AP African American Studies: Unit Three: The Practice of Freedom

Full text. Recommended sections: "The New Cry," "The South's Position," "The Black and White of It," and "Self-Help"

Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States

Selections from "The Forethought," "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," "Of Alexander Crummell," and "The Afterthought"

Google Books
You will find "Legacy of Ancestral Arts" sections and "The Negro Digs Up His History" by Arturo A. Schomburg in this book.

Google Books

Google Books - preview scan includes the preface and parts of the introduction.

Check out both Southern Horrors documents and select the interface you find most useful.

Check out both formats of this source and use the interface that works best for you.

Transcript of Dr. Washington’s most famous speech - presented in Atlanta, Georgia on September 18, 1895.

Burroughs gave a speech she called, "How the Sisters are Hindered from Helping," which discussed the injustices women faced within the Black Baptist church. The speech helped to build her national reputation and create momentum for a greater role for women in the church.

McKay biography and poetry from the National Poetry Foundation

Dunbar biography and poetry from the National Poetry Foundation

James Weldon Johnson biography and poetry, lyrics from the National Poetry Foundation

Includes Hughes' essay and an introduction.

art by Lois Mailou Jones

Find Smithsonian sources for UNIT 3 here.

The series explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy, with millions of former slaves and free black people seeking out their rightful place as equal citizens under the law. Though tragically short-lived, this bold democratic experiment was, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, a ‘brief moment in the sun’ for African Americans, when they could advance, and achieve, education, exercise their right to vote, and run for and win public office.

the hidden history of a North Carolina coup

After the Civil War, the Reconstruction era brought about hope and change in the form of citizenship and equality in America. Black men were given the right to vote, and in 1870, Hiram Revels became the first African American in the U.S. Congress when he was elected to represent Mississippi in the Senate. What followed included more than 2,000 Black office holders serving at every level of America’s political system. Sadly, this progress was short-lived.

The 15th Amendment was a monumental piece of legislation that gave Black men the right to vote.

But the amendment became more notable for what it didn’t say, versus what it did. Loopholes in the law allowed for voter suppression tactics to rise, which directly hindered the advancement of Black voters’ rights and the election of Black officials.

Although the 13th Amendment passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865, the loopholes that exist continue to wreak havoc on the African-American population. To ensure the cotton industry would remain unaffected once the slaves were freed, convict leasing — a system that provides prison labor to plantation owners and private corporations — was implemented. The ramifications of this system continue to this day.

America entered a special moment where freedom rang high and many of the promises of the constitution appeared to — in some ways — allow Black people to enjoy freedom and rights that were never seen before. From running for office, to voting and purchasing land, Black families had what appeared to be a real chance at thriving.

However, by 1877, the costs became too much and white government officials began to figure out ways to work around the amendments that guaranteed Black people their freedom. With the Supreme Court on their side, many states began to roll back the rights of Black people. It would be nearly 100 years before legislation would come to pass that would protect many of the rights promised in the constitution.

As the US economy began to boom after World War II, so did the demand for alternate means of transportation. While personal car usage rose and the highway system was created, many Black people relied heavily on public transit as their primary mode of transportation day-to-day.

Jim Crow’s separate but equal not only impacted restaurants and schools, but it also led to the segregation of travel on buses. Black patrons in Winston Salem, North Carolina, frustrated with limited routes, took matters into their own hands. From jitney’s organizing, to the creation of the Safe Bus Company, Black patrons began to implement multiple options on their journey to safe travel.

In June of 1882, a 30-year-old shoemaker by the name of Homer Plessy of New Orleans led a revolution that aimed to overturn Jim Crow segregation laws.

Plessy, who was said to be 1/8 black, entered the white’s only car while on a train. When asked to move to the colored car, Plessy refused. Following his arrest, a group of citizens used his arrest to fight Jim Crow segregation laws. Facing defeat at every turn, the battle raged on all the way up to the Supreme Court in the 1896 case, Plessy v. Ferguson.

