PROGRESS & POVERTY

AFAM B201 – Intro to African American Studies

November 20, 2014 – Najmah Thomas, Ph.D.

Introduction

Recap 11.18.21 CRA (Civil Rights Acts)

Black Power

Womanism

Progress & Poverty Background – 1970s-90s

The Evidence of Things Not Seen

11.18.21 Recap - Civil Rights

Acts

“It was never government action alone…”:CRA 1957 – voting rights; Civil Rights

Division

CRA 1960 – protect voting rights

24th Amendment – no poll tax

CRA 1964 – EEOC - Commission on Civil Rights, federally assisted program non-discrimination; $ and TA for Department of Ed desegregation

Voting Rights Act of 1965 – federal examiners, no literacy tests

11.18.21 Recap - Black Power

A Movement Within the Civil Rights

Movement:

Spectrum of ‘hate/violence’ to ‘self-defense’

Malcolm X views pre/post Mecca

S. Carmichael: self-worth, self-love, self-

respect

11.18.21 Recap - Womanism

Blackness and womanhood:

Black Power = male-centered

White feminism/feminists

A. Walker ‘womanism’ – alternative political

identity

Progress and Poverty -

Background

Black Middle Class

Political

Appointments

Sports &

Entertainment

Black Underclass

Undeserving Poor

Police Brutality

Progress Poverty

1. The Thesis

2. The Case

3. The Evidence

The Evidence of Things Not

Seen

The Evidence of Things Not

Seen

James Baldwin – ‘soul witness’:

Born 1924 Harlem, NY

Go Tell It on the Mountain, The Fire Next Time

Emigrated to France, died 1987

Significance of the title:

Hebrews 11:1

‘Double entendre’

Faith in humanity, No real progress

Trial evidence covered up the truth

The Thesis

The ‘Atlanta Child Murders’ is

devastating proof of the myth

of integration.

“A writer is always listening to what is not being

said…” –p95

The Case

Atlanta, GA

1979-80

Black Administration

22 months, 28 murders

All Black children:

except 2 Black men

all boys, except 2 Black girls

Wayne Bertram Williams

23 year old Black male

Arrested and convicted…

The Evidence - integration

Integration is a myth:

Black people didn’t ask for integration (p22)

White people don’t hate Black people (p22)

Integration left captives in the ghetto (p23, pp25-

26; pp35-36, pp56-57)

Atlanta’s Black Administration = cosmetic

progress (p26, p38-39)

The Evidence – devastation

Fail the youth, fail the future (p17):

“Sorriness” - dilemma of the Black American male

(p19)

Boyhood/manhood/emasculation (p21)

Emmett Till (p48)

The Evidence – devastation

Wealth, not money, is power:

Poor children, poor children (p8, p49; p62-64,

p69)

No wealth, no power (p38, p62-63)

Men cannot live by profit alone (p31)

Undeserving poor (p32)

The Evidence – Williams

Rockers and mirrors…(p72-73)

The numbers (p4, p12, p14, p98)

The pattern (p99, p110-111)

The FBI screw-up (p15, p107-108)

The fibers (p97, p107)

The defense (p106, p109, p114, p118-119)

The Verdict (according to

Baldwin)

“The present social and political apparatus

cannot serve human need.” p124

“This is the only nation under heaven that

contains the universe…that can hope to begin to

liberate-mankind...”

“I know this sounds remote now, and that I will

not live to see anything resembling this hope

come to pass. Yet, I know that I have seen it – in

fire and blood and anguish, true, but I have

seen it.”