The struggle for equality during this time was tedious and very difficult. There were only a handful of times African American people were treated equal. This had a huge impact on everything from music to literature during this time period. “The Color Purple” showed a lot of racism that was very realistic, Langston Hughes wrote poems with racist influences and wrote poems about racism.
African Americans Struggle for Equality.
The "struggle for equality" is a theme that commonly occurs in African American literature. One example of this theme occurs in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," by Zora Hurston. This example is unlike what you'd expect an African American at the time to be saying, but it's an example that should be analyzed nonetheless. Hurston said, "I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation or less." She's saying that if African Americans are not equal, to go be heard or act on it. Hurston is nowhere near a modest person and she puts herself out in the world without holding back. She doesn't necessarily feel there is a struggle for equality and Langston Hughes is definitely not a fan or Zora Hurston because she does not write for equality, she just writes for fun. "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is an example of the theme being mentioned, but Zora being Zora doesn't really seem to recognize the struggle for equality. She states how slavery has been abolished for three generations now and that there is no struggle for equality.
"Refugee in America," a short poem by Langston Hughes, is a great poetic example of the "African American struggle for equality theme."
Refugee In America
Langston Hughes
"There are words like Freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heart-strings freedom sings
All day everyday.
There are words like Liberty
That almost make me cry.
If you had known what I knew
You would know why."
After analyzing the poem, the word "Freedom" is talking about how African Americans are free men when slavery was abolished. The second stanza is all about how things are not equal. Liberty is defined as: "Freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking,
speaking, etc., according to choice." Black people did not have liberty, and liberty is all about equality. Referencing the U.S. Constitution, all men are created equal and are endowed by the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and property. African Americans cannot be equal without liberty. In this poem, Hughes hit the message right on and creatively addressed the African American Struggle for Equality. Words like liberty make Hughes "cry" because that's what America is based upon and liberty is what he doesn't have.
Another good example comes from "The Great Debaters." A major topic in that movie is segregation. Schools at the time were segregated, and Wiley College was a colored school. Not only were many things segregated, thing were not equal either. It's not equal to have segregated schools with the African Americans getting the hand me down low end schools. The lynch mob scene was a major event in the movie, and it proves that blacks weren't treated as equals either.
"Refugee in America," a short poem by Langston Hughes, is a great poetic example of the "African American struggle for equality theme."
Refugee In America
Langston Hughes
"There are words like Freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heart-strings freedom sings
All day everyday.
There are words like Liberty
That almost make me cry.
If you had known what I knew
You would know why."
After analyzing the poem, the word "Freedom" is talking about how African Americans are free men when slavery was abolished. The second stanza is all about how things are not equal. Liberty is defined as: "Freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking,
speaking, etc., according to choice." Black people did not have liberty, and liberty is all about equality. Referencing the U.S. Constitution, all men are created equal and are endowed by the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and property. African Americans cannot be equal without liberty. In this poem, Hughes hit the message right on and creatively addressed the African American Struggle for Equality. Words like liberty make Hughes "cry" because that's what America is based upon and liberty is what he doesn't have.
Another good example comes from "The Great Debaters." A major topic in that movie is segregation. Schools at the time were segregated, and Wiley College was a colored school. Not only were many things segregated, thing were not equal either. It's not equal to have segregated schools with the African Americans getting the hand me down low end schools. The lynch mob scene was a major event in the movie, and it proves that blacks weren't treated as equals either.