Chapter 20, The American Dilemma

-blacks made their most significant improvements in education in the second half of the 20th Century
-1977: 9.3% of college students are black

-1945, black colleges had white presidents
-Increase in black leadership. By1965, black colleges had black presidents
-1970 Clifton Wharton became the first black president of a white college, Michigan State
-1978, Wharton became a chancellor of the State University of New York system

-1970s: The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare required that institutions have affirmative action hiring programs
-the number of black professors with tenure remained small
-graduate and professional training of blacks increased as a larger number of them sough such opportunities

Court Battles
-1935, Donald Murray was successful in gaining admission to the law school of the University of Maryland.
-1938: Chief Justice Hughes said that it was the duty of the state to provide education for all of its citizens and that provision must be made within the state.
-Maryland and West Virginia made it possible for blacks to attend historically white institutions
-1946, Ada Sipuel fought for admission to the University of Oklahoma law school
-Oklahoma decided to establish a separate law school
-finally gained admission to the university law school in 1949
-G. W. McLaurin went there but the university officials segregated him in the classroom, library, and cafeteria.
-Herman Sweatt was admitted to the University of Texas law school

Southern Fear
-the South did not want Plessy v. Ferguson overturned
-Southerners did not want to open all public institutions of higher education to African Americans
-1951, the University of Louisville employed one black professor
-The NAACP fought segregation as unconstitutional and as a clear contrevention of the “Judeo Christian tradition”
-1954, Brown v. Board of Education, banned segregated public schools because separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.
-the South lagged behind the rest of the nation in extending the use of its resources and facilities to blacks
-By 1935: 83/565 public libraries were open to blacks

Major Black Scholars
-George E. Haynes
-Charles S. Johnson
-E. Franklin Frazier

Humanities Scholars:
-Alain Locke,
-J. Saunders Redding
-Sterling Brown
-Ulysses Lee

Scientific:
-George Washington Carver
-Elmer S. Imes
-Ernest E. Just
-Julian Lewis
-William A. Hinton
-Percy Julian
-Charles Drew
-Daniel Hale Williams

-1916, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History published the Journal of Negro History
-Carter Woodson, edited the journal
-1931, The Journal of Negro Education, edited by Charles Thompson

Opportunities For Self-Expression

-the richness of the Harlem Renaissance was both a stimulant and an inspiration for the wealth of talent displayed in later years
-Jazz no longer belonged to Harlem, it flourished in New Orleans and Memphis

Major Players
Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Mary Lou Williams
New York, Chicago, Las Angeles clubs employed black orchestras, singers, and dancers
Classical: William Grant Still composed Africa, Afro-American Symphony, and Symphony in G Minor: Song of a New Race
steady increase in widely acclaimed black singers (p. 458)
Paul Robeson and Roland Hayes, Edward Matthews, Aubrey Pankey, Kenneth Spencer, William Warfield
the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to permit Marian Anderson to use Constitution Hall in Washington

White Writer’s Incorporation of black themes
-Paul Green and a number of his colleagues at the University of North Carolina continued to employ black themes and materials in their works
“Dark Symphony,” a poem, was published in the Atlantic Monthly

Arna Bontremps
-1931, God sends Sunday
-1936, Black Thunder
-1939, Drums at Dusk
-1945, They Seek A City
-1966, Anyplace But Here

William Attaway
-1939, Let Me Breathe Thunder

1940s Writing
-Richard Wright wrote Uncle Tom’s Children
-1940, Native Son was published
-1945, Black Boy
-1953, The Outsider

Ralph Ellison
-Invisible Man, National Book Award (1952)
-1964, Shadow and Act

Blacks emergence as actors
-Paul Robeson starred as Orthello
-Hilda Simms in Anna Lucasta
-Gordon Heth, in Deep Are the Roots
-Canada Lee, in On Whitman Avenue
-Hallelujah, 1st all black film

The World Of African Americans
-Negro ghettos continued
-poor housing, unemployment, inadequate recreational facilities, and similar conditions contributed to delinquency among children and separation among parents
-a substantial middle class emerged

Black Muslims
-the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslims were concerned with black alienation
-sought complete separation from the white community
-Malcolm X was a prominent Black Muslim
-he was assassinated early in 1965
-Muhammad Speaks, organizational newspaper

Church Life
-blacks turned to the church for self-expression, recognition and leadership.
“the place of refuge” to the black community

Black Press: A Forum For Politics, Education, and Exposure:
-Frederick Douglass, the North Star, fought slavery
-Fortune’s New York Age, fought the relegation of black Americans to second-class citizenry
-In the 20th century: black newspapers fought for the underpriviledged
move to industrial centers for work
urged support of war
fought for complete integration

-the number of black newspapers increased steadily

p.468
-white newspapers did not present opinions the black community appreciated
-$35 million worth of investment in black newspapers, 10,000 writers
-after WWI, the black professional class grew
-fraternities and sororities, served as the nucleus for civic and recreational facilities
-motion pictures, popular source of entertainment for blacks
-the National Negro Congress (1936), contained 500 black organizations
-1946, fought a Virginia bus company that promoted segregation
-Washington introduced Negro Health Week, to promote good health among the black community
-blacks did not want to live in a separate world from whites
-blacks did not want to be guinea pigs for psychological experiments
-North Carolina and Fisk University undertook to present graphic and scientific pictures of the status of blacks in American society
-most black youth did not have equal opportunities
-the environment of black youth often influenced them to act in shiftless, irresponsible, and aggressive ways
-Gunnar Myrdal of the University of Stockholm-most ambitious study of blacks
-Commission of Interracial Cooperation, fought for equal opportunities for blacks
-Southern Conference for Human Welfare (1938), liberal group to improve the conditions of blacks
-1950s/1960s: psychologists demonstrated that prejudice among children only reflects the attitudes of their parents
-Headstart was developed
-SEEK at the University of New York: Critics thought it would increase the amount of unqualified students for City University.
-the importance of the problem was dramatized.