Friday, December 28, 2012

Quilts


This is the quilt that my mother made for me in about 2007.

This is the same quilt, same view but landscape rather than portrait orientation.

This shows the back (which is flannel) and the border.
 
New quilt made in 2012. This one is larger than the other.

This shows the back (which is not flannel) and the lack of border. Even though I have discovered I prefer flannel backing (because it stays put better and doesn't slide off the bed), it's big enough that it still works. I like borders as well but this is quite alright without.
 

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Traditions

I wanted to tell you a bit about traditions. Two years ago, Daniel thought it would be nice to start a new one. In order to make my life easier, he would make Christmas breakfast. The thing he would make would be apple crepes. He'd watched me making them and had helped make them and wanted to do a trial run before Christmas. This happened on December 10, 2010. I am not sure if I have pictures of him making the actual Christmas crepes but I do of the trial run.

Check back over the next few days because I have to figure out how to get the pictures here. It might necessitate waiting for copies to come in the mail. Come they will, however, and once they do, they will be here.

They have arrived! Here they are:

Joseph doing the best part: eating!

Cedric was in charge of the filling. Daniel was making the outside. While he thought I should take pictures, this isn't one of the ones he endorsed.

Joseph liked having his picture taken. It's amazing the difference two years makes (in his looks, not the fact that he liked his picture to be taken).

In Daniel's opinion, this one was okay.

Seth examining something on the table. Maybe some food? Joseph being himself.

I love this picture of Seth.

This was one that Daniel thought we should get. He said something like: "You should get a picture of this, Mom."

Amena powdered sugaring the finished product.

Daniel examining the underside to be sure it was ready.
It was a short-lived tradition, lasting only one year, but it was good while it lasted. I hope everyone is able to build good traditions because they are some of the best memory makers.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Cedric's Ship


I hope you can see this well enough to make out some of the detail. This is a pilgrim ship; you can tell by the lack of guns and cannon.


Sunday, December 16, 2012

Thoughts on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings


I thought I might throw some thoughts out about the shootings at the school in Connecticut. It’s tragic. I think of us, and how much we miss Daniel, and I think of the many families and how much they now miss their loved ones and I just want to (and sometimes do) cry.

The man who did this deserves to have his name blotted out so that no one will remember him. Earlier today, I saw a quote on Facebook that was attributed to Morgan Freeman. After doing a little research, it appears that he did not in fact say this but I like the sentiment so much that I’m going to copy it here.

"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.

“It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

 “CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

 “You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."

I do not know who really said it. I know that this has once again brought up gun control and I do not agree that stricter control of fire arms would or could have prevented it. I said on Facebook that I would feel better if someone at the school my children attend knew how to use and had a gun in the unlikely event that some idiot shows up with similar intent. It is true. Having stricter gun control laws will not make me feel safer. Having a gun and knowing how to properly use it would.

I know that it is tragic to lose a child, to lose a family member. According to CNN, here is a list of those killed: Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47, the Sandy Hook Elementary (SHE) School principal, she has a husband, two daughters and three stepdaughters; Mary Sherlach, 56, SHE school psychologist, she has a husband and two grown daughters; Lauren Rousseau, 30, a permanent substitute teacher at SHE; Victoria Soto, 27, SHE 1st grade teacher, has no children but does have a dog and they grieve, too; Olivia Engel, 6; Emilie Parker, 6; Rachel Davino, 29; Anne Marie Murphy, 25; Charlotte Bacon, 6; Daniel Barden, 7; Josephine Gay, 7; Ana Marquez-Greene, 6; Dylan Hockley, 6; Madeleine Hsu, 6; Catherine Hubbard, 6; Chase Kowalski, 7; Jesse Lewis, 6; James Mattioli, 6; Grace McDonnell, 7; Anne Marie Murphy, 52; Jack Pinto, 6; Noah Pozner, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Avielle Richman, 6; Benjamin Wheeler, 6; Allison Wyatt, 6.

Joseph is 6.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Misconceptions of the Harlem Renaissance


A misconception is: ‘A mistaken thought, idea, or notion; a misunderstanding ("misconception")’ and it is quite likely that every person on the planet is guilty of believing at least one. I grew up in a small town where in order to fit in you needed to be Catholic and/or Italian. Being neither, I never felt like I did fit in; I was a crowd unto myself. There was a boy two or three years ahead of me in school who, I believed, was just your ordinary, stuck-up Italian jock and who, like most everyone else, never spoke to me (which I actually encouraged by speaking as little as possible). As it turns out, he was not your ordinary, stuck-up Italian jock. Indeed, he has a very Italian name, but he was adopted when he was five by a very Italian family. He actually is a member of the Karuk Indian tribe and was not stuck-up; he was struggling with the drugs and alcohol that it took him years to finally overcome. Now, he is able to visit middle and high schools where he talks to youth who may have similar struggles. It shames me that I ever thought what I did about him. Even though it is widely held even today that the slavery 'problem' is one perpetrated by whites and there are those who even now argue repatriation, there are many misconceptions about slavery, racism and Africa that should be corrected because slavery has been in existence for millennia and slave traders through the years have come in all shapes and sizes (and colors). I would like to discuss three specific misconceptions held not only by those who lived during and participated in the Harlem Renaissance, but those alive today. First, the idea that Africa is a ‘Garden of Eden,’ second the idea of repatriation, and third, the whole idea of slavery and racism.

To begin, we must visit the account of the Creation and subsequent fall of man in Genesis. The story tells us that the world and everything in it was created in a period of six days and on the seventh, God rested. Adam and Eve were the first humans and they were created on the sixth day. They were commanded not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil but temptation entered in and Eve not only partook, she convinced Adam to do likewise. Because of this act, they were forced to leave the Garden of Eden. In chapter 2, we learn that there was a river that went out of Eden and that it was divided into the four rivers, Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates. Important to note is the fact that Gihon encompassed the land of Ethiopia (The Holy Bible 1-6).

There has long been a belief that the biblical Garden of Eden was somewhere in the Middle East or Africa. This is partly due to the fact that on the African continent is a country called Ethiopia and that there is a Euphrates River in the Middle East. Some have argued that this must be the case because there are several groups in Africa who have similar Creation and fall stories. The Chagga people of Tanzania, the Bambuti of Congo, the Meru of Kenya, and the Shilluk of Sudan all have stories in which people are created by God and either eat forbidden food or food of God which makes them sick. Because the Hebrews could have, and probably did, know of these stories, it is surmised that they adopted them for their own use (Adamo).

