An analysis of the works of black playwrights since 1821 (the date of the earliest recorded play) reflects the Afro-American's concern with social revolution and his commitment to revolt. Early forms of protest in black drama revealed the desire to become active members of American society. Following a void in black playwrighting during the…

Holding enormous if controversial power as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover was sometimes controlled unexpectedly at the highest reaches of government, as illustrated by his failed attempt to obtain an Espionage Act indictment against the black press during World War II. Following anarchist bombings in 1919,…

A cultural history of the rise of black consumer magazine publishing is presented in this paper. It examines the interrelated elements in the development of shifts in the institutional support base of black magazines and shifts in the ethos or style of middle-class black life, as reflected in the magazines themselves. The paper takes as an example…

When historians of the U.S. antebellum free black community examine attitudes toward emigration, they invariably focus on hostility to the American Colonization Society (ACS). However, while many free people were deeply disturbed by the efforts of the ACS to send them to Liberia, they were ready to consider settling on Haiti. In 1818, Prince…

In early 1942, the "Pittsburgh Courier," the largest black newspaper in the United States, began its Double V campaign stressing the right of black workers to have equality at home when blacks were fighting inequality abroad. An examination of the campaign, however, reveals that it was dead by the end of the year, while substantial gains…

A study examined the conserving tendencies of the established political party press during the early stages of the antislavery movement. Eighteen partisan newspapers--from both northern and southern states--were examined for their coverage of the July 30, 1836, mob violence against James G. Birney and his Cincinnati "Philanthropist," and…

Two leading black newspapers were very outspoken during the black American's struggle for equality following the Civil War of the 1860s. The Chicago-based "Conservator" and "Appeal" actively encouraged blacks to enter the nationwide power struggle among warring interests on their own behalf, and on a cultural level they attempted to elevate the…

Through the narratives of North American slaves a vivid picture of their lives, struggles, hopes, and aspirations emerges. The slave narrative arose as a response to, and a refutation of, claims that blacks could not write. Slave writings were often direct extensions of speech. Through a process of imitation and repetition, the black slave's…

Analyses of the Brown decision often overstate its importance. For centuries before it was handed down, white Americans regarded blacks as inferior. During the time of slavery, white men (including those of apparent stature, such as Jefferson and Lincoln) felt that for some reason society could do to black people that which it could not do to any…

It is necesary to examine both historic and current events in order to understand the role of race in the United States today. The South's formerly rigid caste system has come to resemble the more flexible Northern social order, which has always been open to blacks in times of labor shortage. A number of important social and economic phenomena…

This paper argues that the ideology of equal opportunity is simultaneously a message of hope and despair, that equal opportunity is a double-edged sword both empirically and normatively. The essay is organized in three sections. The first outlines the growing role played by equal opportunity in American history, thought, and practice, and…

Sara Powell Haardt, when she is remembered at all, is remembered as the wife of the newspaperman and critic, H. L. Mencken. Educators and scholars of history, writing, and literature may find Haardt's work interesting, as it centers on the conflict between the new South and the old. She taught high school English, and then taught at Goucher…

To affirm Sojourner Truth as a powerful rhetor who advanced the equality and empowerment of women, a study examined several of her speeches on women's suffrage. Although the value of using such role models as Sojourner Truth has been demonstrated in various grade levels, and in the study of history and English, the approach is too seldom employed…

When the American Civil War ended, the southern aristocracy turned to sharecropping as a means for continuing its existence and for keeping former slaves in the fields. Tenant families during the economic depression of 1929 were forced to live in squalid conditions, and the natural antagonism between whites and blacks was exacerbated by the…

Black, Hispanic, and Chinese Americans resisted oppression in 19th century United States by maintaining a strong family unit. As second class citizens, these groups were denied rights of citizenship and protection of the law. They experienced not only economic exploitation, but political and social domination as well. Responses to cultural…