Table of contents: Introduction 3
Chapter II. AFTER SLAVERY(1865-1964)
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Chapter II.AFTER SLAVERY(1865-1964)According to Paul R. Spickard, an associate professor of history at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, it is useful to divide recent Afro-American history info four periods: (1) 1865-1920, from the beginning of Reconstruction, through the rise of Jim Crow and substantial Black migration to the North, to the end of the First World War; (2) 1920-1945, from Worlds War I to the end of the World War II; (3) the postwar period from 1945 to 1960; and (4) the era after 1960, which is famous for considerable changes for black people in virtue of the Civil Rights and Black Power movement (more detailed description will be given in the next chapter). During the first period (1865-1920) intermarriage has increased only slightly. Interracial sex and marriage did not change much in the first decades after emancipation. Black and white relationships continued working in the same way as they used to before the war. White men continued mingling with black women as they did before the war. White men cohabited with black women and the whites´ men attitude to their mulatto children differed. Some of them lived with their black women as husbands and their children got his affections, education and other things like in a typical family. Children called him daddy in the private, in public usually called their father Mr. (and his surname). There was the difference in number of relationships between black men and white women after the war. Some of the single white women cohabitated or married black men. One of the reasons was that there was little number of white men available. Many of white men were killed or maimed during the war. For both black and white women, loneliness was associated with increased willingness to consider intermarriage. Increased number of potential partners was with all women’s willingness to marry interracially. The other reason was that white women felt attracted to the black men because of allegations of the black man’s extraordinary strength and exhaustless sex desire (Root 24, 36). In the view of the fact that Negro-white intermarriage was forbidden by law in thirty states and condemned by the mores throughout the nation, it is not surprising that such marriages occurred rarely. In the available sources, there are some numbers from the North. Of course, the matter of intermarriage is more relevant for the South, however there are two facts to consider: at first, in the South, interracial marriage was denied and therefore any intermarriage official census was not done. Whence it follows that there was a very low number of people involved in intermingling. Second, not many Negro residents occurred in the North before Emancipation and before the migration of black people to the North. Still, there are some numbers useful for getting a rough idea: Negro-White Intermarriage
This low number of intermarriage simply reflects a high degree of conformity to strongly entrenched norms (Sollors 279ff). Identical with the doctrine of“no social equality”, scholars observed very low rates of black and white intermarriage after the abolition of slavery. For example, studies in major cities around the turn of the century all found that less than 1% of all black marriages involved a white person (Drachsler 1921; Panunzio 1942; Wright 1912) (Kalmijn 120). Even though it is not possible to say how common were marriages and other sexual partnerships across the racial lines after the Civil war (the census keepers´ methods were sloppy and their definitions of mulattoes varied), there their findings are, however, startling: they discovered that black population was becoming steadily lighter from 1850 to 1910 and there was a large growth in the number and percentage of mulattoes between 1890 and 1910. This research points to two social trends. The first one: the interracial marriage continued and the second one: mating between Afro-Americans with light people and producing light children. The term “mulatto” was falling out from common usage. Later many of the lightest Afro-Americans migrated north where they passed as white (Spickard 270f). There appeared many actions preventing interracial romance and marriage in the South. Some of them were extremely cruel and resulted in the death of the black men accused of the insult of a white woman. By the end of the Reconstruction, white opponents of intermarriage had come to see the problem solely in terms of black men and white women. On the other hand, they were much less active in dealing with the problem of white men harassing with black women. In brief, white men continued taking black women as concubines. It should be admitted, however, this type of intermingling was happening in a smaller number and maybe not so openly as before. On the whole, all the rhetoric and action against interracial sex and marriage was focused on black men (Spickard 285f). Anti-miscegenation laws were developed not to prevent any interracial marriage but to protect “whiteness”. People of different races (but white) could get married without difficulties. Interracial marriage between people of the color was rarely policed and legislated in the same way that white intermarriage was (Root 35). The big antipathy against interracial marriage was reflected in anti-miscegenation laws in the decades after slavery. The first laws making interracial marriage illegal date from 1660s in Maryland and Virginia. Soon twelve other states had legislated severe penalties similar to Virginia. Anti-miscegenation statutes, called Jim Crow law were valid nearly in all the states and slightly