However, other peoples the world over have creation stories. There are numerous Native American stories of the creation including the Lakota people that the Great Spirit created our ancestors and they were tricked into going out onto the surface as they had been living in the Underworld (Parkinson).  The Mein Tribe of Laos believe that the sky and earth were made by a brother and sister who embroidered cloth (Carger and Locke). From Australia comes a story of a Sun Mother who creates the Morning Star and Moon (son and daughter) who give birth to twins who are the first man and woman on the earth (Manczuk). There are those who believe the Garden was in South America (Adamo) and those who believe it was in North America (The Holy Bible 659).

A more compelling argument that the first men originated in Africa than mere stories is that the DNA of all peoples of the world point back to a single maternal ancestor in Africa 200,000 years ago (Adamo) but this does not account for the rivers. It is interesting to note that with our increased technology and ability to traverse the space around the earth, telescopes have been able to picture under the surface of the planet in southern Egypt a river system of size and complexity comparable to the Nile (Adamo). Does this prove anything? Only that we have technology with which to make more and better discoveries about more and more aspects of life on earth.

Therefore, although the evidence does seem to point to a single maternal ancestor originating in Africa, this would be an evolutionary belief and not necessarily one held by those who believe in creationism. For those who believe in the Creation, there really is no substantial ‘proof’ of where the Garden of Eden may have been located.

Changing gears just a bit, we will define repatriate and, in conjunction with it, discuss the origins of people on the American continents. The purpose will become clear later when we tie it into the Harlem Renaissance. Repatriate: ‘To restore or return to the country of birth, citizenship, or origin; one who has been repatriated ("repatriate").’ In order to be repatriated, there must be a country of origin. It is very interesting that the Seneca tribe of Native Americans recognize that there were people here before the people they identify as their ancestors (Hansen). It appears that the best documented residents of the Americas are what are known as the Clovis people between 12,900 and 12,550 years ago. Points of their make have been found across the North American continent and it is thought that Clovis artifacts are too common, too universal, and too tailored for them to be the first people here (Toner).

Now, however, it appears that the Clovis were not the first. There have been stone tools, without Clovis points, discovered in Monte Verde in Chile dating from 14,400 to 16,000 years ago. Along the Savannah River in South Carolina, artifacts have been found at several levels. One level has artifacts between 17,000 and 21,000 years old. Even farther down is a “hearthlike feature” with charcoal dated at about 50,000 years (Toner). Similar finds have been made in Oregon and Texas (Pringle).

How did these people get there? It was originally thought that Native American ancestors travelled via a bridge between present day Siberia and Alaska. Although no evidence of boats has been found, it is known that at least 45,000 years ago humans made the journey from Asia to Australia via the islands between them and the water surrounding them all. Close to 12,000 years ago 10 kilometers of water was crossed by boatmen to Santa Rosa Island off the coast of California. It certainly would have been quicker and easier to travel via water down the west coast than by foot through the center of the continent (Pringle).

Now, we will discuss slavery and racism. In the United States, we have this idea of political correctness which is defined as ‘1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. 2. Being or perceived as being overconcerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters ("politically correct.").’ In some respects, this idea is a good one but in many, it is certainly ‘overconcerned’ and it seems that this is what keeps us from being taught the true nature of slavery and the slave trade and helps keep racism alive and well.

In most public schools throughout the nation, the Triangle Trade is still the curriculum of the day (Aronson). The Triangle Trade should bring to mind the trade of sugar and of humans connecting Great Britain with Africa and the Caribbean (Spence) and the Americas. While it is true that these are all connected in the trade of slaves, the ‘triangle’ is actually spherical and spans the globe (Aronson). While it is an awful truth that the United States allowed slavery to exist within its borders and that because of it, for almost two and a half centuries, most of black people within those borders were considered ‘chattel property’ (Stern), and that we still today have issues regarding racism and prejudice, it is also true that slavery has existed in world history long before slaves began being imported to the Americas and Caribbean. This history of slavery, dating back to the earliest civilizations, proves that no one was exempt from either participation or profit: ‘whites and blacks; Christians, Muslims, and Jews; Europeans, Africans, Americans, and Latin Americans’ (Stern).

The Bible tells us that Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. He ended up in Egypt and because he was there, his family was able to escape the famine that ravished the land where they were. After approximately 450 years, when we read about Moses, the Israelites were no longer honored members of Joseph’s family but had been enslaved. A whole people (The Holy Bible 58,70, 80).The Islamic slave trade has existed since at least the 8th century and ‘millions of Africans’ were seized for sale to ‘Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the Ottoman Empire’ (Stern). It might be pointed out that this occurred before any European (think white person) set foot south of the Sahara (White).

It may be true that a few Africans were actually captured by white slave traders; after all, English sailors gave little thought to kidnapping a Dutch boy from a beach in 1740. He was sold in Maryland and ended up in Ontario (White). Just as white English sailors had no problem kidnapping a white Dutch boy, neither did black Africans have a problem capturing other black Africans to sell to the slave traders who met them on the coast to do their business. In fact, many of the Africans who were forcibly taken to the Western Hemisphere had been enslaved long before they left Africa; of the approximately 20 million slaves captured during the height of European involvement between 1600 and 1850, estimations are that approximately 10 million, that is half, did not make it to the coastal ‘factories’ where they were held until sale to the white slavers. They died, still chained, yoked, and shackled to their fellow captives, before they ever saw a white slave trader (Stern).

It is a little known fact that freed slaves actually saw nothing wrong with owning slaves, as many as 63 in one noteworthy case (White). It is possible that Captain Paul Cuffe, a black New England sea captain and son of a former slave, was a slave trader. Even if he wasn’t he had many friends, black and white, who were. Mrs. Betsy Walker, a freed slave, returned to Africa where she became one of the most successful traders of slaves in the early 1800s. Women actually controlled a substantial part of the slave market along the West African coast. In many ways, this is not surprising because in traditional West African societies, the men were the farmers and the women were the traders (Brooks).

Many blacks struggled with their heritage; especially those considered mulatto, having both black and white ancestry. In Nella Larsen’s novel ‘Quicksand,’ the main character, Helga Crane, wrestled with the fact that her mother was white while her father was black (Larsen). Why was this such a stigma for her? Perhaps because racism exists. It seems to be popularly believed that racism is something that blacks experience at the hands of whites. In fact, racism is ‘1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. 2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race (“racism”).’ This may be true at times but certainly not always. Helga, for example, was counseled not to tell Anne of her white mother (Larsen). Why? Because Anne hated whites? Perhaps Anne was not alone in her hatred. Perhaps because racism rears its ugly head and manifests itself in many different forms.

