The Quest for Racial and Gender Equality: A Postmodern Perspective
This document explores the historical evolution of racial and gender equality in America from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. It highlights key events such as the Harlem Renaissance, which showcased the flourishing of Black culture and pride, and the legislative milestones that marked progress toward equality. It also contrasts the philosophies of influential leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, while discussing the implications of postmodernism in understanding these movements.
The Quest for Racial and Gender Equality: A Postmodern Perspective
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Presentation Transcript
Chapters 36 & 38 The Postmodern Turn
Chapter 36 • The Quest for • Racial Equality • Gender Equality
The Quest for Racial Equality
American History (1) • 1861-65 the Civil War, southern states secede from the Union and founded the Confederate States of America • 1865-77 Reconstruction • 1877 Segregationist Jim Crow Laws
The Harlem Renaissance: 1920s-1940s • During the 1920s, Harlem became the capital of black America, attracting black intellectuals and artists from across the country and the Caribbean. • Many of the greatest works sought to recover links with African and folk traditions. • A fierce racial conscious and a powerful sense of racial pride animated the literature of the Harlem Renaissance. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=443
Harlem by Langston Hughes • What happens to a dream deferred? • Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? • Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. • Or does it explode?
American History (2) • 1924 Exclusionary immigration act barred Asians • 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor US entered WWII • 1942 President Roosevelt ordered internment of Japanese Americans in camps
The Civil Rights Movement:1950s-1960s • 1954 School segregation banned • 1955-1964 Negro Revolt (non-violent protests led by Martin Luther King, Jr.) • 1964 the Civil Rights Act, banning segregation in public places • 1965 the assassination of Malcolm X, dynamic leader of the Black Revolution, who rejected non-violence and advocated black nationalism
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X met before a press conference. Both men had come to hear the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was the only time the two men ever met; their meeting lasted only one minute. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MLK_and_Malcolm_X_USNWR_cropped.jpg
The Quest for Racial Equality
Cindy Sherman • Untitled Film Stills, 1995
Postmodernism • 1. After modernism? • 2. Contra modernism?
