Assignment:
Select ONE (1) of the following questions to answer. Make sure to incorporate evidence from readings to support your argument:
1. Texts and documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement often focus on the post-World War II era as a starting point. But these activities neglect or obscure a much longer tradition of civil rights activism within the African American community. How do this week's readings on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) challenge a 1950s start date to the movement often found in traditional narratives? Discuss at least three (3) ways in which the NAACP fought for civil rights in the era prior to World War II. Why is it important to include this early history of the movement?
2. The Great Migration, which began during the opening decades of the 20th century, marked a huge shift in African American life and culture. When examining migration, it is helpful to think of the push and pull factors that motivate someone to move. Push factors are those things that force a person to move from a certain location either voluntarily or involuntarily. Meanwhile, pull factors are those things that draw a migrant to a specific location. Looking at the readings for this week, what were at least two (2) push factors and two (2) pull factors (at least 4 in total) that were part of the Great Migration? Draw specific examples of push and pull factors from this week's readings, including items found within the timeline covering the period from 1900 to 1935. Last, do you think these push and pull factors still apply today when looking at the reasons for black migration and immigration?
FEEDBACK FROM PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS
Thank you for your participation. Below you will find a few comments that will help with improving your posts and raising your scores in the future:
1. Make sure that you are using course readings first before consulting outside sources. These readings are required reading by all students in the course and the weekly discussion questions offer you the opportunity to display your comprehension of these readings.
2. Good engagement with your peers, but continue to work on expanding those posts using the tips provided during.
3. Be careful of making generalizations that are not supported by evidence and that are in fact inaccurate. A number of these generalizations can be found in your posts. For example, you note in one of your posts that "[b]lack people were poorer than the whites."
This could be true in some places at some times, but this was not necessarily true at all times, particularly in the earliest days of settlement when indentured servants, black and white, worked alongside each other and occupied similar a social/class status in society.
Introduction:
This course turns towards the early 20th century. This time period is a fascinating one to cover due to the rapid expansion of new organizations and cultural developments in African American life. Over a span of three decades, major organizations such as the National Association for Colored Women's Clubs (1896), the National Negro Business League (1900), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909), the National Urban League (1910), the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1914), the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925), and the National Council of Negro Women (1935) were created and flourished. These organizations were national in scope and worked on civil rights, social welfare, business, labor rights, and community organizing issues. They helped to provide an important foundation and network for African Americans in the decades to come.
At the same time, African Americans began migrating in large numbers from former slave plantations to urban areas in the South, Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast. The migration was spurred in part by the threat of racial violence, but the promise of jobs that paid better wages and the possibility of owning land drew them away as well. By the 1920s and 1930s, this migration led to the development of new Black communities in cities such as New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Detroit. It also led to what Howard University professor Alain Locke called the New Negro Movement in which hundreds of plays, literature, artwork, music, fashion and other creative forms of expression were produced. The most visible manifestation of this movement was known as the Harlem Renaissance, but it should be noted that cities such as Chicago and Washington, DC experienced their own "Negro Renaissance" cultures.
This resources provide a broad introduction to some of these themes. Your instructor will advise you as to which resources are required for this week. Please note that the description of the course resources in some places may refer to "your paper." This is not applicable in this course unless your instructor specifically states otherwise.
• African-American History Timeline
• Ferris State University: Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia
• NPR: Great Migration: The Africa-American Exodus North
• The Niagara Movement and the NAACP: Growing Legal and Social Power
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): 100 Years of History
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: The Crisis Magazine
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: Birth of a Nation and Black Protest
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: Charles Hamilton Houston
• The Harlem Renaissance - 1919-1940
• Harlem Renaissance
• Plays and Opera: Mixing White and Black Cultures and Caricatures