Historically, racism is not a phenomena belonging exclusively to blacks and whites or even to groups of different skin color. Hitler’s extermination of the Jews is a blatant example. When my family lived in New Mexico, two of my little girls were the only white children in an elementary school of Navajo, Apache, and one little black boy (what a bunch of cute kids!). My little girls experienced what we would call ‘reverse’ prejudice and it was not pretty. Consider the following: ‘Two decades ago, a Fulani college student said Zaire’s whites deserved the massacres inflicted upon them because they were white and hence racist. A listening British anthropologist asked him if he would marry a Dowayo, referring to a pagan people that Fulani had long deemed fit only to be slaves. The student looked at him as if he were insane. As a Fulani himself, he could not marry a Dowayo, he pointed out. They were dongs, mere animals. But what had that to do with racism (White)?’Racism would appear to be a problem for many people and certainly seemed to be one for those who lived and participated in the Harlem Renaissance.

One way to deal with racism was to run away from it. The widely accepted idea that the Garden of Eden was located in Africa has much to do with Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa movement as well as the fact that his ancestors came from that continent. Marcus Garvey is looked upon as a prophet by the Rastafari religion of Pan-America. They believe that he prophesied that they should look to Africa, specifically Ethiopia, for the crowning of their King, or savior. While nothing in his writings has been discovered to this effect, he did write a play which was entitled The king and queen of Africa in which the closing scene is that of a coronation (Chevannes). Be this as it may, it is well known that Garvey promoted the Back to Africa movement and may have had some success had his business partners been less than ethical. His efforts were not unprecedented.

In 1820, the first group of free blacks was aboard an American Colonization Society (ACS) sponsored voyage to Liberia. This new nation was ceded for the repatriation of free blacks. It was administered by the ACS until it gained independence in 1847 ("AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY."). After this, it wasn’t until 1914 that another such attempt was made. Chief Alfred Charles Sam began the African Movement in that year. He was a successful businessman and raised money with which to buy a ship which was to take blacks to West Africa. Progress was hindered by criminal charges which did not stick and the British government discouraged black Americans from joining this movement. Nevertheless, in August of 1914, the ship left Galveston, Texas, and arrived in Bathurst in December. The voyage was not entirely successful due to British colonial authorities making it as difficult as possible for the people to even leave the ship. Eventually, in June of the following year, most of the immigrants returned to the United States; a few of them had died and a few remained in Africa (Ray).

Marcus Garvey, Jr., in a 1998 interview, hoped that African Americans would gain a renewed interest in his father’s work (Mason). Garvey’s dream was to create a Utopian African nation to which all blacks the world over could be repatriated and take their place as a major world influence. Repatriation also included Europeans returning to Europe (Chevannes). In light of the fact that all the people of the world originated in Africa, the idea of repatriation is rather interesting. Whom should be repatriated where, exactly?

The literature of the Harlem Renaissance is . . . interesting, enlightening, worth reading and exploring. It gives us an idea of the image these writers, and most likely others, had of Africa at the time. For better or worse, these writers placed Africa at the heart of their cultural landscape and thus at the heart of the cultural landscape of all African Americans. There it has remained. Although some of the Harlem Renaissance writers, Langston Hughes, for example, traveled to Africa, many did not (Harris). Even Marcus Garvey, who wanted to move all black people to Africa, never set foot on the continent (Bair). Because most of those who were writing during the Harlem Renaissance never experienced Africa, their writing is based on romanticized ideas of it or what they heard or read. Even Hughes, who did not have the best experiences there, continued to write of Africa as an abstract ideal rather than a reality (Harris). Take, for example, Hughes poem ‘Dream Variation’(Lewis 226) which talks about dancing in the sun until the day is gone and resting under a tree in the evening. He uses words and phrases that indicate a somewhat idyllic place such as ‘night comes gently,’ ‘pale evening,’ and ‘dark like me.’

Countee Cullen’s poem ‘Heritage’ (Lewis 224), talks of a dream like place where there is ‘Copper sun or scarlet sea,/Jungle star or jungle track.’ There is a conflict here between the ‘bronzed men’ and ‘regal black women’ and general wildness of Africa and the Christian West.

Gwendolyn Bennett’s poem ‘To a Dark Girl’ (Miller) speaks of love for ‘brownness’ and ‘rounded darkness.’ It evokes thoughts of ‘old forgotten queens’ and keeping qualities of ‘queenliness’. The girl who has these qualities was once a slave but perhaps her African ancestors were queens. Her poem ‘Heritage’(Bennett) has dream-like qualities. This narrator speaks of wanting to see and hear and breathe and feel different things from her African homeland. The whole poem has a lulling ebb and flow feel to it that contributes to the longing of the dream.

Most blacks, who wrote of Africa, wrote similarly. Africa was their homeland. Africa is where the Garden of Eden had been and where civilization had its beginning. Surely a life in Africa, among people they imagined were like themselves, would be better than the hard life experienced in the United States where prejudice and racism abounded.

That these people, who dreamed of an idyllic Africa, did not know everything there was to know about Africa, is reasonable. Knowledge was available but not as readily accessible as it is in today’s digital climate. Furthermore, people often write of a place or time that may be based in reality but is surrounded by myth or fantasy. The purpose of doing this may be to escape the harsh realities of life or to create a place removed from everyday life. Certainly life for these writers of the Harlem Renaissance, and indeed most of the residents of Harlem, was not easy.

Today it is easy to find information. If it cannot be found online, the books or locations where it might be obtained can be found online. That there were misconceptions in the past is understandable. With our increased understanding of the physical world in which we live and the relative ease of learning more about our collective history, past misconceptions should be a thing of the past.

That there continue to be misconceptions in spite of all we now know stands to reason given our love of political correctness but when there are Africans from Ghana, Benin, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast acknowledging that Africans were abducted, captured, and kidnapped by fellow Africans for the specific purpose of being sold into slavery, urging Europeans, Americans, and Africans to acknowledge the part they played and to publicly teach about it, and making statements such as ‘We too are blameworthy in what was essentially one of the most heinous crimes in human history (Stern)’ it is almost shameful that we have Americans of African descent who say, apparently without truly knowing history, ‘It is not we who kidnapped, raped, and ravished a people’ (Hill 3).

 
Works Cited:

Adamo, David Tuesday. “Ancient Africa and Genesis2:10-14.” Journal of Religious Thought 49.1 (1992): 33. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Dec 2012.

"AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY." Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Credo Reference. 12 Jan. 2009. Web. 7 Dec. 2012.

Aronson, Marc. “An Obtuse Triangle.” School Library Journal Nov. 207: 33. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Dec 2012.

Bair, Barbara. "Online Forum: Marcus Garvey and Africa." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.

Bennett, Gwendolyn. “Heritage”. Classroom handout.

Brooks, Amanda Lee. “The Uses Of  History.” National Review 42.9 (1990): 36-40. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Dec 2012.

Carger, Chris Liska. “Piecing Earth And Sky Together: A Creation Story From The Mein Tribe Of Laos (Book).” Book Links 12.6 (2003): 11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Dec 2012.

Hanson, Bruce Alan. “Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours: A Classic Native American Creation Story. (Book).” Library Journal 116.16 (1991): 106. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Dec 2012.

Harris, Trudier, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Professor of English, Emerita. “The Image of Africa in the Literature of the Harlem Renaissance.” Freedom's Story, TeacherServe®, National Humanities Center. National Humanities Center, c 2010. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.

Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Little, Brown, 2003. Print.

Larsen, Nella. Quicksand & Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 1986. Print

Locke, June. “Piecing Earth And Sky Together: A Creation Story From The Mein Tribe Of Laos.” Book Links 15.3 (2006): 60. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Dec 2012.

Manczuk, Suzanne. “Sun Mother Wakes The World: An Australian Creation Story.” Library Media Connection 23.4 (2005): 86. Academic Search Premier Web. 7 Dec 2012.

Mason, Bryant. “Garvey’s son reflects on father’s legacy.” New York Amsterdam News 24 Dec 1998: 30. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Dec 2012.

Miller, Nina. On "To a Dark Girl". Modern American Poetry, 2011. Web. 08 Dec. 2012.

"misconception." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 07 December 2012.

Parkinson, G. Alyssa. “Tatanka And The Lakota People: A Creation Story.” School Library Journal 53.2 (2007): 113. Academic Search Prmier. Web. 7 Dec 2012.

"politically correct." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 07 December 2012.

Pringle, Heather. “The 1st Americans. (Cover Story).” Scientific American 305.5 (2011): 36-45. Academic Search Premier. Web.  7 Dec 2012.

"racism." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 12 December 2012.

Ray, Carina. “How Britian Impeded The Frist ‘Back To Africa Movement’.” New African 446 (2005): 40-42. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Dec 2012.

"repatriate." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 07 December 2012.

Spence, David. “London, Sugar And Slavery.” History Today 57.3 (2007): 21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Dec 2012.

Stern, Sheldon M. “The Atlantic Slave Trade—The Full Story.” Academic Questions 18.3 (2005): 16-34. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Dec 2012.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. Salt Lake City, UT: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1979. Print.

Toner, Mike. “Impossibly Old America?” Archaeology 59.3 (2006):: 40-45. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Dec 2012.

White, Jeff. “Something Worth Mentioning When Africa Sends Us Its Multi-Billion Slavery Claim.” Report/Newsmagazine (Alberta Edition) 28.14 (2001):56. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Dec 2012.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

How Far is Too Far?


Distance is usually thought of as a measure between two points. While this may be true, my experience has taught me that, as with many things in life, distance is relative. Having been born and raised, indeed, having lived most of my life, in the West, I think of distance as a number of miles rather than a length of time. While not always true, the distance between two points often equaled the number of minutes to reach a particular destination. Having met and married a Massachusetts native, who is not inclined to move far away, I now must adjust my thinking. While not always true, the distance between two points here can often be multiplied by two in order to give a good guesstimate as to the time necessary to reach a particular destination.

How far is too far to travel? While we were in New Mexico, we lived 0 miles away from Farmington which is where the nearest hospital and our midwife were. The hospital was of little concern to me but the political climate being what it was, our midwife, Sherri Holley, wasn’t comfortable with us delivering at home due to the distance from the hospital. Home, Sherrie’s office. . .little difference to me as neither was the hospital. 60 miles was not too far under such circumstances.

Previous to finding Sherri, we’d searched for midwives and found two in Albuquerque. We visited one but not the other. Due to the passage of time and lack of reference to it in my journal, I do not recall the reason for meeting with only one. Whatever the reason, the one we did meet with decided not to take us on because we were 120 miles away from her, she wasn’t familiar with Farmington or its hospital/doctors, we were due the day before Christmas and she was planning on visiting family in Vermont during this time and did not have reliable back up. The distance in this case was too far.

For our first birth with Sherri, the 60 miles did not present problem. We were able to drive into her office and it was nine hours later that baby number five made her Christmas entrance into the world. Two years later, those same 60 miles proved to be too far as baby number six was in such a hurry to make his entrance three days before Christmas that he was born on the side of the highway on the way to Sherri’s office. Distance is relative and dependent on the circumstances.

How far is too far? I suspect that if I were a midwife now, I would likely choose a relative distance/time and say that was my limit. However, I would carefully evaluate each prospective client and determine how far was too far. In some cases, within my set limit might be too far while at other times, a point outside my limit might be acceptable. Some factors I would likely take into consideration might be distance to the nearest hospital from the chosen birthplace, how many babies the mother had given birth to and the circumstances of each, and competency of her partner and/or those who might be present.

As I am not yet a midwife, but am a student of midwifery hoping to secure an apprenticeship, I do not feel as bound by distance. I want to learn and am willing to travel to gain knowledge. If I were to put a cap on the distance I am willing to travel, it might depend on time of year. I might be inclined to say three hours even though 3 hours in the middle of a blizzard would not be nearly as far as 3 hours in the middle of June. I might, if I were more familiar with Vermont and New Hampshire, be willing to put a mile distance on how far I would be willing to travel. As it is, I am willing to travel. I have a dependable vehicle that has good fuel economy and is good in the snow. I am not afraid to drive in the snow. How far is too far? That remains to be seen.

Claude McKay: Two Different Poems

(Actually from November 28, 2012)

I have always been drawn to poetry. My grandmother and mother used to read it to me, my siblings, and my cousins when we were young. We had a large volume of collected poems for children that belonged to my great grandmother. During the years I homeschooled several of my children, I would have them choose a poem each week to memorize. I loved reading poems and writing poetry for English classes in high school and my first college career so much that I would write it at home just for fun (and sometimes in Algebra and when we had a substitute teacher in science classes). In studying the literature of the Harlem Renaissance, I almost wish there were more poems and fewer essays. Although the latter are interesting and usually thought provoking, they aren’t nearly as much fun to delve into and explore. Choosing a poet for this assignment was quite a task and I changed my mind several times. Choosing two poems to compare was a job as well and one of them changed. I ended up with two poems by Claude McKay I particularly like: “If We Must Die” and “When Dawn Comes to the City.” Even though, at first glance the two poems seem to have nothing in common, they are connected as "When Dawn Comes to the City" represents both the ills of society as well as an expression of hope for how things should be and "If We Must Die" is a clarion call to action to bring us from the first scenario of “Dawn” to the second.

