Chapter 17
“Or Does It Explode?”
The Blacks, The Blues, and the Struggle For Equality.
The Harlem Renaissance
-In the 1930s, Black poet Langston Hughes wrote “Lenox Avenue Mural”
which this chapter is named after. He asks “what happens to dream deferred?”
-The dreams of many African Americans were deferred by inequality, poverty,
and entrapment. Blacks became poets, musicians, novelists, and speakers.
Harlem became a place for Blacks to express their emotions.
-Poets talked about their childhoods or their present dilemmas.
Countee Cullen wrote the poem “Incident”:
“And so I smiled, but he poked out,
His tongue and called me, ‘Nigger.’”
Oh, Those Blues
-The Blues became the genre of the Blacks. It was
their solemn, beautiful tunes and words that
captured the plight of their people.
-By the 1940s, Richard Wright wrote the novel
Black Boy, which explained the harshness of being
black in the South and being raised there:
“It never occurred to me that I was in any way an
inferior being.”
The Importance of
Scottsboro
In 1931, nine black teenage boys were accused of rape after jumping off a train in Scottsboro, AL.
-With little evidence and skewed testimonies from the two white
women and five white men involved, the boys were all still convicted
of rape. All were given 60-90 year life sentences.
-This was a groundbreaking trial. Firstly, because in Alabama, the norm
would be to execute all of these boys. Instead, these boys were given a
trial. Secondly, because the verdict of this trial caused an uproar.
Nine boys convicted with no concrete evidence of what happened.
Nine boys sent to jail for a lifetime...for being black.
-It was a victory and loss all at once.
Communist Supporters: Wearing Red
-Richard Wright, and many other influential
blacks, joined the Communist party after the
results of the Scottsboro trials. Communists
sympathized with the boys and scolded the
South for its unfair trial methods.
-Angelo Herndon was the Communist party
organizer in Alabama.
-The Communist party was gaining followers in
the blacks. They understood each other. The
party discouraged capitalism and inequality.
The NAACP and Nonviolence
-In 1960, a group of African American college
students sat at an exclusively White lunch-counter
in Greensboro, NC.
-This was the first of many silent protests,
encouraged by the NAACP.
-Peaceful protester Rosa Parks refused to
give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and was
jailed.
Martin Luther King Jr.
-The most influential speaker and leader in
the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
-Encouraged boycotts, peaceful sit-ins, and
marches.
-Over 250,000 people came to his “I Have
a Dream Speech”
-He encouraged Blacks (“colored people”)
to educate themselves, vote, and continue
fighting for equality.
Malcolm X and The Power
-Malcolm X was a member of the
National of Islam, and his movements
gained power in 1962-1964.
-Unlike King, Malcolm X encouraged forceful
rebellion against “the White Man.”
-Even supported a Back-to-Africa movement.
-Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.
Woe of the Freedom Riders
-While MLK Jr. was speaking and marching, college students
were doing “Freedom Rides.”
-Groups of college aged Blacks and Whites would ride in
buses to southern cities and preach equality and reform.
-Many of these trips ended in riots against the riders. Three
beatings in Alabama and two knife fights in Mississippi.
-Attorney General Robert Kennedy did not defend
the Freedom Riders. Taking action in the South
was terrifying.
Congress Finally Reacts
-Civil Rights laws were passed in 1957, 1960, and 1964.
-In 1965, President Johnson sponsored an equal
Voting Rights Act.
-By 1968, for the first time in history, the black vote
was 3 million...the SAME percentage as white voters.
Death of the King
-On April 4th, 1968 James Earl Ray
assasinated Martin Luther King Jr.
-The assassination caused some of the worst
riots America had ever experienced outside
of war.
-Urban outbreaks rose. Of 39 people killed
due to riots, 35 were black.
Aftermath
-Tension between Blacks and Whites continued.
-The FBI (Counterintelligence Program Division) took
action against black groups.
-League of Revolutionary Black Workers
(1967-1971)
-Sometimes dreams “explode”
Works Cited
"Civil Rights Movement." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
Kelley, Robin D.G. “THE CASE OF THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS" UPenn Edu, n.d. Web. 01 Nov.
2013.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. Harper Perennial
Modern Classics: New York, 2005. Print. Howard.