Born into slavery as Ida B. Wells in 1862, she was a pioneer of modern investigative journalism during the Reconstruction Era. After the lynching of her close friend, Thomas Moss, in 1892, Wells amplified her efforts on calling attention to the horrific treatment of black people through her investigative report, entitled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

Wells enlightened readers on the wrongful convictions and brazen treatment of black people. In response to her efforts, she routinely faced adversity. And after she was driven out of Memphis, Tenn., she pressed forward and continued to fight injustices with her pen. It was her commitment to shedding light on the injustices of African-Americans that make her an admired figure in black history.

Lynching was an action used to terrorize the black community for generations, with the first known public display of this injustice taking place in Madison, Miss. in 1835.

Investigative journalist like Ida B. Wells stood on the front lines, documenting and reporting the continued use of lynchings in society. Wells’ objective was to counter the belief that lynching was a valid means of justice. Eventually, the NAACP made it a part of its mission to see to it that lynching was put to an end.

The year was 1919, and African American soldiers who came home from the Great War in Europe with hopes that serving their country at last would entitle them to the rights of equal citizenship, found themselves on the lethal end of an outbreak of racial violence so horrific that the civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson called it The Red Summer.

Fresh off an oil-boom, the black residents of Greenwood, Okla. built a booming community known as The Negro Wall Street. But in May of 1921, that all changed. Word spread that a lynch mob of white people were heading to a courthouse to kill a black man accused of accosting a white woman in an elevator. United, the African-Americans marched, prepared to defend his innocence. The Tulsa Massacre would soon commence and later be known as one of the most egregious attacks against African-Americans.

Black women have been no stranger to organizing since America’s earliest inception. But it would be during the Reconstruction era that Black women were able to elevate their messaging and form their own group called the Women’s Club.

Focused on holding America to its founding principles, women across the country gathered to highlight injustices like lynching. The success of these meetings led to the formation of the National Association of Colored Women, where the group’s scope widened to include issues, such as voting rights, housing, and other race-related matters. Despite many male figures protesting women as they utilized their voices, the Women’s Club movement became a vital part in supporting women and their right to speak and organize.

Religion as we know it infiltrated the black community during slavery. While the objective leaned on pacifying slaves, black people rose against the negative narrative and invested in a community that would be known as the black church.

One of the pioneers of the hair care industry is an African-American woman named Sarah Breedlove. After becoming a widow at the age of 20, the pressures in her day-to-day life as a single mother led to a bad bout of hair loss in her 30s. This prompted Breedlove to find a magical cure to promote hair growth. After testing a formula made by a woman named Annie Turnbo, Breedlove remarried, changed her name to Madame C.J. Walker, and founded her own company, which launched the iconic product, Madam C.J. Walker Wonderful Hair Grower.

Black innovators and creators have a long history of studying the framework and exploring new ways of advancing modern technology. Take Lewis Latimer and Sarah Boone, for example. They are two inventors who mastered their craft and elevated their industry.

Opportunities for freed black children to further their educational journey after high school were limited. As a direct response to minimal options, black people began to seek multiple opportunities on their own in the name of higher education.

While more Black students sought formal education in a university setting, white organizations were not as open to embracing them into their space. Seeing a need, Black students formed their own fraternities and sororities aimed at creating community and celebrating key principles of success.

From writing to art, blues to jazz, a once suppressed black community greeted this newfound freedom by cultivating artistic expression in ways they were prohibited from doing before. Visionaries like Duke Ellington and Zora Neale Hurston thrived during this cultural revolution, and the Harlem Renaissance symbolized the power of the freed black mind in America.

W. E. B. Du Bois curated an exhibit at the Paris Exposition in France entitled “The Exhibit of American Negroes.” The exhibition used photographs to disrupt the negative imagery that was used to depict black Americans at the time.

Blending various styles, jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith found their star rising. But as the genre grew, many obstacles came along with it. Controversy around the genre led to the military shutting down the creative hub for good in 1917.