Let us begin with “If We Must Die” (Lewis 290). The narrator of this poem is someone who has experience fighting with a minority against a majority. Many people, knowing that the poem was written during the Red Summer of 1919, believe that it deals with the fight of black Americans against mainstream white America (“Claude McKay”). Indeed, McKay himself had this to say:

“The World War had ended. But its end was a signal for the outbreak of little wars between labor and capital and, like a plague breaking out in sore places, between colored folk and white.

“Our Negro newspapers were morbid, full of details of clashes between colored and white, murderous shootings and hangings. Traveling from city to city and unable to gauge the attitude and temper of each one, we Negro railroad men were nervous. We were less light-hearted. We did not separate from one another gaily to spend ourselves in speakeasies and gambling joints. We stuck together, some of us armed, going from the railroad station to our quarters. We stayed in our quarters all through the dreary ominous nights, for we never knew what was going to happen.

“It was during those days that the sonnet, ‘If We Must Die,’ exploded out of me” (McKay).

McKay also said that, “I never regarded myself as a ‘Negro’ poet. I have always felt that my gift of song was something bigger than the narrow limits of any people and its problems” (Young 207).

While obviously written in response to the prejudice McKay witnessed and experienced, it is a poem that transcends, as McKay put it, “narrow limits” of one people. It embodies the fight of any oppressed people against the oppressor (“Claude McKay”). In fact, it is well known that during World War II, Sir Winston Churchill used it before the House of Commons (Young 206). Also, a Jewish friend of McKay’s said in 1939 that the poem “must have been written about the European Jews persecuted by Hitler” (Jason 2409). In 1944, the test of the poem was found on the “body of a young white American soldier who had been killed in action” (Young 211).

The narrator has fought the fight and is encouraging his “kinsmen” to meet the enemy. In spite of the fact that they are outnumbered and backed against a wall, it is time to fight back honorably against the “monsters.”

In form, the poem is a typical English or Shakespearean sonnet in that it has four stanzas and the rhyme scheme: ababcdcdefefgg. Although typical in form, the subject matter is not. The sonnet originated in Italy in the 14th century and was primarily used to express love. By the 16th century, use of the sonnet had spread to Spain, France, and England and even to Germany in the 17th. The subject matter of early sonnets was most characteristically the “torments of sexual love.” From there, John Donne expanded the range of subject matter to religion and Milton to politics (Baldick). McKay’s use of the sonnet makes sense in a couple of ways. First, having been born and raised in Jamaica, it shouldn’t be too surprising that he was most familiar with English poets who used sonnets extensively. Second, using a well-known form can be very effective in expressing a more objectionable opinion or subject. McKay often used sonnets in order to bring to light some of the less pleasing aspects of life which he witnessed.

In the first line, McKay uses “hogs.” Why? If we search the Encarta Dictionary: English, we find the following definitions: “1. pig a full-grown domestic pig, especially a castrated male pig; 2. Member of pig family any animal of the pig family, including both domesticated and wild species . . . 4. Offensive term an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody’s appetite, consideration for others, tidiness, or cleanliness.” To some, it brings to mind any animal raised for food. Those raising them may become attached to the individual animals, but in the end, if the supper table is the desired destination, that is where the hog, chicken, turkey, etc., will end up. In this case, however, it seems likely that McKay was using the word to represent blacks in an offensive way as that is often how those who are not black see them. It is an unfortunate truth that many people, as part of a larger whole, do see members of a ‘lesser’ minority in such a light.

Anyone who has witnessed the way a pack of dogs behaves can relate to the third and fourth lines. One afternoon upon returning home, I noticed odd movement in our goat pen. Some neighborhood dogs (our neighborhood being a string of farms along a dirt road) had formed a pack and descended upon our goats. One kid was dead. One doe, though alive, had entrails hanging out of gnawed upon belly. The dogs did seem to be mocking and, going back to the second line, it was most certainly “inglorious.”

In the second stanza, the stage shifts a bit. “If we must die,” let it be noble, let it be, if not exactly like the wars of medieval Europe and England where aristocracy led the fight, let it at least have a moral base. Let the spillage of “precious blood” not be “in vain” so that the oppressor must even honor those who have fought.

There is something of a continuation but also an increase of intensity. First, it was, “If we must die, let it not be like hogs,” then it was, “if we must die. . . let us nobly die.” Now, “let’s meet the common foe.” Not just meet them but for every thousand blows they deal us, we will reward them one “deathblow!”

Finally the couplet serves to end the poem as it would in any sonnet but rather than brings everything together, it rather finishes off the last six lines with a “finishing kick” (Young 220).

Now, we will take a look at “When Dawn Comes to the City” (Lewis 293) altogether a different poem published in 1922 ("Harlem Renaissance 2005.”). This narrator is homesick. Currently living in New York, the speaker longs for an island in the sea. While one might assume that McKay is having his narrator speak of Jamaica, some have concluded that while this might be the most likely possibility, possibly he is speaking of a different island off the coast of New York or maybe even an island in Maine whose name, Monhegan Island, means “island of the sea” when translated to English from Native American ("Harlem Renaissance 2005.”).

McKay uses personification to describe the cars in the city. In the first stanza, they are “tired,” and “go grumbling.” They are “moaning” and “groaning”. These poor cars are in pain, in misery. They aren’t just tired, they are letting everyone who has ears with which to hear know that they are. The words themselves lend a feeling of moaning and groaning which add to their grumbling state of being tired.

In the third, they are still “tired” but now they are “crazy” and “lazy” and now there are milk carts “rumbling.” One may wonder about those crazy cars. Are they affected by a mental disorder or are they somewhat lacking in judgment? In the second and fourth stanzas, which are identical, onomatopoeia is used in describing the sounds the various animals make. The fact that each sound is mentioned three times, with the exception of the hens cackling, rather causes one to think that there is noise all around (and, in the case of the hens, they cackle and cluck all day long anyway), which is indeed the case when you live on or near a farm or a more rural area where such animals might be found ("Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights Movement”).

