ONLINE AMH 2091 REFLECTIONS BLOG (IV)

In unit four we reflected on the civil rights movement, the struggle for social and racial justice, and the development of a clashing society. Boycotts, sit-ins, marches, threat of attacks from police officers hold dogs, attacks from powerful firetruck hoses, harm from nonviolent protests, and all kinds of other physical and even verbal offenses were a part of the life of an ordinary person standing up for African Americans during the civil rights movement. Marin Luther King, Jr. also experienced this such as when he led a line of protester down a street in Albany Georgia. This 381 day boycott was effective as it led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding the segregation of buses in 1956.

Pre-War and Post-War

African Americans face extreme injustice in the social environment in America. In the political structure, economic structure, and all aspects of America, the black society was far behind compared to white America. World War II posed as potential importance to the black society. When the war began, war industries were created due to a demand for workers in which black southerners who, wither male or female, were able to fill. Places like Birmingham and Nashville in particular, many jobs were fulfilled. After the war had ended, many blacks lost their jobs. An extreme case of poverty broke out for the black community since they were they majority of the ones who took those jobs. Facing institutional discrimination, African Americans had a hard time getting jobs, and even within the schools they faced hardships to acquire skills that would even get them jobs. All the while, the gap between the black and white grew more and more.

To reiterate topics I have studied this semester is that of the beginning to the end of slaver, the beginning and development of a country along with some of the hardships that came with it, that of indentured servitude, major character in our history and how they have helped shape our society today. African Americans struggled in its development, and so had everyone involved with such a political and social unjust and unstable society. It was one thing to call a country a democratic republic, but as we saw, it may have been something different to have been in practice. One thing I have to share is a short film I wrote, edited, and produced while I was in high school. It has a few major flaws, I know, but have a look!

Please Enjoy! :)

ONLINE AMH 2091 UNIT REFLECTIONS (III)

Influence of Powerful Leaders

Unit III had primary focus on the political standpoint of African Americans in the United States. The Reconstruction of America concerned three main groups: Politicians, Southern Whites, and Newly Emancipated African Americans. After the assassination of President Lincoln, Andrew Johnson succeeded the office in 1865 along with his plan for Reunification. As a White Supremacist, a term we should be familiar with, Johnson strove to restore and ensure power in Southern America to white political parties. During this, African Americans struggled in this Reconstruction with powerful leaders such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, who really stood out to me in this Unit, all began to come into play and make an impact for the African American Community.
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1903 W.E.B. Du Bois "Talented Tenth" Response
Du Bois published an essay describing what he labeled as the "Talented Tenth." The Talented Tenth represents ten percent of the African American community as leaders in a Democratic Society. Du Bois struggled ensuring that just because there was a talented tenth didn't mean that there was necessarily an untalented 90th, but that there every type of person had an important play in their own roles. His main thesis exposes the idea of an intellectual infrastructure, and the idea of influencing people of a certain society to want to be a part of the best, and to be included in the big picture. This pressure, I believe, has led to a decimation of white supremacy by closing the gap between the hierarchy of the black and white. In today's society, the most noticeable instance is recognizable with Trump now in office, along with the differences and similarities compared to President Barack Obama.
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Many things have allowed me to see things in a different perspective. As an individual of mixed races, black and white, it has been enlightening to learn different things. I now fully understand all general knowledge of Jim Crow, I have read inserts from people who have been captured as slaves and sent to America, and I have seen what it takes for a society to be reconstructed. I have already began to use this information in conversations I have come across, and feel more knowledgeable about my own demographics and more knowledgeable as a person of this working society.

ONLINE AMH 2091 UNIT REFLECTIONS (II)

In unit one, we discussed African Americans being taken as slaves and sailed across the sea. A slave society to a society with slaves is the main premises, with slaves struggling to survive in this New World. Unit two focuses a little more on the attitude and rebellious nature of such trauma. Unable to live like animals, rebellions began to get more and more serious.

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Turner's Rebellion is one to be remembered. In Southampton County, Virginia in 1831, Nat Turner led rebel slaves in to an onslaught of over five dozen people, one of the most terrifying slave rebellions recorded. Rebellions such as these continued over two decades, and ultimately, had some part of leading to the Civil War. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was a war between the North and South over the development of slavery. The end result being, as President Abraham Lincoln being holding the position in office at this time, he released the Emancipation Proclamation.
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The Emancipation Proclamation declared that "all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free." Issued on January 1, 1863, it hardly had any immediately noticeable impact. Slaves owners would hide this information from slaves, and prevent them from having any knowledge of the new law. Around June in 1865, news finally was well known to the American Society, and the 19 of that month eventually became known as "Juneteenth Day."

ONLINE AMH 2091 UNIT REFLECTIONS

Africans to Americans

3 February 2019

The transition of the African race to the Americas has been a difficult one. Even though it has a well known reputation as the "melting pot," America's history has it's dark spots. Africans were traded to the Europeans who set out through the middle passage in a horrifying voyage for these people to be made into slaves. As stated in Chapter Two, Venture Smith and Olauduh Equiano were stripped from their homes and taken to America. They wrote about these stories when they got older, intending to educate about their unnatural experiences. These slaves were intended to be used to do the things both the Europeans and Native Americans couldn't do through their indentured servitude and pre-existing slavery.
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By this time, early America was considered a society with slaves. This is that they are a country that has slaves of different ethnicities such as Asian, African,  from South America, and even indentured servants. These groups would all commit to the hard labor that it took for this developing country of America. Whether voluntarily or involuntarily, these people would work to only get more and more screwed as the owners would take more control and power over these individuals. Author Ira Berlin is famous for his quote of stating that  America went from a "Society with Slaves to a Slave Society." As I stated, America was a society with slaves. The difference being, it becoming a Slave Society, is that more power was gained to enforce slavery, and it was becoming more race based. Instead of using the Asians, Native Americans, and Indentured Servants, Africans were becoming most 'go-to' race. Laws became more strict on this function and African slaves became the structure of support of the entire African slave society, hence Slave Society (Chapter 4).
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Representations of Africans in Western Media 

After the abolishment of slavery, African Americans and other ethnicities slowly became a part of a normal cooperative society. Things have come a long way but there are still things that can easily remind us of the dark past. The link to this video exposes Western media in the fact that Africa is portrays as some awful country that is really poor and can't take care of itself, and  that we should feel bad for them for the current state that they're in when that's really just not true. In truth, Africa is an advanced society with it's ups and downs just like America. One country or race should never look down on one another and that's a more modernized struggle that Americans face today especially with Africans and African Americans (Chapter 1).