What Organizations, Ideologies, and Leaders Did Africans Create and Engage in the 20th Century to Promote and Advance Their Liberation?

The countries of South America, Africa, and Asia were under the shadow of the more powerful European and American countries before and during the World Wars. Before the wars European nations colonized other countries such as Asia, South America, and especially Africa. It was a means for European countries to advance their global power. Meanwhile, the Africans and other native people, had been treated as weak and disrespectable, hurting African, Asian, and South American pride. After WWII, the countries each tried to gain independence from their European leaders, and as they did so, some of the new leaders envisioned unity, such as the pan-African vision. The desire for unity was commonly motivated by a longing for significant world power along

Brock Farnum Powers Honors 20th Century American History (3) 20 May 2024 MLK & MX During the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were two of the most influential activists. This period was life-changing for African Americans all across the country, and it's a time in history that will never be forgotten. Most people compare MLK and MX and they say they are opposites because of their personalities. Malcolm X was viewed as an activist who would do whatever it took to reach his goal, and if violence was needed, then he would use it. In the peoples’ eyes, the opposite of Malcolm is MLK and people believe he is the opposite because he was more peaceful and wanted to reach his goals in the safest way possible.

African American leaders from the 1890s to the 1920s and from the 1950s to the 1960s had significantly different strategies, as those from the ‘90s-’20s

The fruit bore from these transcending organizations provided the core leadership and game changers that shaped the twentieth-century black experience. Such greats as W.E.B Du Bose, Booker T. Washington, Ernest E. Just, Carter G. Woodson, James Weldon Johnson, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, , Ruth Whitehead Whaley, Zora Neale Hurston, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, A. Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Dorothy Height, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, and Barbara Jordan, and Bobby Rush to name a small few.

During the early 1930’s through the mid 1960’s there were many different approaches African American’s took for achieving social changes, and the Civil rights they deserved. Many great African American leader’s such as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, and James Baldwin contributed towards the betterment of blacks living in America. Aside from individual African American leaders there was also groups that fought for black civil rights such as The Black Power Movement, Black Panthers, and Civil Rights Activist. Other events that transpired during this time period had also effected the civil rights movement in America. For instance: The altercation with Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white male ultimately led to The Montgomery Bus boycott protest,

The inconsistencies in the implementation even partly contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War (xxx, xxx). The European powers mobilized their African subjects with propaganda vilifying the racial-supremacist ideology of the Fascist powers. This set-in motion a process in which “Fascist nationalism produced the opposed reality of anti-Fascism; and anti-Fascism became antiracism; and antiracism led in due course to an end of colonization” (Davidson, 1992). The result was the erasure of European colonial rule from large swathes of the African continent within a relatively short period of time (xxx, xxx). Consequently, this led to the development of a decolonized version of the self-determination concept. The decolonization version of self-determination was based on the following three principles: i) all dependent peoples are entitled to freedom; ii) the peoples so entitled are defined in terms of the existing colonial territories, each of which contains a nation; and iii) once such a people has come to independence, no residual right of self-determination remains with any group within it or cutting across its frontiers (Emerson 1964). This version of self-determination had numerous implications. The concerned entities often did not find it necessary to demonstrate effective legitimate authority to gain and

There has been many influential figures in American History that have provided the American people with promising messages of hope and equality for all people. One of the most influential figures of the twenty century was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This time period was marked by the Civil Rights Movement, which was a movement that prompted a group of individuals to fight for the equality of African Americans. This is because “African Americans were granted better economic

Between 1870 and 1914, European countries ceased about ninety percent of Africa. Native Africans faced political, military, and imperialism pressure from various European countries. After the end of the profitable slave trade in Africa, due to abolishing of slavery, Europeans explored for new guaranteed markets, and heavily profitable investments. In addition, European countries were under industrialization, the demand for raw materials heavily increased. Europeans as well faced power struggles with one another and competition for political influence in Africa. European power struggle ultimately lead to the “Scramble for Africa.” Europeans undertook the process of imperialism in Africa in the late 19th century by exercising political, economic, and military power on their African colonies. Some African leaders and societies welcomed Europeans in hopes to protect and develop their native land. Some African leaders and societies responded to European occupation by gathering resistance groups in attempt to fight off foreign imperialists.

