African American History 2: 1865 to the Present

N . Jackson

Professor Johnson

African American History 2

19 August 2007

The Problem of the Color Line

Throughout history we have witnessed many atrocities perpetrated by American people , but more so than the way African Americans have been treated especially in regards to the Twentieth century . The issue of race has been a persistent one , and one that seems to have defined our nation . For African Americans , this problem has been one that has shaped their very existence since the founding of America . As James Weldon Johnson put it

p because the colored man looked at everything through the prism of his relationship to society as a colored man , and because most of his mental efforts ran through the narrow channel bounded by his rights and his wrongs , it was to be wondered at that he has progressed so broadly as he has (425

That sentiment is summarily echoed by W .E .B . DuBois who first speaks of the problem

of the color line (208

It would be impossible to discuss race without at least mentioning the role that gender and class have also had , within the African American community . Just like everything from surnames to economic hardships , the African American community took a cue from White society when it came to gender . Inside these communities women were (and I would argue still are ) being treated as second class citizens within a second class society . Even in a race already being torn apart , African American women were further demoralized by their places in an already displaced society . The only real role gender and class served within the African American community was to further divide an already splintered segment of society . This can even be seen throughout much of the literature for this . All the pronouns are masculine and everything is assumed male or man . From the hardships to the potential successes , the presence of women is almost non-existent

Throughout the century , examples can be seen of how these ideas shaped the lives of African Americans , most notably beginning with the issue of class . Johnson points out that during a visit to Jacksonville he notices three distinct classes of Blacks . What 's interesting about his observations is that although these classes are divided up by their relation to Whites , these class divides seem to have also taken hold in the African American communities (426

Economic hardship has arguably been just as persistent a theme as racism for African Americans over the last century . From the moment African Americans set their first reluctant foot on American soil , their reality has been a harsh one . So wrought with economic hardship , most African Americans had to rely on resources mostly within their own communities for survival . They were forced to build their own institutions and populate them just as the Whites had done (Harrold 120

Over the years , especially during the Civil Rights Movement African Americans banned together through many different social change organizations to force a change in the previously accepted norms...