating in its effort to share a linear account of the Freedom Rides of 1961. The juxtaposition of the white passengers singing joyously in a Greyhound bus commercial and the accounts of Freedom Riders and historians was particularly arresting and ironic; here were black Americans being gassed and beaten for riding these busses in the deep south while their companies promoted a sense of harmony, luxury, and white tranquility. The lack of protection provided for the Freedom Riders on their journey was - quite frankly - absurd; mobs of white men were afforded ample time and opportunity to perform mass acts of violence on the incoming riders before the intervention of police. The documentary notes that the Kennedy administration eventually sent in the National Guard to protect the riders, but this was only after much begging, forcing, and public spectacle and outreach took place. The administration’s reluctance to recognize the effor...

As I watched the “Freedom Riders” documentary, the more disgusted I become at that racial injustices in American history. At the beginning of the documentary, there is a small montage of bigots giving poor excuses as to why the South should remain segregated. However, there was one quote that stuck out that stated, “You can not change a way of life overnight. The more they try to force us into doing something, the worse the reaction is going to be.” Racism should not be a way of life anyone wants to live through or put onto someone else. The Freedom Riders and many nonviolent protesters weren’t physically imposing on others, so why was the reaction of segregationists to worsening as “they try to force” them into a realistic way of life? Watching the documentary and listening to how the Riders were willing to be martyrs for the Movement as they were physically attacked, their property was destroyed via molotov and mentally drained daily makes me appreciate activism a great deal more, ...