Alaina B - African American Literary Timeline (1900-1940) lyrics

In the aftermath of slavery and Reconstruction, African Americans struggled to find a sense of “home” in a country that continued to reject their rights as citizens and human beings. Facing the effects of systematic oppression—including segregation and widespread lynchings—black Americans perpetually found themselves estranged from mainstream society. During this time, W. E. B. Du Bois, founder of the NAACP, coined the term “double consciousness” to describe this uniquely African American experience of separate, dueling identities. This theme of alienation persists in African American literature, especially amidst the burst of talent and creativity ushered in by the Harlem Renaissance. The following excerpts highlight the sense of alienation and search for belonging present in African American literature from the period of 1900-1940. 1903: W. E. B. Du Bois publishes The Souls of Black Folk and coins the term “double-consciousness” Excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois (1903) It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face. 1910: The Great Migration begins, in which over 1 million southern blacks move from rural areas to northern cities Excerpts from “The City of Refuge” by Rudolph Fisher (1925) In Harlem, black was white. You had rights that could not be denied you; you had privileges, protected by law. And you had money. Everybody in Harlem had money. It was a land of plenty. King Solomon Gillis sat meditating in a room half the size of his hencoop back home, with a single window opening for an airshaft. An airshaft: cabbage and chitterlings cooking; liver and onions sizzling, sputtering; three player-pianos out-plunking each other; a man and a woman calling each other vile things; a sick, neglected baby wailing; a phonograph broadcasting blues; dishes clacking; a girl crying heartbrokenly; waste noises, waste odors of a score of families, seeking issue through a common channel; pollution from bottom to top — a sewer of sounds and smells. 1910: The first US civil ordinance segregating neighborhoods is approved in Baltimore Excerpt from “Incident” by Countee Cullen (1925) Now I was eight and very small, And he was no whit bigger, And so I smiled, but he poked out His tongue, and called me, 'n******g.' I saw the whole of Baltimore From May until December; Of all the things that happened there That's all that I remember. 1913: The Wilson administration institutes the segregation of work places, rest rooms, and lunch rooms in federal offices nationwide Excerpt from The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (1912) One day near the end of my second term at school the principal came into our room, and after talking to the teacher, for some reason said, "I wish all of the white scholars to stand for a moment." I rose with the others. The teacher looked at me, and calling my name said, "You sit down for the present, and rise with the others." I did not quite understand her, and questioned, "Ma'm?" She repeated with a softer tone in her voice, "You sit down now, and rise with the others." I sat down dazed. I saw and heard nothing. When the others were asked to rise I did not know it. When school was dismissed I went out in a kind of stupor. A few of the white boys jeered me, saying, "Oh, you're a n******g too." I heard some black children say, "We knew he was colored." 1916: Marcus Garvey arrives in the US from Jamaica and begins the “Back to Africa" Movement Excerpt from “Africa for the Africans” by Marcus Garvey (1923) The old time stories of “African fever,” “African bad climate,” “African mosquitos,” “African savages,” have been repeated by these “brainless intellectuals” of ours as a scare against our people in America and the West Indies taking a kindly interest in the new program of building a racial empire of our own in our Motherland. 1917: The United States enters World War I; around 370,000 African Americans join the armed forces Excerpts from “America” by Claude McKay (1921) Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth! Darkly I gaze into the days ahead, And see her might and granite wonders there, Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand, Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand 1919: The “Red Summer of Hate”: 83 African Americans are lynched (including many returning soldiers) Excerpt from Cane by Jean Toomer (1923) “Portrait in Georgia” Hair—braided chestnut, coiled like a lyncher's rope, Eyes—f*gots, Lips—old scars, or the first red blisters, Breath—the last sweet scent of cane, And her slim body, white as the ash of black flesh after flame. 1922: The Harlem Renaissance begins Excerpt from “I, Too,” by Langston Hughes (1925) I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then.