Transcript The Black Experience Black Americans in 1920’s USA

The Black Experience
Black Americans in 1920’s
USA
Plymstock School History
Department
Listen to this piece of music
What do you think it is about?
Black Americans
At the turn of the Twentieth Century
the United States of America was
considered to be the ‘Land of the Free’.
Millions of immigrants moved to the
country from all over the world to start
their lives again.
In this lesson we will see if the earlier
black immigrants to America shared in
the same hopes and had the same
chances as these later arrivals.
Aims:
How were Black Americans
treated in the USA?
What was/is the legacy of
slavery?
How did the USA portray
itself to outsiders?
Put this as a title
Q. What is this Statue called?
Q. With this symbol, how would you
expect Black Americans to be treated
in the USA?
‘We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal
before God’
Declaration of Independence 1776
Q. With this opening statement to the most important
document in the USA, how would you expect Black
Americans to be treated?
‘A nation conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal before
God’
The Gettysburg Address 1863 – Ending Slavery in the USA
Q. With this statement, ending
slavery in the USA, how would you
expect Black Americans to be
treated by the Twentieth
Century?
The Signing of the Declaration
of Independence - 1776
Q. What observations can
you make about the group?
The Reality
•The year the Statue of Liberty was built, 300 Black
Americans were lynched, whilst thousands more lived
with laws that persecuted them for their colour.
•The Declaration of Independence states later in its
text that ‘all men’ excludes women and that slaves
are equal to one sixth of a white men.
•The Declaration of Independence was written by
white men, for white men. All the signatories were
slave owners.
•The Gettysburg address ended slavery on paper, but
failed to change the minds of many whites.
Listen to this piece of music
again
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the
root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern
breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar
trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant
south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted
mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and
fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning
flesh.
Here is fruit for the
crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather,
for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for
the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and
bitter crop.
Jim Crow Laws
Because slavery was abolished
many states in the southern
states of America introduced
local laws which kept the blacks
as second class citizens. These
were called Jim Crow Laws.
Jim Crow Laws
These rules of etiquette were written down in the 1880’sas
guidance for Black Americans and Whites.
Never assert or even intimate that a White person is lying.
Never impute dishonourable intentions to a White person.
Never suggest that a White person is from an inferior class.
Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or
intelligence.
Never curse a White person.
Never laugh derisively at a White person.
Never comment upon the appearance of a White female.
Which of the following are
true. Put the heading ‘Jim
Crow’ & list the numbers you
think are true: 1 – 14.
o
Barbers. No coloured barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women
o
Blind Wards. The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on
separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons
of the coloured or black race
Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any coloured
o
persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons
o
Buses. All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation
company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for
the white and coloured races
o
Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white
person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of
guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such
white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a
Negro
o
o
Education. The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children
shall be conducted separately
Libraries. The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place
for the use of the coloured people who may come to the library for the purpose of
reading books or periodicals
o
Mental Hospitals. The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct
apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white
persons be together
o
Militia. The white and coloured militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall
never be compelled to serve in the same organisation. No organisation of coloured
troops shall be permitted where white troops are available and where whites are
permitted to be organised, coloured troops shall be under the command of white
officers (
o
Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse
in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed
o
o
Prisons. The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate
apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts
Reform Schools. The children of white and colored races committed to the
houses of reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other (Kentucky).
o
Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution
where members of the white and coloured race are received and enrolled as pupils for
instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon conviction thereof,
shall be fined...
Wine and Beer. All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or
wine...shall serve either white people exclusively or coloured people exclusively and
shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time
The last recorded lynching
(illegal hanging of a black
person) was in 1962.
"I Have A Dream"
by Martin Luther King, Jr,
Delivered on the steps at
the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington D.C. on August
28, 1963.
How is Americas Black
population still suffering in
the 1960’s?
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic
shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This
momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to
millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of
withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the
long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must
face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled
by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One
hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in
the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years
later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society
and finds himself an exile in his own land.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident:
that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the
red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former
slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of
brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of
Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I
have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content
of their character. I have a dream today.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with
a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of
thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride,
from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a
great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the
prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the
mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening
Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snow-capped
Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of
California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of
Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let
freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From
every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and
every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to
speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white
men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last!
free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Tupac Shakur
‘The Way it Is…’
1990
I see no changes I wake up in the morning and I ask myself
Is life worth living or should I blast myself I'm tired of
being poor and even worse I'm black My stomach hurts so
I'm looking for a purse to snatch Cops give a damn about a
negro Pull a trigger kill a nigga he's a hero Givin' crack to
the kids who the hell cares One less hungry mouth on the
welfare Worship dope let 'em deal the brotha's Give 'em
guns step back watch them kill each other It's time to fight
back that's what Hewie said 2 shots in the dark now
Hewie's dead I got love for my brotha But we could never
go nowhere unless we share with each other We gotta start
making changes Learn to see me as a brotha instead of 2
distant strangers And that's how it's supposed to be
How can anotha' take a brotha' if he's close to me I love
to go back to when we played as kids But things changed that's the way it is Chorus: That's just the way it is Things
will never be the same That's just the way it is Oh yeah
That's just the way it is Things will never be the same
That's just the way it is Oh yeah I see no changes All I
see is racist faces Misplaced hate makes disgraced the
races We under I wonder what it takes to make this One
better place let's erase the wasted Take the evil out the
people they'll be acting right Cause both black and white
are smokin' crack tonight And the only time we chill is when
we kill each other It takes skill to be real, time to heal
each other And I know it seems evident we aint ready To
see a black president It ain't a secret don't conceal the
facts up penitentiary back And it's filled with blacks But
some things will never change
Try to show another way, but you're staying in the dope game Now tell me
what's a mother to do Being real to the deal to the brotha in you You gotta
operate the easy way "I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way
Selling crack to the kids "I gotta get paid" Well hey Well that's the way it is
Chorus We gotta make a change It's time for us as a people to start making
some changes Let's change the way we eat Let's change the way we live And
let's change the way we treat each other You see the old way wasn't working
so it's on Us to do what we gotta do...to survive And still I see no changes
Can't a brotha get a little peace, it's war in the Streets and the war in the
middle east Instead of war on the poverty, they got a war On drugs so the
police can bother me And I ain't never did a crime I ain't had to do But now
I'm back with the facts giving it back to you Don't let them jack you up, back
you up, crack you up, And pimp slap you up You gotta learn to hold your own
They gettin' jealous when they see you with your mobile phone But tell the
cops they can't touch this I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this
That's the sound of my 2 But they say it and cool And my momma didn't raise
no fool And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped And I never get to
lay back Cause I always gotta worry about the payback Something rough that I
roughed up way back Coming back after all those years Ratta tat tat tat tat
That's the way it is Chorus Some things never change
Study the words of Martin
Luther Kings (1960) speech and
the lyrics of Tupac’s song
(1990).
Highlight the text to identify
ways in which the black
population of America have and
continue to suffer.
Write a paragraph summarising
your notes
‘From my note I can see the
following things…’