African Americans And African American History

The Negro Digs Up His Past by Arthur Schomburg is an article he wrote in 1925, in which he complaint that somehow through the years African American history has been questioned and denied as many claim that Africans have no history at all. He uses this paper to illustrate the importance of recording the collective accomplishments of African Americans and that we must at all costs save any evidence, so that things like this do not happen again in the future. He wants to make sure to leave no place for doubts that African Americans have a history and is irrefutable in the eyes of skeptics and the world. According to Schomburg, “Though it is orthodox to think of America as the one country where it is unnecessary to have a past, what is luxury for the nation as a whole becomes a prime social necessity for the Negro(Schomburg 231).” He emphasizes that blacks have to dig deep into their own history in order to hold their own against the current oppression. He wants to set the record straight and restore the history that was omitted, the history that was denied to them, a history that has somehow been stolen from them forever.

African Americans have endured many trials and tribulations over the centuries. Our people have suffered from war, violence, and anguish simply because of the color of our skin. Our history has been so blatantly missing from textbooks and the K-12th grade educational atmosphere. Our educational system continues to neglect the history of our African American ancestors and fail to provide them with the educational resources to inform them of our past and allow them to learn about the true origins of our culture. We have made many significant contributions to the world but those have also been highly ignored as well.

Over the course of this semester, I was introduced to many people, ideas, writings, and discussions that sparked my interest and enlightened me on African American history. However, I feel like this was just the beginning of my journey of learning the history of my people, as there is still so much out there to be brought to the surface. Prior to taking this course, I was always ignorant on the topic of African American history and simply made the connection to slavery. Additionally, I was unaware of other black activist, movements, and struggles that I had the chance to witness for the first time in this class. I came to a realization of how deprived of this information I was, because other historic events have been deemed more important. A quote that stuck with me throughout the course that was made by Arthur Schomburg was, “... African history and negro history, are the missing pages of world history”.

People have never moved on from the past. They still think of the past generation where blacks experienced slavery from white people. This is one thing that African-American people cannot forget about. This slavery made a barrier that until this generation racism is still an issue. Before,

African-Americans have suffered the greatest indignity in the history of the humankind. Millions of African-Americans were enslaved throughout the United States from the Colonial Era until the end Civil War during which they were brutalized, murdered, kidnapped, raped, and deprived of their natural rights. Meanwhile, African-Americans have fought in every single war to secure America’s

The mission of the students around the country who fought for an education that would shed light on African Americans. The progress the students created is seen today in American Universities ,and also HBCUs, where (AAS)African American Studies is implemented into the curriculum. Before, the dissection the formation of AAS, it should be noted that without the sacrifice from others I undoubtedly would not be writing about AAS ,or reflecting on the significance it has created for generations so far.

In "The Negro Digs Up His Past", Arturo Schomburg attempted to take up the deep study of the African Americans’ history to display their past more closely and respond the statements that they have no past. He realized the necessity for the present generation to repair the history that was damaged by the slavery. Schomburg noted that “there is the definite desire and determination to have a history, well-documented, widely known......as a stimulating and inspiring tradition for the coming generation” (670). I think what Schomburg tended to do was to introduce the other side of the black people’s history--the splendid past and remarkable achievements, and reminded people to view their past objectively rather than focusing on the enslaved part. I totally agree with what Schomburg said, because every nation or race has its unique history and deserves to be treated fairly. From the reading material, I can see that the black people have lots of achievements they can proud of. What they should do currently is to repair their history and enable people to know a more complete one.

Although each of the objects found within the image represents some of the struggles that were encountered by African-Americans, everyone that is included within the image helps us understand the perspective of those who dealt with the issue of slavery. The figure on the left is a depiction of an Irish-American who lived in New York during the 1860’s. Although the man lived in New York, he was an immigrant and therefore couldn’t make much money. This fact helps explain why he is depicted as wearing clothes that were commonly associated with the working-class. During this time, there was also a stigma against Irish-Catholics throughout the United States due to the fact that vast amounts of them immigrated to the United States following the

Despite the large amount of stereotypes and disdain held for black people, being African American is something that I have become extremely proud of. My deep seeded pride stems from the accomplishments of my ancestors and the immense amount of responsibility placed on my shoulders as a black person. As a people, African Americans have endured and persevered through a large part of history where they have been mistreated and exploited by others countries. Therefore, when I look back at the lives of my ancestors, I am humbled, as I see the enormous amount of perseverance and fortitude needed to get through through the times they lived through. Moreover, I am astonished when I look at their accomplishments such as the White House, the Washington

African Americans voices were pushed down and lost throughout history, because no one thought their opinions were valuable. Although it is important to listen to these voices because by the first amendment of the constitution everyone has the right to speak out their perspective and opinion. The consequence that we will face if we choose to shut out these voices is to not bettering our world by only looking at one perspective. Leading the country by looking at only one person perspective is selfish; and the United States isn’t an authoritarian government. So by looking at multiple perspectives we can seek out great rights and laws to better the society. This topic of slavery associates with my opinion today, because there is always a recurrence

1.) In chapter 1, Black women slaves were defined as either a “jezebel” or “mammy”. In detail define the characteristics of a “jezebel” and “mammy”. Why were black women defined in these two extreme ways? By contrast, how were Southern white women characterized?

I felt these two historians and their writings were a great end to the readings of the semester. It not only summed up the history of the time but also the means some Africans were taking to combat the false assumptions about Africans that had been held against them throughout history. These authors have collected any writing on the history of African Americans and used it to show the history, influence and great civilizations they have had in the past. They were attempting, through there research to find thier history to promote the idea of equality between the races.

I grew up only learning about Black/African history through a European perspective. I was only taught about slavery on from the White perspectives. They did not really about the all the resistance that was put during slavery. Even in our history book it, did not go into full detail about resistance that happen during slavery. It only talked about the ones that was more recognized on a national level then the small revolts on the plantations. Taking this class, I learned more about Black/African history than what was taught throughout my life. I now realized that Blacks contribute more to history than Whites have ever did. It makes me want more about Black/African history because I feel an injustice had been done with the history book we have

The African American experience is one that is quite different from other racial/ ethnic groups. The majority of the first African American came over, unwillingly, on ships from various African countries. They were brought to America by white, European settlers to be used as slaves in an order to plant and harvest their crops and make money for the white man. This racial group was treated as if they were property and not people. However, with the ending of the American Civil War, African Americans gained freedom, freedom that not all white American were quite ready to handle. After gaining their freedom came the need for education, jobs and suffrage rights. Now in America this racial group has come a long way, having elected its first African American present for two terms, yet still there are many issues that are very prevalent. This racial group has been fighting their way to equality since the birth of this nation. African Americans have experienced an array of conflict, violence, stereotypes, prejudice acts, and discrimination against them throughout their history in America.

In the past history, African Americans were slaves and were looked at and thought of as less important than whites. Still today