Story American

The Progression of African Americans

Depending on ones perspective, perhaps the Reconstruction period was the best or the worst time in history, especially for the progression of those individuals who considered themselves, African Americans. Throughout the 18 and 19 hundreds, the relationships between blacks and whites were, and in many cases, still today remains particularly intense, primarily because it seems for most African Americans, the rules, although not commonly revealed, have never really changed financially, socially, culturally or politically. The period of 1876-1865 proved to be a time of change that offered limited possibilities agitated by the mental illness of racism that often propelled darkness and despair. This was the Reconstruction period that centered around slavery and of course, cotton.  Reconstruction deemed difficult, especially in states where the population involved a higher percentage of blacks.  The devastation concerning the economy and the premise of a new social structure made the tolerance of race relations impossible.  It was in 1965 that the United States Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau as part of the War Department that assisted in many important functions. Many of those functions served to aid in establishing schools and protecting the Civil Rights of former slaves, however, after the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson brought into affect, the re-admittance of former Confederate states that invited the actions of white supremacy. The use of intimidation and violence was used as a means to stiffen progress between the races and because of this practice, in 1866 the Ku Klux Klan was established.

Although there were many set-backs there was also progression despite terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which continues to be an embarrassment to whites, and continues to be an embarrassment many times for America.  During the Reconstruction era, blacks held public office.  The first senators by the name of Hiram R. Revel (1827-1901) and Blanche K. Bruce (1841-1898) held the office as chaplain to black troops during the Civil War. Not only were they the first but the only black senators, during the Reconstruction period.  There were other black and white Mississippians who promoted biracial political societies, where eventually a political constituency was formed that included northern Republicans that had moved in from other states.

Still much hadn’t changed for blacks, especially when Mississippi passed the first, and might I add the most notoriously ridiculous and de-humanizing Black Code Law.  This meant that blacks could and would be punished differently than whites, the beginning of the disparities in the legal system that exist even today, for any and every crime, which included insulting gestures. Recently I visited a court room for one of my foster care sons and noticed the enormous number of blacks being represented by white lawyers and then standing before white judges to await their fate. It reminded me of an old slave memoir where the old black man sat waiting for a promise that would never come, a white doctor’s visit to make him well.  The mindset of this individual and those like him is that some how, as he believed, it would be the white Man Who would make everything all right for him. It seems obvious enough that blacks could not possibly be the only race of people breaking the many laws that exist of the land and yet all That Was present, in a despairingly a predominately white county of Maryland, were courtrooms full of mostly young black males.  Are blacks the only people who break the laws? Of course not, but in America, they are the only race of people hunted down like cattle, often leaving behind loved ones too poor to pay for decent legal presentation. According to many referenced publications despite prevailing stereotypes, whites, not blacks, collect the greatest share of public aid dollars in this country and whites, not blacks are amongst the largest in numbers of child molesters and rapists. According http://www.yellodyno.com/html/child_molester_stats.html “While nearly 70% of those serving time for violent crimes against children were white, whites accounted for 40% of those imprisoned for violent crimes against adults.”

The complexities, as well as the evolution of the white attitudes toward the institution of slavery and the idea of what African Americans did in respects to achieving their own freedom during the particular era, deemed crucial to the way many view an American past that can never be forgotten.  Nation of Nations, p. 477, “With the exception of Haiti’s revolution (1791-1804), the United States was the only society in the Americas in which the destruction of slavery was accomplished by violence.” And so it seemed that most of the declining land prices and failing cotton market experienced in those days, may have easily been a direct result of the disconnect of a free labor force of people no longer being forced and driven to labor and build a country from the sweat of their backs. According to the book, Slavery and the American Economy, by Waldron H. Giles, Ph.D., “The first African slaves hit the shores of the United States in 1619 and were constantly imported into the US until 1860 even though importation had been outlawed in 1808.  Over those intervening 246 years they contributed more than 605 billion hours of free labor, which funded the Industrial Revolution, financed most of the fortune 500 companies, helped finance two World Wars, and left a negative sociological impact on an entire race of people”.

