BLACK RAGE: HISTORICAL STUDY Essay, Research Paper
BLACK RAGE:
A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
Outline
Thesis Statement: Throughout the history of the United States, as seen through an
analysis of African-American literature and rhetoric, black rage has not only existed, but has grown. As the momentum toward equality is clearly evident in the black race?s struggle, the question of where (or when) this rage will subside (if ever) remains unanswered. In examining black rage, four distinct periods of American history should be considered: slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Era, and contemporary America.
I. Introduction
A. Background
1. Throughout African-American history, a presence of ?black rage? is identifiable through both African-American literature and rhetoric.
2. This rage has emanated from a state of racial inequality and has gained
momentum throughout history.
B. The Problem
1. When dealing with the concept of racial equality, the question must be asked: Can two races live together in equality?
2. It has yet to be proved that a state of equality can be obtained in the United States for African Americans.
3. Given the momentum that exists within African-American society to gain more freedom, is a reversal in racial power inevitable?
II. Slavery in America: Slavery is the source of black rage.
A. Perhaps the earliest voice of black rage is that of David Walker
B. Nat Turner?s insurrection solidified white America?s fear of rebellion.
C. Perhaps the most militant voice of black rage during slavery is that of Henry
Highland Garnett.
D. Fredrick Douglass, though a more moderate voice, also demonstrates the rage of his race.
III. Reconstruction and Jim Crow: With slavery abolished, equality was still not
accomplished, further embittering African Americans and fueling the desire to
overcome.
A. T. Thomas Fortune explains the plight of the black race during Reconstruction, proclaiming that nothing has been solved; slavery is gone, but the black man is not free.
B. Marcus Garvy stands alone as one who has vehemently sought to channel the rage of his people militantly.
C. Langston Hughes epitomizes the plight of the black race in America in his poetry.
D. Sterling Brown?s ?Strong Men? outlines the black struggle in America, illustrating a momentum of black rage.
E. James Weldon Johnson and Ralph J. Bunch justify violent channeling of rage to overcome oppression.
F. Claude McKay advocates violence and fighting back.
G. W. E. B. Du Bois, though a more moderate black voice, prophesies the coming of an inevitable race conflict in America.
IV. The Civil Rights Movement: The Civil Rights movement, perhaps the greatest
demonstration of black rage in American history, produces an explosion of rage
rhetoric.
A. In the struggle for civil rights, the rhetoric of revolution dominates as one major theme of black rage.
B. Accompanying revolutionary thought, black rhetoric or rage also strongly advocates the use of violence.
C. Black Power, advocating revolution and violence, dominates the forefront of black-rage demonstration.
D. One organization that aims to channel black rage militantly beyond the efforts of others is the Black Panther Party.
F. The struggle for social power between white and black America was brought to a head during the Civil Rights Era.
G. While many during the Civil Rights Movement supported a nationalistic movement with a separate black government, the possibility of black dominance in America, a reversal of racial power, was also voiced.
H. Perhaps encapsulating the entire struggle of rage during the Civil Rights Movement are the works of Malcolm X.
I. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also sought to channel black rage to effect change.
V. Black Rage in Contemporary America: In contemporary American society,
African-American equality has yet to be realized, and rage still exists.
A. The battle for civil rights is not over.
B.. Black rage is still present.
C. Can a state of equality ever be obtained between whites and blacks in America?
D. Understanding what it took to gain civil ground in the past, what is it going to take in contemporary America?
F. The Los Angeles riots as well as conducted research demonstrate that rage is still present and waiting to act.
VI. The Conclusion
A. Review of the major issues
1. Slavery is the source of black rage in America.
2. With slavery abolished equality was still not accomplished, further
embittering African Americans and fueling the desire to overcome.
3. The Civil Rights movement was perhaps the greatest demonstration of black
rage in American history.
4. In contemporary American society, African-American equality has yet to
be realized.
B. The answer, the solution, the final opinion
1. White American society is unwilling to give up control, and Black American
society is unwilling to settle for anything less than total equality.
2. The momentum of rage and desire to overcome inequality will force the issue
and produce a reversal of racial power in America.
Black Rage:
A Historical Analysis
Revolution? In America? America was founded and built upon the very principle that it is acceptable for an oppressed people to rise up in rebellion to secure freedom, independence, and self-government. In the Declaration of Independence, America?s most esteemed founding patriarchs exclaimed to King George, ?We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . .? But not black men. The black race has been enslaved, dehumanized, trampled, kept down, suppressed, quieted, and stripped of human rights from the very conception of this glorious country, America. And what was expected in response from this race of oppressed people? Submission and abeyance! How long did the oppressors expect to keep an entire race of men down? Indefinitely! So they thought.
