I am back from the dead! A brief explanation for my long absence can simply be summed up with the facts of plagues and school vacation.
We finished the Reconstruction unit with a group RSA Animate-style project, labeling the radical republicans attempts a success or failure. In the end, it was decidedly a failure after the assassination of President Lincoln and the inauguration of Andrew Johnson. Following suit is Congress's inability to enforce the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments with the institution of black codes and Jim Crow laws. Along with the KKK and the establishment of institutions such as sharecropping; African Americans once again received the short end of the stick.
Upon our return from winter break, we have divulged into our Civil Rights units. We began with the dispute between Booker T. Washingtons ideas of African Americans new place in society and W.E.B. DuBois vehement disagreement with the belief that change had to begin straight away or else it never will.
Today we studied Marcus Garvey, the founder it the UNIA, a radical leader with the belief that black people should have a country of their own where they should be given the fullest opportunity to develop politically, socially, and industrially. Basically he was the preacher of black nationalism. We compared these with other documents of the times which depicted the controversial intensity of this issue as Garvey notably denounced the idea of social equality and the integration of the races. This definitely conflicts with the attitude of civil equality many African Americans possessed. Undoubtably, Garvey's ideas had underlying truth. Truth that it is possible that blacks will never be socially equal to whites, so why not move back to their homeland and start over? This is a very important question that I am sure we will delve into deeper in the coming weeks.
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