Returning to the first and third stanzas, in the first, the speaker compares the tenements to cold stone. “Dark figures” come out of these and “sadly shuffle” to work. Even the stars are “dull.” In the third, a single “lonely newsboy hurries by” and the stars are now “dying.” This might lead one to believe that the speaker is not only in New York, but in Harlem where there would be an abundance of “dark figures” who would be going to work. It is a cold and dreary place and even the rhyme scheme in these stanzas, ababcdcd, and the lulling rhythm add to the everyday dullness of life there ("Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights Movement”).

Contrast this with the second and fourth stanzas where all these animals are making noise as the day breaks. No tired or dying stars here. It might not be fully light, but the sense of hopelessness is not present. Water in a stream falls “joyously!” to rocks below. The city does not seem to care that the speaker is there but the island does. The Nanny calling might want her morning grain. Perhaps she wants to be milked; maybe that is the desire of the “tethered cow” as well. Whether these animals would be cared for by the speaker were he there, the island is certainly calling to him as he longs to be there away from the demoralizing effects of the city (Brooks). The shape, even, of these identical stanzas brings to mind an island with a flowing shoreline:

          But I would be on the island of the sea,
          In the heart of the island of the sea,
     Where the cocks are crowing, crowing, crowing,
     And the hens are cackling in the rose-apple tree,
Where the old draft-horse is neighing, neighing, neighing
          Out on the brown dew-silvered lawn,
     And the tethered cow is lowing, lowing, lowing,
And dear old Ned is braying, braying, braying,
And the shaggy Nannie goat is calling, calling, calling
     From her little trampled corner of the long wide lea
That stretches to the waters of the hill-stream falling
          Sheer upon the flat rocks joyously!
          There, oh there! on the island of the sea,
               There I would be at dawn. (Lewis 293)

Two very different poems. How, then, are they connected? McKay was a native of Jamaica. He lived in a small, rural village where most of the people were, like himself, dark-skinned. He moved to the capital of Jamaica, Kingstown, where he experienced prejudice and racism on a widespread scale. When McKay came to United States, he experienced more of that and became involved with the Harlem Movement. In a very real sense, he did not fit in with many of the writers of Harlem. He had grown up reading Byron, Shelly, Keats, late Victorian and Romantic authors. Among his friends were white Americans living in the suburbs of New York and in Greenwich Village. At a time when most Harlem Renaissance writers were young, in their 20’s, he was older than most of them. Also, during most of the Renaissance years, McKay lived in Europe. So, while accepted by those in Harlem, he was also something of “a misfit at a time when blackness was being celebrated” (Young).

The connection partly lies in McKay’s life. As a black man, a member of a minority in many places, he experienced things that should be fought against. These experiences happened not only in his homeland, but in his adopted homeland. Social injustice should be fought wherever it takes place. His desire to fight back, not only himself for himself, but others for everyone is evident in “If We Must Die.” In “When Dawn Comes to the City,” McKay, as the speaker of the poem, is accepted by society in the city, but longs for the tranquility of the life he knew on the “island in the sea.” Most writers are comfortable and most believable when writing about things with which they are familiar. Both poems speak of what the speaker knows and what he hopes or wishes for. He knows the effects of prejudice and racism and he knows the quiet, peaceful pastoral life of the island. He wishes for people to fight against injustice and wishes for the island life he once knew.

Going one step further, we might say that “If We Must Die” is the call to action against all things bad, against all of the many injustices found in the world. “When Dawn Comes to the City” represents all the squalor and prejudices of life but also the hope for a better world for if all the animals, being very different from one another, can live in peace, so ought we, as human beings with only the difference of an outer appearance, to be able to.

 
Works Cited:A few years later McKay befriended Max Eastman, communist sympathizer and editor of the magazine Liberator. McKay published more poems in Eastman's magazine, notably the inspirational "If We Must Die," which defended black rights and threatened retaliation for prejudice and abuse. "Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack," McKay wrote, "Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!" In Black Poets of the United States, Jean Wagner noted that "If We Must Die" transcends specifics of race and is widely prized as an inspiration to persecuted people throughout the world. "Along with the will to resistance of black Americans that it expresses," Wagner wrote, "it voices also the will of oppressed people of every age who, whatever their race and wherever their region, are fighting with their backs against the wall to win their freedom."

Upon publication of "If We Must Die" McKay commenced two years of travel and work abroad. He spent part of 1919 in Holland and Belgium, then moved to London and worked on the periodical Workers' Dreadnought. In 1920 he published his third verse collection, Spring in New Hampshire, which was notable for containing "Harlem Shadows," a poem about the plight of black prostitutes in the degrading urban environment. McKay used this poem, which symbolically presents the degradation of the entire black race, as the title for a subsequent collection. A few years later McKay befriended Max Eastman, communist sympathizer and editor of the magazine Liberator. McKay published more poems in Eastman's magazine, notably the inspirational "If We Must Die," which defended black rights and threatened retaliation for prejudice and abuse. "Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack," McKay wrote, "Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!" In Black Poets of the United States, Jean Wagner noted that "If We Must Die" transcends specifics of race and is widely prized as an inspiration to persecuted people throughout the world. "Along with the will to resistance of black Americans that it expresses," Wagner wrote, "it voices also the will of oppressed people of every age who, whatever their race and wherever their region, are fighting with their backs against the wall to win their freedom."

Upon publication of "If We Must Die" McKay commenced two years of travel and work abroad. He spent part of 1919 in Holland and Belgium, then moved to London and worked on the periodical Workers' Dreadnought. In 1920 he published his third verse collection, Spring in New Hampshire, which was notable for containing "Harlem Shadows," a poem about the plight of black prostitutes in the degrading urban environment. McKay used this poem, which symbolically presents the degradation of the entire black race, as the title for a subsequent collection. A few years later McKay befriended Max Eastman, communist sympathizer and editor of the magazine Liberator. McKay published more poems in Eastman's magazine, notably the inspirational "If We Must Die," which defended black rights and threatened retaliation for prejudice and abuse. "Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack," McKay wrote, "Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!" In Black Poets of the United States, Jean Wagner noted that "If We Must Die" transcends specifics of race and is widely prized as an inspiration to persecuted people throughout the world. "Along with the will to resistance of black Americans that it expresses," Wagner wrote, "it voices also the will of oppressed people of every age who, whatever their race and wherever their region, are fighting with their backs against the wall to win their freedom."