The hope of any real unity regarding the African American race seems to have been destroyed during the Reconstruction period and continues to be a defining problem today.  The dispersion and spreading of African peoples throughout the world has made it literally impossible for African Americans to belong to one nation, to which they call home and/or experience any sort of common culture, as is experienced by many other races of people.  Even today many of the peoples of African decent are suffering from many of the things done to them in the past and cannot rid themselves of the control of liberty and fortune, often directed and dispersed through and by others. Make no mistake about it, with slavery having been recognized as a prosperous institution, peoples of African decent were the most important trade between Europe and West Africa.

It was in 1915 that a historian by the name of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, developed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). Only in revealing and defining the history and contributions of African Americans, to a country that spewed hate and dysfunction, can we then begin to understand the struggles, strength, motives, intelligence, ignorance, determination, endurance and most of all the psychology behind the mindset of a particular people of color and candor. In 1975, President Ford issued a Message on the Observance of Black History Week, in an attempt to make all Americans aware of the contributions made by African Americans to our nation’s life and culture. In 1986 Congress passed Public Law-99-244 which founded February 1986 as National Black History Month.  In January 1996, President Clinton issued Presidential Proclamation 6863 for National African American History Month and in 2009; our first black president of the United States, a man who would have been deprived of social and political equality just a few decades ago would hold the highest office in America. President Obama welcomed to issue the Presidential Proclamation 8345.

In acknowledging the fact that still today there remains intense, relationships between whites and all people of color, primarily the African Americans, there is still the promise of a brighter future than that of yesterday.  When I think of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s and the great leaders of yesterday like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela, I can truly believe that there is a God who has his hands on a people that continue to rise in spite of all of the obstacles that are thrown their way and in spite of all of their shortcomings that seem to have derived from an unbelievable and undeniable past, yet to overcome.  It is slowly becoming not so unusual to see African-Americans in key positions, especially holding high political offices in the United States.  When I think of Condoleezza Rice, Thurgood Marshall, Colin Powell, and President Barack Obama, my spirit rises to elevated levels of gratification, honor, respect and hope. But it is not so unusual to witness the constant watchful eyes upon every single thing President Obama says and does which enhances the hate and rejection given to the highest office in this country, our President of the United States because of his race.

There is a strange feeling that encompasses me when I think of those moments, past and present where each of us could have tolerate more, received less and forgave often.  When we think of the historians reconstruction of the past and when we think of the present conservative rebellion, whether it be regarding issues of energy and environment, terrorist attacks, the economy, foreign policy, new immigration, taxes, technology, war, or most of all race relations upon working in harmony with  the country’s first black President, frustrations continue to mount while the sensitive relationships between the media, big business, religion and politics in America and abroad, prohibit the  restoration of faith in this country and around the world.  Sadly enough, these are the ingredients that make for a bitter and uneatable soup that will continue to contain poisons that pain the stomach and destroy the significance of the entire ingredients that make up that bowl, until there is nothing left in the pot to feed anyone.  It will be the interpretation of maps, analyzing of diaries and books written by viable collaborators to embrace any form of significance to social and political reform. Simply put, America must put her legacy of racism and hate and destruction towards those who are non-white behind her, or she will undoubtedly fall; after all, it is the accounts of the past that is often reflected in the partisan spirit of those engaged in ongoing controversies that seem to last a life time.  With many of the old, outdated, strict so called righteous catholic politicians that hold on to these high ranking positions of power forever slowly dying off, there is a viable chance that the younger generations, will be able to bring a flavor of unity and fairness into the country’s political arena.  Simply put people- we are all in this life together- like it or not!

The progression of African Americans will continue to move forward in spite of all the road blocks of hate constantly resting in the belly of the people who are against the very existence of a particular people who are still trying to find their way through a jungle of isolation and despair.  As I look at the unity of all the other races at having the opportunity of choice to have come to America on their own, my heart goes out to those who are of African decent.  The mere notion of going from nigger, to colored, to black and now African American shows the division, confusion, uncertainly and separation of a race of people still struggling to find peace within. Even I am not comfortable with the title forced upon me by those individuals who find comfort in having to constantly label people and therefore could and would never understand what it is to be called or looked upon, in America as an African American. To Not Know what it means to be African American or black is ignorance in the face of ignorance. The lack of communication and knowledge  in the country was prevalent during the Obama election process when our now, first lady made reference to being proud of her country for the fist time and was ridiculed by the very people who seemed to know nothing of the constant racist behavior that only black and other minorities, specifically Latinos, seem to know of in this country;  how sad, but I know many Latinos can identify with it, primarily because they are now experiencing many of the things blacks have had to over-come in the past.  I simply view myself as black, in America primarily because I know that I am seen as black first, no matter how Caucasian I appear to look.  I know not much of Africa. Therefore, I am not able to identify completely with those individuals from Africa. Why am I labeled an African American?  I am a black American, born and raised in the United States.  Do you get my point?

In closing, I’d have to repeat my sentence at the beginning when I wrote, depending on ones perspective, perhaps the Reconstruction period was the best or the worst time in history, especially for the progression of those individuals who considered themselves, African Americans. When I think of President Obama, I think of the past presidents like John F. and Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, William J. Clinton, Harry Truman and Abraham Lincoln. When I think of George Bush Sr., Junior and Ronald Reagan, I think of the past presidents, Herbert Hoover, James Madison, Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson. It is often through the face of our presidents past and present that we begin to measure America’s progressions in spite of herself, as well as her ability to reconstruct over and over again.  It is through reconstruction that she is challenged, fearlessly strengthened and purposefully committed to the quality of life for all of her citizens regardless of race, economic status or religion. With the historical progression of the African American communities, the permanent struggle for civil rights and equal opportunities will forever be a constant part of black existence. In light of over a hundred years of permanent struggle for rights and equal opportunities, white, as well as, black communities were finally able to realize the ideals of the Civil War that both white and blacks had fought for; Nevertheless the fact remains that even after the end of the Civil War, African Americans/blacks, although liberated, continued to experience no change of social status and still suffered economic and political oppression, which continues today. It is and will always be the period from 1865-1876 that deem the most dramatic period in the history of African Americans because it is during this time that the dreams of the liberation and new life reached its peak and it was at the end of those years that the dream of any sense of liberation had been ruined, reminding those like myself of the 60’s when blacks were in an up-ward mobility only to have had drugs and guns delivered on their door steps to prohibit any means of success there of.  At times, I believe that we are like sheep, following the wolf to slaughter, even though we know that it is the wolf who knows best how to lead the African American, especially, down a seemingly progressive road to that of self-destruction, disguised in the 20th century fashion as a narrow  road way to real freedom.

 

Annotated Bibliography

Barrett, J. N, Howard. L. D., Holmes. N. D. (2009) the Review of Black Political Economy. Can Cultural Competency Speak to the Race Disparities in Methadone Dosage Levels?

The disparities of other races and particularly that of African decent can be seen above and beyond any spectrum of social and economical sources as so discussed in this journal in respects to Methadone dosage levels in the attempt to combat substance abuse in curtain individuals. As mentioned in the article, “The arguments related to organizational differences in resources, experience and training of staff, staff bias and/or racism; deem cultural competent organizations may seek in providing a method of treatment”

Annotated Bibliography

Breen. H. T., Divine, R. A., Fredrickson, Gross, Williams H, R. (1995). America Past

And Present.

 

The social and political events of our history are revealed in America, Past and Present. This book embraces the experiences of the ordinary people in a historical era that enlightens each of us of a disturbing but unbelievable past of events that includes maps and illustrations along with exceptional pedagogy that assist one in better understanding a past so distorted and torn that each role is appreciated as it is unveiled.  The shaping and unveiling a present and a future, destined for forgiveness way beyond its greatness, makes this a book full of historical knowledge embedded in a life time.

Annotated Bibliography

Detweiler, R. (2009). Death or liberty. African Americans and revolutionary America, 47, 752.

A scholar of early African American history, shares his knowledge of the horrific struggles of blacks in America during the 1800’s. He reveals the complexities and the evolvements of the revolutionary era that expanded throughout the, so called, new nation.  While much of the book focuses on the achievement of blacks, there are also the unforgettable stories of strength, endurance, determination and unity blacks sought to achieve their own freedoms and independence.

 

 

 

Annotated Bibliography

Giles, H. (2006). Slavery and the American Economy.

The book is about the tragic irony of African national debts and the road to recovery of the crimes of slavery in respects to the African American people.  The plight of the African American race will continue, as it has in the past, to change the World History in the 21st century, mocking the repayment of past crimes of both today and yesterday as- “What goes around, comes around!”

Annotated Bibliography

J.W.Davidson., B. Delay., C. L. Heyrman., M. H. Lytle., M. B. Stoff., (2008). Nations of Nations, A Narrative a History of The American Republic

This book serves as an on-going saga of historical facts and events that blend the political, social and economic history; a history which adds to the molding and shaping of the world’s historical events from the 1800’s to that of present times.

Annotated Bibliography

Jackson, F. (1971), Blacks In America 1791-1961.

A depiction of Colonial American when slavery became the way of life for large numbers of Africans taken from their native lands. By 1660 slavery was a household word in America.

Annotated Bibliography

Mathabane, M., (1986). Kaffir Boy. A True Story of Black Youth’s coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa.

The title of this story, Kaffir, which means infidel, a word that was used disparagingly by most whites to refer to blacks -reveals how blacks had no peace- not even in their own homelands, specifically South Africa.  This story tells of a boy’s experiences in growing up in devastating poverty while being educated in the cruel, ghetto streets of South Africa, where gang war and midnight police raids were the norm. The triumphs of the human spirit of many blacks reveals the inner strength of a people who have been torn, broken and dehumanized, and yet continue exist under humiliating circumstance and manage to sustain themselves in spite of how society constantly places in a light of negativity.

 

Annotated Bibliography

Mississippi Burning; America, (1988). Actors, Brad Douriff, William Dafoe, Gene Hackman and Frances McDormand,

This true story is evidence of factual data describing three civil rights workers that disappear back in 1964, in Mississippi.  There are two FBI agents assigned to find the terrorist affiliated with an organization known for its hate and violence against African Americans, called the Ku Klux Klan.  There is lack of witnesses and viable information that causes the investigation to be more and more difficult as the investigation progresses on-ward.  After a long and disgruntled investigation, finally the two agents discover the remains of the missing workers and conclude the case.

Annotated Bibliography

Pollock, M., (2010).  New Era For Civil Rights, Toward Everyday Justice: On Demanding Equal Educational Opportunity in the New Civil Rights Era 67, 245.

HGSE associate professor, Mica Pollock, agrees with political theorist, George Lakoff that one almost has to loose the debate in respects to issues of race and equality, before it begins.  Mica is quoted as saying, “I believe it is a new civil rights era because the quest for equal opportunity takes place in a new social contest of resistance to equal opportunity claims,” realizing that there is a new age of African American leaders rising and feeling the need and effects of having to deal with both the old and new forms of racism.

Annotated Bibliography

M. Knapp, The Serial Killer has the same personality characteristics as the sex offender against children. Yello Dyno-Protecting Children From Child Predators. Retrieved July 17, 2010, from http://www.yellodyno.com/html/child_molester_stats.html

 

About the Author

Kathryn Carrington is a freelance writer, published author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, CEO  of Starr Touch Enterprises Incorporated, a profit and non-profit (Starr Youth) company that is a educationally based, Commerical, Pro-Constuction and Industrial / Environmental Cleaning Company, that assist at-risk youth, youth aging out of foster care and troubled young adults under the age of 26.  She is a member of The Writers Guild of Maryland, The National Council of Negro Women and The International Society of Poets. Her fictions and non-fictions are registered in The Writers Guild of America. Kathryn has been featured in an article written entitled “Mommy Dearest” (See the Germantown Gazette dated May 17, 2006, by staff writer, Ellyn Wexler, referencing her Book “Mama and Us”. Kathryn has also been featured on 10:10 a.m. Talk Radio,(Meet The Author) promoting her book, “Suicide/The Explosion Within. She received the Editor’s Choice award for outstanding achievement in poetry in 2006. Her book entitled, “Suicide/The Explosion Within is currently listed amongst the top helpful books by the Suicide Awareness Survivor Support group. (ie…website) www.sass-mokan.com/education. Kathryn has also been awarded a certificate of participation, in the 15th Annual Writer’s Digest International Self-Publishing Book Awards in January of 2008 for her Non-Fiction, entitled “Mama and Us”. Kathryn is the published author of six Books, with one more to be published in 2011, a fiction called: “The Color of Love” . Kathryn’s articles can be seen on www.articlesbase.com/ethics-articles and her books can be purchased on amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Target, Booksamillion and most other online bookstores. starrtouch.biz

“It’s Your Story” – National Museum of American Jewish History