The ?Negro problem? has plagued white America ever since the framers refused to recognize the black race?s rightful and just claim to human rights and equality. Slavery divided the nation in the bitterest battle ever fought between the shores of the country. The Civil Rights Movement threw the nation into turmoil and riot never before experienced between her borders. No, black people would not quietly submit and accept the unjust conditions imposed upon them. They would not rest as long as they were enslaved and dehumanized. They would not quietly submit to ?separate-but-equal? inequality. They would (and they will) overcome.
Black rage, coined and defined in the heat of the Civil Rights Movement, has existed throughout the history of America. While rage may be defined as expressed solely in acts of physical violence and fury, rage also indicates a ?violence of feeling, desire, or appetite . . . a violent desire or passion? (Webster?s 1187). And this is exactly what constitutes ?black rage.? William Grier and Price Cobbs, in their 1968 revolutionary analysis Black Rage, relate the rage experienced by the black community to the intensity of their feelings about the oppression they have experienced. They write, ?Observe [that] the amount of rage the oppressed turns on his tormentor is a direct function of the depth of his grief, and consider the intensity of the black man?s grief? (210). [THESIS:] Throughout the history of the United States, as seen through an analysis of African-American literature and rhetoric, black rage has not only existed, but has grown. As the momentum toward equality is clearly evident in the black race?s struggle, the question of where (or when) this rage will subside (if ever) remains unanswered. In examining black rage, four distinct periods of American history should be considered: slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Era, and contemporary America.
Slavery in America
The oppression imposed by the white race upon black humanity in America has not been without consequence. The oppression has caused a state of rage, black rage, within the heart and soul of the black race that has not gone unnoticed nor unanswered. From the beginning of this country, rooted in the bitter guile and dehumanization of the slavery, threat — reality, rather — of black resistance, rebellion, and victory has been more than manifest in America. Gabriel Prosser , Denmark Vesey , David Walker, Nat Turner, and
Frederick Douglass, as well as many others, have all struck fear in the hearts of whites; America realized that she would not forever be able to keep the black race subjugated. Rage spoke out. It spoke out through the written word. It spoke out in powerful oratory and condemning proclamation. It spoke out in physical and violent uprising. The inner feeling of rage caused by the grief of oppression transformed itself into physical, violent rage. Yes, black rage, speaking out against the atrocities of oppression and enslavement of a race, would be heard; it would be expressed.
Perhaps the earliest voice of black rage is that of David Walker. According to Arthur Smith and Stephen Robb, editors of The Voices of Black Rhetoric: Selections, Walker?s ?protest speeches and essays marked him as the most dangerous individual the pro-slavery forces had ever encountered. Walker spoke boldly, talking revolution and insurrection? (10). In his Appeal, Walker petitions heaven against slavery and reminds America of nations throughout history — Egypt, Rome, Spain — that have suffered destruction because of such inhumanity. He emphatically and undeniably implies that America will face the same destruction (27-8). For his proclamation, Walker died a mysterious, yet murderous death in 1831. But though the prophet be destroyed, the message of ?rage? would endure.
Since Walker?s appeal, the threat of slave insurrection intensified, leaving a growing fear in the heart of white America. Nat Turner, though not the first threat of slaves taking up arms in rebellion, solidified that fear. Threat became reality. In 1831, Turner led a slave insurrection in Tidewater, Virginia, killing over sixty whites. Benjamin Quarles, author of Black Abolitionists, explains that Turner?s insurrection and Walker?s Appeal, as well as other militant abolitionist sentiment, combined to express the realist ideal of black armed revolt abolishing slavery (17-18).
Perhaps the most militant voice of black rage during slavery is that of Henry
Highland Garnet. In his 1843 proclamation, ?An Address to the Slaves of the United
States of America,? Garnet advocates resistance to slavery at all costs, even unto death.
He proclaims, ?You had far better all die — die immediately, than live slaves . . .? (36).
Advocating rebellion and the shedding of blood, Garnet asserts that ?there is not much hope of Redemption without the shedding of blood. If you must bleed, let it all come at once — rather, die freemen, than live to be slaves? (36). Arguing from a historical context, Garnet illustrates a pattern of rebellion and resistance, noting Vesey, Turner, Joseph Cinque , and Madison Washington (37-8). Although Garnet warns, ?We do not advise you to attempt a revolution with the sword, because it would be inexpedient,? he does proclaim, ?Let your motto be RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resistance? (37-38). But to what extent would RESISTANCE lead?