Upon publication of "If We Must Die" McKay commenced two years of travel and work abroad. He spent part of 1919 in Holland and Belgium, then moved to London and worked on the periodical Workers' Dreadnought. In 1920 he published his third verse collection, Spring in New Hampshire, which was notable for containing "Harlem Shadows," a poem about the plight of black prostitutes in the degrading urban environment. McKay used this poem, which symbolically presents the degradation of the entire black race, as the title for a subsequent collection.

Baldick, Chris. "About the Sonnet." About the Sonnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/sonnet.htm>.

Brooks, George. "Pastoral Realist: Complexity And Contradiction In." Worlditonline. IRWLE, Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. <http://worldlitonline.net/2009-jan/art7.pdf>.

"Claude McKay."  The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.

"Harlem Renaissance 2005.” When Dawn Comes To The City. N.p., 1 Dec. 2005. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.

"Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights Movement.” When Dawn Comes to the City. N.p., 25 Apr. 2008. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.

Jason, Philip K., ed. Critical Survey of Poetry. Second Revised Edition. Vol. 4. Hackensack, NJ. Salem Press, Inc. 2003. Print. 2409.

Lewis, David Levering, ed. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York. Penguin Books. 1994. Print.

McKay on "If We Must Die"" McKay on "If We Must Die" N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.

Young, Robyn V., ed. Poetry Criticism. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C. Gale, 1991. Print. 206-7, 211, 220.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Thoughts from Sunday, November 18, 2012


We sang “Behold the Great Redeemer Die” today at church. In part, the words go like this: “Yet, if thou wilt, I’ll drink it up./I’ve done the work thou gavest me,”. This was particularly touching to me today because I’d been thinking of one of my favorite dead people today—Daniel. I was thinking that there are times I’d like to just crawl into a hole or dark corner or forgotten cave and not bother with anything because I miss Daniel and I wish so much that he could be here, physically, with us. I miss hearing his voice, I miss seeing his rare smiles. I miss watching his interactions with his brothers and sisters. I miss watching him pass the Sacrament at church. What is there about him not to miss? I realize that Jesus Christ did for us something that we cannot do for ourselves in his ultimate sacrifice and atonement. The pain and agony he suffered is incomprehensible to me, as a mere mortal. It was such that he would have not gone through with it had he been able to not. Yet, it was necessary and the Father could not “remove this cup.” This being the case, Christ continued on and did what only he could do; he drank. Knowing that part of the pain he suffered was for me is incredible. Knowing that even though many people would not take advantage of what he was offering, he still did it. How can I add to his pain by not accepting it? And yet it is hard, so hard. In spite of the arduous journey in front of me, I must drink my share. I must do the work that I have been given. How can I do less? Until I meet Daniel at some future date, I must carry on and do my best to get there.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

KKK Involvement in the Harlem Renaissance


Pamela S Flint (Roper)

Professor Susan Goldstein

English

October 1, 2012

KKK Involvement in the Harlem Renaissance

When I was in high school, I worked at our local library after school and during the summer. The woman I worked for, whom I liked very much, was very typical of the general populace of the town I grew up in: Italian and Catholic. She told me stories of her husband driving the black members of the high school basketball team to games because they were not allowed on the busses and I got the feeling from her that she felt this was very big of him and that not many people were willing to do this. I remember thinking it was extremely stupid that they weren’t allowed to ride the bus. I was born on January 15, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, and every report I did in high school that could be about him, was. I spent much time with my grandparents and I learned from them, my grandfather especially, that people are people. One of my favorite stories, although I did not completely understand it at the time, from him was about a couple of men at work arguing about whom was better: the man from northern Italy or the man from southern Italy. My grandfather told them the only difference was who raped their grandmothers. Over time, my family has become racially diverse. I have a cousin whose father is African American. My oldest daughter’s father is Mexican. Her son is half Korean. My youngest sister is married to a Chilean man and they now have a son. I have long held the belief that while the outward appearance may be different, the insides are the same and we all bleed red. In an effort to understand why some people can be so intolerant of others based on color of skin or political affiliation or any other difference, and given my interest in MLK, Jr., and his work, the Ku Klux Klan drew my interest. What makes them tick? What was their involvement in the Harlem Renaissance? In spite of the fact that the Ku Klux Klan was, for most intents and purposes, latent toward the end of Reconstruction until 1915, their activities did influence the migration of African Americans to Harlem mainly because the Klan was inherently violent and one of its main methods of assuring compliance was through lynchings.

We know that the Klan was responsible, in part, for the downfall of Marcus Garvey. He met with Edward Young Clarke who was the acting imperial wizard of the Klan. Clark actually sought Garvey out to offer him financial help for his Africa for African’s endeavor. What better way to accomplish one of their goals, the riddance of black people from American society, than by sending anyone with dark skin to Africa? However good an idea this seemed to the Klan and to Garvey, most African Americans were livid (Hill 23).

We also know that while the Ku Klux Klan was very active during the period of Reconstruction, it had died back a bit. Then, in the early 1900’s there was a resurgence of activity. This movement in the early part of the 1900s appears to be the second of three distinct such movements of the Ku Klux Klan, the first occurring when it was originally organized just after the Civil War and the third in the 1960s. The 1920s movement seems to have been the largest, recruiting “the greatest number of supporters from the greatest number of places.” Even though each individual Klan had similar goals as others, it appears that there was no specific national objective and that each Klan acted independently of others and focused on whatever nearby group was most troublesome (Wilkinson). It has been suggested that this revival is due in part to the fact that African American soldiers were returning from Europe and World War I and that they could no longer be considered weak; after all, in bleeding and dying for a country that still would not completely accept them as full-fledged citizens, they had learned how to fight. Another reason for renewed interest in the Ku Klux Klan seems to be in direct correlation with the release of Birth of a Nation which captivated audiences and led them to believe that somehow the docile slave of yesteryear had become a mindless brute who was intent on wreaking havoc (Ethnic Notions). While it was a major breakthrough for film, this movie romanticized the Klan based as it was on two historical novels, one of which was written by Thomas Dixon, Jr. who said, “My object is to teach the North, the young North, what it has never known—the awful suffering of the white man during the dreadful Reconstruction period. . . Almighty God anointed the white men of the South by their suffering during that time . . . to demonstrate to the world that the white man must and shall be supreme” ("The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest."). Would they now band together and fight for their rights? It appears that the Klan had no intention of finding out. Once Klan activity was renewed in 1915/1916, there were over 200 meetings throughout the United States, and not just in the south (Hill 29).