varied from state to state. In all but four states, interracial marriages were declared not only criminal act, but also null and void. Penalties were high ($ 1,000) and imprisonment for ten years and more. Some states forbade only marriage between Whites and Blacks. Others added Native Americans and Asians to the list of those who could not marry Whites. In some states they found it difficult to define who was a “Negro”. Usually, one was judged to be black if he had “one-eight of Negro blood”. Some of states did not care about the definitions and relied on common sense. Generally speaking, all these laws were created to protect Whites, which means prevent mating of black men and white women (Spickard 285f). Only a few Whites were against these laws. One of the most famous ones was former abolitionist Cassius M. Clay. This man fought for abolishing slavery and called it “our great national sin”. However, he did not speak in favor of intermarriage; he spoke in defense of natural right of human beings (to equality before law). Even if he did not support intermingling and marriage, almost no whites were on his side (Sollors 296). In the South whites began forming new laws and customs creating strict segregation. Mulattoes were losing their statues as a separate caste (in the middle of Whites and Blacks) and were classified as Blacks. This sort of pressure on Blacks and mixed people, together with increasingly complex barrier of Jim Crow laws was definitely working as a brake on the number of interracial marriages in the South. Still, Root mentions that “love is a powerful force” and such marriages took place in spite of the laws (34). Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border States, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-Black racism. Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that Whites were the Chosen people, Blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. <http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm> During Reconstruction white southerners were manic in their effort to stop miscegenation and protect white womanhood. “Racial hygienic platforms” were central of this goal. The system of whiteness was formed mostly through the rape and exploitation of black women and simultaneous lynching of black men for alleged crimes against white women (Dalmage 68). White women faced particularly harsh rules and regulations because of the loss of “sexual purity”. In other words, intercourse with other races endangers a visible race difference, which is a key driving force behind an ideology of whiteness that gives political, economic and social advantage to those people with “appropriate” race lineage. All these regulations were based on the myth of white racial purity that required white women to give birth to the offspring of white men only. Actually, many women played active roles in maintaining this myth of purity. Some of them really shared the opinion of lynching black men to protect white women from “drunken, ravening beasts”. They were not against lynching thousands of them a week if it became necessary. Women who gave birth to the child of color usually become pariahs in their families and society refused them as well. Such complicity has worked to strengthen the color line and white-supremacist abuses. It was and still has been discussed that white women should be protected because they are the “gatekeepers” of racial purity. Any white woman would trade with her white privilege and connections to white male power must be reprobate, unnaturally bad and bizarre (Dalmage 45f). Under Jim Crow not only sexual (but all) interactions between Black men and White women was illegal, illicit, socially unacceptable, and within the Jim Crow definition of rape. Some black men who mingled with white women were accused of rape and their punishment was to be lynched. Although only 19.2 percent of the lynching victims between 1882 and 1951 were even accused of rape, Lynch law was often supported on the popular belief that lynching was necessary to protect White women from Black rapists <http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm>. The Jim Crow system was under based on the following beliefs or rationalizations: Whites were superior to Blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior; sexual relations between Blacks and Whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating Blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep Blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. <http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm> <http://www.nps.gov/archive/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm> presents some examples of Jim Crow laws that used to be operative in some of the states in the USA: Intermarriage The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void. Arizona Intermarriage All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited. Florida Cohabitation Any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve (12) months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars. Florida Intermarriage It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white person. Any marriage in violation of this section shall be void. Georgia Intermarriage All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive, or between a white person and a member of the Malay race; or between the negro and a member of the Malay race; or between a person of Negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive, and a member of the Malay race, are forever prohibited, and shall be void. Maryland Intermarriage The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void. Mississippi Intermarriage All marriages between...white persons and negroes or white persons and Mongolians...are prohibited and declared absolutely void...No person having one-eighth part or more of negro blood shall be permitted to marry any white person, nor shall any white person be permitted to marry any negro or person having one-eighth part or more of negro blood. Missouri Intermarriage All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are and shall be illegal and void. Wyoming In the Dalmage´s book, there is a good example of how the Jim Crow laws worked in the real life: ´In the 1948 Walter White wrote,” I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me.”