Vivian Gordan, first African American librarian in the Chicago Public Library system and a significant contributor to Chicago's Black Renaissance (Garner, 2011), defines African American or Black Studies as, “an analysis of the factors and conditions which have affected the economic, psychological, legal and moral status of the African in America as well as the African in diaspora” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 4). She continues to explain, “Not only is Black Studies concerned with the culture of the Afro-American ethnic, as historically and sociologically defined by the traditional literature, it is also concerned with the development of new approaches to the study of the Black experience and with the development of social policies which will impact positively upon the lives of Black people” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 4). Following the 1960s, the field of study was established in schools, colleges, and universities all around the United States.
The Atlantic slave trade affected the political and economic destinies of millions of people and of many countries other than the United States (Anderson, 2007, pg. 5). The Atlantic slave trade was a system founded on human cruelty and exploitation motivated by economic greed, social deviance, and psychological and moral turpitude. As the Europeans voyaged to the “New World,” they stole Africans from their native home to work for free as slaves. Europeans robbed Africans of their families, homes, and culture. Ironically, as the Europeans willingly voyaged to the Americas for freedom, Blacks were forced to accompany them as their slaves. Introduction To African American Studies described the captured African’s voyage to the Americas:
On the voyage to the New World, Blacks were packed like sardines below the main deck of the slave vessels and chained together by their legs, wrists, or necks. Sickness and epidemics often afflicted the enslaved Africans cargo and crew. Extreme heat compounded the foulness of the air. Naked men and women lay for hours and days in their own defecation, blood, and mucus, which covered the floors. Thousands committed suicide or died from harsh and cruel treatment and punishment. Resistance, revolt, and mutiny were not uncommon, and thousands died in such attempts (Anderson, 2007, pg. 52).
“The overwhelming majority of... immigrants groups came to America in pursuit of political freedom and economic opportunity, the African presence in America, in contrast, was based on economic exploitation and the denial of freedom” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 1).
Europeans originally came to Africa with prejudices against the Africans and their culture. The word and color “Black” was associated with negative qualities (Adeleke, 1997, pg. 3). This idea has been supported through European history and folklore. “Black connotes that which is soiled, dirty, foul, horrible, wicked, evil, or bad” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 2). The image below explains the color black in relation to the psychology of the color according to “Color Wheel Pro.”
“The liberation and civil rights struggle of African Americans have received international attention and have served as models for parallel struggles by other oppressed populations” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 5-6). Beginning in the 1940s, Blacks began to rightfully fight from their freedom. “Attempts to debunk Eurocentric views of Africa did not begin until free blacks who struggles to break through the shackles of slavery, and became educated, began to write and publish accounts of their history and experience in Africa and the new world” (Adeleke, 1997, pg. 4). Critical leaders of the movement include George Washington Williams, William Wells Brown, Martin R. Delany, and James W.C. Pennington. When the Civil Rights Movement began in the 1960s, the process of educating the public intensified.
Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton state in Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, “Black people must redefine themselves, and only they can do that.” The creation of African American Studies is detrimental in order to educate our nation about the culture of African Americans and how they have affected the political, social, and economic conditions of the United States and the world.
Anderson, Talmadge & Stewart, James. 2007.
Introduction to African American Studies: Transnational Approaches and
Implications. Baltimore: Black Classic Press.
Adeleke, Tunde. 1997. "The African Background" In The
African Americans: Their History, edited by Howard Jones. Thompson Learning
Custom Publishing, pp. 3-20.
Color Wheel Pro. Black. 2014. Retrieved from
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.htm
Garner, Carla. 2011. Harsh, Vivian Gordon
(1890-1960). Retrieved from http://www.blackpast.org/aah/harsh-vivian-gordon-1890-1960#sthash.8STvyX5L.dpuf
Images retrieved from:
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