Black on white: a historical analysis of the African American experience

Abstract

This paper will examine some unique concepts of black nationhood within the dominant white culture of America. The paper will first analyze the history of the African American experience in their struggle to gain a relatively stable American identity. It is important that the paper presents a critical overview of America's history of institutional slavery, Jim Crow segregation, Equal but Separate policies, and others of its kind. The later part of the paper will discuss some distinct African American political, cultural and artistic movements which helped to simultaneously question and define the position of the African American in white America. These would include the redefinition of anthropology in the 20lh century, WEB. Du Bois' Pan-Africanism, Marcus Garvey's "Back to Africa" project and the New Negro Movement of the 1920s. Whilst discussing some specifically African American theories in the reading, the paper will also present examples of how African American writers and poets respond to their "black history."