The political action and social reform during the late 19th and early 20th century ultimately lead to the Civil Rights movement and the end of racial segregation. The Civil Rights movement dealt with problems of inequality and disenfranchisement of African Americans that began in the post-civil war era. W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington are considered by historians, two of the prominent leaders of the black community in the late 19th and early 20th century who sought inclusion and equality through social and economic progress. While their end goals were the same, the means in which they utilized their platforms and their philosophy on how best to accomplish this varied. Among other accomplishments, DuBois’ efforts in the civil rights

I have always thought that Nelson Mandela has been one of the most important people in history. I find it very fascinating that one man could end the Apartheid and that is why I want to find out more about this. South Africa is a country with a past of enforced racism and separation of its multi-racial community. The White Europeans invaded South Africa and started a political system known as 'Apartheid' (meaning 'apartness'). This system severely restricted the rights and lifestyle of the non-White inhabitants of the country forcing them to live separately from the White Europeans. I have chosen to investigate how the Apartheid affected people’s lives, and also how and why the Apartheid system rose and fell in South Africa.

In many ways it could be argued that Marcus Garvey was the most significant African American civil rights leader of this time because of his role in tackling the social issues African American’s faced. He aimed to improve the lives of African Americans by encouraging them to take control of their own affairs and education. His role surrounding this issue is illustrated by his founding of the UNIA. This Universal Negro Improvement Association was an organisation dedicated to racial pride, economic self sufficiency and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. Through this and the magazine the ‘Negro World’ he urged African Americans to be proud of their race, and argued “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”. It has been said that through Garvey’s dedication to social improvement for his race he managed to capture the imagination of many blacks for whom the American Dream was a dirty joke.

Pan Africanism was a philosophical, economic and sociocultural call for unity between Africans and the diaspora that gained popularity in the 19th century. The aim of the movement was to resist physical and symbolic domination exerted by capitalist powers and overturn the social hierarchies established by the forces of slavery, racism, and colonialism in Africa and abroad. The idea behind including the African diaspora in Pan Africanist efforts is due not only to the common history that connects them but to a common plight rooted in the same racism experienced by Africans and people of African descent. United, African Nations would have the socio-political and economic strength to compete on the world stage and the power to redefine the narratives illustrating blackness in an Eurocentric society within a Eurocentric world. Among the black leaders that represented Pan Africanism were W.E.B DuBois and Marcus Garvey, political advocates different, and almost opposing, in their methods but similar in their belief in the need for African solidarity in order to reassert African pride and humanity from neo-colonial subjugation.

This on a certain level, caused for many Africans change their perspectives and to decrease their fear towards their colonial authorities that over time, had being representing themselves as being superior to Africans and the authority of the continent. Consequently, Africa started to develop small groups of well-educated leaders, many the beneficiaries of scholarships from the USA and the USSR. During the 1950’s these leaders came home to Africa and immediately began looking for ways to gaining independence, so they would organize African citizens into political movements and so on and so forth.

Much of the story of European colonialism in Africa puts and emphasis on the control that Europe exerted over the African people. While there was a great degree of resistance from Africans against European imperialism, this was not the only means of acclimating to Europe’s influence within Africa. Many African people adapted and accommodated with this ever increasing colonial influence. Rather than violently resisting, they worked with the colonial regimes.

The process of decolonization in Africa during the 1950’s through the 1970’s was a very smart yet risky idea. For some places independence was easily gained yet in other areas it was a battle. During the time periods where colonization existed, Africa was peaceful and kept things in order. People had control over their specific locations and there were no questions to be asked. Once it was decided to remove these rights, things got out of hand rather quickly. Violence was a main occurrence during the decolonization timeframe because rules, rights, leaderships, etc. got altered and drastically changed. Sometimes nonviolence was used but it usually wasn’t as effective. A major example of using nonviolence actions to gain independence is when