´ (121). This white looking black man risked his life to investigate lynching in the South. The story happened in Arkansas in 1920, where this young man narrowly escaped being lynched. He needed to travel out of the town, so he caught a train. On his way to the train, the white man told him: “You’re leaving, mister, just when the fun is going to start. . . . There’s a damned yellow nigger down here passing for white and the boys are going to get him.” White let this man’s assumption slide. In this case, letting it slide was a matter of life and death—and not only for him. The lives of thousands of Blacks rested on the result of his investigation (121). The era between 1920 and 1960 is a period restricted by two important events: the end of the World I to the Civil Rights movement. During this time, there was only a modest rise in the number of interracial marriages. Nevertheless, in that period appeared a group of white people who did not totally denounce black and white marriage (Spickard 288). Explanations of race and interracial relationships varied. Sociologist Gunnar Myrdal began to assert that race was not so much biological as a social notion. According to this man, phenomena such as interracial marriage must be evaluated on the social rather than biological grounds. Some people believe that his prediction of disappearance of racial and national boundaries, especially in marriage and politics, was right. He said that if people are given enough time, all groups can be absorbed into one group, in other words, in one mainstream culture. Another idea with the same meaning was: “If blacks and whites are intermarrying, then race must not matter as much any more” (Dalmage 33). Religious and moral explanations that were used to justify treatment of non-white people as inferior were not based on empirical science. Fundamental belief of a hierarchy supported the ideal of racial difference and practice of racial segregation. A main character in the development of racial classification system was the naturalist Linnaeus. He classified all living things including human beings. In Linnaeus system, humans are divided by race and typed by physical and emotional characteristics. For instance, people originating in Europe were (homo Europaeus) were typed as: “white, ruddy, stern, haughty, and ruled by opinion”. People originating in Africa (homo Afer) were typed as: “black, indulgent, cunning, slow, ruled by caprice”. Accordingly, European and American science classified human beings in such a way so as to be able to establish the superiority of persons of European lineage (Root 31). Sollors explains that in reference to progeny of racial intermixing, there is not a single anthropologist teaching available in the United States which subscribes to the theory that Negro-white mating cause biologically harmful result. In addition to these “scientific” arguments, defenders of the laws maintain that a state has an obligation to protect with the couples and their children from the psychological harm of social adjustment necessitated by miscegenation (60). One of the most famous and active speakers for segregation was Gerald L. K. Smith. He claimed that if Blacks and Whites share one playground, fire departments, streetcars, and schools (sharing schools was the worst thing that could happen), they would inevitably interbreed, and white Christian America would be doomed. Smith advocated ideas that filled most white people’s visions of black Americans for many years. The visions were based on grasping Negroes and radical stabilizers of the social order. Some of his aspects of dominance were:
Spickard 290 This hierarchy of the main discriminations shows a growing ambivalence in many Whites. Generally speaking, people of good will put some efforts to overcome racial prejudice. They did not want black people necessarily to suffer; they only wanted them to stay away. They usually wanted black people to live a full-value life and have everything the whites have (be free from prejudice in the court, get an university education, the best living conditions, to be paid as they are worth, and of course to enjoy all the Four Freedoms), however, they did not want them to live in their neighborhood, be guests in their houses and have contact with their children (for instance dancing together). Thus, intimacy between people of black and white race was absolutely unacceptable for them. Some of the whites really did not know what to think and how to act. Situation in this period was confusing for them. On one hand, they wanted black people to live as they did, on the other hand, they could not imagine they would live close to them and share the same values and relationships as they did with other whites (Spickard 289f). Situation was different during the World War II and after the war. Nothing symbolized the enormous impact of World War II on all aspects of American life than marriages. The war had disrupted the everyday lives of Americans, both Black and White. The war opened new spaces for intermingling, at least for the duration of the crisis. The massive military mobilization