While voices of black rage have persisted throughout American history, so too have more moderate voices of nonviolence and conciliation. However, these voices have often served to channel black rage, contributing to the race?s determination to overcome. One such example is Frederick Douglass. In an 1847 address to the Anti-Slavery Society in England, Douglass, while maintaining that he was a ?peace-man,? opposing violence, clearly demonstrates that ?all Christian means? have failed (?The Right? 66-7). In his
famous ?Fourth of July Oration? of 1852, Douglass warns America of her impending crisis. He proclaims,
Oh! Be warned! A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation?s bosom; the
venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic;
for the love of God tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and
let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever. (82)
But the warning would not be heeded. Douglass?s comment signifies that the rage, the fury, the impending inevitability of crisis, is a result of white America?s persistent failure to peacefully concede. And in 1861, Douglass issues this judgment against America:
The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to
recognize it for a time; but the ?inexorable logic of events? will force it
upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war
for and against slavery; and that it can never be effectually put down till
one or the other of these vital forces is completely destroyed. The
irrepressible conflict, long confined to words and votes, is now to be
carried by bayonets and bullets, and may God defend the right! (my emphasis)
(?Nemesis? 80)
Once considered a ?peace-man,? Douglass here advocates bloodshed and violence, harnessing rage to overthrow oppression. As would be seen throughout American history, Rage has risen indeed to the height of ?irrepressible conflict.?
When considering the extent to which rage will lead, one must ask, what if white America did not engage in civil war? What if white abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison , John Brown , and many others did not adamantly stand against slavery? Would blacks have waited, continuing in bonds, until white deliverance arrived? Or, would they have risen up in rebellion likened unto the Amistad and once and for all declared themselves free and autonomous from white oppression? History will not afford us the answers to these questions. One thing is certain, however: a momentous movement towards that end can be historically traced and noted. According to Quarles,
Since American institutions . . . lacked the strength or will to subdue
slavery, other and more revolutionary techniques would begin to take hold
of men?s minds. Thus in the two decades prior to 1860 the notion of an
armed confrontation mounted in intensity, however inapparent on the
surface. On the eve of the Civil War, then, the idea of physical violence to
free the slave was far from new. Since the time of Nat Turner this idea of a showdown by force of arms had been a recurring theme in Negro thought.
Black fire-eaters did not go out of style with David Walker. (224)
Reconstruction and Jim Crow
In the heat of the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation announced that slaves throughout the South were free, that slavery had finally come to an end. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution proclaimed that ?equal protection of the laws? should be provided to all persons, regardless of race. Yes, the black race has finally
received the freedom for which they longed. The rage would now subside, wouldn?t it? The wrong had finally been righted, hadn?t it? No. Throughout the Reconstruction period and the era of Jim Crow, black rage continued to express itself through the literature and rhetoric of an embittered, underprivileged black race, a race kept down far too long. No, equality and total freedom were not ensured nor afforded the black race. As a result, rage continued.
And so did white oppression. Plessy vs. Ferguson declared that separate but equal was the new law of the land — the new way of dealing with the ?Negro problem.? The Ku Klux Klan governed the South. Ghettos contained blacks in northern cities. All was well in the mind of white America. All was peaceful in the good-ol? U. S. of A. But was it? What about the rage of a race of people that were still oppressed and grieved? No, the rage had not been eased; it had grown in bitterness and guile. Blacks were risen from slavery, promised equality, promised ?forty acres and a mule ,? only to be denied, to be shoved back down.
Yes, black rage persisted. In fact, it was louder and more profound during Jim Crow than it was during slavery. In the title poem of her 1942 book, For My People, Margaret Walker Alexander writes,
Let a new earth rise.
Let another world be born.
Let a bloody peace be written,
. . .
Let the dirges disappear.
Let a race of men now rise and take control! (my emphasis) (436)
In fact, with white concession of emancipation arose greater black boldness to express the rage, the ?violent desire or passion? that boiled in the hearts of the black race for nearly three centuries. William Monroe Trotter, in his 1902 rebuke of Booker T. Washington?s conciliatory efforts, calling him a ?Benedict Arnold of the Negro race,? proclaims,
O for a black Patrick Henry to save his people from this stigma of
cowardness [sic]; to rouse them from their lethargy to a sense of danger; to
score the tyrant and to inspire his people with the spirit of those immortal
words: ?Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.? (202)
Rage had taken new, revolutionary form.
Two distinct voices of black rage during the Jim Crow era are T. Thomas Fortune and Marcus Garvey. Fortune, in his 1884 essay ?The Negro and the Nation,? explains the plight of the black race during Reconstruction, proclaiming that nothing has been solved; slavery is gone, but the black man is not free. His essay concludes that revolution to throw off the white tyrant is inevitable. He states, ?The throne itself must be rooted out and demolished? (134). He, as did Douglass, also warns of an impeding crisis: