Transcript Section 1. - Piscataway High School

Black Twentieth-Century
Thought
1. Setting the Stage: The Nineteenth
Century and the “Promise” of Freedom
2. Booker T. Washington and the
Philosophy of Self-Help
3. W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black
Intellectual Platform
4. Marcus Garvey and Pan-Africanism
Abolition of Slavery
1793: Canada passed bill to prevent further importation of slaves;
first British territory to enact anti-slavery legislation;
1807: Abolition of slave trade in British Caribbean;
1834: British colonies abolished slavery but introduced period of
Apprenticeship which lasted until 1838;
1865: Abolition of slavery in the US South;
1886: Cuba abolished slavery, ending slavery in the Caribbean;
1888: Brazil was the last colony in the Americas to abolish
slavery.
Reconstruction 1866-1877
The Reconstruction aimed to
 Reorganize southern states after the
Civil War;
 Facilitate the re-admittance of
southern states into the Union;
 Define the means by which whites and
blacks could live together in a nonslave society.
14th Amendment (1868)
Section 1. “All persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United
States . . . No State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United States;
nor shall any State deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
15th Amendment (1870)
Section 1. “The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of
race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.”
Disenfranchising Black
Votes in the South
Literacy Tests: you had to be able
to read to be eligible to vote;
 Poll Taxes: you had to pay a tax in
order to vote;
 Grandfather Clause: you could only
vote if your grandfather had been
eligible to vote and had been a
citizen.

Southern Black Codes
Refused blacks the right to vote;
 Restricted the legal and civil rights of blacks;
 Prevented blacks from carrying weapons;
 Heavily punished interracial marriage;
 Introduced vagrancy laws that tied blacks to
agricultural labour.

Development of African
American Political Thought

First Tradition: Frederick Douglass
- militant approach that lobbied for
full citizenship

Second Tradition: Alexander Crummell
- segregated community development
and self-help
Booker T. Washington
Thrift, industry and Christian morality
would earn blacks their rights in US
society;
 Blacks should transform themselves
into a productive workforce and begin
to accumulate capital;
 Future of blacks tied to the south.

Booker T. Washington
“In all things that are purely social, we
can be as separate as the five fingers,
yet as the hand in all things essential to
mutual progress.” (Atlanta Exposition
365)
W.E.B. Du Bois
The history of the American Negro is the history of …this
longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his
double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he
wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not
Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the
world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a
flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood
has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it
possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American,
without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in
his face. (Souls of Black Folk 215)
Marcus Garvey
UNIA was the most influential black
movement of the 20th century;
 Promoted a philosophy of black pride,
self-worth and self-reliance;
 Fought for the decolonisation of Africa;
 Encouraged global cooperation among
Africans.

Some Questions
1. Can cultural and political identity only
be determined by “race” and colour?
2. Is the project of self-recovery the
same for all blacks globally?
3. Can we base the development of any
community on a common racial
identity?