for the war sent black men overseas, where they met white women outside the conflicting strictures of segregation. Young Americans of all races moved out of their hometowns and felt free to experiment with new identity beyond the close supervision of their parents and familiar communities. Racial barriers were breaking down during the war crisis and there are small but significant numbers of couples who crossed racial barriers and married. World War II had the potential to foster a dramatic increase in the number of black-white marriages on the home front. Before the war many Americans had never left the region in which they were born (Romano 12f). The critical and uneven situation between Blacks and Whites was usually associated with the South, the similar treatment and attitudes to the black people were practiced on people of the color. Segregation was not domain of the South only, there are written materials describing the life of people of the color in the North. The similar harassment, maybe not in such an intensive way, was the lot of mixed couples in the North and West. In 1950 there was still a large number of north and western whites as Southerners who disagreed with interracial marriage. Many non-southern states did not have laws against intermingling and intermarriage, but that does not mean they did not disapprove and condoned dating between races and intermarriage. To demonstrate the situation the interracial couples faced when they wanted to marry, there are a few examples of problems they had to deal with: they had a problem to find a clerk to issue them licenses or ministers to marry them. Intermarried people usually complained about being fired from work after they told colleagues they were interracially married. On the other hand they lived in a constant fear of discovery if they did not say they were interracially married. They had difficulty buying house or renting apartments. Some students had to sign a pledge at a college promising not to fraternize with people opposite sex and different race (Black students could not fraternize with white women). White women in interracial relationships were treated by Whites like they were either communistic, or incapable of getting a white man, or at lest “a woman of lascivious tastes”. Interracial couples faced a very cruel and solid opposition from white parents. Situation was graduating when the marriage followed a divorce; several women’s custody of children was revoked by angry white judges. On the top of it, many couples had to endure stares, hate mail, and threatening phone calls (Spickard 292f). Loving v. Virginia was one of the most important events that contributed to abolishment of anti-miscegenation laws. The main characters of this trial were two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Negro woman, and Richard Loving. Virginia was still very well known for their strict anti-miscegenation laws and they were not able to get married in Carolina country, Virginia. What they done was that they got married in Washington D.C. in 1958, where interracial marriage was not illegal. After they got married they came back to Virginia, where they lived together until 1959. That year they were prosecuted and convicted of breaking the state’s (Virginia's) ban on interracial marriages. Their punishment was one year in prison. They had one more choice though. If they agreed to leave Virginia and not come back next 25 years, the sentence would be suspended. In short, the couple was forced to leave. They decided to come back to Washington; the state they got married in seemed to be the most familiar to them. In 1963 they initiated a suit challenging the constitutionality of the antimiscegenation law. In March of 1966 the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals made the decision according to the law, but then in June 1967 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled the law unconstitutional. The main success was that in 1967 the 16 states which still had antimiscegenation laws were forced to cancel them <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kdown/loving.html >. Some of the laws abolishing intermarriage were following: "Leaving State to evade law. -- If any white person and colored person shall go out of this State, for the purpose of being married, and with the intention of returning, and be married out of it, and afterwards return to and reside in it, cohabiting as man and wife, they shall be punished as provided in § 20-59, and the marriage shall be governed by the same law as if it had been solemnized in this State. The fact of their cohabitation here as man and wife shall be evidence of their marriage." "Punishment for marriage. -- If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years." <http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/loving.html>. Chapter III. PRESENT DAY (1950s- 2000) Since 1950s changes in American society started happening. One of the most important milestones in American history was The Civil right Movement. This movement refers to reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination of African Americans and was at peaking from 1955 to 1965. The civil Rights movement had a significant impact on the segregation that came of age during that era and their progeny. Several civil rights reforms set the conditions for quiet revolution that began in 1950s. Among the most important events during The Civil Right Movement come: (1) the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision regarding the case called Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (a city in Kansas), in which the plaintiffs charged that the education of black children in separate public schools from their white counterparts was unconstitutional. The unanimous opinion of the Court stated that the "segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a harmful effect upon the colored children. The Supreme Court decision formally repealed the Jim Crow laws of separatism on public places. In any case, Brown laid the foundation for race mixing and for future efforts to repeal the legal barriers between black and white races; (2) Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956. Rosa Parks refused to stand up of her seat in “colored section” of the bus for a white passenger. The Montgomery black community organized a Montgomery bus boycott until the buses are desegregated. The boycott lasted more than one year and was led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (3) Desegregating Little Rock, 1957(Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus.); (4) Sit-ins and Freedom Rides (Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter.), 1961; (5)The March on Washington, 1963 (for elimination of employment discrimination); (6) Organizing in Mississippi; (7) The Albany Movement, 1961-1967; (8) The Birmingham campaign, 1963-1964 (Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws). In September 1963, four young girls are killed when the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is bombed by members of Ku Klux Klan; (9) Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed July 2, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, ethnicity or national origin, employment and education. It also had a section about voting, but voting was addressed more substantially by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which repealed local discriminatory practices against minority (mainly black) voters; (10) August 1964, three civil-rights workers arrested by the police on speeding charges, then released after dark and murdered by Ku Klux Klan; (11) In February 1965, Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, was shot to death. It is believed the assailants were members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam; (12) In April 1968; President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. (Root 24) <http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/index.html> <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html> <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#1954> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955-1968)#Prelude_and_overview>. Approval and disapproval of intermarriage was a controversial issue from 1960 to the 1980s when the attitudes of White Americans towards interracial marriage became more relaxed and softened markedly. Some Whites wanted to be open-minded to interracial relationship and marriage theory, but in practical fact almost all of them identify with the thought of intermarriage with Blacks. By the 1980s, although many still were not absolutely ready for Black people entering their own families and involving their own life, most Whites (North and South too) became more used to the abstract idea of Black- White intermarriage and no longer felt threatened by it. In 1964 national Opinion Research Center tallies, 60 percent of Whites approved laws forbidding interracial marriage; in 1972 only 38 agreed with these laws. The table below shows the percentages of White Americans who approved and disapproved interracial marriage from 1968 to 1983, according to Gallup poll:
Even though the trend of greater acceptance of interracial marriage is clear, in 1983 more Whites opposed interracial marriage than approved. The reason could be that the Whites realized the impact of the intermarriage on their own family. According to Virginia Slims survey in 1975, only 14 percent of White women would accept and approve of their daughter’s marrying a black men, 32 percent would accept but not approve and 44 percent professed thy would not neither accept nor approve. Evidently there was a rapid change in whites´ opinion, but the full acceptance was not yet reached by the end of this period (Spickard 295f). Attitudes toward the black and white dating and marriage have not changed much. In contrast, there are people who do not hesitate to accept and approve intermarriage. There are a few different view points reflecting moods in today’s America. Yancey mentions four basic viewpoints: two favorable and who unfavorable. The first one is Approval of marriage, they find it normal and healthy (Yancey 176). From the perspective of biology, some people believe that all living organisms (plants, animals, humans) are strengthened by mixing different strains within the species. This means that both cross color and cross cultural marriages produce stronger and healthier offspring. The second one is “Approval as special and unique” (176). Those who go in this viewpoint believe that a marriage that has many things in common has a better change of success. Although they think that partners from the similar background, social standing and racial identities have better chance to be satisfied in the marriage, they support a couple in love and appreciate the fact they are willing to work hard to make their marriage succeed. For them these couples deserve to be supported and encouraged. The third one is rather negative: “Disapproval as questionable and problematic” (177). The ones holding this viewpoint do not believe in biological inferiority of any race. Their opinion is based on sociological or cultural (or both) dynamics. They try to predicate the future consequences: the couple can be compatible and willing to face opposition, the problem they see is their children. For them the children will become “innocent victims of racial slurs, stereotypes and mistaken identity”. In short, they believe that however the sincere the couple’s intentions are, the cost is too great. The last and the most radical viewpoint that Yancey mentions is: “Disapproval as neurotic and destructive” (177). The people holding this viewpoint agree on one thing: mixed marriage is wrong. Some believe that mixing races is the opposite of the first viewpoint (intermarriage weakens individuals physically). White supremacists, such as the KKK and skinheads want to protect racial purity. Others, including minority groups, are fearful that mixed marriage will lead to loss of racial or cultural identity (Yancey 178). On the contrary, in the matter of disapproval was not only on white people’s side. Minority reaction was rather negative when talking about mingling with Whites. The Blacks after so many years of difficulties and oppression from the Whites lost their temper and stopped being interested in assimilation in the white community. One of the clear examples of the loss of interest was the Black Power movement. Black Power was a political movement that arose in the middle 1960s. Black power attempted for expressing a new racial consciousness among Blacks in the USA. Robert Williams was the first who used this term and used the phrase “Black power” in his poetry with political context. The movement came from the earlier Civil Rights Movements, but the meaning differed from the previous movements and was often debated. The term refers to a conscious choice on the part of Blacks to nurture and promote their collective interests, advance their own values, and secure their own well-being and some measure of autonomy, rather than permit others to organize their life and future. The focus of Black Power advocates was not integration or any other single strategy. Rather, it was improving the status of black people <http://www.umich.edu/~eng499/concepts/power.html> <http://www.umich.edu/~eng499/> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power> <http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/black_power.html>. On 17th June, 1966, Stokely Carmichael, the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), spoke at a rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, and argued for Black Power. Carmichael stated this as "a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, and to build a sense of community" <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAblackpower.htm>. This man also established the slogan of "Black is Beautiful" and advocated a mood of black pride and a rejection of white values of style and appearance. For instance, Afro hairstyles and African forms of dress. Black Power represented racial dignity and self-reliance (freedom from white authority in both economic and political areas) <http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/power.htm>. The Nation of Islam is perhaps the best-known Black Power group. The Nation of Islam is a black nationalist and religious organization founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1930 by Wallace Fard. Main ideas were that African Americans could be successful if they were disciplined, racially proud, acknowledged of God, and physical separation from white society. After Fard disappeared in 1934, he was replaced by Elijah Muhammad. During the Second World War was Eliah Muhammad jailed until 1946. After his release from prison, Muhammad kept building membership of Black Muslims. He called for the establishment of separate nation for African Americans. In 1963 Malcolm X (was born Malcolm Little, changed his name after the came back from jail and converted to Black Muslims) became the most important figure by Muhammad thanks his extremist speeches. In 1964 Malcolm left the Black Muslims and established his own religious organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm rejected his former separatist beliefs and advocated world brotherhood. Malcolm X was shot dead at a party meeting in Harlem on 21st February, 1965. Three Black Muslims were later convicted of the murder. <http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/power.htm> <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmuslims.htm> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_supremacy#Black_Muslim_groups> <http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/about/bio.htm>. Another famous group supporting Black Power philosophy was called Black Panthers. The group was founded by Stokely Carmichael in Alabama in 1964. The Black Panthers were formed to protect local communities from police brutality and racism. They also ran medical centers and clinics and provided free food to school children (in Oakland they were feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school). Black panthers had many problems with the police and got involved in some shoot-outs. Another achievement of the Black Panther Party (they changed their name later) was that persuaded Chicago’s powerful street gangs to stop fighting against each other. Malcolm X’s ideas influenced the Black Panther’s leaders, which practically meant they strove to help international working class unity and supported action with white revolutionary groups <http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/2upa/Aaas/RAM.pdf> <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApantherB.htm>. The Pride of Blackness at present day has its roots in Black Power started in 1960s. While Whites have controlled the parameters of public race discussion so as to make race appear simple and natural, Blacks have maintained a wider sense of blackness. This sense claims and constructs cultural identity. For Blacks the identity is broader than just skin color and physical appearance and features. On the contrary, blackness is for many white Americans refers to racial identity, a category that the Europeans created and deliberately imposed on the Blacks for the purpose of domination. Basically, to many whites blackness is just a skin color as a person’s physical features period. Thus, black border patrolling takes place within the continuing creation of cultural identity. They share ideas like” You told us all along that we had to cal ourselves black because of this so called one drop. Now we don’t have to anymore, we choose to. Because black is beautiful. Because black is no a burden, but a privilege” (Dalmage 112). Blacks have a feeling of affirmation when other Blacks accept them as black. Multiracial people do not consider themselves as white, even if they appear white. It is unacceptable for many of multiracial people identify themselves as white and therefore they choose to claim identities other than white because of the political solidarity to people of color, sense of pride or affirmation. The matter of pride and solidarity is so important for them that if biracial people are not readily accepted as black, they feel hurt (Dalmage 111f). Intermarriage in regions differed. The extent to which interracial marriage occurred varied considerably according to region where black people lived. Rates of outmarriage were high where there were few members of ethnic community, low where there were many. Outmarriage rates were low in regions and neighborhoods where there were many black people because Blacks had lots of candidates from whom to choose. Moreover black and white communities acted to enforce endogamy. Proportionally larger number of outmarriage was in areas where there were few black people. In this case, individual Blacks either moved, stayed single, or married outside his race. Insofar that when Thomas Monahan studied marriage records in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia between 1967 and 1970, he found high rates of outmarriage in places that had very few black residents. For example, in Maine 30 percent, 47 percent in Vermont, 28 percent in South Dakota, 27 percent Hawaii. Wherever there were ethnic concentrations, intermarriage rates were lower. In Monahan’s study of Pennsylvania, much higher percentage of out state Blacks married non-Blacks comparing with residents of Philadelphia. According to Heer’s study of black outmarriage between 1960 and 1970, the highest percentage appeared in rural areas, not just in Pennsylvania, but through all the country. Nevertheless, mixed marriages were high in the cities as well. Heer found the largest increase in interracial marriage rate in the suburbs. These areas began to receive a significant number of Blacks and mixed couples for the first time in the 1960s. In several polls taken in 1960s and 1970s, people of both races living in the South opposed intermarriage much more than did Northerners. Supposing that the South was always well known for its restrictions and phobias and Black’s protection of their own community, it is not surprising that intermarriage rates were low. In contrast, the South was the place with highest amount of actual sexual mixing until recent years. In the Midwest states intermarriage rates differed. In some, such as Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota, rates were very high. In other states the rates were lower. The lowest Midwest rates were in Indiana. Northern states and cities where was a large population of Blacks (New York and New Jersey) had the least of out marriages. On the west coast a high number of marriages between Blacks and Whites was recorded. Interracial marriages in the West, Midwest and Northeast often couples Black men and White women than the opposite race-gender combination (Spickard 306f). Empirical research of black and white marriage in the 1960s and 1970s shows that not much has changed since then. Heer´s analysis (1974) of the 1970s census showed that the percentage of black marriages that involved whites was less than 1%. Monahan’s analysis of marriage license data for 35 states showed that the percentage of back marriages that were mixed reached 2.6% in the late 1960s. The major reason why these estimates differ is that Monahan considers marriages that were contracted at a certain point of time, while Heer considers the stock of marriages, which reflects both and past degrees of intermarriage and different attribution through mortality and divorce. Still, both numbers are very low and do not reveal any important change since the beginning of the twentieth century (Kalmijn 120). The percentage of interracial marriages, particularly between Blacks and Whites, remains low. Less than 1 percent of whites and 3 percent of blacks are in black-white marriages. Although these numbers are very small (they are slowly growing though), black and white multiracial families receive attention than do other multiracial families. This facts show seemingly immitigable connection between one-drop rule, which was the myth of racial purity mentioned in previous chapters, and the construction of race and family in the United States. Multiracial family members have a unique place in the USA racialized society. No matter if by birth, marriage or adoption, they are forced to think about race in their relationships with themselves and others (Dalmage 11, 16). Many families encounter racism when they present themselves as family at the public: June, a businesswoman who is raising two biracial sons in suburban Jew Jersey, commented, “I think America still hates [white] women who sleep with black men. And when they see you with these children, they want to believe you adopted them, which is usually the first question people will ask: ´Did you adopt them? ´ I always just say, ´No, I slept with a black man´.”. Dalmage, 48
