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Assimilation vs. Nationalism The concept of Black Nationalism refers to the desire of Black Americans to control their own destiny through control of their own political organizations and through the formation and preservation of their own cultural, economic and social institutions. In a sense, Black Nationalism is almost a religious ideology that emphasizes the ultimate ascendancy of Black Americans over White Americans. Black Nationalism has existed for a long time in the United States, and remains a pervasive force in the black community.
The initial aims of nationalism in Africa were to seek accommodation with the colonial system, make it beneficial to Africans, minimize exploitation and oppression, and deal with assumptions of racial inferiority. The article deals with the assimilation of black college students in a society where they have been oppressed. Basically, are they assimilating or do they want control of their own destiny? The Question is, how would they attain this? How would they break away from the domination of whites over their institutions? Per Stokley Carmichael’s phrase “By any means necessary”.
Be it violence or non violence. Did the author achieve his goal? The author did not state his intended goal. I felt he could have expounded more on how he felt the students assimilated or why he thought they wanted to assimilate. He achieved his goal when he spoke about Nationalism. Because most African American want their own identity. What brought me to this research? When I look at how Nationalism affected Africans I started thinking about how it affects students at HBCU’s. Because we want a better life style for ourselves and our children, we are sometimes said to want to be white or to want to assimilate. Example) oldest daughter went to San Diego State, oldest son went to PV, and my youngest son refuses to go to an HBCU, he is going to UTSA. Key Words: WASP: White, Anglo, Saxon, Protestant New Negro Movement Black Nationalism – to the desire of Black Americans to control their own destiny through control of their own political organizations and through the formation and preservation of their own cultural, economic and social institutions. Race Relations Info Center ??? An independent Nashville-based organization that investigates and analyzes racial problems. The Negro Public Colleges ??? what is known now as HBCU’s
Bifurcated: to divide into two parts Black Elite: Free Blacks who managed to acquire property Assimilation: the process by which individuals from one cultural group merge, or “blend,” into a second group. The New Negro Movement: Originally called the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary and intellectual flowering that fostered a new black cultural identity in the 1920s and 1930s. Critic and teacher Alain Locke described it as a “spiritual coming of age” in which the black community was able to seize upon its “first chances for group expression and self determination. The NSL: (Natl Student League the agent of the Communist Party and the Young Communist League on American campuses during the 1930’s and deeply valued active protest instead of sitting around and debating the problems that the students faced. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE): In 1942, CORE began protests against segregation in public accommodations by organizing sit-ins change racist attitudes. The founders of CORE were deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings of nonviolent resistance.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC): On February 1, 1960, a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (pronounced “snick”), was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh two months later to coordinate these sit-ins, support their leaders, and publicize their activities.
Council of Freedom Organizations (COFO): The (COFO) Council of Federated Organizations was creted in 1962 by local civil rights activists who joined forces with the SNCC, NAACP, SCLC, and CORE representatives. In the fall of 1963, COFO launched a project called Freedom Vote, which gave blacks parties in registering and voting, and therefore making the Mississippi and Federal government know that blacks wanted to vote, even though there might be no actions token whatsoever.
The organization ran a mock election parallel to the gubernatorial race. The COFO launched another project in the fall of 1963, which is the Mississippi Freedom Summer project. It dealt with hundreds of volunteer student s form every state to help encourage Mississippi’s black neighborhoods to register and support the Freedom Party candidates. Unlike the Freedom Vote project, Freedom Summer was designed to register blacks for a real election the 1964 presidential election.