Upon these Shores: Themes in the African-American Experience, 1600 to the Present

375 Pages·2013·4.299 MB·English

by  William R. Scott & William G. Shade

Upon These Shores
2
Upon These Shores
THEMES IN THE
AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
1600 TO THE PRESENT
Edited by
William R. Scott & William G. Shade
3
Published in 2000 by
Routledge
711 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Published in Great Britain by
Routlege
2 Park Square, Milton Park
Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Copyright © 2000 by Routledge
Design: Jack Donner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.
Library of Congress cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scott, William R. (William Randolph), 1940–
Upon these shores : themes in the African-American experience, 1600 to the presen / William R. Scott and William G.
Shade.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–415–92406–5
ISBN 0–415–92407–2 (pbk.)
1. Afro-Americans—History. 2. Afro-Americans—Histroriography.
I. Shade, William G. II. Title.
E185.S416 2000
973’.0496073—dc21
99–034688
4
To the students and staff
of the
United Negro College Fund
and
Andrew W. Mellon Minority Fellows Program
5
… voyage through death
to life upon these shores.
—From “Middle Passage”
by Robert Hayden
6
contents
Foreword
William H. Gray III
Chronology of African-American History
Introduction
The Long Rugged Road
William R. Scott and William G. Shade
part 1. out of africa
1. Africa, the Slave Trade, and the Diaspora
Joseph C. Miller
part 2. this “peculiar institution”
2. Creating a Biracial Society, 1619–1720
Jean R. Soderlund
3. Africans in Eighteenth-Century North America
Peter H. Wood
4. In Search of Freedom
Slave Life in the Antebellum South
Norrece T. Jones Jr.
5. “Though We Are Not Slaves, We Are Not Free”
Quasi-Free Blacks in Antebellum America
William G. Shade
part 3. the reconstruction and beyond
6. Full of Faith, Full of Hope
The African-American Experience from Emancipation to Segregation
Armstead L. Robinson
7. Blacks in the Economy from Reconstruction to World War I
Gerald D. Jaynes
8. In Search of the Promised Land
Black Migration and Urbanization, 1900–1940
Carole C. Marks
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9. From Booker T. to Malcolm X
Black Political Thought, 1895-1965
Wilson J. Moses
10. Rights, Power, and Equality
The Modern Civil Rights Movement
Edward P. Morgan
part 4. african-american identity and culture
11. The Sounds of Blackness
African-American Music
Waldo F. Martin Jr.
12. Black Voices
Themes in African-American Literature
Gerald Early
13. Black Religious Traditions
Sacred and Secular Themes
Gayraud S. Wilmore
part 5. family, class, and gender
14. African-American Family Life in Societal Context
Crisis and Hope
Walter R. Allen
15. From Black Bourgeoisie to African-American Middle Class, 1957 to the Present
Robert Gregg
16. The New Underclass
Concentrated Black Poverty in the Postindustrial City
John F. Bauman
17. Black Feminism in the United States
Beverly Guy-Sheftan
part 6. the postwar agenda
18. African Americans and Education since the Brown Decisions
A Contextual View
Stephen N. Butler
19. After the Movement
African Americans and Civil Rights since 1970
Donald G. Nieman
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20. The Quest for Black Equity
African-American Politics since the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Lawrence J. Hanks
21. Black Internationalism
African Americans and Foreign Policy Activism
William R. Scott
Afterword
The Future of African Americans
Charles V: Hamilton
Notes on Contributors
9
Foreword
William H. Gray III
I T GIVES ME GREAT PLEASURE to write this foreword to an important I and timely book on
Americans of African descent. This anthology on I various aspects of the black
experience, past and present, appears toward the end of an era of enormous change in
the status of America’s largest racial minority. The essays in this collection are informed by a
deep sense of the long journey our people have traveled since being forcibly brought to these
shores in chains. It is fitting that this book should appear at the end of the twentieth century
because these are both triumphant and troublesome times for black Americans. We must
pause at this point and reflect on both our trials and our triumphs and how we must confront
remaining challenges.
As we try to judge the position of African Americans in today’s world and look toward
reaching the goal of a truly color-blind society, we must begin with a clear view of the
vibrant history of the African-American community and the diversity of African-American
experience. When one looks at the images of black America carried around the globe by the
miracle of television, it is easy to forget that these powerful images fail to represent the lives
of the vast majority of African Americans and consequently who we really are.
During my lifetime legal segregation has ended and wide areas of opportunity have
opened. In the last twenty-five years, for instance, African Americans gained far greater equal
access to education. The result was more equitable opportunities in kindergarten, in
elementary school, in junior high and high school that permitted considerably larger numbers
of African Americans to earn college degrees. Yet in numerous ways, both large and small,
white racism remains to constrict the aspirations of black Americans and cast a shadow on
the American dream. The combination of economic and educational deprivation has had
devastating consequences for African Americans— consequences that can’t be erased in a
few decades.
But we have come a mighty long way in the half century since I was born. I can remember
having to ride in the back of the bus. I can remember drinking from a “colored” water
fountain. But when I recall the past, I marvel at how far we’ve come. Think: in the year I was
born, more than 90 percent of all African Americans were living below the poverty line. As
this decade began that level was about one-third. But that is still too high, particulary when
the national average is less than 15 percent. We still have a long way to go.
African Americans make up 10 percent of the workforce—but comprise only 2 percent of
the scientists and engineers. African-American seventeen years olds read, on average, at the
level of white thirteen year olds. While African-Americans’ scores on the college board
exams went up 45 points in the 1980s, the total number earning bachelor’s degrees fell 8
percent. The reason is no mystery. In the 1980s the cost of higher education increased 50
percent, but spending on support of education, at least at the federal level, decreased 50
percent. And African-American families, whose assets average a tenth of that of white
families, simply can’t afford to send their children to college without help.
Fortunately, the 1990s witnessed new and sustained growth in the black student
population. African Americans continued to improve their SAT scores, and the gap between
the scores of white students and black students narrowed considerably. In the first half of the
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