The Ku Klux Klan had rather a humble beginning. Six young men in Pulaski, Tennessee, apparently had nothing better to do than to form a club for “merrymaking.” They came up with ridiculous titles, dressed in sheets and pillow cases, and terrified recently freed slaves who mistook these young hoodlums for ghosts. While the reaction of the African Americans was noted, the new club did not grow until, in the eyes of white southerners who valued a society in which white Christians were the only ones of any real value, the south began to be overrun by people who did not fit their ideal (“Editorials”).

When the Civil War came to an end, the slaves had been freed but there was much uncertainty in the air. How were blacks and whites supposed to relate to each other? Blacks had been the slaves and had had to submit to the whites. Whites had been the masters and expected blacks to do their bidding. Now they were equal? What an odd concept. The Ku Klux Klan, which had been started by those six young men who had nothing better to do, was joined by men who had been officers, generals even, in the Confederate Army. This was made possible due to President Andrew Johnson, who was himself a southerner, pardoning all but the highest ranking officers in the Confederate army. Now there was a secret army. An army above the law, an army that was law unto itself (Abolition: Broken Promises).

From early on, it became clear that it was not just African Americans who were victims of Klan violence. They were active across the south but most especially in areas where an African American minority was large enough to make a difference politically. Members of the Ku Klux Klan were ultra conservative Democrats. They did not like Republicans. They did not like Jews. They did not like Catholics. They did not like the idea of a strong federal government and they did not like anyone who worked for the government. They did not like anyone who was not white and Protestant Christian. In some southern counties where there was not a large African American population but there were many people who made their own whiskey or brandy, the Klan was active in attacking Internal Revenue agents. They wanted “to ‘oppose and reject Radicalism’ and achieve ‘an intelligent white man’s government’” (Stewart).

Once Reconstruction was ‘over,’ the Union army went back to the north and left the southern states alone. Sharecropping was the order of the day but it was no way to earn a living. One year a few pennies would be earned for a years’ worth of backbreaking labor. The next year, there were no pennies, just more debt and the year after that still more debt. It was just another form of slavery and one that was hard to get away from. If a slave ran away, they might be beaten but because a slave represented somebody’s money, was someone’s property, there were laws protecting them as such. Freemen weren’t slaves. They did not belong to anyone. How, then, were they to be made to stay in their proper place (Abolition: Broken Promises)?

Not property? Well, then, there was nothing to stand in the way of punishing the sharecropper who might think he or she wanted to try a better life somewhere else. No longer able to rely on the law, lynching became the common mode of punishment; the method of keeping blacks ‘in their place’ (Abolition: Broken Promises). Lynch law in the United States had its beginnings during the Revolution when Colonel Charles Lynch and some who worked with him took it upon themselves to come up with some rules for dealing with “Tories and criminal elements.” Over time, because lynching was used mainly by mobs to exert control and mobs generally act against diverse minority groups, and because African Americans were a major target, they suffered greatly under this law. Dependable statistics on lynching did not begin until1882. From then until 1968, there are 4,743 recorded deaths from lynching and 3,446 of them were African American, most occurring in the last ten years of the nineteenth century and first ten of the twentieth. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, “lynchers increasingly employed burning, torture, and dismemberment to prolong suffering and excite a ‘festive atmosphere’ among the killers and onlookers’ ("About Lynching").  They became so common, what did it matter if others knew who was doing this? Everyone was involved. Everyone turned out to see. Typically, no one was ever accused of a lynching as they were carried out by ‘unknown’ participants (Abolition: Broken Promises).

Lynching, no matter who carried it out, was not pleasant. One incident which took place in Texas, was actually recorded with a gramophone. The man being lynched, Henry Smith, was photographed as well. He was “flogged and cut with knives. An iron was heated and plunged down his throat when his captors tired of hearing his pleas for mercy.” Even those watching were allowed to mock and maim him. When this torture had been going on for upward of two hours, fire was set to the platform on which he was. For weeks, the record and pictures could be bought on the streets (Abolition: Broken Promises).

The Klan was not the sole force behind blacks leaving the south. In Polk County, Arkansas, specifically in the town of Mena, there were few African Americans to begin with. In 1896, citizens of the town came together to drive out the African Americans who had come to work on the rail road. In 1901, a black man was lynched but it does not seem to be the doings of the Klan as it was before there was much Klan activity. While it is obvious that the whites in the town did not want the blacks there, it seems that economic factors also contributed to their leaving. Once the town was devoid of African Americans, the Klan moved in. It seemed they intended to use the town as a safe base from which to “bring about certain reformations in the religious, political, social and financial life of the nation” and to rid society of “smutty literature, suggestive songs, immoral pictures, jazz dances, jury dodgers, bootleggers, moonshiners, gambling, nigger upstarts, yellow dog politicians, Catholic control of politics and public schools, unrestricted immigration, and Jewish influences in financial and theatrical affairs” (Lancaster). Once they had a secure base for operations, they were able to strike with impunity.

How much did the Ku Klux Klan really have to do with the huge movement of African Americans from the south to cities in the north, specifically to Harlem? That they had an effect, there is no doubt. The extent to which they did remains unknown partially due to the many other factors involved such as economic factors brought about in part by drought and infestations of bugs causing poor crops and by the lack of workers in the north due to World War I (Hill 29). The Klan has always had a stronger presence in the south than other parts of the country and one of their favorite methods of retribution was lynching. The consequences of lynching are varied including, but surely not limited to “paralysis, solidarity; and escape” ("The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest"). It would be reasonable to expect that one of their most obvious targets, African Americans, would want to leave in order not only to get away from the abuse but also those who were most likely perpetrators of it.

 

Works Cited:

Abolition: Broken Promises. Films Media Group, 1992. Films on Demand. Web. 28 September 2012.

“Editorials.” Saturday Evening Post 30 Jan. 1965:88. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 September 2012.

Ethnic Notions. Films Media Group, 1987. Films on Demand. Web. 28 September 2012.

Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Little, Brown, 2003. Print.

Lancaster, Guy. “There Are Not Many Colored People Here”: African Americans In Polk County, Arkansas, 1896-1937.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly70.4(2011):429-449. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 September 2012.

Stewart, Bruce E. “When Darkness Reigns Then Is The Hour To Strike”: Moonshining, Federal Liquor Taxation, And Klan Violence In Western North Carolina, 1862-1872.” North Carolina Historical Review80.4(2003): 453-474. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 September 2012.

Wilkinson Jr., William Clayton. “Memories of The Ku Klux Klan In One Indiana Town.” Indiana Magazine of History102.4(2006):339-354. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 September 2012.

"About Lynching." About Lynching. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.

"The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest." Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media ». N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.