Even with slavery outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment, African Americans’ full freedom did not last. 1890’s Jim Crow laws and segregation replaced slavery as an institution of oppression; in many cases, laws existed that almost recreated slavery for African Americans. “The Coloreds” had to use separate restrooms and water fountains, sit in “Colored” sections at restaurants and on buses, and attend separate schools from Whites, all of which prolonged and enforced the subjugation of African Americans. All of this came together and cemented the second-class citizenship of Black American citizens for more than a century. Despite this, black culture and identity thrived, and as early as 1907, the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement were forming in hopes of pushing for equal rights and an identity as Americans. Despite the continuing legal oppression and racism, freedom gave African Americans room to more thoroughly explore their identity and opened more opportunities for dialogue. African Americans began to define and recognize who they were as individuals and as a culture. Recognition of their dual identity as both African and American began to emerge, as well as the complex relationship between the two in a country that did not treat them as equal citizens. This realization of identity influenced the decades of fighting for freedom that African encountered in order to obtain the rights they deserved.
The segregation era was marked by laws allowing the separation of whites and blacks, and forcing blacks to accept lower quality versions of restaurants, bus seating, education, and waiting rooms. Signs were ever present, declaring "whites only" or "colored only." Such signs, with the backing of US law, further added to the narrative that African Americans were less important and less deserving of quality goods and services than white people.
Sign from segregated railroad station. 1930s. National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/object/ nmaahc_2015.23?destination=explore/collection/ search%3Fedan_q%3Dsegregated%26edan_local%3D1. |
"The word Negro today is no longer an epithet. It no longer means slaves or despised people. It has become not only the proper designation of thirteen million Americans descended from white, black, and brown people, but of something between 150 and 200 million of other people in Africa, South America, the Caribbean area and Asia, who stand for a series of cultures and an history of struggle and opposition and only incidentally for the color of their skin." |
W. E. B. Du Bois' newspaper column discussed many issues pertaining to African American issues, and the excerpt on the left is from an issue discussing the history of the word "Negro" and its relation to African American identity. During the times of slavery, slaves were designated "negro" while free black men were "colored;" black men later pushed for all to be called "African" instead, while the reality remained that many black people in America were of a descent other than African, and all of them were truly American. Thus, late in the nineteenth century, the push became to be called Negro again, capitalized. Du Bois argued that designations besides Negro "arbitrarily change a name," and if identity is to be summed up in a name, then Negro is present in their history, and should be claimed from its opprobrium.
Du Bois, W. E. B. "Winds of Time." Chicago Defender [Chicago], 20 Feb. 1945. Umbra, www.umbrasearch.org/catalog/b636234f5cc11d47146321a1eb3c2b89fc278a42. Accessed 26 Oct. 2017. |
This image of The Chattanooga Advocate Newspaper from 1916 from the Chattanooga History Center. This edition of the Chattanooga Advocate displays the sense of racial pride and identity that African Americans continued to develop in 1916, despite being discriminated against and recently being released from slavery then facing new hardships during segregation. In addition, this newspaper praised the accomplishments of African Americans in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Spearman, Frank Hamilton. "The Local Negro Business League Elects Officers." Chattanooga Advocate [Chattanooga], 19th ed., 21 Jan 1916. Umbra Search, cdm15838.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15838coll7/id/ 197. Accessed 26 Oct. 2017. |
George Peter Newkirk stands as a rare and interesting case of a well-respected black man in the very early 1900's. As the article notes, he was 117 when he died, meaning he lived through the entirety of the 1800's; unfortunately, we have no memoirs from him. However, the fact that he was able to vote, even in a free state, was rare enough that he is remarkable.
"First African American Voter in New York State." New York Sun, 1 Mar. 1901. Hudson River Valley Heritage, www.hrvh.org/cdm/ref/collection/hhs/id/ 797. Accessed 28 Sept. 2017. |
One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—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 does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa; he does not wish to bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he believes—foolishly, perhaps, but fervently—that Negro blood has yet a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without losing the opportunity of self-development." |
Du Bois' famous essay perfectly identifies and captures the nature of the dual identity as an American and as a person of African descent. Many hoped that the end of slavery would provide black people the freedom to be a full American, but as Du Bois' shows in his essay, the opportunity for identity as an American was denied. Although written at the end of the nineteenth century, this attitude of wishing to "be both a Negro and an American" marked the feelings of the Segregation era as well as the motivation behind the Civil Rights era.
Du Bois, W. E. B. "The 'Veil' of Self- Consciousness." 1897. Civil Rights & Black Identity. The Atlantic, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/03/civil-rights-black- identity/304608/. Accessed 9 Jan. 2018. |
This is the official seal of the Niagara Movement, a black civil rights organization dating back to the early 1900's. Led by W.E.B. Du Bois, this was the first group to call for an end to racial discrimination, segregation, and disenfranchisement; their actions inspired later groups to come. However, due to internal apathy and disagreements over politics, the group fell apart in 1907, and by 1910, the group had no members left.
Official seal of the Niagara Movement. 1905. Umbra, www.umbrasearch.org/catalog/ d64509e45cbe18327570c99e9207f441780c24a3. Accessed 26 Oct. 2017. |
These "Trixy" pins were sold by D. B. Scully Syrup as advertising for molasses. While the company was based in Chicago, these pins were sold in southern states like Louisiana and Mississippi, playing off of widespread racism. Obviously, the image on the pin itself is a racial caricature, something that existed in force in the 1900's; however, the fact that a company in a northern and thus progressive state was making and shipping these buttons speaks to a much more widespread acceptance of racism.
D.B. Scully Syrup Co. Pin advertising "Trixy" brand molasses. 1954. National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu. Accessed 31 Oct. 2017. |
This street guide and ones similar to it were used all across the U.S. by realtors, police, and government officials to figure out where to develop housing and who to sell houses to. Predictably, areas marked "hazardous" were poor, nonwhite, urban areas; these areas received less funding and positive attention. These "redlined" maps were used to oppress America's black poor by racially segregating them into poor ghettos; while anybody could live anywhere in theory, the only place where a poor black American could buy a house was in areas marked "hazardous".
Redlining Map, Austin Texas. 1931. Slate.com, The Slate Group, www.slate.com/ blogs/the_vault/2014/05/30/ where_to_find_historical_redlining_maps_of_your_city.html. Accessed 2 Nov. 2017. |
"Hold on to culture racial identity." |
These quotes from the Civil Rights Movement leader/activist, W.E.B. Du Bois, address his beliefs that African Americans should maintain their sense culture because it eventually will promote validity and acceptance of black culture in American society and equality. This relates to the conversation regarding the separation of the American identity and the African or black identity since Du Bois hoped that African Americans would mix their cultural aspects with American culture, instead of completely eradicating African culture from their lives. Eventually, many learned to maintain and value their cultural uniqueness and add some American culture to influence their identity known today.
Du Bois, Dr. W.E.B. "Hold on to Culture, Racial Identity Dr. Du Bois Warns." 20 Apr. 1960. Umbra Search, credo.library.umass.edu/view/pageturn/ mums312-b150-i181/#page/1/mode/1up. Accessed 1 Nov. 2017. Letter. |
Header Citation: Wayman, Stan. Segregated Bus. 1 Apr. 1956. Slate.com, Slate Group, www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/02/ clarence_thomas_childhood_in_georgia_images_and_video_of_the_south_show.html. Accessed 14 Dec. 2017.