”I am Cicily. That answer was good enough for me through high school. . . . Now I am still Cicily but I am multiracial as well.” Black classmate: “If there was any time I didn’t want to be around white folks, it was in Nigeria. . . .You just wanted to be comfortable, to be around your kind. And especially now, where you are now the majority, where the tables are turned. . . . and everywhere you look there are just black people. . . . just looking around and just wondering whether I was related to them somehow. . . . The white students couldn’t understand why we wanted to be together. . . . We didn’t really want explain. We just wanted to be.”… Black student: “Yes, you have to choose. . . . If you want to be down, you have to choose that you’re black. . . .You’re either down with us or you’re not down with us. You couldn’t be both. You have to be one or the other.” Cicily: “When I was growing up I didn’t have to choose.”[….] “It’s hard to think that people are just saying things about you because of the color of your skin because you have no control over it.”[….] “For the rest of the bus ride, all I could hear was, ´I didn’t come on this trip to hang around no half-breeds.´” (An American Story, Episode 3) Neither the black or white community accepts children born of mixed marriages. These children faced problems of insecurity, anxiety, and emotional instability in 1970s and 1980s. Biracial children would cannot identify with both parents because they are somewhere in the middle. These challenges lead to the spite towards one or both parents. Another problem is society and child’s ranking in black and white community. The biracial child will have a higher status in the Black community because their skin color is usually lighter. The lighter biracial child will gain advantages over the darker skinned children. On the other hand, the lighter skinned child will be shunned from the Black community by the Blacks and what is more, the White community will not fully accept the child because he or she is still of Black skin. These disadvantages will cause the child to be caught in the middle of the two communities with no support. Educating children and explaining this dilemma is not always easy, especially for parents who come from two completely different backgrounds. There is no evidence that interracial home is harmful to a child. Another difficulty may occur with child’s grandparents. Of course, grandparents usually become very attached to the child and the biracial family will get closer together. However, even though the grandparents love their grandchild, they will keep their distance because of fear they will get labeled for associating with a black family (the public prejudice and historical viewpoints can be stronger than their love for their grandchildren). One last negative effect children receive because of their racial identity come from their siblings. In short, some biracial children can pass as white and whereas others can not. Passing as white can lead to the receiving privileges of white society of the whiter child, which can cause resentment among family members and barriers to sibling closeness. In contrast, the child who passed as white may struggle with its public identity (efforts to hide the existence of relatives of color). Apart from disadvantages, there are some advantages to biracial children and their families. At first the child knows multiple racial perspectives and will be better able to relate to people in more than one racial group. Besides, parents learn things about their own sense of identity as they are bringing up their own children. That helps both, the parents and the child too
At second, advantage in education. A biracial child can gain the educational advantage which is given to children of color (the United Negro College Fund- the nation’s largest, oldest, most successful and most comprehensive minority higher education assistance organization and The Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation- for teachers, patents and students, education and understanding learning differences, libraries). These benefits have been established to achieve educational goals for the whole population and reduce racist discrimination <http://www.uncf.org/aboutus/index.asp>, <http://www.hellofriend.org/>. Indeed, among school children, high proportions of cross-race friendships have been linked with social skills and achievement increase. It is said the interracial friendships seem to be less stable; however, persons with high proportion of cross-race friends have greater stability and interracial friendship quality than persons with low proportion of cross- race friends. Whence it follows that cross-race friendships are associated with reduced bias and greater social competence. The proportion of cross-race friendships in the USA is obviously increasing for both children and adults. Tuch, Sigelman, and MacDonald reported data from their massive survey collected from 1976 to 1995. Respondents (African-American and Caucasian high school seniors) were asked about the composition of their group of friends. The percentage of African-American with all or the same- race friends is lower than Caucasians. Cross race friendships increased in 1970s and early 1980s, but trend reversed in the early 1990s. In 1995, there was about 52 percent African-Americans who had all or most of the same-race friends, and about 63 percent of Caucasians <http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~liz/interracialrelationships/#introduction>. Download 198.18 Kb. Share with your friends:
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