A Tribe of the Middle Passage

Many of us know about Jim Crow laws and how they were the way that white people in the south could best oppress the people of color in the south after the Civil War. The Jim Crow laws that hindered the 15th Amendment such as poll tax are common knowledge but after doing some research there are some that are even more crazy than that and can only be described as downright ridiculous. In Georgia if you wanted to open a restaurant you had to decide if you wanted to be open to black or white customers, you couldn’t serve both.

The attitudes of white people towards black people at this time is almost unimaginable how they could be so cruel. The time they took to make these ridiculous laws that had absurd repercussions far outweigh the benefit they could have which was none. In Kentucky blacks and whites couldn’t consume alcohol at the same location and the punishment was up to two years in jail, which was likely only for black people.

Jim Crow laws were prevalent in the south but existed in all states even the most liberal northern states and cities like Chicago discriminated against black people in housing for example. After the civil war, as corrupt as it is, white people used politics to continue to oppress black people in America.

February 7, 1942, was a day that changed America. Segregation and discrimination had reached a point that was no longer tolerable, and according to the Pittsburgh Courier, it was time for a campaign. The “Double V Campaign,” as it was called, stood for two victories for black Americans: a victory at home and a victory abroad.

This campaign was orchestrated by the Pittsburgh Courier, a weekly black newspaper that helped influence public opinion among black Americans. According to the Courier‘s February 14^th headline, “The Courier’s Double ‘V’ for a double victory campaign gets country-wide support.” This support showed that black America was tired of being oppressed and ready for change. The Double V campaign helped tremendously the plight of black Americans. Blacks everywhere were discriminated against based on their color, and the armed forces at this time was no exception. If blacks were allowed entrance into the army, they were only given menial jobs such as cooks or stewards. The Double V campaign called for integration and for the possibility of fighting for freedom everywhere. The Courierwent on to say in its’ February 14^th article, “We, as colored Americans are determined to protect our country, our form of government and the freedoms which we cherish for ourselves and the rest of the world, therefore we have adopted the Double ‘V’ war cry—victory over our enemies at home and victory over our enemies on the battlefields abroad. Thus in our fight for freedom we wage a two-pronged attack against our enslavers at home and those abroad who will enslave us. WE HAVE A STAKE IN THIS FIGHT…WE ARE AMERICANS, TOO!” Not only did the campaign gather blacks together in support of racial equality, but afforded them the opportunity to feel part of a bigger struggle for freedom everywhere. The shared struggles of black America were also felt by black service men in the armed forces. According to Lawrence P. Scott, a black airman in the 99th, and an eventual Tuskegee Airman, “every man in the 99th was aware that the success of the 99th would impact the status of blacks in the Army Air Force and the army as a whole and that each man performed his job as if the race depended on him.” The Pittsburgh Courier helped spread the word and bring African Americans together and fight for their rights after everything they have sacrificed to serve their country and be equal on the home-front.

One of the best novels I have ever read is a memoir by Melba Pattillo Beals called Warriors Don’t Cry. The book focuses mainly on her time as a member of the Little Rock Nine and trying to integrate Central High School. In September of 1957 nine unsuspecting high schoolers went to their first day of high school; naive to the horrors and hardships that would follow. The nine students were allowed to enroll in the 1,900 all white student school after the Brown v Board 1954 supreme court case that set a precedent outlawing segregation in schools. Governor of Arkansas Orval Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to accompany the crowd of hostile white people who blocked the black students from the school on the first day. After three weeks on September, 25 1957 President Eisenhower mobilized U.S. troops to help escort the black students into school. To show how serious he was Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne. The 101st Airborne division is an elite division in the U.S. Army and is regarded as the most potent and tactically mobile Army division. The Little Rock Nine braved the gauntlet of hatred that was the white students of Central High School everyday. They were taunted, assaulted and kept apart in classes so they couldn’t vouch for one another. Yet, these students finished the year despite all the odds stacked against them. The nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their actions years later by President Clinton.

During the time Kathleen Cleaver came to talk to us about the Black Panther movement, she mentioned a lot of different people who had a great impact at the time of the movement. She talked about Aldridge Cleaver, who was one of the leaders, her husband and the father of her children. She included Bobby Hutton who was also one of the first men to be recruited into the movement. When describing Bobby, she talked about how quiet he was and that he didn’t want the things he did to be publicized for the media to be asking him too many questions. Ms. Cleaver included some stories involving shootouts between members and the police, how people would tell on the group members that were hiding, and also the role different women had in the group.

After hearing these stories, it surprised me that she still remembered everything just like it was yesterday. After a while, someone asked her how she felt about “The New Black Panther” and she they were illegitimate. She said that with power, because she believed they were just copying the name but wasn’t doing the things The Original Black Panther was doing for the black community. Overall, it was a good discussion and I would recommend her to comeback and speak again.

I found Du Bois’s article “African Roots of War” to be very interesting because it makes you think about the domino effect that sometimes occurs in history that gets skimmed over easily. The idea that the scramble for Africa and the rush to harvest the continent’s natural resources was one of the leading causes for the spread of colonialism is an idea that I never really thought about. When I was taught WWI in high school, we mostly focused on the problems between the European superpowers, but never really how these problems were grown. The scramble for Africa was taught, but not in the same context. We were taught how it was bad for the Africans at the time, but not on a larger scale. I think that this idea probably gets glossed over a lot because we still don’t think of African history as relevant to the rest of the world, and we still see it as just an area to grab resources from. The idea that the source of a major conflict can be traced back to an event at the beginning of the century is fascinating to me because it creates the sense that much of history is connected in some way, and that every world event can have a lasting impact on the future.